How to Make Animated Films 276 Fade-Up/Fade-Down A fade-up is where you use a number of frames at the start of a scene to slowly bring in the image, or a number of frames at the end of the scene to take it out. Essentially, a fade is a change of exposure from frame to frame. For example, a ten-frame fade-up (or fade-in) is where your  rst frame at the beginning of a scene is exposed 0 percent and it increases in exposure frame by frame until it reaches 100 percent on frame 10. A fade-up from black. A fade-down (or fade-out), on the other hand, is found at the end of a scene, where the exposure starts at 100 percent and goes down to 0 percent. A fade-down to white. Fades can be to or from black or white in the majority of cases, although any other colored frame will work, dependent on the style and mood of the  lm you are creating, of course. Fades are used to give a slower more emotive transition from one scene to another. For example, a fade-up gives the audience a slower or more intriguing introduction to a new scene. A fade-down gives a more re ective moment at the end of the scene so the audience has a moment to digest what Filmmaking Techniques 277 they have just seen. A fade-down from one scene and then a fade-up to the next can indicate a passage of time or place. Dissolve Dissolves (or mixes) are where two scenes overlap — that is, one is fading down and the other is fading up over the same amount of frames. The scene on the left is fading out and the scene on the right is fading in. Like fades, dissolves give a sense of transition in time and space and yet provide the audience with additional information in a more subtle way than a cut. At the same time, this will also keep the pace of your action up more than a fade-down/fade-up might. Wipe Not so popular with  lmmakers today as it once was, a wipe is still a signi cant transition e ect. A simple horizontal wipe would have an imaginary vertical line traveling from one side of the screen to the other, showing the old scene on one side of it and the newly arriving scene on the other. The middle frame shows the scene on the right beginning to reveal itself as the diagonal wipe moves from right to left. How to Make Animated Films 278 Staging The next tool in the  lmmaker’s bag of tricks is staging. It will probably be quite boring if you just show a single character (or more than one character) in the same shot setup throughout the entire  lm. For example, if the characters were falling in love,  ghting to the death, or secretly passing something from one to the other, you would tend to frame and stage the action di erently as a director. Let us take a look at some of the most common staging approaches you might take with two characters talking to one another. Two-Shot A good establishing shot with two characters would be a two-shot, where both characters are seen together in a wide shot against their background location. This way the audience will understand that the characters are talking and have some kind of relationship together. N o t e If there are more than two characters, it would be called a three-shot, four-shot,  ve-shot, etc., depending on how many characters are in the shot at the same time. Wipes come in all styles: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, spiral, clockwise, and counterclockwise. Stylistically, they can be very valuable in  lm-noire styles of  lmmaking, but otherwise they can be distracting or overly dramatic in regular  lms. Filmmaking Techniques 279 One-Shot Establishing our conversation in a two-shot, you might now want to focus more intently on one of the speaking characters. Therefore, you will need to move your camera and feature only the one you want to see in a one-shot. Alternatively, you may want the audience to keep some contact with the listening character too, so you will need to choose an over-the-shoulder one-shot, where part of the back view of the listening character can be seen beside the full view of the talking character. There can be many positions of the camera for all these di erent shots, of course. This just happens to be from a low camera angle. How to Make Animated Films 280 Again, this shot could be from a high or low camera angle, closer or further away. You have so many options in framing these kinds of shots that they don’t need to seem predictable or boring. In addition to this, you might consider the elevation of the camera when framing your shots. For example, the speaking character might need to be seen as dominant, heroic, or a bully. In this case, you can set your camera low and literally look up to him or her, emphasizing that character’s dominant role. Alternatively, if the listening character is fearful, distasteful, or supplicatory, you can set the camera up high and literally look down on him or her. Perhaps a little better framing of this shot would have the character’s head just a little to the left of center so that he is looking more into a space before him. Similarly, you might actually want to focus on the listening character to feature his or her reactions to what is being said, so you can again choose to use an over-the-shoulder one-shot to feature that character instead. Filmmaking Techniques 281 The slightly higher camera position tends to diminish the subject matter. In each of these framings you are e ectively painting a picture with your camera as well as with your staging, so think every shot through and communicate it to your audience in the most signi cant way possible. Continuity Lastly, we must discuss continuity, for without it, many  lms are ruined by erratic framing or action. Remember that you have to coax your audience along with your storyline and its portrayal, so make it as easy as possible for them to follow what is going on. For example, if a character is walking from left to right in one scene, then appears running from right to left in the next, the audience will be momentarily confused, especially if the entire running sequence is fast cutting. It is, therefore, better that you have your character running in the same direction in both shots. That way the audience will follow the action much better. See how awkward shot three looks with the same character suddenly moving in the opposite direction to the rest. If you do need to change the direction of the action for any reason, think up a device for making it easier for the audience to understand. For example, in a running sequence, cause the character to turn a corner at some point and then as he or she disappears from sight, he or she begins to start moving from right to left. How to Make Animated Films 282 Crossing the Line Finally, when staging a shot or sequence requiring two characters, never forget that there is an imaginary “ line ” between them. The markings on the ground of the parking lot make a very convenient line between the characters! If you cross that line with your camera from one shot to another you will most de nitely confuse your audience. For example, if you show our original two talking characters and then suddenly throw in a shot from the other side of the line, it will not look comfortable from the audience’s perspective. The confusion that occurs when crossing the line is clearly seen in the middle frame! See in the last  gure how the