The 7 Workflows of Professional Animators

[@SirWade]

Which workflow do you usually use - or better yet, did these give you any ideas for what to try next? :) Let me know if I missed any workflows as well! :D

[@gargigolhar2886]

Do you have any suggestions and tips for aspiring to be 3D animators???? How much does a college degree really help to get a job at say, Disney or Dreamworks(for people who are from different countries) . I know they take people on the basis of the skills of the applying animators.

[@CoryDAnimates]

I use character sets on my rigs. It helps with blocking to splinning so i dont miss a channel to key.

[@AshT8524]

Other than straight ahead I have used all of them. I always end up making a mess when trying that 🤣

[@joshvibin1233]

Hey I have a question so I live in Texas and I don’t know any animation companies I can work for when I am older what do I do? Also love ur vids

[@ztoogemcducc6360]

As a beginner making my own reference helps me a lot. Maybe as a part 2 (or even a series) you could show animators that use specific workflows. Like the example you used with Venelope for sketch blocking. The animator who animated Gman's speech in Half Life Alyx uploaded a video on twitter of his reference he acted out and animated.

[@nekodificador]

The "extremes" workflow is exactly what I do for rotoscoping in VFX. I break the body/object into parts that are moving and then I animate each one following the extremes of their movement. Then I fill the gaps in between. Saves a lot of time and unnecessary keyframes. I love to see that extrapolated in your animation workflow. Hi fives from Spain. Your channel is pure gold man.

[@dannymorales787]

This is the same way Richard Williams used to Animate. That's how it was taught to me which stops you from wasting time. If you look at this video, it breaks it down for you. I believe this person is related to Richard Williams (RIP) but he breaks it down for you the same way his father did it for his animations. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmWUaZyDgt2Zopo

[@Holaaparty]

I'd say its the best method to work with references.

[@ankushgogna4628]

Hey Sir Wade, would like to confirm this to you that YES! It is 100% true that they DON'T teach us about these workflows in College/Universities.

[@mikymike2429]

Thanks. Got Full Sail getting active here... will continue with Udemy XD! (already owe DePrived* 100k).

[@melvilles.5257]

Not really, it really depends on the teacher (if they are still active or not, outdated, etc) My personal experience: I went to a physical school to learn animation and at the beginning the teacher was a mess, I learned almost nothing and then (luckily for me) they changed him for an animator director at some great animation studio in my local place and then everything went really well. He taught me how to have a better workflow and how to work better for animation in general. My experience went from bad to great just because of this. So in general, going to a physical school isn't bad, you just have to look for the right one with the right teachers.

[@dannymorales787]

@@melvilles.5257 Well said, I went to a CSU school where my professor worked in big studios and did movies for James Cameron, Peter Jackson, etc. as he worked at Sony for a good while and Canadian studios. He was a great professor who knew what he was talking about given the amount of films he had already worked in. The problem with my situation was that I was only giving Animation about 4 hrs a day given the other classes I had to complete which to me was a waste of time. Nevertheless I only accumulated $15k in debt for 2 years which I don't regret. I made plenty of friends, had the college experience and to this day I'm still taking courses online.

[@user-fo8lz6om7l]

That "it makes it very easy" part freaking KILLED me.

[@Zinijeroo]

@@mikymike2429I went to full sail 👀

[@DEdge2D]

Thank you SirWade, imagine going to a private college that say they will teach you animation 1st year basic 2d animation 2nd year advanced 2d animation + intro to 3d 3rd year 3d animation and internships But what really happens is each year the 2nd/3rd year lecturers jump ship because their getting paid peanuts and the college is scamming scholarship providers with ghost learners and pocketing all the money, all while not teaching you anything and leaving you with no accreditation, no skills and no idea how the industry works. I was depressed for years after this and am only now recovering from it

[@umbrella0148]

Yeah when I went to a private college tour I was so disappointed and it was ridiculous how they charge 50k a year.

[@dingle2987]

I had a friend go to a game design private school that got caught giving students unsubsidized student loans under the guise of scholarships and regular student loans.

