Gobelins 2012 films (made with TVPaint)

[Fabrice]

I open the topic early, but after my lastest training session at Gobelins, I can say that once again most of the films this year will be done on TVPaint (both paper + TVPaint : as usual when the time is missing everything is done directly on TVPaint).
The cool thing is that it's not only the 3rd years films, but also the Annecy films.
(ok, there is one made only with After-Effect, but all the others will be using TVPaint, more or less)

[Sewie]

Fabrice, I'm curious to know; can you tell us more about why they often choose to do the animation on paper as well at Gobelins? It seems a bit unpractical to me....
Do they find they have more control over their drawing if they use paper? Or is it hard for them to get used to the workflow in TVP?

[Elodie]

Students animate usually on paper for several reasons :
• the traditional aspect (TVPaint is sometime frightening for newcomers and so, they need time to "accept" it in their workflow)
• teachers push students to work on paper first (probably because of the first reason )

But now, more and more students come from school where TVPaint is already used a lot (LISAA, Emile Cohl, EMCA...) and when they arrive at Gobelins, they continue to work on their favorite tool

Fabrice told me that there is a project where students completely animate on TVPaint, in particular because of a scene with many characters that was too hard to animate on paper

[slowtiger]

If I were a teacher I'd require drawing on paper first, and still besides drawing on a Cintiq. Not because one is necessarily better than the other, but because I think students should know many techniques: pencil, brush, chalk, scissors, digital, foto, video, pixellation ... Ideally they should try each at least once. Later they may settle on what they feel most comfortable with.

[Paul Fierlinger]

This is what they said in the first years of digital calculators; that students must first understand math the traditional way before they can be allowed to "cheat" with an automated device. So much for that theory; now it is mandatory for students to buy their own calculators. My take is the opposite; start right off the bat with a tablet because it's imperative to become familiar with what you will be using for the rest of your life.

[ematecki]

it's imperative to become familiar with what you will be using for the rest of your life.

Let's shorten that time span to the next five years :)

[Paul Fierlinger]

You mean that has now become the average lifespan of an animator?

[ematecki]

Of a new technology...
In five years tablets will be so has-been, just like netbooks where the craze five years ago and have almost disappeared nowadays.

[Elodie]

If I were a teacher I'd require drawing on paper first, and still besides drawing on a Cintiq.

In case of Gobelins students, this is not useful. Gobelins students had already spent between 3 and 8 years in other animation schools. They already know how to animate on paper.

By the way, I'm finally not sure this is that great to know "old" way to proceed. I studied animation and know how boring it is to line test your animations or create "rulers" to pan backgrounds and characters at the same time. It is a little like if before driving a car, we had to know how to ride a horse. But what is the most important ? Reaching the point B from point A the fastest you can or say "I know how to ride horses" ?

This is nice to know how animation could be complex before... but finally, I would have preferred to animate 10 different bouncing balls instead of animate just 1 bouncing ball and lose my time in line tests.

If people animate on paper, it has to be "by choice", because they prefer that... not in order to say "hey, my way to animate is harder than yours, so I know better than you what animation is".

[slowtiger]

Please note that I explicitely said "drawing" on paper, not "animating". That's a difference, and much different skills. Still I defend my point that some solid drawing skills in several techniques are a good foundation to learning to animate.

[Elodie]

Please note that I explicitely said "drawing" on paper, not "animating".

The original question of Sewie was about animation on paper

[idragosani]

Of a new technology...
In five years tablets will be so has-been, just like netbooks where the craze five years ago and have almost disappeared nowadays.

Why do you think drawing tablets (and similar) will be gone in 5 years? They've been around already for much longer than 5 years

[Elodie]

In the future, we will have electronic elements in our head and so, we could draw instantaneously on computer from our imagination

[ematecki]

Of a new technology...
In five years tablets will be so has-been, just like netbooks where the craze five years ago and have almost disappeared nowadays.

Why do you think drawing tablets (and similar) will be gone in 5 years? They've been around already for much longer than 5 years

Uh oh, i though about android tablets, not wacom tablets, oops.

[Elodie]

Gobelins movies made with TVPaint











2 other movies were also made with TVPaint (dixit Fabrice), but as we are not in the credits, I don't list them