Working Under Direction [The Animation Industry: Preparing for a Career - Unit05]

Working Under Direction

02/02/25

Introduction

This blog post explores the skills needed to receive feedback and why it is such a vital part of growing as an animator. There is a section that analyses the key skills required paired with a deep reflection of a time that I received feedback. Reflection is a key skill and understanding how best to take feedback and harness it to improve your work is what will build your experience and allow you to excel as an animator!

Lecture Notes

The notes below are the key points taken from the lecture above (Williams, 2021)

• The animator answers mainly to the director but also
• Animation Director
• Lead animator
• VFX supervisor
• Producers
• Investors
• Modellers
• Riggers
• Lighting artists
• Feedback will be be received sometimes in person but sometimes filter through someone senior to you or through notes.
• Its important to build good relationships with your team so that you can communicate what you need and also do the best with the things you receive.
• You job as an animator is to give an engaging, fun performance. Therefore, this is what the feedback you receive will centre around. 
• You may also receive direction for how something should be done and thus feedback will link to achieving this vision. This makes it very easy to understand what the goal is.
• Other directors may not know exactly what they want, therefore it is less clear what someone wants and thus feedback may be more challenging to receive as they may not know what they want until they see your work.
• You will be working with sound designers to sync your work to the audio, therefore this is an aspect of feedback you may receive if there is room for improvement between the harmonisation of sound and visuals.
• You will be working on the shots of either side to ensure everything flows together well.
• Storyboards can also offer direction and are another anchor for feedback to link to. Have you brought these initial stills to life?
• Think about your shot. Act it out. Sketch out a plan through thumbnails. Can you get feedback at these early stages to ensure your understanding of the direction is correct. This can save time.
• How early should you show your animation work? Show your rough poses that block out the sequence. A day or two in order to get the feedback from the director as early as possible.
• Its better to show your work in continuity to show what comes before and after. This shows you have an understanding of the holistic vision for the film.
• Name your files in a clear way e.g. v001, v002, v003 etc. "new", "final", "better" are not good file names!
• Turn on the frame counter on your screen so the director knows what frame number they are looking at. Sync Sketch is also good for this.
• Turn on anything you've hidden because they want to see how the full shot is working rather than isolating the specific thing you're working on.
• Animation dailies are a chance to review the progress of your work and everyone else's too.
• Speak up in the animation daily and give an update of what you're presenting it for e.g. is it a first pass, final approval, what is done, what isn't done yet. Give the director as much information as you can so that the feedback you receive is relevant.
• Acknowledge the feedback you receive and make notes.
• Use terminology that makes things clear e.g. screen right/screen left. Shot number 23/ 24.
• When you've actioned your feedback you can communicate this the next time the shot is reviewed.
• The director is always right, therefore their feedback is always the most important. The feedback isn't personal and is always in the best interest of the shot.
• Action feedback one by one and make playblasts of each revision. This will create a point of comparison.
• Don't start again - your work is always a work in progress so there is lots of great work with your shot in addition to the feedback to make it better.
• Director's aren't always animators so they don't always use language you might understand or their feedback may seem confusing. Try to understand the goal they are trying to communicate.
• If your shot keeps not getting approved, use an experienced animation peer that might be able to help you directly.
• Try to incorporate everyone's feedback - this can be challenging. Recognise superiority on the film, ultimately the director's feedback will be the most important and supersede anyone else's if there is conflict between feedback from different departments.
• Work together with the director to solve problems. Be solution focussed.
• The secret to success in animation dailies is that you need to be confident in the work you're showing. If the director is happy that you are happy that the shot has been animated well then it is likely to get approved faster, assuming it achieves the directors vision.
• If you get stuck - ask for help. If you can't solve something in 15 mins then get help.
• Summary
• Show your work early, be clear with what you are presenting and get feedback.
• Don't take criticism personally.
• Take notes, make revisions sequentially.
• If in doubt, ask for further clarification.
• If you are stuck, ask for help (15 min rule)

Receiving Feedback Reflections

Taking feedback is incredibly challenging. We often seek feedback as a ratification of what we have done is correct and can take suggestions for improvement as criticism. However, at the same time we as creatives are also constantly looking for ways to improve. I've worked in further education for many years and I've learnt a lot about how to give effective feedback. Some of the key principles are :

• Highlighting strengths as well as areas to develop.
• Explaining why something is working well or why it will improve your work.
• Providing next steps or a key to success so that the receiver of feedback is clear on how they can improve their work.
• Prioritising feedback so that you are not over analysing and looking for the actions that will have the biggest impact.
• Making sure that feedback is clear, specific and granular so that it is easy to digest.

There is a tonne of education theory to support this, however, in a studio environment it is unlikely the people giving feedback have explored this feedback. As the Williams (2021) explores in the lecture, the people giving feedback are often not criticising you but trying to ensure that as team you make the best possible film. Often recognition of what is going well can be dropped in favour of focussing on what will make the shot better. This is understandable where time is such a precious commodity in an animation studio, however, it does require the animator to understand that what isn't commented on is essentially praise and recognition of what is working well.

On the previous module, Character Performance, I relied heavily on feedback from my friend, Amy Davis on my shots. Amy Davis was one of my fellow class mates on my undergraduate degree and has had greater success throughout her career working for a range of studios including her current studio Epic Games. Due to her experience, I highly value her opinion an recognise that she has a lot to offer me when showing her my shots. I would show playblasts at various points to gain her perspective, make changes and then show the changes. I massively appreciate the time she invests for feedback so the best way I can repay her is to show that I'm using the feedback to improve my work. 

