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This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or

other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 1
 4
Top 3 Reasons You Want
Creature Animation on Your
Demo Reel
By: Shawn Kelly

9
10 Insights from a Game of
Thrones and Guardians of the
Galaxy Creature Animator
By: Nicole Herr

17
5 Tips to Make the Perfect
Creature Animation
Locomotion Recipe
By: Leigh Rens

26
How to Animate Quadruped
Walk Cycles with a Jurassic
World Animator
By: Steve Cady

32
The 6 Most Common
Mistakes with Creature
Animation Demo Reels
By: Shawn Kelly
 39
Animating Toothless: Insider
Tips from How to Train Your
Dragon 2
By: Barbara Robertson

48
Creature Animation: A
Student Showcase Behind-
the-Scenes
By: Animation Mentor

59
Top 5 Essentials of Animating
Creatures
By: Jean-Denis Haas

Animation Mentor Courses

69
 Not only is Shawn Kelly an Animation Mentor
co-founder, he’s also a 20+ year Industrial Light &
Magic veteran where he works as a Lead Animator!
His credits include Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic
World, Pacific Rim, Rango, and many more. At
Animation Mentor, Shawn usually teaches Animation
Basics and Creature Animation courses.
Regardless
of the studios
you’re applying to, you
NEED creature animation on
your demo reel! Here’s why:

You Want to Get a Job

Right off the bat, I want to make it clear that no
animation job is easy to get. Learning the quirks
of creature animation is not going to automatically
guarantee you a job, but it sure will give you a much
better chance at one!

Imagine you want to learn how to be a baker, but you’re

only interested in baking birthday cakes. You go through
all of your training focusing solely on birthday cakes, not
bothering to learn about cupcakes or pastries because you just
aren’t interested in that style of baking.

Sure, other people may be happy with baking a cupcake, but

that nonsense isn’t for you. YOU are a Birthday Cake Baker.
That’s your dream, and that’s what you’re focusing on.

There is nothing wrong with that as long as you know that

you are severely limiting your job opportunities.

For reasons I just don’t understand, many animation

students are birthday cake bakers. They want to work in
“features.” They aren’t mere animators, they are Feature
Animators. Well, once again, there is nothing wrong
with pursuing a dream, but they are cutting out a
huge number of potential jobs by ignoring other
styles of animation.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 5
Studios are looking for variety you have decided that you are giving up
your dream of working at Disney.
If you add up all the studios doing visual
effects, commercials, video games, Look at my two compatriots as good
and many TV animation studios – examples. Bobby Beck and Carlos Baena
the number of studios hungry to see lived a dream that many of you hold by
“animals & creatures” type of work on a working on some terrific films at Pixar.
reel is enormous. But how did they get there? Did they
graduate and miraculously go straight
It has to be at least half of the jobs out to Pixar? Of course not, that’s incredibly
there! In fact, when you consider how rare. They worked at a variety of studios
eager games studios are to see realistic on their way to Pixar, and both spent
quadruped and creature work on a time in visual effects studios along the
reel, I think it’s safe to say that we are way. Bobby cut his teeth at Tippett
talking about far more than half of the Studio working on films like Virus and
animation jobs that exist. My Favorite Martian while Carlos
worked at ILM on films like Men In
It is never easy to get a job as an Black II and Jurassic Park III.
animator, but you should arm yourself
with the most well-rounded education Their time spent learning and working
you can get when it comes to animation in a visual-effects “animals & creatures”
styles if you want to maximize your style did nothing other than round out
chances. Cutting out half or more of the their animation skills, build up their
potential studios out there just seems experience level, and better prepare
bananas to me! them for their time at Pixar down the
road.
Variety on a Demo
In other words, learning about cupcakes
Reel is Never a Bad
is not going to prevent you from baking
Thing birthday cakes, and that cupcake
knowledge may be just the stepping
Creature animation is simply one stone you need in order to get your foot
more aspect of animation. It isn’t some in the door of a bakery and work your
“hobbyist” specialty or secondary art- way up to becoming the birthday cake
form, and learning it doesn’t mean that specialist you always dreamt of being.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 6
 Animation Mentor Alumnus, Yair Gutierrez, shows variety in his demo reel. Yair now
works at Industrial Light & Magic and was nominated for an Annie Award for his work on
Captain America: Civil War.

There is no Creature being a “visual effects animator” (which

I would define as someone working
Animator. There is
on films like Transformers or Planet
no Feature Animator. of the Apes) and being a “feature film
There is only Animator. animator” (Pixar, Blue Sky, etc), is
simply “style.”
I realize that different studios are
looking for slightly different demo reels And “style” boils down mostly to
from one another. Pixar may not leap at exaggeration.
a demo reel that consists solely of hyper-
realistic animation used in live-action Are they making subtle exaggerations
movies. Weta may not be willing to take to create a scene that is exciting and
the gamble on a demo reel that features larger than life while still feeling as real
only stylized “cartoony” animation. But as the live actors in the film? Are they
neither studio is going to discount a strongly pushing the poses, timing, and
demo reel for featuring both styles, and acting choices as far as they possibly
in most cases, showing a variety of styles can in order to maximize the clarity,
is going to be a big plus rather than a entertainment value, and comic/
negative. cartoony feel? Or are they working in a
style that falls somewhere in between?
You see, the only difference between No matter the answer, the artist crafting
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 7
those performances is simply an the style that my current job/project
animator working in whatever style that demands, and I am more than willing/
project demands. They are all animators excited to try other styles down the road
using the exact same principles of when the opportunity arises.
animation in slightly different ways and
exaggerating different ideas, poses, and It’s just silly to pigeon-hole ourselves
timing in different amounts. into any specific style while at the same
time making a conscious decision to cut
Each style of animation is going to yourself out of half of the job market.
have it’s own tricks and techniques and
workflows, but the art is essentially Don’t limit yourself to being a “birthday
the same. There is a lot to learn about cake baker.” Embrace your art! Be a
any specific style, but most of the core baker!
process is identical. In fact, very often

We are simply ANIMATORS.

the artist themselves are identical, as There is an amazing world out there
many animators have worked on both live of cupcakes and truffles and pies and
action “visual effects” films and feature cookies, and learning about those will
animated films! only make you a better baker while
opening up a lot more job opportunities!
I completely reject the idea that any
of us have to consider ourselves VFX And you never know, you might just
Animators or Feature Animators or find that you love baking cookies even
Games Animators or TV Animators or more than birthday cakes!
limit our education and aspirations to any
other silly label. Wow, I’ve never been so hungry after
writing about animation! Check out our
We are simply ANIMATORS. Creatures Workshops and get baking, I
need to go get a snack! v
I am not a Creature Animator. I am
an animator, an animator working in

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 8
 Nicole Herr is a Los Angeles-based character
animator, long-standing friend of Animation
Mentor, and an instructor for our Creature
Animation Workshops! Her credits include The
Jungle Book, Iron Man 2, and Guardians of the
Galaxy.

Nicole graciously answered some of our burning

questions about her animation career, animation
workflow techniques and what it was like to be an
animator working on Game of Thrones and Guardians of
the Galaxy. Read, get inspired, and go animate!
 Students have a habit of
overcomplicating their shots. They
forget to keep their shots simple.