characters in one shot suddenly seem to be oriented in the opposite direction to what the audience is familiar with. Even if the audience is not consciously thinking about this, they will unconsciously be trying to work out what has just happened on the screen: Are these di erent characters? Are these the same characters in a di erent scene? Has time passed and this is a new sequence? This e ectively runs the signi cant risk that your audience possibly will not pick up on the most important line of dialog, at the most signi cant point in your plot, and that could be disastrous! The Line Is Not Limiting Remember, once you have established the line between your characters, you still have 180 degrees of options to set your camera, such as high or low, in a one-shot or two-shot, tracking-in or tracking-out, etc. Filmmaking Techniques 283 Some of the many possible camera positions that can be established on just one side of the line. There is no end to the creative staging you can draw upon before resorting to something dramatic (and confusing), like seeing the shot from a di erent angle and thereby crossing the line. For example, in the following  gure, by establishing a cut-away shot to the clock (frame E), you can safely return to seeing the characters on the other side of the line if you so choose! The cut-away to frame E allows shot F to cross the line with no confusion to the audience. How to Make Animated Films 284 There is absolutely no reason why your action ever needs to be boring or predictable, once you recognize good framing, staging, transitions, and camera work. As another example, have one of the character’s walk past the other and away, thereby creating a new line position between them. Ultimately, it is your skill as a director and a  lmmaker that will win your audience over to your side, or not! Assignment Complete the storyboard as requested in the previous lesson (FP 5), taking extra care that you are observing the  lm techniques you have just learned in this chapter lesson. 285 I t is now necessary to have a working audio track to work with. The next stage of the program will be to create a fully timed-out animatic as the basic foundation of your  lm. Consequently, the timing and action judgments necessary will best be made by using the timings of your audio track. It isn’t always necessary to have the  nal track to work with — to be honest, a guide track will often do. However, some kind of track, even if it is a piece of music with no dialog at all, is far more useful for working out scene cuts and animation timings than with using nothing at all. Film Production 7 Audio Record [...]... studio, where the actor can hear my voice in the headphones but, of course, without my voice actually being heard on mic You can even sit in the recording booth with the actor However, you 289 How to Make Animated Films have to be super careful that your feed lines don’t “crash” with the actor’s lines—that is, your voice doesn’t overlap the actor’s voice This would make it impossible to separate the two.. .How to Make Animated Films The advent of sound in animation was very crude compared to today’s technology! Source: “Endangered Species” Guide Track If precise lip synching is not a priority with your film, then it is perfectly okay to use a guide track at this stage If precise dialog is required, however, you will definitely need to create a final track, with final actors and final sync... Indeed, even color storyboards can begin as simple, low value, Bacher Boards initially, to establish underlying visual needs for each shot, before color is applied to create mood, emotion, and dramatic intention But now to the process of creating animatics … 295 How to Make Animated Films Animatic Process Take each storyboard drawing and scan it individually Most scanners have the ability to frame a specific... 299 How to Make Animated Films Also, you will almost certainly find that although you thought your storyboard was perfect when you first drew it, when it is in sync with the track and played back on the monitor in the animatic, you could well find that you have missed something This will, therefore, be an opportunity for a new shot to be added or a frame to be taken out if you have done too much to. .. ready to begin animation at last … but not quite! The scene is ready to go in terms of the colored background but the animation has yet to move beyond the animation layout stage (Source: Fire Gods, by Saille Schumacher.) 303 How to Make Animated Films The next things that need to be attended to before your produce your animation are the film backgrounds and layouts In 2D animation it is impossible to. .. never be underestimated by the conscientious filmmaker This is the great moment where we begin to see things appear on the screen! (Source: DigiPen student art by Eric Wiley.) 293 How to Make Animated Films However, before we explore the world of Animatics we should first briefly examine a relatively new aspect to film production… a process I prefer to call “Bacher Boards.” Bacher Boards Less is more!... track (whether it is a guide track or a final track) in a file format that is compatible with the software you will be using to break down and edit it with the animation! The most popular is the WAV format, but others can work too 2 87 How to Make Animated Films Always try to cast an actor who looks somewhat like the character they are recording the voice for More often than not, it sounds much more natural!... likely want to work more on what you have, perhaps even many more times, until you are really satisfied Eventually you will come up with your final rough layout and that will be the time to move on to the next stage 309 How to Make Animated Films Even this rough background layout is good enough to begin the animation (Source: Endangered Species.) Dividing the Layout With the final rough layout to guide... another actor to read the required second character lines 8 Once you have your “perfect” reading from the actor, ask him or her to do some wild deliveries This means invite the actor to push his or her performance beyond the guidelines that you have provided Allow him or her to also use his or her own words instead of yours if he or she has any ideas You’ll be amazed how the more “improv” style of actors... to number each frame in accordance with what scene it is in and what order it appears in the screen (Source: DigiPen student art by Greg Attick.) 2 97 How to Make Animated Films Actually, you can write these numbers in when you create the storyboard drawings in the first place, or else you can add them later using the filmediting software that you will compile the animatic with Note When scanning storyboard . moves from right to left. How to Make Animated Films 278 Staging The next tool in the  lmmaker’s bag of tricks is staging. It will probably be quite boring if you just show a single character. the actor. However, you How to Make Animated Films 290 have to be super careful that your feed lines don’t “ crash ” with the actor’s lines — that is, your voice doesn’t overlap the actor’s. animation! The most popular is the WAV format, but others can work too. How to Make Animated Films 288 Always try to cast an actor who looks somewhat like the character they are recording the