[@umbrella0148]

@@dingle2987 yeah it really sucks but u know some colleges act more like businesses.

[@randomamerican6320]

bro they did the same thing for me over at Collins College in Tempe, AZ. $60k 2-yr school that taught only 4 weeks in different programs and that's it. The school was so bad and had so many teachers leave, they shut down 2 yrs after I graduated. Put me into a state of depression after the $3k laptop died a year after I graduated too. During the 08 depression on top of it, jobs scarce.... then it was just buffalo wild wings/best buy and paying off student loans, regretting wasting my college years and a lifelong debt accruing interest.

[@umbrella0148]

@@randomamerican6320 thats horrible I'm so sorry to hear that. out of curiosity did you get your job that you were looking for ?

[@Brinco-tv]

The led light cord in Wade's room background looks like a curve with all keyframes selected.

[@astro_1859]

HE FINALLY FIGURED OUT HIS KZbin ACCOUNT PASSWORD

[@housebased7]

Righttt I was waiting😭

[@highdefinition450]

Password123

[@ztoogemcducc6360]

Videos like these make me appreciate my school. Within the first month of animation I learned different workflows and how most animators have their own methods and there is no sure fire way to do things

[@tssanger.1298]

Which school? I'm curious

[@Jay-qy8dn]

I love how at the beginning of the video I thought "I always do pose to pose" and felt kinda bad about it, but watching all the other workflows I realized that I've probably used every of these workflows before and that it really just depends on the shot I'm animating haha! :) This video is great, thank you so much for taking the time to make it!

[@manasa7669]

😂 Even i felt the same... By d end of d video I realised my institute actually did pretty gud job at teaching me stuff... I'm glad 🤭

[@brain_apostrophe_t]

Same!

[@aleksandra1524]

As someone in the second year of animation uni who feels like they're falling behind compared to their classmates, these videos help me out so much. Thank you for these videos :')

[@AlexMartinez-cs4ri]

My teacher from the Lafilm school taught me a good workflow! When we're in key poses, we should just do them all in the first frames. Then, while in step, we move the poses around until the timing feels right, and then we put in our in-betweens! In my latest portfolio project I worked in layered while my first portfolio project I worked pose to pose! You've given such a great explanation for everything in this video!

[@ranguy1379]

My animation school let me down, but now I kind of got it in control; I found my main sources for good animation tips. I found discord groups where I can get feedback from other animators. But one thing that I really wish for is to have a mentor. Somebody to guide me through this, because figuring this stuff out on my own is quite time consuming.

[@nightblade178]

Do u have some recommendations for discord servers?

[@ranguy1379]

@@nightblade178 Agora community is the best, once I found them I rarely go on any other animation server

[@youshimimi]

This was enlightening! I did some of these naturally / on accident and never knew there are different approaches. Thank you so much!

[@chompet123]

Layered approach makes sense for me! I'm methodical in animation that's why I love the graph editor

[@pianowindz1]

work flow is so important , through hard knocks and just determination it takes almost making a 3d animation film from start to finish to get it and then you find out im a jack of all trades and a master of none, very much a awaking experience animation is a beast in and of itself but thank you for your dedication to stick to being a true masterful animator thank you guess ill keep trying to master it all though being a film maker and musician learning so much from you although my animation haha sucks but oh well

[@lizardltd]

I'm in an amazing college (uk) were my teachers tech me illustration and animation, and they do teach us the 12 principals of animation, and different workflows, including first creating an animatic in AE but they didn't teach everything you said in the video. everything is very helpful! thanks a lot!

[@Leukick]

6:02 lmfao I realistic man being attacked by a cartoony man. Such a funny yet creepy dynamic

[@Acethesecond]

I’m a TV stop Motion animator with 8 years of professional experience. SO I learned on straight ahead only. YOu can get far with this knowledge but now learning CG and having the freedom to go back and fix things and work on different spots of the animation has been such a relaxing experience.

[@Acethesecond]

I have been doing layer approach because I know straight ahead well enough. And only block story beats. But I’m still learning this world is very different than Stop Motion.