How long have you been a What was your favorite shot
professional animator and that you’ve ever worked on?
what inspired you to be Why was it your favorite
one? shot?
Nicole: I’ve been a professional Nicole: There are so many, how do
animator since I animated Jellyfish for you choose which one is your favorite?
the film Sphere in 1998. But I started
really thinking about animation as a On Fantasia 2000, I got to restore the
career when I was in high school and original footage from the 1940 release.
saw The Little Mermaid on the screen. Frame by frame. It was an amazing
That film made me realize that this experience.
would be a career that I could happily
do. On Sphere, I got to see my own
animation on the screen for the first
When I got home that night, I wrote time.
a letter to the Disney Florida Studios
asking for advice. A few weeks later, I On Stuart Little 2, I worked on my very
got a phone call from one of their senior first character animation for a feature
animators. To say the least, I knew then film.
and there, that animation was exactly
what I wanted to do. On Suckerpunch, I got to animate the
baby dragon & her demise. It was the
first time I got to work hand in hand
with the rigger to design a one off rig for
my shot.

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 © Marvel/Warner Bros.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, I got to spend my time exploring the characters

throughout the film as a post-viz animator. It was about really fleshing out Rocket
and Groot, their personalities and overall actions.

© Warner Bros.

But I would have to say my favorite shot was on Legend of the Guardians: The Owls
of Ga’Hoole. I had the shot of the parents celebrating their son’s achievement at the
end of the film. It was a simple shot, but it was about what they were feeling for each
other and their pride in their son. It was all about subtext and emotion. A personal
favorite shot.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 11
Can you tell us a little mean going to the zoo, watching animal
bit about the difference planet, searching the internet. I try to
between a character understand as much as possible about
animator vs. a realistic the creature itself, including: motivation,
movement, and any little quirks it may
animator? Are the
have. For the Game of Thrones dragon
workflows different? commercial I worked on we were using
Nicole: My workflow for character bats and chickens as reference, with a
and creature animation is actually little pigeon added in for flight. I also
pretty similar. When blocking I bounce spend time studying the plate that my
between stepped and splined mode, creature is going to be integrated into, as
but that is more on a shot by shot basis my animation has to work within the in
rather than animation type. The major the plate itself. I use it as a guide for my
difference for me, is when I am working animation as to what I can and can’t do
with reference and the level of fine detail in my shot.
that I work into the shots themselves.
The more realistic the animation, the What is your workflow when
more those little details really matter. animating a creature shot?

On cartoony character animation I Nicole: Reference. Tons of reference.

shoot more video reference of myself I try to understand exactly what the
performing the action. Focusing on creature can do. It’s not as easy as just
the beats that I need to hit for the performing the action and animating
performance to come across to the it from my own performance. I have
audience & work with my fellow to know exactly what I want to do in
animators performances. My poses are the shot before I ever set a keyframe.
generally bigger and broader than what I Sometimes, you can’t find the perfect
do in realistic animation. reference for your shots, so there is
more planning involved to know how
For realistic creature animation, I spend to get the creatures to work. You also
more time learning about the animals do have to perform to FEEL what your
that I am using as reference. If I can body is doing and how, so there is a
spend time with the actual animal type lot of getting up and performing for
being used as reference, I do. That may my shots while actively animating the
shot.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 12
 © DC/Warner Bros.

When you get a shot, how much time do you have to

animate it?

Nicole: That always depends on the production and the shot itself. Some shows
allow 40 hours to animate a 240 frame shot, other shows allow more time. For
more complex animations, they generally will give more time. For Doc Manhattan
in Watchmen we were targeting around 5-8 seconds of finished animation per
week. But, as I said, everything depends on the show, the character, and the overall
schedule.

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We see that you animated a dragon for the Game of
Thrones Time-Warner commercial. What was that
experience like?

Nicole: The Game of Thrones dragon (Drogon) was a joy to animate! The rig
used in the HBO television series was extremely well thought out, which made it
extremely smooth for us when we were given the same rig to use in the commercial.
With the commercial we got the opportunity to really get into the dragon’s thought
process, motivation, and character. We were also able to expand who the dragon is
and his relationship to Daenerys.

As a result, the entire time we were on the commercial, we were worried that we
were pushing him a little too far into having thought and personality. But the client
was very supportive, and encouraged us to explore him a little more. It was also
the first time you got to see any of the dragons flying, so it was a fun experience all
around.
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What references do you use when you animate a make-
believe animal like a dragon?

Nicole: Mostly I look for the type of dragon I am animating. If it’s a little one
that’s supposed to act like a hummingbird, I would mix that with some bat. For
the really big heavy dragons I look for big birds of a similar body type. I like using
Pelicans and Condors for those. Recently, I worked on a quadruped dragon that had
the personality of a labrador retriever. So I spent time playing with my lab (Pirate),
mixing his motions with bats for the mechanics of flight, and a little Macaw for good
measure.

There’s almost never just one creature in the mix, it’s about studying the dragon
itself. And then taking the best attributes from various animals to make the best
creature you can.

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As a mentor, what are the What tips would you give
most common mistakes you them to help them resolve
see students make? it?

Nicole: It’s simple. Plan your shot. Nicole:

• You need to really understand who
• Students have a habit of you are animating and why they are
overcomplicating their shots. They doing the action.
forget to keep their shots simple. • Make sure you really understand
• They also forget that even creatures the mechanics of the action that
are characters. So they don’t know you are looking at animating, so
WHO they are animating. As a acting out your motions as you are
result, the characters don’t have animating is a must.
motivation for their actions. • Ask for extra sets of eyes on your
• Not studying the video reference shot. Make sure you don’t take any
for how the specific animal’s body notes or comments personally, they
mechanics work, and how their are meant to be constructive and
environment affects the motions helpful.
they are studying. • Most importantly, remember that
• Not moving their own bodies to animation is a team sport. You need
understand and FEEL how the to make sure you are part of the
animal would work. team.
• Lack of weight.
And lastly, what “dream”
• Using the wrong animal(s) for the
shot would you have liked
creature’s body type.
to animate and why?
• Not asking for critiques and help.
Nicole: Is there a dream shot? Yes. It’s
the next one! v

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 Leigh Rens is a veteran freelance animator whose
credits include Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World’s End and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
He teaches both character and creature/animal
animation!
The first thing that comes to mind when level of experience when it comes to
animating creatures is Nature with a animals. On one hand this is great
capital N – be it creatures, environment because animals are super popular,
and/or the elements. It all goes together the pet industry is said to be bigger
for me and humbles me to a point of than the animation industry and we
having great respect. I don’t know if it’s all know that puppies and kittens have
because I grew up on an African farm attained star status on the internet. On
for a bit, or because I studied nature to the other hand we will need to expand
imitate it, or because like most everyone our knowledge and understanding of
I’ve seen the power and scale of nature creatures if we are animate them with
in the oceans, mountains and forests, conviction.
and have come to admire the creatures
that live, overcome and are part of it. The following basic recipe seems
common to many creature animation
I would be amiss however if I make situations. Below I’ve included some of
out like I’m this big nature guy. Like the why and how of this workflow.
everyone most of my animal frame of
reference comes from pets, the odd visit
to a zoo or animal park. And herein
lies my point – how are we to come up
with something that is gonna grip the
audience, if our audience has a similar
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 18
Path of Action
Path of action, for creatures it’s a sine wave, it’s all over everything in nature. The line
of action of the body will flow thru this path line and shape the pose. Think of the
shape of the spine through the tail as being a different cut section of a sine wave for
each pose as it moves along the path of action.
Scale

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Scale
Next is scale, how large is the creature. This will determine the length and speed of
its stride, etc.

