10 Mistakes 3D Animators must avoid

3D Animators are who bring mobility into static 3D models. Their work is visible in films, computer games, advertisements and more. Animation is a field in technology where imagination and realisticity meet together that create meaningful visual stories. It is sort of like a combination between copywriting but with moving images and pictures instead. If carried out appropriately, the use of animation can be highly effective to grab viewers attention. So you do not want your efforts to pay off to be poor! 

To assist you in achieving that, we have outlined 10 mistakes that animators should avoid. It ensures you get the best from your animations and that they are prepared to provide a vivid appeal to your audience.

1. Lack of Planning

Starting with animation without a blueprint is like drawing on a piece of paper without a guided plan, which is very unproductive. Therefore it is crucial to plan sequences step by step before starting your work. Draw out concepts, make sketches and have good ground work before you dive into animation. Having a plan assists to clear out all the confusion of what you want during the process. Make sure each part of the plan has a purpose inline with the objectives.

2. Poor Spacing

Correct frame positioning is important if a video is to smoothly maintain. As revealed by animator Norman McLaren, “What happens between each frame is more important than what exists in each frame“.

Bad spacing is probably the most common mistake a new animator makes. Once the spacing goes wrong, all of the flow in the animation does too. By focusing on frame placement, animators can visualize a smoother and more engaging story.

3. Poor use of ARCs

ARC-ing will make your animations feel organic. The utmost natural movement, be it an arm swinging or a ball bounces, moves in the path of an arc rather than pure direct movement. In your animation, consider how characters and rudiments might naturally move within that space. You set movements along bending paths by placing keyframes or by taking advantage of bezier angles in your software to produce smooth transitions. 

Then, add a little easing, a slow-out, a fast stir, and also a slow-in to really give the vision of real stir. Just simply observing real life will help understand and apply these bends, creating smoother and further organic feeling animations.

4. Inconsistent timing

When the timings don’t match, the animation might look as if it has stopped at some points in the sequence and also resumes with an unexpected launch. Not necessarily visual timing only,  you should be careful about the audio synchronization with characters movements also. Like voiceovers, sound effects, music etc. 

5. Poor camera movement

It’s important in animation to move the camera in a way that helps engage the viewers and visualize the story. There are some common takes like one shot, drone view, and the use of different angled shots to make depth and environment. Through the trial of similar aspects, one should come up with the most appropriate movement that best describes the scenario.

6. Inconsistent physics

Physics includes a wide variety of factors like weight, gravity, g force etc. If your characters don’t imitate movements like the real world, it may not provide a comfort feel to viewers. To address these issues, study how things work in the real-world. Get ideas and mathematical equations and apply them in your animation. 

7. Inconsistent expression

Facial expression and body language can change what you’re representing in your story a lot. For example, if you make a comedy scene, and the facial expression doesn’t represent accordingly, viewers will lose interest. Also the body language here plays a vital role. Both expression and body language must be synced to visualize the story. Like if the scene is not about robotics, but the movement is, it won’t be appealing to the viewers.

8. Incorrect scale and proportions.

Though character scale and proportion is kinda modeling part, however as an animator you must be focused on where you are placing them and interacting with. For example, if you enlarge and reduce the scale of a character, you must make sure that it doesn’t go proportionally illogical according to the surrounding  environment. Also it is applicable for rigging to maintain the skeleton in shape symmetrically.

9. Unrealistic lighting and texture

You know what? Texture and lighting kinda depend on each other. Make sure your lighting and textures align with the scene’s story, environment and mood. Realistic lighting helps add depth to your characters and highlights key actions. Make the texture respond naturally according to the lighting conditions. The texture must be seamless and symmetrical, otherwise it won’t look realistic.

10. Not considering motion blur

Let’s say you’ve made a car racing animation without motion blur. It won’t give the feel of real life experience and will look highly robotic. Either you should blur the environment if the camera is moving along with the car, or make the car blurry if the camera is static to another point of view other than the car. That would create a realistic feel.

Conclusion

This article shows some common mistakes 3D animators make that should be avoided. By following the instructions you can enhance your animation capability a lot. However as this industry is limitless and has infinitely potential, you’d gain a lot more knowledge during the journey.