As a fresh graduate from film school, I accepted a commission to animate a music video for Toronto-based rock band, Most Non Heinous
I mentioned this music video in my very first post here on Steemit, but I just realized that I never actually wrote about the experience of creating it... except for that one time one time I did exactly that. Okay, I have talked about making this video before, but that last post was a breakdown of a specific animated sequence. Today I want to talk about my experience as an artist working for a client.
Before I get into all the nitty-gritty, let's just sit back and watch the video.
Most Non Heinous - "Earth Girls are Easy"
Let me begin by saying this: Those who use classified ads to search for animators tend to be those who can't afford to pay animators what they deserve. Want to know what I earned for this music video?
$300.
Three. Hundred. Dollars.
Want to know how long it took me to make?
Six months.
As a freelance animator without any connections, reputation, or even much of a showreel, I knew it would be hard to find real work. I knew I would have to take bad gigs with crap pay. I don't mind the low pay. I love to animate. I always have another job to actually pay the bills, so the money from the client only feels like a bonus.
When I animate for myself I don't make any money. That is, unless the Steemit community rewards me. Maybe I should rephrase: When I animate for myself I'm not guaranteed any money.
And again, that's fine. I don't do this for money. I do it because I enjoy doing it.
So Why am I Talking so Much About Money?
I'm simply trying to illustrate that the money doesn't matter all that much to me. It would be different if there were some actual high-paying jobs available to me. But there aren't. Not yet, at least.
Do you want to know what does matter to me? Time. I said earlier that this music video took me about six months to complete. Six months of painstaking work. Do you want to know why animating like this takes so long? Let me demonstrate using one shot from the beginning of the video. I'm going to trust that none of my current followers read my breakdown of this very shot from 11 months ago! I mean, it only made 5 cents, so that's a pretty safe bet, right?
I wanted the spaceship shots to feel 3D, I wanted the audience to be able to see the ship from multiple angles. I knew I didn't have the skill to do this completely by hand, let alone the patience to keep track of the geometry so these are the steps I took:
Step 1: Storyboards
I drew out these storyboards to get a sense of the movement of the ship. These storyboards would then be used to develop...
Step 2: CGI reference model and animation
As you can see this model is very basic. I said above that I knew I didn't have the skill to keep track of the geometry, so I needed something like this as a guide. I animated the model flying from one planet to another. This reference was just enough for me to be able to make out the shapes and lines for the next step...
Step 3: Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is a style of animation where frames are hand drawn over top of a video or film reference. If any of you have seen the movie A Scanner Darkly you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not sure if it technically counts as rotoscoping when I animate on top of another animation... whatever the source, the process is the same.
I traced the CGI model frame by frame. What resulted is the video you see above. From this I moved on to...
Step 4: Backgrounds and Colour
This step is pretty self explanatory, although it was really tricky to get the movement of the two planets exactly right, plus drawing the fire. But I've rambled enough about this short sequence. I don't need to go into detail about that too.
This is the point where I'm sure you're going to ask:
Seth, why didn't you just colour the CGI model and use that in the video?
BECAUSE I'M AN INSANE PERSON. THAT'S WHY!!
I am so committed to my style. I love the look of hand-drawn, cel animation. I don't want that tarnished by CGI models.
Every single shot in this little video requires me to draw so many unique frames. Animating this way takes forever.
What I Learned From My First Animation Commission
I learned that my time is valuable to me. Even though I'm generally proud of the video that resulted from all my hard work, I wish I could have those six months back.
I would rather earn no money working on my own projects than spend months making something that I don't really care about for only a few hundred dollars.
I would rather spend my time creating art that means something to me. I would rather animate from my heart. I don't want to pour so much time and effort into completing a work order.
P.S. Just look at this shot! So cool. Good work Seth!
~Seth
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