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Copyright 2018 © by Animation Mentor. All rights reserved. This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or
other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 21
Energy
Energy, here I use the visual of the bouncing ball. For creatures you use three main
masses (balls), one each for the hips, chest and head. Varying the opposing action of
these three main areas holds the magic of how an animal changes stride.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 22
Foot Plants
Lay in the foot plants. Keep the fold of the legs simple, see them as structures. The
top three joints maintain a Z and the ankle-foot does a reverse shape whip action as
it shoves off after the leg has reached the end of its stride.

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Tracking writing. Nature is pattern, every creature
has its own pattern of movement, a
Adjust the “tracking” or width of the feet signature of sorts and this is based on
placement. way more factors than a simple four
legged walk cycle. Missing this concept
That should cover it for the most part, would be like saying the only bounce
armed with this basic recipe and a good a ball can make is the average one (in
piece of reference, you should be able to an animation exercise), but what about
take on some animal locomotion! all the other kinds of bounces a ball
can achieve? Always remember that
However… if I add some deeper you want to avoid just animating an
knowledge I can begin to flavor this averaging of motion, and instead find
locomotion into more of a performance. areas to add flair and exaggeration,
Take the sine wave I mentioned, if I while also varying up your timing.
begin to understand this as a path with This is the spice that really helps to
timing and spacing – all of sudden I bring your animation into the realm of
have amplitude of energy and frequency performance, and gives your characters
of the of the foot pattern… and here life.
is my big idea behind this whole bit of
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 24
Inspirational Creature Reference
Its with this thought I leave you with some pics and a link to my favorite place to go
and regain my sense of wonder about all things creature! v

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 25
 Steve Cady is a mentor and lead animator at
Hybride. His credits include Jurassic World, Star
Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avatar.
Having worked on several films that how to move the body in an accurate
require realistic creature animation, way. I use references. I would shoot
such as Narnia, Avatar, The the reference myself, or use references
Waterhorse, I believe it is essential to that are available online. “The Animal
not underestimate the importance of Motion Show” from Rhino House has a
PREPARATION! great collection of DVDs that help you
study animal and human motions from
Preparation various angles and levels of detail.

My first step: I take the time to study the Keep in mind that, in my experience,
basic anatomy of the animal in question; most studios have a library of video
paying attention to how its body parts references available for you to use. It will
are connected to help me understand only improve your animation.

Rhino House is a service that offers animal video references for artists. Animation Mentor
students get 15% off to use Rhino House references.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 27
 My next step: I take the time to
sketch and thumbnail my ideas
on paper before committing to
the computer because setting
down poses in Maya can be time
consuming, more so with a very
realistic creature. Thumbnailing will
save you lots of time and frustration
down the road.

How to Draw Animals is a helpful book to get

you familiar with animal anatomy and to quickly
thumbnail animals.

An example of thumbnailing sketches

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 28
Blocking
For this example, let’s use a quadruped walk-cycle. I begin by identifying the main
keys, just like a human character. The first poses I block are the full and mid-strides;
I have noticed that whenever the front legs are in a mid-stride position the back legs
are in a full-stride position, and vice versa.

Front legs are in mid-stride and the back legs are in full-stride.

Hips are very important, they act as the engine or driving force in a walk. The head
and shoulders are mainly used for steering of the character. Remember to lead with
the eyes!

I apply the same mechanics to each pair (shoulders and front legs and hips and back
legs) as I do to a human character. Each pair is dealt with as a individual one. For
“mechanics”, I am referring to rotation in the hips, center of gravity, the arcs, etc.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 29
 Hips are the driving force of the walk, head and shoulders “steer” the creature.

As I block out my poses in Maya, in stepped mode, I duplicate the geometry of each
pose and I assign them individually to a layer (so I can hide and “unhide” them
later). I do this because it gives me a visual aid (targets) when it comes time to refine
the curves in the graph editor. As I translate the animal forward to the next pose, I
make sure that the placement of the body and feet make sense. See picture below.
The translations and rotations of the hips are similar to the human walk; remember
that the hips may have a bouncier translation than in a human walk.

Block out poses in Maya in “stepped” mode. Steve duplicates the geometry in each pose to give him visual
targets when it comes time to refine the curves in the graph editor.

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Continue with the steps mentioned do this because it helps me focus on
above; translate, key major poses, focus the first key poses and not worry so
on full and mid-stride poses. After I’m much the animation further ahead. I
done with that, I add my breakdowns, “unhide” the duplicate geometries that
which in this case would be the extreme I need, created at the beginning of the
high and low positions of the hips and blocking phase, this will give me visual
shoulders. targets when I refine the curves. When
polishing I always begin with the core
Clean-up (hips spine and head). Here’s a tip: I will
hide other body parts in my perspective
I like my tangents in the Graph Editor window to keep things uncluttered ex;
to be weighted. I also unlock them. tail, legs, etc. When I am happy with
Weighted tangents and having them the first pass of polish in that section, I
unlocked give me greater control. extend the timeline to the next few keys
Afterwards in spline mode, I trim down and I repeat the process.
the timeline to the first couple of keys
to begin refining (see image below). I Happy animating! v

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 Not only is Shawn Kelly an Animation Mentor
co-founder, he’s also a 20+ year Industrial Light &
Magic veteran where he works as a Lead Animator!
His credits include Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic
World, Pacific Rim, Rango, and many more. At
Animation Mentor, Shawn usually teaches Animation
Basics and Creature Animation courses.
More and more studios are hungry for Adding some dirt to specific curves
animators who have experience working in just the right way, overlapping the
with animals and creatures in a more actions while making sure they affect
realistic style. Many recruiters at visual (and are affected by) each other, and
effects studios, video game studios, and being willing to have a slightly less
commercials studios have a really hard perfect pose or arc at carefully chosen
time finding quality animator candidates moments can make a huge difference in
as demo reels with strong creature making your creature work feel real.
animation are few and far between.
Keep in mind that this “messiness”
If you are interested in this type of needs to be very subtle. Readable
animation, here are some of the most silhouettes are just as important (if not
common mistakes I see on demo reels. more so) than ever and your arcs still
Avoid these at all costs in order to create need to feel organic, etc. Subtlety is key
more believable and memorable creature with creature work. In the Creature
animation and improve your chances of Animation classes, we work with
landing one of those jobs! the students to strive for “simplified
complexity,” which I know sounds like
The animation is too words that shouldn’t go together, but
“clean” mastering this concept is a huge part of
bringing to life a realistic creature.
Working in a realistic style (or, ideally,
a slightly exaggerated “hyper-reality” Look for opportunities on your creature
in order to make your animation more to add small little details, secondary
exciting, dynamic, and memorable) actions, tiny overlapping actions,
means that you will need to have a muscles firing and relaxing, etc – as long
higher level of detail and complexity in as these are all kept extremely subtle,
the movements. they can all work together to create the
feeling of one large thinking, feeling,
This style of animation is an art in and breathing complex creature.
of itself, and requires a slightly different
mindset as you approach the work. You Once you identify areas that you can add
will still be using all of the principles complexity (this can be as simple as toes
of animation that you are used to, but spreading as the weight presses onto the
in a more integrated and, often, a more foot, or how that toe move affects the
“messy” way. claw, etc), then it’s time to simplify these
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 33
 A nice dragon sequence from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - done by Double Negative

actions in such a way that no

individual “little” action draws
... we work with the
attention to itself.
students to strive for
If someone’s first reaction to “simplified complexity,” ...
your epic shot of a dragon mastering this concept is
roaring is to say “wow, that
claw pressing on the ground a huge part of bringing to
during the footplant was life a realistic creature.
awesome!” then you are doing
something wrong. Those types
of movements, intended to at least on a first viewing of the shot. The goal
add tiny bits of complexity is that they will all come together to make that
and realism, are not meant to dragon feel huge and real, but the key to pulling
be the stars of the show. They that off is to keep them all a bit simplified and
should be felt rather than seen, unnoticed.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 34
 References of gorillas running at the 2:09 mark

