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Don Bluth's Animation Academy


Character Clean Up


CLEAN UP
The Character Animator concentrates on the action and acting in a scene, drawing loosely and fluidly, but without considerable regard for pencil line quality or subtleties of shapes and volume continuity. It is the Clean-Up Department that "cleans-up" the Animator's rough sketches, assuring that the same character drawn by twenty different animators will look like the product of a single hand, and that the series of drawings will maintain consistent line quality and volumes. The clean-up drawing should be completely ready for a final production scan to be painted in a designated color scheme, so the Clean-Up Artist must be sure that each area of the drawing is clearly and sharply defined. Above all, it is the job of the Clean-Up Artist to remain faithful to the subtleties of timing and action that the Animator has set forth.
INTRODUCTION TO CHARACTER CLEAN-UP
The Clean-Up Department finalizes, or "cleans-up", the Animator's rough drawings, making sure that the characters are drawn accurately and maintaining consistency of design, style, and line quality. The department is broken down into two parts, "Key Clean-Up" and "Character Clean-Up".

Key Clean-Up refers to the artists who begin the clean-up of an animation scene. They take the Animator's rough extreme, or "key", action drawings in order to establish the clean up design and style for the entire scene.

The Character Clean-Up Artists use Key Clean-Up's extreme drawings as guidelines to complete the remainder of the drawings in the series illustrating the action. These are referred to as "break down" and "inbetween" drawings, meaning the drawings that "break down" the action more narrowly than the extremes, and the drawings that complete the frame-by-frame action, that come "in between" those breakdown drawings.

Members of both levels of the department must understand the fundamentals of line quality, design, structure and animation. A Clean-Up Artist who doesn't understand the principles of animation employed when the Animator created the scene is bound to render an injustice to the work. As a result, much of the

training of a Clean -Up Artist overlaps with animation training.

There are a great may skills that the Clean-Up Artist must hone. They must remain faithful to the Animator (who leaves notes and timing charts to instruct the Clean-Up Artist), the character model sheets designed at the beginning of the picture, and the color models created for the characters (it is the job of Clean-Up to ensure that all separate color areas are fully enclosed and consistent for Cel Painting [now Digital Ink and Paint]). The Clean-Up Artist must be an excellent draftsman, with an ability to combine an knowledge of line density, width, and taper along with anatomy construction, volume and mass, to create an appealing and consistent series of drawings.

The Key Clean-Up Artists must be experts in all of the above, and are often chosen from the ranks of the Clean-Up Inbetweeners. Pariticularly in the context of Don Bluth Films, attention to detail and quality is so demanding that experienced professionals from other studios often must begin by intbetweening or breaking down scenes before moving into Key Clean-Up.

CLEAN-UP INBTWEENER

What is Clean-Up Inbetweening and what must an artist be able to do to qualify?

THE ACTUAL "CLEAN-UP"

First of all the artist must be able to make a clean, sharp line and also "clean-up" a messy one.

Cleaned up line

An Artist must also be able to do this without changing the shape of the line or losing any of the animation. This means they have a basic understanding of movement and animation.

THE ACTUAL INBETWEENING

The artist must be able to see a shape between two extreme shapes and be able to regain all construction and flow of animation.

Cleaned up inbetween
PUTTING A CHARACTER ON MODEL
Put character on model

Every scene must be put "on model". Every artist is given a "model sheet" and should be able to see what has been changed on the character. The model sheet is a contruction guide for each character depicting the character in different poses and angles. The Clean-Up Artist must study and practice the model sheets to be able to draw the characters precisely in each scene. Putting a scene "on model" basically means changing the character drawings to look exactly like those on model sheet, without changing any of the animation.

THE MODEL SHEET
Model Sheet

The model sheet must always be pinned up in front of the artist's work. Every character that is drawn must have a model sheet. When the drawing is finished, the character must look exactly like the model sheet design.

THE ANIMATED SCENE

The Clean-Up Inbetweener must finish a scene and package it for the next department.

