How does a large animation studio like Pixar maintain consistency when dozens of people with varying artistic tastes are working on a single project?
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Generally an artist is the lead kn a project or a specific character. They create reference images, say of Pikachu facing straight forward, looking left, looking right, from behind, standing, sitting, holding something etc… this gets relayed to the other artists as the definitive “this is Pikachu”.
The animators then do their sketches and those get sent to the supervisor, they may call for adjustments or make changes themselves. For example, Pikachu ear looks too long.
Sometimes, these will be fed to a retouch team that will take all the pieces and do minor adjustments for the scene or composting making sure Pikachu and charmander are staged properly.
Corridor Crew has a great video where they talked to animators from disney, it gives some perspective on the steps and processes.
There is a creative director or lead animator who designs the style of the animation in concert with the director.
Animation studios hire artist who are specifically good at copying certain art styles. Think the kid who learned to copy marvel comics really well in middle school. Or who could perfectly copy Disney stuff in high school. These are the guys who copy the designs of the lead animator to make the movie. The are the work a day animators.
Animation studios also hire some artists who can’t do that and who don’t have a specific style but kinda draw whatever comes to them. They usually put them in creative positions where they go nuts putting out 20-100 versions of one item that needs to be iconic. Then the creative leads and director choose the look they like and adjust it for the actual animation process.
I forget what it’s called, but it’s a “something” Bible where they have all the characters and how they look like at certain angles. They have alot of do’s and don’ts for each character. I saw a cool one for King of the Hill shared somewhere.
There is a creative director or lead animator who designs the style of the animation in concert with the director.
Animation studios hire artist who are specifically good at copying certain art styles. Think the kid who learned to copy marvel comics really well in middle school. Or who could perfectly copy Disney stuff in high school. These are the guys who copy the designs of the lead animator to make the movie. The are the work a day animators.
Animation studios also hire some artists who can’t do that and who don’t have a specific style but kinda draw whatever comes to them. They usually put them in creative positions where they go nuts putting out 20-100 versions of one item that needs to be iconic. Then the creative leads and director choose the look they like and adjust it for the actual animation process.
There are several layers of animation and animators.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the animators, who make up the bulk of the animation staff. They typically work off a reference sheet, which is a sheet where the character is drawn in various poses and emotions, in order to maintain consistency.
These are then grouped under a supervisor, whose job is to check all of his staff’s work for consistency, and correcting anything outside the acceptable range.
Then it all goes to the director to approve.
This system is in place for a lot of different elements; such as the baseline animations, the clothing, the hair, any simulations such as water or wind interactions, the lighting, the compositing, etc.
Adding onto “the director decides”… There are documents that describe how people and objects should look and move.
Here is a really good example for [King Of The Hill](https://imgur.io/a/PiJLk). There are things such as “Do not hold mouth open while drinking” and “No smoke on Dales cigarettes”.
I forget what it’s called, but it’s a “something” Bible where they have all the characters and how they look like at certain angles. They have alot of do’s and don’ts for each character. I saw a cool one for King of the Hill shared somewhere.
Adding onto “the director decides”… There are documents that describe how people and objects should look and move.
Here is a really good example for [King Of The Hill](https://imgur.io/a/PiJLk). There are things such as “Do not hold mouth open while drinking” and “No smoke on Dales cigarettes”.
There are several layers of animation and animators.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the animators, who make up the bulk of the animation staff. They typically work off a reference sheet, which is a sheet where the character is drawn in various poses and emotions, in order to maintain consistency.
These are then grouped under a supervisor, whose job is to check all of his staff’s work for consistency, and correcting anything outside the acceptable range.
Then it all goes to the director to approve.
This system is in place for a lot of different elements; such as the baseline animations, the clothing, the hair, any simulations such as water or wind interactions, the lighting, the compositing, etc.
I forget what it’s called, but it’s a “something” Bible where they have all the characters and how they look like at certain angles. They have alot of do’s and don’ts for each character. I saw a cool one for King of the Hill shared somewhere.
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