But something’s happening here that makes me a little nervous, when it comes to the incredible legacy of special effects animation, as opposed to the field of character animation. It has become, through the years, common knowledge that to become a great character animator, it is absolutely essential to learn the classical approach to animating. The importance of timing, exaggeration, stretch and squash, strong poses, anticipation, follow through and acting with a solid center of gravity in order to make a character believable is a well understood concept in the animation world today. More and more studios looking for 3D animators emphasize the “classical animation” skill set, as well they should.

Today’s schools that offer 3D animation programs, generally devote a large portion of the early stages of their program to teaching a solid foundation of the classical hand-drawn approach to character animation. Those schools that don’t emphasize it enough, turn out young artists who may know how to move things around, and have a fantastic understanding of the software package they are using, but their character animation will inevitably lack pizzazz and vitality. Acting performances suffer horribly without solid posing, center of gravity and dynamic timing. Happily, the trend is toward a deeper appreciation of what animation is really all about. Not just learning software, but a deeper knowledge of how things work.

The effects department dubbed The Lion King the “Tone King” as every single character in every single scene had tonal sculpting added via painstakingly hand-drawn mattes, whether necessary or not. © The Walt Disney Co.

But in the world of special effects, is this same emphasis being applied? I fear not. The field of visual effects, particularly in modern day education, has become almost entirely technical in nature. The emphasis is on software and technology, and the science behind it all, which is all good and fine, but hardly a mention is ever made of drawing, or the incredible history behind the evolution of effects animation. But I know for a fact, that the best visual effects animation we see in the industry today, are being created by artists with a solid background knowledge and curiosity about how things work!

I am not by any means not acknowledging the folks who are creating utterly fantastic special effects in the industry today. They are many, and there are many too, who approach it purely from a very technical aspect, but who are highly dedicated to understanding the physics behind things like fluid dynamics, fire, smoke, atmospherics, etc. and making them look and feel as good as possible.

But I am still seeing an enormous lack of dynamic range in the vast majority of “high-end” special effects I am seeing at the movie theater these days. Scientifically studying how these elements work in reality is great, but what of the classical principles of animation that we refer to when discussing character animation? Exaggeration? Posing? Dynamic timing? I am seeing more and more special effects animation that does not even begin to take advantage of the magical tricks in the classical animator’s toolbox. All too often the timing is constant and flat, lacking completely in any exaggeration.

Another enormously important aspect, which is sorely missing a great deal of the time, is the importance of the design principles that have been handed down to us through the ages by the original masters of the art of effects animation — innovators like Ugo D’orsi, Cy Young, Jack Boyd, Josh Meador, and Dan McManus of the early Disney studios effects departments. These artists understood that the art of animation frees us to almost improve on nature, by pushing the dynamics of physics and design to their limits. Exaggerating the already magical elements of nature, they were able to take it a big step farther, exploding a vast array of effects visuals on the movie screen in Fantasia so long ago, with a mastery of the art form that hasn’t been touched since.

The tools we have at our disposal today are utterly staggering. We can literally create anything on the screen today, and our imaginations are the only limitation. But it is way too easy to rely on these tools to do far too much of the work for us. We can create impressive eye candy without studying hard and learning from the past masters, and so more and more young artists today fail to do so. Particle effects simulations are fantastic to look at, even if you don’t know how to exaggerate the design, and dynamic timing. But we are ripping ourselves off, if we do not pay homage to, and learn from, the folks who understood it best of all, long before most of us were born. Students flooding our schools often want to learn how to push the magic sexy effects button on their computers, and few of them are being made aware of the infinite world of magic that they should be delving into in the natural world around them, and the impressive legacy left to us by the original great effects animators of the '30s and '40s.

Joseph Gilland.

It’s high time we remind ourselves in the animation industry today that, like classical animation or classical music, special effects animation as well, has a rich and exciting classical history. And that studying, observing and learning from that historical legacy, can provide a superior basis for a solid foundation to build on, for anyone who wants to be a part of the business of animating magic!

We owe it to each other, the viewing public (who may not notice the difference, but still deserve the best we can give them) and, in particular, the students of visual effects who want to do the best they can, but are not being made aware of the real tools available to them, beyond the pale of the cool glow of their computer screens.

In his 30-year animation career, Joseph Gilland has worked with studios as diverse Walt Disney Feature Animation and the National Film Board of Canada. He has worked on all styles of animation, experimental films, television series, commercials, theatrical feature films, stop motion, title sequences, live-action films and documentaries. He is currently the head of the classical and digital character animation programs at the Vancouver Film School, and writing a passionate book about the art of animation.