By adopting this iterative approach to developing my work I saw huge jumps in quality. The feedback enabled me to examine the subtleties in animation such as when eyelids should be closed; how weight was distributed; elements that felt too static and more. This meant I could specifically target areas for revision to help polish my animations. This helped me build my experience across several practise shots and then on my assignment submission for the module. Therefore, the feedback was helping improve my approach to animating sequences holistically as well as specifically on the individual shots.

It was incredibly value to have someone experienced to discuss my work and share my passion. Amy predominantly works in management roles now and even shared that seeing me constantly improve my work was giving her the itch to load Maya up and animate some characters! Amy was very clear in her feedback but there were a couple of points where I needed to ask for clarification. To improve this process, I could have used 'Sync Sketch' which is an online, frame by frame, video/animation review tool that enables users to leave notes on specific frames and even draw over the frames to communicate what they mean. If I had have used this tool with Amy it could have helped bring further clarity and potentially I could have grown my skills even more.

Upon submission of the module I received the above feedback from the module leader, Alex Williams. Despite receiving general feedback saying the work was really nice, it was a little tricky to receive for a few reasons, however, once digested is incredibly valuable. On the surface I was slightly disappointed because the grade I received was slightly less than the previous module, despite being very different types of animation. However, the grade was still very good so I realise that I am still producing good work. This was then paired with a myriad of notes for areas to improve which felt like my work was being pulled apart. However, I realise that this was very reflective of working with a director and upon processing this I realise just how valuable this feedback is! 

I'd worked closely with my friend Amy to make sure my work was as good as it can be for submission, which aligns well with seeking feedback from your peers in an animation studio. If I hadn't done this I feel my grade would have been lower and the quality of work wouldn't have been as good. Now that I have this feedback I plan to translate it into actions so that I can develop the outcome further for portfolio. The key elements to improve are:

• Slight sync issue - slight overshoot and settle when the character pops into frame or an ease out. Squash and stretch could enhance the stylisation of this too.
• A little late on sync. On the 'th' of 'there' the mouth could be wider and happen sooner.
• Close the eyes on the head turn because this makes the character seem a little lifeless because people normally blink their eyes on the head turn. This would make it more realistic. 
• Bring the brows down further on the character's blink.
• Generally the animation is a little floaty and could snap into poses a little quicker. When the second character reacts to hearing "is anybody there" I could hold the reaction pose for a little longer.
• When the second character says 'hello' we could go wider on the mouth to exaggerate this further and improve the lip sync.
• Exaggerate the mouth when the character says 'shot' somebody.
• Potential problem with the choice of character and the audio not matching up. This is challenging because I was constrained to the rigs available to me and access to dialogue clips. However, the key point if we look at the bigger picture is that characters appearance and their voices should be matched to enhance appeal.
• The last shot is a little confused and the intent isn't as clear as it could be.

I've been very motivated across the course to achieve the best quality animation that I can to progress my  skills. I really value the feedback from Alex due to his experience across his career working on Disney productions and other successful films. Therefore, I plan to implement this feedback to improve my portfolio - focussing on quality over quantity. It also demonstrates that whilst feedback can be challenging to receive, I am doing well and my skills are progressing therefore implementing this feedback will grow that even further. There were lots of actions that weren't commented on therefore, these are the things that are working well. 

This experience really taught me about how to receive feedback and how close it would be to receiving feedback in a studio. This was particularly reinforced after reflecting on the feedback again after watching this modules lecture (Williams, 2021). Receiving feedback is challenging, however, understanding the value of the feedback to yourself and the intent to produce the best outcome possible is the best perspective to have. Its important to recognise that you will always be on a journey as an artist and your next piece of work will always be better than your last. This shows growth as an artist and receiving this feedback is such an important part of the process, even more so than taught content itself. Receiving feedback over time helps develop your experience and obviously animators with more experience will have received more feedback that helps shape their skills. This really excites me and helps me see the possibility of myself having the skill and ability to work on professional animations.

Conclusion

Animators can retain their creative voice when working under direction by dissecting feedback but using their own skills to execute it. If a director wants more exaggeration generally then it is up to you as an animator to use your skills and experience to bring that exaggeration to life. Whilst feedback may be more specific, if it is more generalised like this then it is up to you as a professional as the best person to implement that feedback. 

I highlighted my experience working as a teacher when crafting feedback and I feel that if I were to reach a position of seniority in the animation industry the way that I craft feedback could be very effective. This would be a unique perspective that I could offer that other animators wouldn't have and this experience could benefit me and the productions I work on. The hardest part of receiving feedback is when it only focusses on the negative and as humans we sometimes need recognition of the things we are doing well. This helps bring clarity and recognition to what is working and helps the individual understand what they can keep doing in addition to what could be changed. With this in mind, everyone needs to recognise that when feedback is given it is in the interest of making the outcome better and we all want to be better. Therefore, the skills of receiving feedback are vital to making progress in your skills as an animator.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the importance of taking direction and feedback in a studio setting.
2. Learn strategies for interpreting and applying feedback constructively.
3. Reflect on the challenges and opportunities of working under direction in a team environment.

Reference List

1. Williams, A. (2021) 'Working Under Direction' [Video Lecture], 7WCT2011-0105-2024: The Animation Industry: Preparing for a Career. University of Hertfordshire. 5th March.