Have you ever wondered how a static storyboard bursts into life and transforms into a vibrant animated scene? For Toronto animator Fabio Gioffre, it’s a blend of passion, precision, and an intuitive workflow.
Fabio’s journey in animation has led him to work for a number of animation studios and projects, like “Gary and His Demons,” “F Is for Family” and “Totally Spies.” Working in the Industry for over 4 years, he has learned a few useful tips along the way.
In his latest video, we get a chance to watch Fabio’s full animation process as he goes through planning, blocking and animating a full scene. Watch the video, and check out the interview we did with him about his experience using the Wacom Movink as well, both below.
The importance of Blocking:
The blocking phase is the backbone of good animation. Just like a house cannot stand without a strong base, an animation scene can crumble if the blocking stage is rushed. Blocking establishes the foundation for the main key poses and the rest of the animation.
Posing a character for cutout animation is especially important, because rigs have limitations and if you don’t plan for them at the beginning, they can really eat up your time and cause some major headaches down the line. Much like a sculptor sculpting clay, Fabio works in different passes, refining the pose during each step.
Drawovers and Refining:
A main complaint about cutout animation is that it can sometime look stiff and lack the fluidity of a handdrawn pose. This is where drawovers can be useful. By literally doing a mini guesture drawing over your rig, you can block out the pose and still keep that fluidiy and dynamic feel. Then you can match the rig’s deformers to your drawovers when its time to clean up the pose. Rigs are extremley complex and it really helps to have a guide when it comes to keeping the correct proportions, especially for a more dynamic pose.
Final Touches
Its really important to make sure that the key poses are perfect before you move on to adding the inbetweens. Making sure all of the lines match up will really reduce the amount of rig ‘breakage’ that happens during the animation stage.
Interview with Fabio on using the Wacom Movink for animation with ToonBoom software, as well as tips and tricks for aspiring animators
Beyond his tips on blocking, we spoke to Fabio about the other parts of animation, and how he liked using the Wacom Movink with ToonBoom software to do his work.
Q: Is it difficult to keep track of all the different parts of a complex cutout rig?
A: Not so much anymore, but that comes with getting more comfortable using cutout rigs. The main challenge is to not lose control over your rig. I like to break things down into smaller steps so it doesn’t get so overwhelming. For example, I like to do my first pass without touching any deformers. This helps me keep track of volumes and pivot points. Then I like to go in with a drawover and use that as a guide to match my deformers to the pose I want. This is a basic scene, but I use this process for even complex poses.
Q: How did it feel drawing on the Movink’s smaller screen?
A: I am used to smaller screens, so it wasn’t that hard of an adjustment. The border around the tablet is also really small so they definitely fit as much screen space as possible. I guess someone coming from a Cintiq 22 or bigger may struggle a little, but I think after a few times using the Movink, they will adjust pretty easily.
Q: Do you think its important for animators to do life/guesture drawing practise?
A: Ya, I definitely do, and I am guilty of not practising as much as I should. I think it just comes down to saving time when you have that library of knowledge built up in your head. For example, you intuitively know how an arm looks in perspective instead of always having to look up reference. But ya, its hard to find the time, especially when you are working full time, so I just do the best I can.
Q: What features on the Wacom Movink helped with your blocking process the most?
A: The pen felt really nice in my hand an on the screen. It was really responsive, so it made it easier to make those nice confident guesture lines to capture the movement that I wanted. I also ended up using the touchscreen commands more than I thought I would. It took awhile to get used to but I liked having all my hotkeys on one screen. After a few hours I really was able to customize a setup that I liked. At this stage, the last thing I want to do, is to be constantly flipping back and forth between screens, so ya… it was really great.
Q: What are some things you look for before you consider a key pose finished?
A: The main thing is if the poses match the storyboards. You can adjust little things here and there, but they have to be communicating the original intention of the boards. In terms of technical stuff for the rigs, I try and make sure that the poses tween nicely between each other and take a note if anything is flipping or flying out of place. Also I check to see that all the lines are connecting on the rig. Once you start tweening, things can start to shift around so I try and keep everything as perfect as I can during the early stages. Toonboom can fill in the inbetween but it does a way better job when the poses are nice and cleaned up.
Q: How did you like working with the touch screen on the Movink?
A: I was pleasantly surprised. Especially by how good it was at recognizing the palm of my hand, so I didn’t get alot of rogue brush strokes or dots. Even when I draw on my iPad, I usually get alot of dots from where I am pinching the screen or sliding my hand over the screen. The one thing I wish the Movink had were a few more gestures. I think there were only a couple and they didn’t feel as natural as the ones in procreate. So maybe that is something Wacom can work on in the future, but overall it was a pretty great experience.
In the Tv industry, animators have to balance speed and quality and the only way to do that is to develop a workflow that works for you. Trusting in the process can really help you when you come up with to a difficult shot that you have never done before.
Looking for more tips to animate like a pro?
Check out the sequel to the above video here:
About the artist
Fabio Gioffre is a Toronto-based animator who has been working in the industry for over four years. On his YouTube channel, he teaches beginners the basics of cutout animation, rigging and using ToonBoom software.
Connect with Fabio on YouTube, Instagram, or at his website.
