誰非過客‧花是主人: 【AM T&T】夢工廠動畫師Mike Stern談他的工作流程 (下)

Get Feedback
徵詢意見回饋

After I am happy with my blocking, I usually take one or more of these steps before moving into a first pass.
當我對自己的blocking成果感到滿意之後，我通常還會在真正過關前，再採取以下幾項步驟：

1) Show my peers. I will send out my work to other animators working on the film to get their opinions and check to see if the idea is reading clearly.
1)給我的同事看看：我會把我做好的動畫給為同一部影片工作的動畫師看，然後搜集他們的意見，看看我意圖在動畫中傳達的訊息是否清楚。

2) Show the animation supervisor. I always show my blocking to the animation supervisor to get feedback before showing the directors.
2)拿給動畫指導看：我總是先把我的blocking給動畫指導看過之後，才會拿給導演看。

3) Show the director(s). Once I incorporate any blocking notes from the animation supervisor, I put my work up in front of the directors.
3)拿給導演看：一旦我整合好動畫指導的意見，修改過blocking之後，我就會把我的作品拿給導演看。

I present my idea through my blocking and see if it is in line with their objectives for the shot.
我透過blocking呈現我對這顆鏡頭的概念與創意，然後看看它是否與這部作品的目標相符。

First Pass
第一關

If I get a buy-off on my blocking, or even if I receive some minor adjustments, I take my animation into a first pass.
假如導演滿意我的blocking，或是只有些小地方需要調整，那我就會開始進入第一關的動畫。

During the first pass my checklist is as follows:
以下是第一關的檢查清單：

1) Switch my curves over to a version of spline and preview the animation.
1)將動畫曲線轉成曲線線性(spline)，然後播放觀察。

2) Push full poses around to work out the timing.
2)把全身姿勢(full pose)的時間位置做調整，找出最佳的時間點。

3) Adjust full poses to work in some more overlap and try to solidify the mechanics as much as possible.
3)調整全身姿勢，讓身體各部位再多一點的重疊動作(overlap)，並試著讓身體力學愈穩固愈好。

4) Tie down the curves. At this point I take a look under the hood and see how the curves are looking. I clean up the flow of the curves and any obvious hitches to ease the process of cleaning up the animation.

4)整理動畫曲線。這時候我會深入地去瞭解動畫曲線給人什麼樣的觀感。我會整理曲線的流線性，並且清除任何會造成曲線不順的起伏。

5) Keep my keys organized. At this point, I am still trying to keep my keys clean and aligned on full frames. Since the directors have only seen the shot once there is still a chance that I may get some feedback that will require me to rework parts of the animation. If I keep the shot clean, I can easily make those adjustments.
5)保持key條理分明。這時候我會持續讓整段動畫的key看起來乾淨整齊。由於導演只看過這段動畫一次，所以仍然有可能需要修改或做部分調整。假如我能讓我的key保持乾淨，到時我就很好做調整。

6) Face pass. I take a pass on the face at this point. I add the phonemes for my lip sync and start thinking about how the expressions will translate from one to the next.
6)表情動畫。我會在這個階段繼續加強表情動畫的部分。在口形動畫(lip sync)中，我會加入口音的區別(phonemes)，並試著思考，從一個表情到下一個表情之間該如何做變化。

Get More Feedback
更多的意見回饋

Once again, when I have taken a first pass across my shot, I show it to the animation supervisor. Once I get the go ahead, I move the shot into polishing.
再一次，一但我的動畫通過第一關，我就會把它拿給動畫指導看，當我知道可以繼續往下進行時，我就會開始進行潤飾(polish)的動作。

Checklist for polishing my shot:
以下是潤飾鏡頭的檢查清單：

So now that I have buy-off on the idea, I can feel comfortable taking my shot past the point of no return. I will use a series of different animation techniques, including layering and some straight ahead, to get the physicality working in my shot.
現在我的點子已經被導演認可，所以我終於可以輕鬆的通過可能被退件來來回回的折返點，接著我會運用各種動畫技巧，包括一些層次添加(layering)、一些一氣呵成(straight ahead)，讓肢體可以在我的動畫中確實發揮作用。