[@alexandershuaibu]

I finished watching, i closed KZbin, then came back like noooo, no no no, i have to show appreciation. Thanks so so much for this, this is gold, subscribed (surprised i wasn’t subscribed already)

[@annanasova2]

OMG! Why is workflow one of the most underrated conversations in animation??? This knowledge saves time and money! When I was watching this incredible video I was asking myself "why do I know just 3 workflows?". It's amazing! Now I know why my last test animation was weak and where my character's weight gone! Sir Wade, thank you SO MUCH ended for this video, your time, for your generosity that sharing this for us!

[@fabianogama39]

I use a lot of those workflows combined in different ways, depending on the shot or the kind of animation I'm doing. There is only one that I have never thought about which is this one you called "extremes". It made me very excited to try it.

[@TomCollie]

really great video! brilliant exposition on workflow - by far the best ive seen. Should show all incubator animators this video when they set out - the only rules are....there are no rules! Horses for courses. Keep up the great work Sir Wade!

[@SeraYagami]

Whoa, I realized my workflow is a mixture of all of them, no wonder I'm a mess. XD I'm very curious about the Extremes one, it's kinda fascinating! I hope there will be 1-2 videos more on that, although I do get the gist of what you mean. I find it the best out of all the methods as of now. Thank you so much, Sir Wade! :D

[@remem95]

You talking about workflows always eases a good chunk off of the slowly building impostor syndrom. Feels nice to reckognize bits and pieces of what I'm doing in this list. I'm somewhere in between pose to pose, reference blocking, layered and key categories, depending on the shot. I tried sketch blocking for a while and it feels great, but it never gave me shots that work well from different angles for games... still a good skill to have especially when being stuck it sometimes gives me a fresh perspective.

[@phoenx369]

When you explained "Layered" it was such a AHA moment because it made so much sense. Almost like secondary actions and so on. For some reason it just clicked so much watching the ball example.

[@kendarr]

10 Minutes in the video, didin't knew straight ahead was even a thing lol, man i love this channel

[@pudgybudgie94]

I was taught straight ahead/ pose to pose in school for 2D animation, but once I started animating in Maya independently, I found that a splined straight ahead workflow worked really well for me, and gave everything time to breathe, and if I had filmed a reference, my workflow kind of landed in the "extreme" category but that was just the way that I understood the reference. I really only started doubting myself when I asked for reviews online and was getting chastised for being in spline "too early" when I'd been there the whole time. This was validating, thank you.

[@izzyhope58]

I don't exactly understand how Extremes would work or how exactly to do it, but this sounds pretty incredibly interesting to me and I think I'm gonna try parts of the Extremes work flow cause quite a bit of the concept behind it makes sense.

[@rockeguitarra]

This was absolutely one of the most clearest video tutorials I seen so far on animation workflows. I like that you so relaxed when you explain. There’s so many that just rushing in tutorials 🙌👏🔥this was lovely refreshing for me to see👏🥁 keep up the good 👍 work 🌷

[@Khaled_Rushdy]

I think you put a lot of effort, time and mind into this video sir wade, Really magnificent work

[@TouchingEverything]

What I find most frustrating in terms of figuring out work flows. is that when I try to do blocking, and get a huge blocking I like working, The fact that gimble locks really screws with my work flow and I end up fighting the program or relie on some empty tracking.

[@isaicalderon]

I would’ve loved to have seen this video in college... Loving all your stuff, man! As for what I use now at work (and learned at Animation Collaborative), the way you described Layered and Extremes are the same techniques: one channel at a time, layering the performance to hit that control’s “extremes”. Mike (from AnimC) likes to compare it to “Death by a thousand paper cuts”. If anyone reading this is interested in this, I HIGHLY recommend Animation Collaborative’s “Animation Demo and Lecture”

[@dannymorales787]

I met Michal at CTN Expo about 2 years ago. The guy was great and fun to talk to. Had no idea who he was so I approached him to chit chat for a bit. Couple of weeks later I find out he works at PIXAR which was pretty awesome to find out.

[@yireniz5929]

The layering method reminds me of high school physics class. There was one type of question that requires you to calculate the y axis first and then use that and the time to get the x axis.

