Preparation - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 176

worked. It always pays to ask of any movement: exactly what is the essence of that movement?
The answer is often neither the most obvious nor the most realistic. What part of the action do
we recognise as making that action what it is?
This piano problem might have been made easier through constant discussion with the
designer or art director, relaxing the reality of the piano. I do get, er, ratty, when design work
is confused with reproduction of historical artefacts, with no adaptation for the characters or
the styling. The adaptation of reality is a beauty of animation. In this case it might have been
more practical to have designed a mini grand piano, not an upright, so that Ratty's nose could
have projected over the keyboard. The keys could have been gently lengthened or Ratty
could have had a pair of longer stunt arms for the close-ups. Working with all members of
the team is essential. All prop designers must know what is expected of the props, and which
characters are going to be using them. Production meetings can save a lot of hassle. Often on a
production meeting it is dii cult to get all the members of the crew together at once, but such
meetings are absolutely invaluable.
Invariably, animated characters have unusual hands, traditionally missing a fourth i nger, and
a thumb that can't exert the necessary pressure to grasp things. Great thought has to go into
how a character can hold a prop. It helps if the props are light, as a puppet's arm will droop if
a prop is too heavy. Again, it's all about talking to the designers and being l exible with the
design.
Day in the life of an art director - Barbara Biddulph
Any number of job descriptions fi ts the role of art director/designer. Each industry, company or project
will have its own expectations of the role.
I work within a large animation studio in Manchester. Originally there were approximately twenty people
employed to create the stop-frame children's programmes. I joined as an illustrator to complement other
skills within the team. As the team was relatively small we were expected to cover tasks that we weren't
necessarily trained or had experience in. I found myself working more and more on the sets, using
my illustration techniques on 3D constructions. These tasks were quickly followed by designing sets,
overseeing their making, and dressing the sets to camera in the studios.
We now have several art directors in the company; each one comes from a different background. These
include theatre, model-making and set-making. All have some sort of art education, but none specifi cally
in art direction.
If you're not a team player you won't fi nd this job easy as it's all about working alongside others and
communicating. This includes accepting that you won't always be right, being able to listen to other
ideas, discussing the pros and cons of all the suggestions on the table and following through the
decisions made.
You have to work with speed and accuracy, use a huge variety of materials, communicate with lots of
different people and come in on budget and schedule.