This subject has been a much heated discussion amongst animation professionals and students. The use of live action reference is always the ten ton elephant in the room. . We will dive deeper into that side of our addiction when the shot progression post unfolds in the near future.
The focus of this post will be on the need to go beyond the ref and craft something unique. The most common problem we see occurs in both students and pros. The animators tend to rotto the motion onto their respective character, not analysing the motion and the mechanics. In short, it bares a resemblance to the 2D method of rotoscoping. Both result in what we like to call “Carbon Copy Animation”. Its motion that ends up looking soft and, unless the character is similar in proportions and build, could give the feeling of a human in some kind of suit or costume.
The focus of this post will be on the need to go beyond the ref and craft something unique. The most common problem we see occurs in both students and pros. The animators tend to rotto the motion onto their respective character, not analysing the motion and the mechanics. In short, it bares a resemblance to the 2D method of rotoscoping. Both result in what we like to call “Carbon Copy Animation”. Its motion that ends up looking soft and, unless the character is similar in proportions and build, could give the feeling of a human in some kind of suit or costume.
"Carbon Copy" vs Pushed Pose