Careful with your Silhouettes!

Many new animators can make the mistake of forgetting about the silhouettes. And it can be a simple mistake that was overlooked. For example, check out this:

This is obviously from the new movie Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. What happened to Tom Cruise in this movie? Did he lose a leg? Is this a war movie or pirate movie? And I don't even want to guess what's between Cameron Diaz's legs! Lol! All kidding aside, the silhouettes here do not work. They were clearly going for a 60's James Bond type poster but did not achieve it. This is more like it:

You can see two silhouettes, one of James Bond which in a medium shot and the second is of a sexy woman holding a gun. Even though the woman's silhouette has a little more detail, it's still a silhouette.

But this is a mistake that can be avoided. First, let talk about why the silhouette is important.

The Silhouette

The silhouette helps in many ways to improve your animation. The main thing it does, is enhance your poses. As we all know, poses is one of the elements that makes great animation. It's what tells the story, delivers the idea, and expresses the emotions and thoughts.

It establishes staging, framing and layout. Silhouettes are not only used for characters, but also scenery and props.

The silhouette also helps in design. A great character design is recognized instantly. And this is proven by looking solely at the silhouette. Look at these examples:

I'm sure everyone can figure out who these characters are. But silhouettes do not only apply to cartoon characters:

The last on is my favorite. ALFRED HITCHCOCK IS THE MAN!!!

On the documentary, "Frank and Ollie", (which is about two of the Nine Old Men, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston) Frank and Ollie were acting scenes they had worked on over the years at Disney. As they did so, they were in a empty white room with a light pointing at them which casted a shadow on the wall. Nothing was really said about what they were doing, but I realized that they did their acting in this room to see their silhouettes. They didn't want to be distracted by their own faces or anything else. At this stage they just wanted to see the shape of the body for their key poses. This is in contrast to what some of the Pixar animators do on the DVD special features. On the special features of Monsters Inc. DVD, one animator is acting and filming himself in front of a large mirror. He acts out a scene and then uses this to animate. When you look in the mirror, you immediately look to your face and eyes. You see less of the shape your body makes. This also applies to recording yourself on video. This is not a bad thing to do and I'm not saying that what they are doing is wrong, but what Frank and Ollie did, made more sense. They are focusing on the silhouettes, on the shapes, and on the poses! This will vastly improve your animation. In my opinion, Frank's and Ollie's animation is far superior to anything done today.

So how can I avoid making bad silhouettes in my animation? Easy just do the following:

1. Gesture Drawings - DRAW!!!!! I can't express how important this is to your animation.

2. Gather References - The silhouettes I used in this post I found on Google. I just typed silhouette and found all this.

3. Make your own references - If you can't find the silhouette you want from the internet. Take pictures, go to Photoshop and make it into a silhouette.

4. Establish your camera - Whenever you begin a new scene, it's always a good idea to set up your camera first. Also, you may want to animate the camera ahead of time so that you animate to the camera. This is in part of creating proper staging for your scenes.

5. Black Shader - Make a new shader and change the color completely to black. Apply it to your character and animate. What you'll see is a 3D silhouette. Use your perspective view to view all angles and make sure the silhouette works, even though you are using one camera to identify the best pose and silhouette. You may want to switch back and forth between the black shader and a normal shader, just to see how your progress is going.

You always need to make sure that, you as an artist, are not relying too much on the computer. The computer is just a tool to create your work. But there are a multitude of resources that will help you improve as a 3d artist. As an artist look to improve your work by taking a step back. If you like to create CG models buy some clay and sculpt. If you like to rig, take anatomy drawing classes. Walt Disney said; "Keep one foot in the past, one in the future". Happy Animating!!!