Don Bluth's Animation Academy

DOCUMENTING THE SCENE

THE EXPOSURE SHEET

GETTING IT DOWN

1. Note the order of the camera instruction columns. This is correct. You need not list them all - only the axes that are moving, but list those according to this order: T.P., B.P., AUX PEGS, and ROT. All bed and camera moves are currently performed in the computer, but this gives the viewer the intention of the planning of the scene.
2. The levels of animation are listed in columns from bottom-most level to topmost level as you read from left to right. The BG (background) is always on the bottom, and has a number which should be written on the first line of the column. The names of the levels are written atop each column, and letter symbols are used before the numbers to distinguish the levels.

   DON'T EXPOSE YOUR ANIMATION IN ANY OLD COLUMN.

   There used to be only four levels allowed for a single camera pass. Any more cels, and the images would develop a bluish haze. The advent of digital scanning and compositing allows for an unlimited number of levels that can be included in a scene. Refer to the Blue Book to see what other levels will be in the scene, and determine in which column your level will probably be in when all is said and done. You can eliminate confusion and the necessity to copy over the columns into their proper positions later on.
3. Note, the "fielding block" atop the camera section. It contains three bits of information: set-up, fielding, and movement (if any). Previously, I explained the difference between set-up and fielding. A 16F¢ scene must say also that is is a 16F set-up. A 12F scene, almost without exception, should be written as such:
   
   This means the camera bed is set up for 16 field peg bar spacing, but the camera is fielded into 12-field, 4 fields South, but none East or West.

   A vertical tilt pan should look like this:
   
   This indicates an 11 1/2F¢ fielding on a 16 field set up, at 90 degrees counterclockwise tilt.

   Lastly, if there is a movement in the scene, the type of move and final position should also be listed in the fielding box.

   F = field
   N = north
   S = south
   E = east
   W = west
   ROT = rotation
   CW = clockwise
   CCW = counterclockwise
   ¢ = center
   T.P. = top pegs - can only move east and west.
   B.P. = bottom pegs - can only move east and west
   AUX PEGS = auxiliary pegs - move north, south, east and west.

   16¢ means 16-Field, centered in all directions. 8F/4N+2W means 8-Field, moved 4 north and 2 west.

4. Pan increments are meaningless to the cameraman unless there is a notation as to which peg hole he is to place at 5000 when he puts the background or overlay in the scene. "C" at 5000 written above the B.P. column lets him know this.
5. Changeovers - The pan bar on an animation disk is only 32 inches long. A background may be 100 inches long. Clearly, at some point, Mr. Camera will run out of pan bar and have to lift off his background to slide the bar back to its beginning. The background stays in exactly the same place. There will be no notice of this on film. Only, the peg holes of the background will "change over" to different pegs on the pan bar.
   Thus, if a pan starts clear at one end of the bar, at 6600 (where it is now at 3400), so that you can start the 32 inches all over again. In so doing, "C" will be lifted off 5000, and when the bar is slid back, peg hole "G" will end up at 5000.
   On the x-sheet, you would circle in RED the increment of the change-over (the numbers will suddenly jump from 3400 to 6600) and write in red beside it:

   CHANGE-OVER TO "G" AT 5000.

6. Fades and Cross-Dissolves - There is a proper notation for these. A fade is indicated in a free column in the camera section by a red "carrot", pointing toward the black end of the fade and opening toward full aperture.
   
   A cross-dissolve (x-dissolve) is indicated by a red "X" in the camera column, extending from dissolve start to finish, with the center of the "X" corresponding with the center of the dissolve.
   A x-dissolve scene requires additional footage to be exposed on the new x-sheet, which allows the ghost of the old scene to still be dissolving out of the new scene, even after its "count-footage" has expired.