Action, pause, action, Unfortunately, that means that we often

see animation on demo reels that have
pause, action
some interesting animal behavior or
Creature rigs tend to be more creature ideas, but those movements
complicated and detailed than the tend to be too broken up.
average animation rig. Whether it’s a cat
or an ogre or a giant robot covered in Instead of a gorilla running into frame
moving parts or a dragon with complex and picking up a ball and throwing it,
wing controls, you can bet your bottom we see a gorilla run into frame and come
dollar that at first glance, the rig will to a stop. Then pick up the ball and
probably look intimidating. stop. Then lift the ball and stop. Then he
throws the ball.
There’s a reason for this, and it’s because
we need to achieve that high level of Worse, often even those actions
“simplified complexity” mentioned themselves can be full of discrete body
above, and you just can’t do that with movements that feel disconnected.
limited controls. Arms moving that aren’t driven by the
shoulders, shoulders that don’t react to
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 35
arms pounding onto the ground, big dissipate. This kills the feeling of weight
chest movements that have no effect on and ruins the illusion of size.
the hips, etc.
Remember – there is no single “correct
A careful study of live-action reference timing that will work for all characters.”
and a focus on overlapping actions can They are all unique. They have different
make a huge difference. Beware the sizes, emotions, shapes, and actions – all
feeling of disembodied limbs or discrete of which will radically affect the speed
actions that don’t flow through one that they will move.
another. It completely kills the illusion
of an organic creature. Look At My
Imagination!
The speed doesn’t
match the size. Imagination IS one of the most
important aspects of animation. I
Few things can kill a shot quicker than don’t want to belittle it or downplay
having something that is meant to be the importance of actively working
large zipping around the screen too to cultivate and strengthen your
fast. Often, animators are more used to imagination.
animating humans, and we get into a
routine of timings that we are used to. However, there are times to rely on your
When you’re thrown into a situation imagination and there are times to at
where it’s time to animate a gorilla or least partly set it aside.
a huge dragon, it can be difficult to
wrap our brains around the timing and Even when working with a fantastic
spacing that this character will need to creature design, we need to carefully
be using in its movements. ground the movements of that character
in the real world. Animating some
This stands out especially in moments alien quadruped? Look at its anatomy
where a character is changing direction, and figure out what quadruped(s)
starting an action, or coming to a it most resembles. If you don’t base
stop. Often, I will see a large creature the animation at least somewhat on
doing some cool action and then he those real-life animals, people are
comes to a stop that is far too abrupt to going to have a hard time buying the
accommodate for his weight or to give performance.
time for his momentum to naturally
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 36
 At the 6:50 mark in the video above, ILM Animation Supervisor, Hal Hickel, reviews creature design for
the film, Pacific Rim, in this presentation at the Bloomberg Businessweek Design Conference in 2014. A
nice reference on how the creature animator thought process works when animating alien creatures.

Sometimes on reels, we see creatures Rotoscoping

who resemble the anatomy of animals
we are familiar with and yet move A direct copy of live action reference
nothing at all like them. There are is going to give you some movement
probably times to do that, but I would that will feel pretty good. It’ll be solid,
argue that a demo reel is the wrong it will likely have a decent amount of
place, as your work has no context and that “simplified complexity” if you have
very limited time to impress. If you have really studied the reference carefully. It
a lion running around like a lizard, we will be good animation.
likely aren’t going to marvel at your
imaginative choices, we are going to But will it be great?
think it looks bonkers and move on to Probably not. Reference is a hugely
the next reel. important step to successful creature
animation, but being a frame-by-frame
slave to it is a mistake. Here’s a couple
more words that seem to not go together
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 37
but are just as important as simplified Inconsistent style
complexity: subtle exaggeration.
A plague of many an animation
You are the artist. Your job is to look test (creature-specific or not) is an
at the reference and to make artistic inconsistent style. There is nothing
choices. That’s what makes your wrong with stylized animation. All
animation worth watching. As a creature animation styles (from the cartooniest
animator or visual effects animator, to the most photoreal) are valid and
your goal is realism, but that doesn’t beautiful and none are more artistic
mean we aren’t using the principle of or special than the others. What’s
exaggeration. important on a demo reel is that the
style of the animation, at least within
You need to filter your reference(s) that specific shot, feels consistent.
through your artistic eye and carefully
choose what to exaggerate. We make Very often we will see a nice heavy
this pose a little more dynamic or that creature walking along and then do
movement a bit snappier or this fall something that feels far cartoonier than
a bit heavier through the use of small the previous few seconds felt and then
(sometimes extremely small) amounts of revert back to Big-Heavy-Creature-
exaggeration. mode. The middle of the shot will have
quicker movements or overly stylized
It’s this carefully planned “subtle poses in comparison to the rest of the
exaggeration” that will take your work scene. It’s common that part of a shot
out of the realm of feeling “rotoscoped” will suddenly feel “animated” rather
(which can easily start to feel dead or than real.
robotic) and give it that spark of life
that makes it memorable and exciting to Any time you are animating anything,
watch. it is important to know the style you are
working in and keeping that consistent
Your goal should be to make your work is a big part of an animator’s job. Learn
slightly larger than life. That’s what how to do that and show it off on your
makes it special, but of course the tricky reel. v
part is keeping those exaggerations
within the realm of believability and not
“over-animating” the character to the
point that it no longer feels real.
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 38
 Barbara is an award-winning journalist living in
the Bay Area. Her articles have been published
in Computer Graphics World, Animation World
Network, CG Society, Variety, and many more.
Dreamworks’ 2010 animated feature If you become a character
How to Train Your Dragon produced expert, you might spend
glowing reviews and Oscar nominations years animating that
for Best Animated Feature Film for character.
directors Dean DeBlois and Chris
Sanders. This year, DeBlois, the voice “I’ve been working with Toothless
cast, and many of the people on the for . . . for the better part of my life,”
2010 crew bring us the eagerly awaited Stogner laughs. “For almost six years
How to Train Your Dragon 2, which now. I worked on Dragon 1, then the
is already receiving rave reviews from short Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury.
top critics. It’s five years later in the I was the first animator on Dragon
story, as well. The young Viking Hiccup 2. I was brought on for my expertise
is now 20 years old and he and his with Toothless, and I had a working
dragon Toothless are now partners, relationship with Simon Otto [Head of
friends, accomplished flyers, and Character Animation]. I was on Dragon
intrepid explorers, which leads them to 2 for two-and-a-half years – until early
discover Hiccup’s mother, and encounter May.”
unexpected danger. How to Train Your
Dragon 2 premiered at the Cannes Film Systems might change from
Festival May 16 and is scheduled for US one movie to the next.
release June 13.
“Dragon 2 is the first show to use
Dane Stogner, a former Animation Premo, DreamWorks’ new animation
Mentor student who joined software system,” Stogner says. “So I
DreamWorks Animation to work on had to conceptualize how we could
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, became work with Toothless in the new system.
an expert on Toothless during the first I spent the first nine months on the
Dragon film. For Dragon 2, he took show dividing my time evenly between
charge of the hero dragon as Character Premo development, Toothless rig and
Lead Animator for Toothless. We talked library development, and animation. I
with Stogner about his experiences worked with the face and body riggers
animating the friendly yet dangerous to develop his face and body rig for the
Night Fury. new software. Every way we interacted
with the character was new.”

