Preliminary Thinking (Before you Draw)

Notes on Animation from the brain of Ollie Johnston
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1. What is the purpose of your scene in the picture?

2. What is the emotion of your scene?

3. What is the rhythm of your scene?

4. What is the focus? That is where do you want the audience to look, the character, 2 characters, or 3 characters?

5. Does your scene have hook-ups to the scenes before and after? (Hook-up for
velocity as well as position)

6. Can you pose your scene on eights for approval?

7. Can you visualize the scene in your head?

8. Can you act out the scene with your own body? What does it feel like?

9. Have you talked your idea over with the director?

10. Have you understood your layout?

11. Can you hear the highs and lows in your dialog? Have you diagramed it?

12. Do you have a cassette of the dialog?

13. Have you timed your scene with a stop watch or metronome and noted the results on your x-sheet?

14. Have you thumbnailed your action?

15. Is your action within the 1:85 cut-off?

16. Can you find a similar scene (action) in the film library? Please don’t rediscover the wheel.

17. Do you have model sheets for the character?

18. Inform the assistant director of the pick up. And put scene chip on the board with your name on it.

19. Does your scene require camera mechanics?

20. Is your action too complex? How simple can you make it?

21. Do you have a daily routine (study) for improving your skill level?