Off-model Mayhem
Not even a great performance and save this problem
The term “off-model” strikes dread in any animator’s heart. Imagine sitting in a screening room among the animation team as the director goes through your animation frame by frame, announcing, “That’s not my character.”
Model issues lead to time-consuming retakes, even when the performance shines. Are there strategies to help avoid this?
MASTER THE CHARACTER BEFORE ANIMATING
The last place to learn the character is while you’re animating on actual production. Isn’t this obvious? It is. But in reality, most animators stop practicing their characters far too soon. You need to do more than just nail the character a few times. You need fluency. When you’re not fluent with the character, putting it on-model will draw energy away from your performance.
And then your off-model animation gets passed on to the clean-up team. This is more time-consuming for them, and because they’re usually not proficient animators, the arduous process of getting the drawings on-model will deaden the animation performance.
The great thing about being part of a team is that you can leverage that team. You’re all learning these characters. Artists should go over each other’s work, so that you’re all learning together. Making this process a community exercise is very motivating. The team results are much better, and it’s much more fun that going solo.
CONTROL IN ANIMATION
Keep the community spirit alive once you get into animation. Have other animators check your keys for you before you move forward.
Place inspiring drawings in your scene file. If there are drawings that the director really likes, put those in. Keep them top of mind and easily referenced.
As production progresses, the style will often sharpen, and maybe evolve. Keep those drawings close at hand.
Choose or create a hero drawing for your scene. This is the drawing you quickly compare all your other drawings to, for proportions, for size, and for spirit. It’s your North Star, your faithful guide.
DON’T LOSE THE PERFORMANCE
Too much attention on model should not compromise your performance. Allocate plenty of time to do the carpentry work of fine-tuning the model on your roughs. If you know your character well, this should be relatively easy.
I'm currently working on Peanuts and when it comes to Snoopy and Charlie Brown, model is SO important. The difference of a pencil thickness can make those characters feel totally wrong.
That is such an important point. Those simple characters really rely on suggested forms and relationships. Details fill out forms and make them easier to hit the target or hide the misses. Less line mileage amplifies the mistakes. I'll have to update the post to include this point.