Package the scene
  1. Make sure all drawings are exposed on the camera exposure sheet (x-sheet) and are written in lead pencil.
  2. Check all drawings against x-sheet
  3. Make sure all drawings are labeled with scene and sequence number. All drawings must have artist's name on upper right-hand corner.
  4. All drawings must have a number in lower right-hand corner, written with lead pencil.
  5. All drawings must have reinforcements.
  6. Blue sketch duplicate background must be in scene and labeled with scene and sequence number.
  7. All drawings must be neatly stacked and arranged in order shown above, lowest number on the bottom.
WORK FLOW IN AN ANIMATED FILM
How clean up inbetweening becomes part of the system.
EQUIPMENT
  1. PENCILS.
    • An assortment of black lead drawing pencils from HB to 2B.
    • Blue pencils to help construct the characters before laying in lead pencil lines.
  2. ERASERS.
    • Kneaded eraser.
      • This is the most essential eraser to use. It lifts off the graphite without damaging the paper.
    • White Staedler.
      • Useful for larger areas.
    • Try NOT to use the eraser on the end of your pencil. It is too harsh and damages the paper surface.
  3. ELECTRIC PENCIL SHARPENER.
  4. PEG HOLE REINFORCEMENTS. For strengthening the holes in the animation paper to keep registration jitter to a minimum.
  5. CARDBOARD SUPPORTS AND RUBBER BANDS. For packaging and protecting a scene.
  6. ANIMATING DISK AND PEG BAR. Has frosted glass for backlighting and two peg bars, top and bottom, with increments for pan movements.
  7. BACKLIGHT
    • For very tight inbetweens and double checking volume changes.
    • DO NOT use your backlight as a crutch. Learn to FLIP.
  8. LAMP.
    For illuminating drawing surface.
  9. GLOVES.
    Wairing a painting glove with the thumb and first two fingers cut off on your drawing hand to help keep your drawing clean. NEVER wipe your hand or finger across a drawing while shooting or handling a scene. The oil from your hands will smear the graphite.
  10. MODEL SHEETS.
    Model sheets are essential in accurately drawing a character. They will show paper size, construction and detail for any given character in the film from many different angles.
  11. XSHEET (camera exposure sheet).
    The x-sheet is the record of the scene and must remain with that scene. All important information and the names of people who work on the scene are recorded there.
DESK ORGANIZATION
Animation is an art form which, by its nature, propels the Artist into logistics problems. The number of drawings needed for an animated cartoon forces the Artist to use a number system to keep track of the many drawings and a sense of orderliness so as to be efficient as possible.

The inbetweener must organize the working space so a scene is always kept orderly. The drawings being inbetweened would be stacked in an inverted position so the low number would be on top with the blank side of paper up. This stack of drawings should be placed within easy reach in front of the Clean-Up Inbetweener. It's important that an Inbetweener develops a work system so as not to be delayed by unnecessary searching for tools and drawings. He can then concentrate his energy on the creative process of completing the inbetween drawing of an animated scene.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CLEANUP
  1. THOU SHALT NOT CONCETRATE ON A CLEAN LINE, BUT RATHER ON A GOOD DRAWING.
  2. THOU SHALT NOT CLEANUP ANY DRAWING UNTIL YOU HAVE ROLLED IT WITH THE PRECEDING DRAWINGS AND THE DRAWING FOLLOWING IT.
  3. THOU SHALT NOT WASTE ONE LINE. EVERY LINE MUST ENHANCE THE POSE, MOOD, ACTION, OR CHARACTER.
  4. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER IMAGES BEFORE YOU BUT THE BEST. YOUR TASK IS TO GET THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE IMAGE ONTO THE SCREEN.
  5. THOU SHALT NOT OVEREXPLAIN.
  6. THOU SHALT TREAT EACH CHARACTER AS A MASS, MOVING IN SPACE, AND INFLUENCED BY GRAVITY.
  7. THOU SHALT LEAN ON THOSE WHO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU ARE LACKING.
  8. THOU SHALT NOT LEARN THINGS TO CRYSTALLIZE KNOWLEDGE BUT SHALT LEARN PRINCIPLES TO APPLY CREATIVELY.
  9. THOU SHALT THINK VOLUME.
  10. THOU SHALT BE CAREFUL BUT NOT TIMID.

THIS MEANS THOU!
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