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| ANIMATION HELP DESK |
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How to fight animation burnout...
 Q: Micheal Hardison asks:
Being at a small animation house of less than 10, we have been
confronting the best way for our animators to manage character
animation. Should we assign one animator per scene or an animator per
character, or break it down even further by having one animator work
on certain aspects if the characters like lipsynching, another on facial
expressions, etc.
While some of these sound more efficient, they would seem to stifle
the animators creativity, and vise versa.
I was curious how some of the other character animation shops have
tackled how to effectively manage the intensity of character animation
under deadlines, while still keeping the animators fresh, enthusiastic,
and happy.
On a further note, I would like some opinions and practices on how
animators fight work burnout.
Micheal Hardison
A: Joe Clasen, Joe's Digital Bar&Grill, writes:
Let's face it, animation is tedious and mind-numbing experience.The most
common antidote for this I've seen is short intense sessions followed by
diversions. Generally, I like to see teams working on a set of shots
rather than a single person work through the entire shot. It makes sense to
give a character shot to a character guy and the pyro shot to the pyro guy,
but if you team them together and let them work out a shot together, it
seems to work better. You should mix the teams up from time to time,too.
The worst thing you can do is line them up in rows like a classroom and
allow them to work 12 hours without talking to anyone. Small cubby holes
and clusters of people are really more productive. Force them to get away
from the shop for meals if you can, and try to talk about anything but
animation.
Another courtesy I've seen is the headphone flag. If someone has their
headphones on and is listening to music, it usually means "do not disturb,
I'm actually getting something done". It is considered somewhat rude to
hover over someone while he is working, unless he is playing Quake. It is
better to do "Dailies" and have everyone see what everyone is doing rather
than everyone peeking around to see what else is going on in the studio. A
large board with what everyone else is working on seems to help, too.
The hardest thing to do is to let the animator find his own rhythm and let
him use it to his advantage. Ask the animator how he would do the shot
before you tell how. Allow him to work at a time that suits his body clock
(the Day guys vs the Nite Crew).
If you study some of the basic management systems, there are volumes
describing different types of personality groups. I find animators to be
mostly one of two types, the quiet "mental" guy or the loud "talky" guy. It
is best to let them work with their particular types.
Joe Clasen, Joe's Digital Bar&Grill, http://www.lightwavelab.com
A: Stuart Aitken, Digimania, writes:
This is always a tough question and theres never a straight answer:
It depends on project, no. of staff working on it, particular strengths
and weaknesses of those staff, etc..
You are right in that more structured or segmented approaches (ie you do
the modeling, you do the texturing, you do the lighting, etc) do lead to
a general loss of each team members control over the creative process -
ie everyone always *likes* to have their own bit so to speak, I wouldn't
say they were necessarily more efficient - often modeling, texturing,
lighting and animation are more interlinked than they at first appear
and there are often production advantages to the same person taking a
scene through form start to finish.
However the real problem with doing it that way is continuity - everyone
has there own style, level of ability ,etc and you tend to get a result
that looks like lots of different bits not quite hanging together as a
cohesive whole - ie you can really tell where one person finished and
another left off.
This problem grows exponentially with the number of people working on a
project.
The best approach is probably some kind of hybrid - we tend to let
individuals have responsibility for particular characters, or
environments from modeling and texturing to animation, which gives them
the control they want, while having one person in particular reasonable
for overall cinematography and lighting (more than one person if the
project splits easily into different locations, moods) to help draw it
all together into a cohesive whole - you still have to be very careful
tho' - I'd imagine for film stuff even this is allowing too much room
for unwanted individual styling to come into play where you don't want
it.
As for burnout - personally I kinda thrive on that 'gotta have it done
in 12 hours' environment , on the other hand its very draining to
constantly put in massive shifts to get the job finished on time, but in
the crazily deadlined world in which we live that's generally the norm -
basically after a projects finished I cool off for a few days, forget
about it and take it easy - its amazing how much you're next 'clean
sheet' (ie new project) can reinvigorate you and make you forget those
all-nighters!! (that and a dangerous affair with sugar, caffeine and
nicotine I'm afraid...)