During the polishing phase I start to work heavily with curves. To make things more focused I crop my animation timeline and focus on 50-100 frames of work.
潤飾的階段，我會花很大的功夫在調整動畫曲線。為了讓我能更集中注意力，我會設定讓我的時間軸短一點，像是50-100個影格就一個工作段落。

I use tons of checklists when polishing a shot. The all-encompassing checklist is as follows:

潤飾動畫時我會運用大量的檢查項目。

以下就是我無所不包的檢查清單：

1) Find the driving force in the shot. In most cases, it is the center of gravity at the root of the character. I make sure to get the root movement working well because everything else depends on it.
1)找出整段動畫的驅動力量。大多數情況下，驅動力量都是在角色的root，也就是身體的重心所在。因為身體的其他部分全都依賴著root動作，所以我會再三確認角色root動作是否正確良好。

2) Work from the root up and the head down. Once the root is working properly, I work my way up the torso into the chest, shoulders, neck, and then the head. I make sure that any movement on the root follows through these joints. If there are certain accents and inflections I want to hit with the head, I will animate those directly on the head, and make sure that movements are either led or followed by the rest of the torso.
2)由root向上，由頭向下。當root的動作沒問題之後，我就會開始朝上調整，從軀幹(torso)到胸部(chest)、肩膀、脖子，最後才是頭部。我會確保由root引導的任何動作都是按著這樣的關節順序來完成。但是如果聲音有特別的重音或是抑揚頓挫需要用頭部來加強，我會直接讓頭做動作，然後確保這樣的頭部動作有跟隨或是引導著身體其他部位。

3) The limbs. When I have the torso of the characters working correctly, I focus on the limbs. Sometimes the adjustments that I make to the torso can disrupt the original animation on the arms and legs. At this point, I feel comfortable blowing that old animation away and approaching the limbs straight ahead.
3)四肢。當角色軀幹的動態正確無誤時，我才會開始專注四肢的動態。因此有時會發生這種情況，當我調整好軀幹的動作時，卻破壞了原本四肢的動作，這時我會毫不猶豫地放棄之前的動作，然後直接按著新的動作重做設計。

4) Additional Layering. At this point I should have the majority of the movement working properly. I go back through and do some additional layering to make the movement feel organic. I do this by comparing curves and offsetting. For human characters I like to take a layering pass on the shoulders and hips. For non-human characters this is where I consider overlapping on tails and wings etc.
4)添加層次。到這一步驟時，我應該已經把大部分動作都做好了。這時我會再回頭去添加層次，讓動作變得更自然。我的作法是比較動畫曲線然後移動它們。人形的角色，我偏好在肩膀與屁股的地方添加層次，假如是非人形的角色，我則會著重在像是尾巴或是翅膀的重疊動作(overlapping)。

5) Facial animation. I take a pass and really focus just on the face. I get into the eyes to make sure that the eyelines are correct. I like to get very specific about the eye movements by using linear curves and editing my darts down to the frame. Once the darts are working, I add lid movement to support them. I plus the shapes in the lip sync and make sure that the rest of the face is supporting the lip sync movement. I tend to treat the face as a unit. When the mouth opens and closes with the sync, I make sure that the cheeks, lids and brows are all affected. When I focus on the lip sync and facial movement, I also include the head in this equation. I add more texture to the movement of the head to fully support the beats in the sync.
5)臉部動畫。我會仔細觀察眼睛，然後確保視線正確。我還喜歡用直線性(linear)的動畫曲線來讓眼珠的動作非常明確，一張(frame)就會完成暼眼，而且當我做暼眼動作時，我還會加上眼皮的變化來加強。這個階段我還會加入更多新的口形，但同時也要確保整張臉的表情有符合添加的口形變化。我傾向把臉部視為獨立部位。當嘴巴隨著口形開關時，我會確認臉頰、眼皮、眉毛都被牽動。當我把注意力放在加強口形和表情變化時，我也不會忘了連帶調整頭部動作，它們對我來說都很重要，因為我替頭部動作添加如此多的韻味，無非是為了加強口形動畫的整體節奏感。

6) Details. At this point, I should have the majority of my animation working, but I still make sure to take another pass for the things that take a little more love, such as areas of contact or IK switching. Sometimes I frame through my broad movements and see if I can add some scaling to enhance the way things transition.

