No. 180, A Little Applause for Myself

A Lady Clapping Her Palms

As I’ve acknowledged earlier than, animation cycle is tough to get proper.  Why? As a result of, because it repeats and repeats and repeats, if there’s something in any respect flawed about it, that can be seen.  And it will not solely be seen by your fellow animators; will probably be seen by EVERYBODY.


“Everyone” will not be capable of say why it’s flawed, in fact, however they are going to see it and be distracted and unconvinced by it, and when that occurs it takes one thing away from the phantasm you might have constructed. You’ll be able to’t let that occur.


I’ve one other scene right here with the 2 TSA-type safety guards, a person and a lady, whom chances are you’ll bear in mind from posts 174, 175 and 176.  This can be a ultimate shot for them. The state of affairs is that when the Previous Man succeeds in getting his trunk up onto the desk with the X-ray conveyor, many individuals who’ve been watching get away into spontaneous applause.


Within the scene right here, we reduce to see that one of the crucial enthusiastic in her clapping is the girl guard who had been so suspicious of the Previous Man earlier.  Smiling, she seems to be over at her accomplice whereas persevering with to clap.


Right here is the storyboard panel for Scene 5-56.

However I’ve had a surprisingly exhausting time getting the clapping cycle proper. For as soon as, Dick Williams recommendation was not a assist.  He discusses clapping fingers on pages 242 and 243 of his guide (The Animator’s Survival Package), however it’s a hammer-and-anvil type of clapping, the place one hand holds more-or-less nonetheless whereas the opposite hand does a lot of the motion. 

What I’ve here’s a mild type of applause clapping, like within the gallery of a golf championship, with each fingers transferring about equally. Additionally it must be famous that the clapping is a sort of secondary motion, with the first motion being the girl’s head as she turns to smile on the man, so the clapping should not distract from that.

Anyway, after three tries and even resorting to creating reference footage of myself clapping–something I attempt to keep away from doing–I lastly obtained consequence.


First, listed here are all of the character layers collectively.

Composite of three layers: 1) the person plus the girl’s physique, 2) the girl’s head, and three) clapping fingers and arms.

Now the clapping cycle, which continues all through the scene till fadeout.