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 40
 © DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

New software can “Premo was designed around the idea that
completely change the animators would have a [Wacom] Cintiq. So,
way animators work. we can just touch and move the character. It
is almost like stop motion sometimes. Even
“We went from using, arguably, on the face. Just push and pull parts of the
one of the most archaic face around on the surface. We have fully
animation software in existence integrated pose libraries, control hierarchies,
to what I would say is the best ghosting, paths, follow cams, and built-in
in the business,” Stogner says. drawing tools with layers like Photoshop. The
“It’s a giant leap forward. Premo, drawing tools were so easy to use I sometimes
the new software, is always live. did 2D pencil tests in the shot on top of the
You can press play and it will background rather than shooting reference. It’s
play back in realtime with full exciting.”
resolution geometry and a bit of
surfacing at any second. There’s
no such thing as a playblast. We For the first film, we
can adjust curves and poses on mostly referenced black
the fly, even while it’s playing.
It’s unbelievable. I think the
panthers, house cats and
developers started from the wombats for Toothless’
vantage point of what animators body language.
have always wanted and they
made it.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 41
 © DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Eyes alone can tell a story. Having a small range of

expressions doesn’t make it
“Toothless has quite large eyes and
easier to keep a character
square pupils,” Stogner says. “When he’s
happiest and most friendly, his pupils on model.
are big and that makes him extra cute. “Toothless’s face is a touchy thing,”
Also, in order to make him cute and Stogner says. “It’s easy to take him off
goofy, we tend to make him slightly model. In fact, most of the toys make
cross-eyed. When he’s aggressive and him look off model. There are even
protective of Hiccup, his pupils narrow moments in the first film that the
and his lids close quite a bit. There’s a Toothless experts on our animation
time in the story where he isn’t totally team agree that by today’s standards, are
in control, and we had to make sure it off model. It’s the angle of his eyelids.
was clear to the audience that it wasn’t The size of his eyes. The orientation
his fault and that he wasn’t aware of his of his pupils. The amount his nostrils
actions. We did most of that by keeping flare. The way he does or does not pull
his lids wide open, having his pupils his lips back to reveal his teeth. The
narrow more than they ever had, and way he poses his ears. A good example
making him a bit wall-eyed. is his brows. It’s difficult to give them
a classic worry shape because he looks
really weird and square and has a ‘skull’
appearance.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 42
 © DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

When you can’t animate a that Hiccup had to befriend. So cats

character’s face to create were appropriate. But, two out of three
the emotional performance of us Toothless experts, and even Dean
you want, move his body. DeBlois himself, are greater fans of dogs
than cats, and I think there’s legitimacy
“Because Toothless has a lot of screen in the story for having his personality
time and he’s Hiccup’s companion come across more puppy or dog-like in
throughout the film, we needed to give this film. He’s been living with Hiccup
him a wide array of emotions,” Stogner for five years. In addition, my favorite
says. “But, animals don’t have the same pet was my rabbit Waxwick, so I used
facial range as humans. So, we interject any opportunity I could to throw in a
more behavioral and body language to little rabbit flavor. I’ll definitely try to
give him those emotions.” add more in the next film. There’s a little
behavior rabbits do that rabbit fans call
Animals provide good binkying where they hop in circles. It’s
reference, even unlikely really cute. They look a little like they’re
having a seizure, but they are just happy.
animals.

“For the first film, we mostly referenced

black panthers, house cats and wombats Sometimes there’s no
for Toothless’ body language,” Stogner animal to imitate.
says. “He was very cat-like and stand-
offish and mysterious, a scary creature One of the shots I did early on was of
Toothless walking around on his hind
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 43
feet like a biped with Hiccup dangling wanted it,” Stogner says. “Simon Otto
from his neck. He has a bit of a funny developed a complete curriculum. What
walk. We saw a hint of that in the first flaps actually do. Everything to consider.
film in the ‘Forbidden Friendship’ That’s how everyone became able to
sequence. In this film, we see him full make flights somewhat believable. And
frame walking to the edge of a cliff with then it just took a lot of practice. On the
his legs straight in this goofy, goose- first film, we were praised for our flying
step walk. It’s one of his most surprising shots. We cared a lot about making
moments.” the flying as believable as possible, and
Simon was a real stickler. We learned
Study flight before from the first experience and from how
performing a flying creature. specific Simon was about it. I hope we
can get the same praise for this one. In
“We had this thing called flight school this film Toothless is on the ground a
on the first film, and we repeated it for lot because Hiccup is grounded a lot,
the second for anyone who needed or but we have some spectacular flying
sequences. Memorable ones.”

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 44
 © DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Remember that dragons are A correct wing pose helps

heavy. animators create believable
flight.
“If I’m going to get serious about it,
these dragons weigh at least a ton,” “We made sure Toothless’s wings had
Stogner says. “They have to have weight an airfoil shape to them, curved on the
when they fly. For reference, we watched top and flat on the bottom like airplane
videos of owls, hawks, and eagles, and wings,” Stogner says. “That’s also
since dragons don’t exist, we looked reflected in nature. It primarily produces
at a lot of good and bad examples of the lift in flight. And, it also looks better.
animated dragons. We saw so many It goes a long way toward making it
example of really beautifully modeled physically believable.”
and surfaced and lit dragons that looked
amazing, but . . . Just this weekend, I saw Air is not static.
an incredible render of a dragon in a
TV show that was hovering weightless, “Air is a physical medium with varying
flapping its wings. There was no drag of pressure and wind speeds,” Stogner
his legs or drop in the body.” says. “If you have a dragon too still, it

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 45
 © DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

doesn’t look right. You want to feel the fingers and each finger has five joints.
turbulences and those fingers on the They are like enormous long hands with
wings rustling. You want to make little extra fingers. I could move each one of
adjustments to keep him stable – dips, the dozens and dozens of finger joints
drops, rises in the body – to make him individually, but it was easier and faster
feel like he’s moving through something to manipulate the motion with a handful
as chaotic as air.” of macro controls.”
Wing “fingers” matter, so
the more macro controls, And when animators can
the better. work faster, Toothless can
fly better.
“We had macro controls on the first film
so that with one animation curve I could “Other than creating more macro
bend all of Toothless’s wing fingers at controls and refining the wing rig
the base, or splay or curl them,” Stogner behavior, we didn’t develop or learn
says. “This time around, I wanted anything new in how to make flight
inner, outer, and tip curls, bends and believable,” Stogner says. “But, the
splays. We had three times more macro speed of Premo allowed us to make
controls on this film. I don’t know how it look better. We had more time for
many other animators used them, but I details because we didn’t have to wait
did in every shot. Each wing has eight for recalculation of frames every time

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 46
we adjusted a flutter. We could adjust every flutter and watch it play back instantly. I
would have liked for him to have been in the air even more.”

You never know who or what might affect a performance.

“Hiccup’s mother reveals new secrets that even Toothless himself didn’t know,”
Stogner says. “His spikes split in two and he can open and close them for aerial
maneuvers. He also has new physical capabilities. Hiccup designed a new saddle for
him that has new functionality and rules for how it affects him and his flight.”