6)細節。這時候我的主要動作應該都完成了，但我還是必須多一個步驟，確保有些細節能得到更多的關愛眼神，像是：身體與其他物件接觸的部位，或是IKFK的切換。有時候我會逐格觀看整個大略動作，然後觀察我是否能再加一些縮放在物件的變化之中。

That was the big list. Now I start to use some smaller lists.
以上是我的大方向清單。現在我會開始用一些更細節的檢查項目。

I play my animation back and list out the things that still need more attention. There are usually a couple of things that are screaming pretty loud, so I hit those first. I continue to watch the animation, make a list of things to fix, fix them, and then repeat the process.
我重播一次我完成的動畫，然後記下我仍需要注意的地方。這些通常都是特別明顯的缺點，所以我會優先解決它們。接著我會再看一次，然後再記下需要修改的地方，再一次修正它們，然後重複一次又一次。

Pushing for final
邁向終點

Now that I have taken all of my passes on the animation, it's time to show for final. Once again, I hit a checklist to make sure that I have covered all of the bases:
現在我已經完成自己設定好檢查作品的所有步驟，該是把它收尾的時候。再一次，我重新審視一次檢查清單，確保我照顧到所有需要注意的基礎要素。

1) Is there anything that stands out as unbelievable or possibly distracting from the point of the shot?
1)有任何東西偏離真實嗎？讓鏡頭裡發生的事情變得不可信，或者會讓觀眾分心去注意是否真實？

2) Does it still have all of the ideas from the approved blocking?
2)我現在完成的動畫有涵蓋我blocking時所有的點子想法嗎？

3) Is the physicality pushed far enough?
3)我有把肢體發揮的淋漓盡致嗎？

4) Is there enough texture in the movement?
4)我的表演韻味足夠嗎？

5) Am I happy with it?
5)我看完覺得開心嗎？

Now it’s time to show for final. I run it by the animation supervisor and then put it in front of the directors.

邁向終點的時候到了。我會向動畫指導呈現我的作品，然後在導演面前展示它。

Ship it
交接工作

Alright, I got the final call in dailies. Nice. There is just one more list I need to run through, and then this shot is headed down the pipeline.
好吧，其實我每天都會接到必須交件的通知。很好，這樣一來我就只需要再多做一件事，然後這個鏡頭就會進到下一個製作階段。

1) Run and check all the simulations. If the character has hair or a tail or if I am using any type of simulation, I want to make sure that it has been run with the latest animation and is looking good.
1)播放並檢查所有的動力學模擬(simulation)。假如腳色有頭髮、尾巴或是任何我需要模擬的物件，我會確保他們配合的是我最新修改的動畫，而且可以正常運作。

2) Check the render. I run a full resolution render of my shot on the render farm to make sure that everything looks right. Sometimes environmental elements load differently in the animation software than they do on the render farm.
2)檢查算圖。我會透過算圖農場(render farm)算一張我這顆鏡頭全尺寸的圖，並且確保所有東西看起來正常。有時候，環境元素(environmental elements)在專門做動畫的軟體時看起來未必與最後算出來的東西一致。

3) Save and check in all of the files. I check all of the files into the server so that they can move on down the pipeline.
3)存檔並檢查檔案裡所有的資料。我會檢查伺服器上有所有的檔案，確保它們順利地往下一個製作階段。

4) Let 'em know. Once everything is in the right place, I let the production staff know that the shot is ready to be sent on so that the next artist can start their work as soon as possible.
4)昭告天下。一旦所有東西都到位，我會讓製作團隊知道這個鏡頭已經準備好移交了，請下一階段的動畫師也能儘快接手。

There you have it. These are some of the lists that I follow when working on a shot. By keeping these things in mind, I am able to keep my workflow organized and make sure that I am delivering my best animation in each shot that I take.
大功告成！以上是我在製作動畫時會使用的檢查清單。將這些原則謹記在心，得以讓我的工作流程更有條理，如此一來，我才能在每一部的作品中，交出我能力所及最盡善盡美的動畫。