Free Video Lessons in High-End Animation Directing

[Rodney]

This will be of interest to those of you putting on your Director and Cinematographer hats and moving into production.

 

Animation World Network is hosting a series of videos with a emphasis on Staging and Blocking and at this point there are about a dozen or so short lessons online. More is to be added over time.

 

While the Poser-like quality of blocking may be a bit of a turn off there is a lot of information covered and those patient enough to watch all of the videos will begin to understand how to apply some of the lessons to their own projects. Subjects such as Deep Staging will be of particular value as they allow the camera to gain the best vantage point in staging characters with a minimum of movement.

 

High-End Animation Directing

 

One that I particularly enjoyed is Lesson 5: Deep Staging - Static In one part, the lesson discusses how to set up a scene with seven people without making everything too crowded.

 

In another lesson on Pivoting Characters the lesson talks about how to direct an audience into think a tertiary character is just an unimportant background character but due through staging have them enter into the conversation.

 

If you are considering Staging and Blocking of shots, give these a look.

Each lesson is only a few minutes long.

 

Obviously the goal is to sell the Master Series DVDs but the free videos will also be useful

 

Here's a brief write up and testimonial:

This exclusive showcase offers AWN and VFXWorld readers an ongoing series of video lessons on a selected set of topics taken from the literally thousands of techniques covered by The Master Course. Over the next few months, new lessons will be published every couple of weeks. Check back regularly to enjoy them all.

 

"The Hollywood Camera Work DVD course is THE definitive reference for scene blocking & staging. It is clearly the most comprehensive & effective learning tool available to help filmmakers of any level increase the cinematic value of their scenes. It's brilliant!"

 

— Brad Blackbourn, DreamWorks Animation, Head Of Pre-Viz, Kung Fu Panda (2008)

 

Well... Brad Blackbourn says so, so there ya go.

[mouseman]

Excellent link, Rodney. Excellent.