“There were also some tiny model changes that only super fans noticed. He has
nubs on his jaw. Those were just extra details we added for this film. But, the fans
hypothesized that perhaps the nubs were a sign, much like Hiccup’s chin stubble,
that Toothless had aged. There’s a shot where Hiccup’s mother says, ‘Look, he’s your
age.’ James Baxter, a supervising animator on the show had seen the super fans’
theories. So he made the choice to have her point to the nubs. The fans influenced
the movie.” v

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 47
 Animation Mentor is the first original online
animation school. Professional animators currently
working in the industry teach aspiring animators the
art of animation.
Sometimes we sound like a broken Hiren Solanki
record when we talk about the London, United Kingdom
importance of solid creature animation
skills, which is why we’re so glad when There’s such solid weight and timing
we’re proven right! The four creatures in Hiren’s shot. It’s a good study and
shots in this year’s student showcase application of a gorilla reference to a
were truly exceptional. fantasy creature. The weight implied
in this shot really helps to ground the
Creature animation shouldn’t be character into the environment, which
thought of as a separate category of helps sell the believability.
animation, but instead an important tool
that every animator should have access Animation Mentor: Tell us
to. Whether it’s capturing the essence about your process for
and weight of an existing animal or creating a showcase-worthy
inventing believable behavior in fantasy
shot!
creatures, animators that tackle these
shots have sparked our imaginations in Hiren: I am very happy that my Ogre
a powerful way. This is definitely true of shot was deemed showcase-worthy
these shots by Hiran Solanki, Kristian and ultimately made it onto the reel.
Carstensen, and Szilárd Hadobás. Enjoy!
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 49
This shot was created for the second foot and hand placements of the ogre
assignment of the Creature Animation: character. I was using gorillas and apes
Locomotion workshop, so I believe as reference for my animation, however
we had around four weeks to work on even after collecting a wide array of
it. Coming off a standard cat walk for reference, it wasn’t clear that apes tend
Assignment 1, we were asked to animate to move with a diagonally oriented spine
a more advanced creature locomotion (from a top down view), so that their
for Assignment 2, such as a creature hips are offset from their shoulders,
transitioning through different motion enabling their feet to move in-between
gaits e.g. from trot to run, from rest to and outside their hand placements.
walk etc. Alvise directed me toward a great piece
of reference that demonstrated this more
The first week was spent just deciding clearly during a Q&A session. Learning
what we wanted to animate, gathering this early on allowed for things to fall
reference material, thumbnailing, and into place more correctly and saved me
essentially just understanding the a lot of headache.
animation as much as possible before
actually starting to animate. In the My inspiration came largely from a shot
second week we began to block out the animated by Animation Mentor Alumni,
animation, and the following week was Haokun Liang. Haokun had animated
spent on refining this simple blockout. a very impressive shot using the same
The final fourth week was spent on ogre rig moving through a similar rocky
polishing and finishing touches—of desert terrain. He had done such a great
course feedback from our mentor, job, I aimed to get similar results.
Alvise Alvati, during our weekly Polishing the animation with the time I
e-critiques and Q&A sessions informed had was very important to me, and since
our progression and action points I was working full-time already, I had
throughout the assignment. to fit Animation Mentor around my job,
I generally stuck to the workflow that which meant working long hours mostly
was set out by the course itself, and this on weekends. But, as we all know,
process worked well for me as I was able animation does take time, dedication,
to catch and address any fundamental and care, especially if you want to end
issues at an early stage. up with a showreel shot, or as in this
case a “showcase-worthy” shot.
When blocking the animation, I was
finding it challenging to work out the
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 50
AM: What made you want to remember the most from my time
become an animator? studying at Animation Mentor is my
mentor, Alvise Avati. The e-critiques
Hiren: It may sound cliché, but I and and detailed Q&A sessions we had
always loved to draw from a young age, with him really helped to push our work
in particular characters and images that extra mile. He was always more
which told a story. As such, I naturally than happy to help and spend extra time
gravitated toward creating my own going through things with us: not just
characters, comics, character-based card limited to assignment work but also
games, magazines, etc. answering any questions about industry,
show-reels, applying for jobs, etc. I
Before my teenage years, my passion appreciate all the help and insight he
for drawing and creating comics was gave us.
fueled by my discovery of Japanese
anime on TV in the late 90s; I began AM: Where are you
to develop my art style more while working? Tell us a little
searching for whatever “How To about your job and your
Draw”, and particularly “How To day-to-day!
Draw Manga”, resources that I could:
whether it be through books, the web, Hiren: I am working as a Senior
friends and seeking out feedback from Animator at a London-based games
established artists and fellow aspiring studio called Mediatonic. My day-to-
artists. Through my love for drawing, day does tend to pivot a bit depending
comics and anime, I thought to myself on the project and project needs,
(somewhat naively) that the next natural but my current focus is on character
step would be animation. Thus my focus animation—creating movesets for game
began to shift from comics and more characters ready to be hooked up in
towards animating and ultimately I went engine.
to University to study animation.
Fundamentally, character animation
AM: What will you remains at the core of my role, but since
remember most about we tend to work in small teams, my day-
your time studying with to-day could also include other tasks
Animation Mentor? ranging from rigging, creating particle
FX, UI animations, editing footage,
Hiren: The thing I will maybe mentoring other animators, etc.
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 51
Of course as artists we are always makes it stand out. The contrast between
looking to improve and develop our all three characters is fantastic, between
skills (my primary reason for taking their different weights, timing and
the AM course), so receiving and posing, and emotional states.
giving feedback is also an integral
part of an animator’s job, thus we have AM: Tell us about your
frequent reviews with our Art Director process for creating a
and critique sessions amongst the showcase-worthy shot!
animation team in the studio.
Kristian: For the shot that ended
AM: Last but not least, up on the showcase reel I wanted to
what’s your favorite challenge myself by having multiple
animated movie? characters interact, and I wanted my
main character to be making a decision
Hiren: It is difficult to pick only and acting upon it. That was my initial
one movie, but if I had to, it would brief to myself.
probably be Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Ninja
Scroll. Although I think my overall I always enjoy when animated characters
favourite animation will always be the touch and interact convincingly, so I
classic Dragon Ball Z. Both of these, wanted to see if I could pull that off and
amongst many, many other titles, have so I looked at references of apes and
greatly inspired and influenced me as bears—which are generally quite gentle
an artist, and essentially it is because of and caring creatures—and found several
animations such as these that I am an examples of them carrying their young
animator today. around. Then I added a dragon for
drama, and there’s the story.
Kristian Carstensen
Histon, United Kingdom I really love creating stages for my
action, and so I used AM’s desert
This shot is working really well! Great environment and a bit of custom
mechanics and solid weight help the modelling to create a scene of a pipe
believability. It’s also really nice to see with water flowing out of it, as I needed
the emotional change as Dozer realizes Dozer to run and hide from the dragon.
there’s an incoming threat. That, Our mentor, Nicole Herr, asked us to do
along with the clear posing, elevates something we’d never attempted to do
the storytelling of this shot and really within Maya for this shot, so I decided
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 52
to attempt to create a decent
water shader for the outflow.
Ideally I would have liked to
have had some water splashing
around Dozer as she runs, but
unfortunately I ran out of time.