Stu Aitken, Digimania
A: Faisal Naqvi writes:
If the talk is surviving burnout during and after long periods of sitting
time at the computer, I remember quite a while back that somebody mentioned
to keep their creativity flowing they would get away from the computer
every now and then and draw and sketch ideas they might have.
I am still very fond of that idea and trying to do make it a part of my
every day routine.
Also, I do resort physical exercise to relieve the stress brought on by
sitting in front of the computer every day. I take a break every 5 or 10
minutes to stretch out and focus my eyes somewhere else but the computer
screen.
Race walking and swimming are other things that I do do. Plus a good diet.
Let us just say two words: Power Bars. I now for people with good taste
they hate them. But I do enjoy them as they give me energy to sustain
myself, both in protein and carbohydrate format. You can substitute this
for a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich (my favorite) on wheat
which also contains good amount of protein, carbs and minerals.
After only a month as an animator at a ad agency's production, I easily
established the fact that constant sitting at the computer not only drain
one self mentally, but also physically. Fatigue, shoulder pain, pain in
the hands. Make sure the body is taken care of as well as the mind.
Faisal Naqvi
A: Martin J Paul writes:
I often find that if you stay Veeery still then you won't fatigue as fast. Black
Stallion Gaurana is also nice - but it's about $3 a shot.
"Headache" music (whatever you do don't play your calm
"soft" soundtracks.)
Make sure your boss knows how much you're killing yourself
for them - maybe they'll buy you dinner - or a coffee. I've
started to find that caffeine doesn't really work anymore -
and it's really hard to get a decent coffee at 2 am.
Something I think a lot of studios should invest in as a
PROPER kitchen. How many times have you been at work, and
thought "I'd have a healthy meal (with MEAT!!) but there are
no facilities here to prepare one...*shrug." Well, a proper
kitchen would be a good way to help animators look after
themselves. I would also add a nice little lounge area
that's separate from the rest of the studio - where you CAN
sleep if you want your co workers to think you're a slacker.
Perhaps a little ostentatious, but really high pressure facilities should
also have a proper bathroom - NOT a toilet (guess that's WC over there).
Doesn't need to be the Hilton, but a hot shower and coffee can add make a
huge difference to animators during crunch time.
Martin J Paul
A: S.E.O'BRIEN writes:
Fighting Burn Out:
I don't know about the professional Animators out there, but we technoGEEKS
(that's IT Specialists to the common man) usually go for a good ol' round of
networked Duke Nukem or Quake at least once a week.
It's a good way to kick the sh*t out of the boss without the legal hassles of
an Assault and Battery charge...
Health Warning: DO NOT go for quick sugar fixes if you are seriously trying
to fight fatigue. Once the sugar burns up you may actually feel worse, and
glucose overload sometimes induces depression. It ain't no good for ya health
boys and girls, so STOP IT !!! Besides you'll only end up looking like the
side of a house. I can say this without guilt because I'm already overweight,
and I know that all you animators out there get at least an hours worth of
exercise every day. You don't sit around on your butts all day in front of a
computer -- do you...
But to be honest the answer to all our questions of course is to have multiple
intravenous hookups, supplying the office with Red Eye - Guarana... now
THAT's a Network...
S.E.O'BRIEN, http://come.to/Zone5
A: Kai Jakoma writes:
Personally, I like the idea of a combination Nordik Trak/animation
workstation. Ok, maybe that's a little farfetched. How about a Nordik Trak
nearby? I've found that 15-20 minutes on one of those can seriously adjust
my attitude and energy level.
As an ex-bodyworker (people, not cars), anything that reorients my attention
to my body for a while does wonders (ie: yoga, massage (although that can be
sleep inducing), exercise, dancing wildly to Oingo Boingo, etc.). The
question is: how can we get away, reorient and come back refreshed? So
much time in a chair, using the brain so intensely, can cripple the heart.
Kai Jakoma |
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Would you like to add, share, or correct some information? 3D ARK welcomes your contributions. Send mail to: webmaster@3dark.com
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