Joseph Gilland.

This is a sneak preview of Joseph Gilland’s upcoming book: “Elemental Magic”: The Classical Art of Hand-Drawn Effects Animation, to be released early 2007. It is taken from chapter two, The Art of Drawing and Animating Special Effects.

Given the amount of visual effects that bombard us on movie screens around the world today, you would think there would be at least one book dedicated to the process of effects design and visual physics from a more “classical” hand-drawn approach. My greatest incentive for creating this book is the complete lack of such information currently available. Both animation professionals and students have no reference describing in detail the classical approach to drawing and thoroughly understanding special effects animation. With the incredible digital design and animation tools we now have at our disposal, countless books are being written on that topic, with their primary focus being put on understanding how to use these relatively new digital tools, and less emphasis is being put on understanding the actual phenomena which we are attempting to recreate.

More time is being spent teaching young artists how to manipulate complex computer graphics software, and less time is spent teaching them how to observe, how to see and intuit the incredible subtleties of nature’s splendor in order to best represent it as artists. This may make them more inclined to depend on a programmer’s version of the natural world rather getting their hands dirty. Programmers are coming up with some fantastic simulations and programs that scientifically mimic nature with staggering accuracy and detail, and you can be sure that the people who create these visual effects simulations are out there researching natural phenomenon in order to break it down (much as the original Disney effects artists did in the 1930s).

In my experience supervising digital artists over the last 10 years, I have consistently come across individuals who have developed a high level of design skills as well as a high degree of proficiency with their digital tools, but who haven’t developed the sense of feeling the physics of what they were trying to animate. During the course of their schooling, the steps of understanding natural phenomena through the practice of research, touch, feel, personal interaction, and drawing had been all but left out. This is true of both the digital visual effects animators and digital character animators entering the animation business today. The top CGI studios and directors are well aware that the study of character animation through traditional observation and drawing techniques is the best way to master the craft. I don’t think that visual effects animation is any different. Learning to see and feel through hand/eye coordination practice, observing, drawing, sculpting, animating by hand — all of these are invaluable if an effects artist wants to get to that mystical place where time, space, physics and motion become fully natural and intuitive.

Get out there and research your subject, get to know it inside and out, be like a method actor who throws himself into a demanding role: if you want to animate something well, become intimate with how it works and feels. Touch it, taste it (so long as it’s not toxic), draw it, photograph it, sculpt it, analyze it, but most of all observe it as much as humanly possible. Attention and observation is key! I have spent endless hours at the beach watching the ocean, letting it fill in and around my senses. If you are attentive, and receptive, you can let the visual information inform your subconscious simply by being there with your eyes open. Sketching and taking photographic reference is beneficial, but I cannot stress enough the value of simply letting the information in. Balance this relatively inactive practice with lots and lots of drawing. The hand/eye coordination is of the utmost importance, whether you end up drawing or using a mouse or tablet to draw digitally. Remember that no matter how well you master your drawing technique, if you can’t feel the effects you are trying to animate, they will not sing with life. An imagination that is full of life, must inform the well-trained drawing hand!

The practice of conducting experiments to see how things really work is one of the most fascinating aspects of understanding special effects animation. As the head of the visual effects department at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Florida, I took my effects crew on several very interesting field trips. On one such outing, we spent an afternoon drawing and cavorting at the beach, another occasion we went to Cape Canaveral to watch the space shuttle lift off. Sometimes the experiments and demonstrations were surreal (as evidenced by a fire chief who seemed to enjoy lighting things on fire a bit too much), and other times they were downright scary (as when the Disney theme park folks incinerated a giant cement bunker filled with expired fireworks). By far the most hilarious experiment was our department’s annual “Destructo Day,” where all manner of objects were smashed, blown up, or otherwise obliterated. Some of us drew pictures, some took still photography or video, and the rest simply watched. Not only were these entertaining team-building experiences, but I believe every one of us learned more than we ever could have by sitting in front of a drafting table or a computer.

While on assignment in Hawaii to do visual development research for the film Lilo & Stitch, it was my job to get out there and study the waves of the beaches, rocks and cliffs of the Hawaiian shoreline. I watched surfers for hours, and shot hours of videotape. I got in the water and felt the swells moving me, I got under the water and looked up to examine the way the sky, clouds, mountains and trees distorted through the surface. While I was playing in the water, our directors, art director, production designer and animators were observing the Hawaiian people, the villages, the mountains, and the forests through their respective media, i.e., drawings, paintings, photography and video. This was not frivolous spending on the part of Walt Disney animation studios, or some crazy junket contrived by artists chained to their tables too long (and wishing they were in, say, Hawaii). This was because the company knew full well that observation of your subject matter is paramount if you want to imbue your art with soul and integrity. In a nutshell: know your subject matter. Get out there and experience it, even if it’s just as far as your own back yard.