The hardest part for me, as

ever it seems, was fitting all
the beats of action within the
allotted frame range we were
given without rushing things. video of my process with the shot as well.
My initial thumbnail planning
always has more going on than AM: What made you want to
I can reasonably fit within a become an animator?
given shot. So I usually have to
cut out half the ideas and that Kristian: I pretty much always wanted to be
about does it. an animator—I think, even before I knew what
an animator was. I was completely fanatic about
I created this little making-of Disney’s classic films as a kid and always wanted
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 53
to somehow be involved with creating animate with a baby at your desk. I tried
those characters and films that I loved. I strapping her to my chest, but alas, it’s
always read all I could about the making impossible
of films and the world of animation still
continuously blow my mind with what is AM: Where are you
being created around the world, and I’m working? Tell us a little
thrilled to be a part of it. about your job and your
day-to-day!
AM: What will you
remember most about Kristian: Right now I’m working at
your time studying with Cinesite VFX in London on Avengers:
Animation Mentor? Infinity War where I’m surrounded daily
by really great animators that are all
Kristian: We just had a baby girl a super friendly and helpful. My days are
few weeks prior to doing the Creatures spent animating and addressing notes,
Workshop, so the thing I remember mostly addressing notes actually… It
most clearly from my AM time was really stretches your animation skills
trying to manage my time between having to change things, cut out ideas,
baby stuff and getting animation done. insert new ones, and still stay within the
It turns out you most definitely cannot deadline.
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 54
 Another great example of interaction with animated elements. It really feels like the cat is tugging on
that weapon! The weight and impact conveyed in this shot work so well too and makes both the ogre and
cat feel grounded in the scene. A great example of interaction, storytelling, weight, and mechanics all
working in concert.

AM: Last but not least, Szilárd Hadobás

what’s your favorite Andornaktalya, Hungary
animated movie?
There’s a great sense of interaction
Kristian: My favourite animated between the live action footage and
movie…that’s a two hour conversation. the animated character in this shot. It
But if pressed on it I’d have to cheat and really feels like there’s a back and forth
split it up into two categories. VFX type reaction between them. Also we can see
films and Feature Animation. So, it’ll be how the weight of the dragon is really
Peter Jackson’s King Kong and Pixar’s being conveyed as lighter, and that’s
The Incredibles. through careful attention to the timing
and spacing.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 55
AM: Tell us about your few days I had a solid blocking. I could
process for creating a work fast because that was something I
showcase-worthy shot! loved to do. If you want to know more
about the process here’s the making-of
Szilárd: My shots were the dragon video.
lighter and the ogre-cat live action shots.
The dragon one was the first, and I just I was struggling a lot on the plot of the
wanted to use one of the plates provided ogre shot because the dragon was so
by AM because I was a big advocate of original and successful that I wanted to
focusing on the animation instead of show something even more innovative. I
other tech stuff. But then the next week I was considering a shot of some creatures
felt that a general flyby animation would riding each other for about a week, but
be flat and lack originality, so I decided I thought that was not exciting enough.
to do something different. So, I talked to my buddy who works
at zLense developing a revolutional
The idea itself came into my mind in a affordable markerless camera rig so we
split-second like a flash. I immediately could arrange a shooting. Since they had
started to look for references, and a rails laid on the set, we decided to create
few hours later I shot the plate using a a shot with a larger camera move, like a
camera and motion capture system. In a chase scene.
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 56
My main inspiration was
the Avatar‘s Thanator
chase sequence, but I
wanted to add live-action
and CG interaction and
a twist to the end. The
technical difficulties
were enormous—like
converting the AM rigs
to be able to use in the
Unity game engine,
bringing back the
recorded camera data my greatest enemy in this shot, but finally I could
from Fusion, and messing finish the animation before the deadline despite the
with the recorded depth shooting happened at the end of the third week.
info as the live-action
plate—but I really loved In this shot the lighting, rendering, cat texturing,
being a pioneer with all groom, and compositing were done by my friends. I
of the challenges. Overall am responsible for the idea, animation, and direction.
I can say that time was
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 57
AM: What made you want to AM: Where are you
become an animator? working? Tell us a little
about your job and your
Szilárd: I climbed the usual ladder day-to-day!
of CG, starting with modeling and
texturing in high school in 1997 with Szilárd: I’m working at MPC
the good old Imagine 2 making shiny London, at the moment, on a new
glasses and cups and other objects just Disney live-action feature. AM
for fun. Lightwave was the first program knowledge is perfectly usable, and what
where I could animate rigid bodies I learned here made me confident from
like starships planets and other mainly the very beginning of the contract.
celestial objects. 3ds Max opened new The work itself is not super easy, but
horizons with skinning and bones in live-action and CG contact always was
2001. I still did modeling for years in challenging. Something what I expected
games and learned scripting, which spiced by some fun with the technology.
lead me to my first feature job. In the
pre-production all tools was done so AM: Last but not least,
I started to animate to keep my job, what’s your favorite
and it turned out that I am not totally
animated movie?
talentless in this field. I learned a lot of
animation on that show and that planted Szilárd: My favourite one is
in me the deep love toward this form of Anomalisa. They could bring the
art. characters close to the audience despite
the unique realisation. For me that is the
AM: What will you best example how someone can bring a
remember most about character to life. v
your time studying with
Animation Mentor?

Szilárd: The Q&A’s were by far the best

times of AM. Listening to an industry
pro talking about his/her work and our
shots, and I could feel the passion. It was
extremely inspiring and fun as well.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 58
 Jean-Denis Haas is a long-time mentor of
Animation Mentor, a creature guru, and a senior
lead animator for Industrial Light & Magic! He’s
worked in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Trek:
Into Darkness, Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix, and many more!
 As a studying animator you’re quickly
exposed to the principles of animation
and the basic exercises that help you
learn and understand said principles.
Everybody goes through the bouncing
balls exercises, pendulums, all the way
to the first basic walk. But after having
animated a walk you’re tempted to
continue with a biped and to dive right
into human body mechanics, capping it
all off with acting performances based
on audio clips.

So why should you learn creature

animation?

The following five points illustrate my

thoughts on that question and what
to look out for when you do decide to
animate creatures.

1. Most companies feature

creatures in their movies.

The question of why should I learn

creature animation is easily answered by
listing top animation companies and the
movies which include creatures, either
based on fantasy or existing animals:

Pixar Animation Studios: Coco,

Finding Dory, The Good Dinosaur,
Monsters U, Up, Brave, Toy Story 3, Up,
Wall-E (the cockroach!), Ratatouille,
The Incredibles (yes, there’s a cat in it!),
Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story,
etc. 60
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only.
Blue Sky Studios: Ferdinand, Rio, Epic, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Rio, Ice Age:
Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, Ice Age: The Meltdown,
Ice Age

