Keith Lango:
Animating to the camera: (Reference:
CGChar)
"I come from a TV/Film
background, so I can't speak to the challenges of 360-degree game animation.
All I ever care about is how it looks to the camera that the audience will be
looking through. I don't bother making the motion, staging or the action work in
any other view. I just use my other views as portals for grabbing my puppet for
manipulation. But I'll never do playback previews in another view, nor will I
ever bother even looking at my animation in anything but the "real" camera. The
audience doesn't see it from any other view, so to me it's not even worth
looking at. The only time I'll care about what anything off camera is doing is
if I know from layout that their shadows will be seen on screen. But if it isn't
in camera, it doesn't exist in the end result 2d planar image I am constructing.
Which is another of my passionate points: your animation should construct strong
2d images. Composition, contrast, staging, silhouettes, space, line, direction
of motion- the audience doesn't get to spin the world around for another peek.
So all your energy should go into constructing the image as it will utlimately
be seen- in two strong dimensions. And if I have to "break" a rig to get the
silhouette or staging I want, then so be it, I break the rig. If the director
wants the camera to change, I'll adjust accordingly. But by the time the
director sees my first pose tests they'll know if they want something different
and they most likely will ask me to change it there. But if you're had a good
layout process that should be something that isn't all too common because it
could mess up so many other areas of the pipeline.
To me the only animation that matters is the animation the audience will see. To
look at my work in any other view is a waste of time for me.
I guess I'm kinda odd that way. "