This video will be about camera work. And I know some of you already did camera work at the beginning of the planning stage. However, I do want to go over some basic ideas of camera work and how to make it look good for those who already have camera work and those who didn’t do camera work at during the planning process.
It’s important to note that while camera work is helpful for the planning process, it’s not necessary to figure out before animating. This is a unique quality of 3D animation. 2D animation in comparison requires the viewing angle of the characters to be figured out before even drawing the first frame.
Now, regardless of whether or not you did camera work already, I’d love to go over a few camera tips that can help with clarity. First and foremost, you’ll want to follow the 180 degree rule as best you can. For those who don’t know what that is. The basic idea is that you want to make sure the character’s relative positions and the directions they’re looking in relative to the camera is consistent with both the worldview and each shot.
If there are any changes in the direction of characters facing, this should be shown visually before the switch. For example, with Tabi and Abi running in the same direction it would be weird if we filmed Tabi from this side so she faces screen right, but then cut to Abi being filmed from the other side so she faces screen left. This seems to imply that they’re running at each other, which is not consistent with the world view. To fix this we can simply bring the camera to the same side that Tabi had hers on and film Abi from there so she’s also facing screen right. Now it’s important to note that if Abi actually does change the direction she’s looking in, where she is looking screen left, then we need to show that. If we cut directly to it, it will seem like we broke the 180 degree rule.
Why is it called the 180 degree rule? Well, because if you draw a line between the two characters, you’re meant to stay on one side of that line, giving you a range of up to 180 degrees. Furthermore, you should always prioritize continuity and clarity. Make sure that every action that is started has a finish that is shown on camera.
These things take priority over coolness or prettiness because if the audience doesn’t understand what’s going on, then any mood or theme you are trying to convey with the camera work will be lost in their confusion. As such, the next thing you should consider on top of that is what kind of mood you might want the audience to experience.
For example, we could make this animation feel very tense by keeping the camera low and dynamic, or we can make the chase feel very whimsical by keeping the camera high and zooming in with some funny sound effects. Decide what kind of mood you’re going for and make your decisions based on that while still keeping continuity and clarity in mind.
For me, my thought process goes as follows. The first shot is meant to establish the feeling of a chase sequence by making the audience feel like they’re trying to catch up to the characters. The next few shots are meant to show both the goal of the characters and their athleticism. I then focus on the spray can to tease what the characters will do next.
From there on my goal is to make the fight feel dynamic and interesting to watch. I’m excited to see what kind of cameras you guys come up with. In the next video, we’ll be going over the depth of field effect, which lets you pull your scene in and out of focus through the camera view.