Dreamworks: Penguins of Madagascar, Home, Turbo, The Croods, Rise of the

Guardians, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda
2, Megamind (the fish!), Shrek Forever After, How to Train Your Dragon, Monsters
vs. Aliens, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Kung Fu Panda, Bee Movie
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 61
As you can see the majority, if not all most likely see a 20 to 30 year old male
movies on companies’ resumes include or female human character performing
creatures. I could continue with a list of a variety of actions. For a while it was
movies for Disney, Sony or add movies mainly a male character, due to the
like “Free Birds”, and this only covers limited availability of female character
feature animation. If you look at the rigs, but thankfully female rigs are more
resume of companies like Industrial accessible nowadays.
Light and Magic, WETA, Tippet, Sony,
or the late Rhythm & Hues, you will Still, I wouldn’t say that it is common
quickly realize that creatures are an to see a really old character, or really
essential part of the work animators do young, or skinny, big, tall, etc. and
at these companies (and many other the lack of diversity is really limiting
companies I haven’t listed). your reel. Each shot on your reel
should demonstrate a new skill set,
So when you assemble your reel you ranging from weight, body mechanics,
have to think about the target audience, pantomime to performance. You don’t
meaning, your reel has to be tailored want to have 10 weight lifting exercises,
towards the company you’re applying but to me the same goes for characters.
for. An animation reel for Pixar is going Why would you want to show the same
to look vastly different than a reel for type of character over and over? I don’t
ILM. It’s important to study what a think it highlights your skill set enough
company is working on and what type of and it is also limiting your acting
animation they’re doing style wise, but performance possibilities.
it’s also important to look at the type of
characters. When you start animating creatures
don’t just think in terms of realistic
So in short, why would I want to learn creature behavior where you apply what
creature animation? The answer is you’ve been studying in your reference
because the moment you start working material. Don’t limit it to just a study of
at a company chances are that’s what you real life. Think about how you can use
will be animating. specific animal behavior to supplement
and enhance your acting performances.
2. Diversity in your reel. Once you start adding creature
animation to your performances you
If you look at student animation reels can get a very interesting mix of both
focusing on feature animation you will worlds by going back and forth between
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 62
creature behavior and human how you transition from body mechanics to
acting. performance and how the creature’s distinct
animalistic features influence the performance.
For example, imagine a A good example would be the snake Kaa from
creature moving from A to B Disney’s Jungle Book with the constant tongue
to an object, inspecting that hissing.
object and then delivering
a line of dialogue. That type In short, once you start mixing animalistic and
of shot displays creature human behavior you get a much bigger variety
locomotion, anthropomorphic
performance through
pantomime supplemented
A lot of complex creature
by lip sync. That’s three animation can be reduced
different type of exercises to bouncing balls and it
combined into one. It gives
you the opportunity to show
all comes back to being
that you’ve studied how the able to show proper
creature moves and how weight through timing
you stylize that movement
and spacing.
so it’s not just rotoscoped.
You can then also show

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 63
of acting choices which makes it more The moment you have behavior that’s
entertaining to watch but at the same even just a little bit similar to an existing
time you’re also able to demonstrate creature the audience will be able to
different skill sets within one shot. make a connection based on familiarity
and ground that fantasy creature in
3. Root the performance in reality. A common example would be
reality. to study gorillas when animating ogres.
One of the essential aspects when it I’m generalizing but it’s a good starting
comes to depicting creature animation point. If you’re animating a dragon, does
with a bigger emphasis on realistic the dragon use its wings for movement
behavior and animalistic performance on the ground? If yes, then bats would
is to base your creature movement on be good reference material.
a real life counterpart. If you have a
fantasy creature with a very abstract You can also combine multiple animal
design and you put on top of that behavior and mechanics, but be careful
movement and behavior that resembles to not just pick an animal because it
no living creature on this planet then the looks the same as your creature. You
audience might completely reject that have to consider size discrepancies and
creature and never feel any sympathy or environmental influences. By that I
empathy towards it. mean, your creature might look like an

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 64
eagle so you’re tempted to use the flight Of course you might run into a situation
mechanics and timing of that animal, where none of that matters and the main
but what if your creature is a lot smaller objective is to make it look cool, but
than an eagle or a lot bigger? You might I would say most of the time it’s very
love how a hummingbird moves but helpful to add real life behavior to a
does that type of movement work on fantasy creature in order to make it feel
a creature that’s as tall as a skyscraper? more “real”.
Your fantasy creature might live
underwater but look like a land-based 4. Get the weight right.
creature, so is it going to swim like an
alligator or like an elephant? Physics are very important regardless of
the style of your animation. The more
The creature might live in an stylized your animation is the more
environment which is exposed to really freedom you have to tweak physics
heavy winds and storms, so the flight of course but the moment you ignore
mechanics or ground locomotion might proper weight distribution, conservation
be more influenced by creatures who of momentum and dissipation of
are able to withstand such forces of kinetic energy, believability goes out the
nature as opposed to just going by visual window. There is a reason why every
similarities. student should start with bouncing
balls. It’s really important to master the
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 65
illusion of weight. Can you make three rests on all fours and rears up to pound
balls of the same size look and feel like a his fists against his chest and falls back
bowling ball, a basketball and a balloon? down, you have a clear separation of
A lot of complex creature animation can muscle and physics driven physics.
be reduced to bouncing balls and it all When it gets up at the beginning it’s all
comes back to being able to show proper based on the strength of the arms, legs,
weight through timing and spacing. chest or whatever is driving that motion.
The speed and weight is determined by
For this point I want to concentrate on the muscle groups and body mechanics,
a specific area that can make or break which gives you a certain flexibility in
your shot. It’s something that is missing terms of timing and weight, but the
not only in student reels but also in moment the upwards movement hits
feature movies (for different reasons its apex and is coming back down it is
though) and an area I have to constantly purely driven by physics. The ogre won’t
pay attention to. It’s the difference be able to fall down faster than physics
between muscle driven movement and dictate. The only way to achieve that is
physics driven movement. if the ogre is pulling himself down or
is being pulled or pushed down by an
For example: if you take an ogre that external force.

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 66
Circling back to my feature movie animation landscape is very competitive
comment above, one of the tricky and interaction between characters is
things when dealing with life action a great opportunity to go above and
plates is that you might have to alter beyond and add more complexity to
your animation based on the existing your shot, and creatures offer great
camera move. The camera could tilt opportunities to do just that.
down too fast, forcing you to accelerate
the character’s drop in order to keep it For example: imagine the interaction
in frame, or a live-action element might between a mother and her kids.
explode at a certain frame and that will Depending on the type of creature,
dictate the timing of the character’s they could be hanging on to her, resting
touch down while having to consider on her back, crawling all around her.
the timing of the initial camera tilt Going back to what I mentioned about
up for the jump, etc. etc. There are performances, what if you combine a
unfortunately a few limitations when dialogue shot between parents with said
dealing with live-action plates. interaction? You could have the mother
animal trying to show something to
But if times permits and the camera the father but the kids are on top of her
move allows you, make sure that your head, crawling over her face while she
creature is not breaking the laws of tries to say something. You’re combining
physics, even stylized physics, when the performance, animalistic behavior and
movement is not based on voluntary interaction, which would make for a
action like a push off or jump and very impressive and entertaining shot.
involuntary action like an external force
pulling or pushing you down (or up, or Any type of fighting is going to have
sideways, etc.). interactions between the creatures.
But don’t limit yourself to just punches
5. Interaction between and kicks or claw swipes. Try to have
creatures. creatures tackling each other, hanging
onto each other, ripping apart limbs,
Contact between two or more characters etc. These type of interactions are much
is difficult to pull off in CG animation more complex and less clean. A punch is
and you rarely see it on students’ reels. fairly clean due to minimal contact time.
It’s understandable since it is already But a smaller creature jumping on top
difficult enough to make it all work with of a bigger creature and trying to claw
one character, let alone two! But today’s the bigger creature’s eyes out is going
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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 67
to necessitate a lot more contact time chances of getting noticed by recruiters.
and the complexity of the interaction is
going to increase by a lot. I hope this was helpful!
Happy animating. v
You can also combine creatures with
humans. Let’s say a human character has
a pet lizard or rat. The creature can be
moving over the human’s shoulder down
the arm onto a table. The examples are
limitless!

All in all it is only in your best interest

to learn creature animation. Your
demo reel will be more varied, which
in turn will set yourself apart from the
competition and therefore increase your

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other format without express written permission. For education purposes only. 68
Our
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