[@dawnshadow16]

Super helpful video- I love your educational content! I’m currently at sheridan for animation and you’re 100% right, they barely touch on workflow; especially for 3D! My one suggestion would be if you did a video similar to this would be to animate the same scene but with the different workflow techniques. I know that’d probably be boring for you but I feel like it’d be great to see how all workflows work and accomplish the same thing in the end!

[@bernadettewilson6029]

I'm a second year in college and I've never heard of layered work flow. They've only briefly mentioned animation layers but we haven't really done anything with them. Thank you so much for this video. I really think the layered workflow would be great for me.

[@unaperrson]

I went to a post graduate animation school in London, which shall remain nameless, and never learnt anything about workflow at all. It truly is the secret to becoming a really confident animator. I had to study masses of online tutorials and webinars from digital tutors and Jason Ryan animation, before I got a good work flow. I use a pose to pose approach (carefully researched) and move to layered in spline to get the result s I want.

[@learning3d742]

OMG this video is worth pure gold! Thanks so much for making it!

[@jamesdavid5224]

I now don't feel so bad for taking forever doing a basic animation XD. look at his extremes example and watch the clock go from 3:00 to 3:55

[@dreamisover9813]

As a beginner,this video's value os outstanding! I think workflow related concepts are so important regardless of the actual area of work.

[@kloakovalimonada]

Superb video on one of the most important facets of any work with computers

[@annanasova2]

And thank you that you turn on subtitles - it's really helpful for me and people in which English isn't their native language too!

[@astro_1859]

I like to combine POSE TO POSE, LAYERED AND REFERENCE BLOCKING

[@ufoalien3274]

Me too

[@kendarr]

Learning the workflow of others for me is one of the most important thing, if i know how you work, and how this guy work, and how that one does it, i can pull what i like and enjoy from a lot of different sources and i end up creating my own

[@AakarVerma]

The Extremes workflow is what I use a lot of times. The only problem in it is that you can not use Step Mode in it to look at poses as individual body parts moves at different frames because of which you cannot see whole body pose change.

[@BennieWoodell]

I learn so much from you and your channel, thank you so much. I started doing the reference blocking technique after I saw your video on that last summer and it's been the night and day difference for me on the quality of my animation. I really want to do the pose to pose though as that seems like it could work better, but like you bring up, the figuring out the timing is the problem and I animate in Daz 3D and the copy paste function of keyframes does not work right half the time so I can't just move keyframes around sadly. But that's okay, I make it work! Anyhoo, thanks again for all your help!

[@kru3d36]

Great video, thx! Workflow was a confusing topic when learning 3D. So many interchangeable terms and so many ways to accomplish an outcome. This is organized very well and as far as I can see, covers all the info needed to sort out a workflow that makes sense to you as an individual . Great stuff.

[@JPWestmas]

I like looking at the shape of the curves you choose, it gives me ideas for ease ins and outs. I like animating to camera a lot setting up extremes too.

[@ikey07ch]

Shrek was made in layers, just like onions, finally I get what Shrek meant.

[@lostcrusader8053]

What about cakes? Cakes have layers?

[@TopsonNoble]

@@lostcrusader8053 animations are not cakes, they are like ogres...

[@liamoohay24365]

Sir Wade is Awesome!

[@shykorustotora]

Wow! I studied at an institute and they taught a pose to pose / layered style. I got it really quick and easy and made a ball bounce in minutes, while other people were taking up to an hour and struggling. I never understood why but that was really insightful. Now that I'm animating characters, I always start by posing my character, then doing my retiming but starting with hips, torso, arms, legs, hands, feet, neck, head, hair, fingers, and face, in that order too. I will say, sometimes with layered, when you're not careful, you end up having to go back and fix things. If you do the torso, then get to the arms and realize the arms don't look as good in that shot anymore thanks to the torso being at a weird angle between certain frames, you then have to kinda go back and repose the arms.. but this was a really helpful video~ Not because I specifically learned something new and ground-breaking, but because it helped me gain insight as to what kind of an animator I am, and now I can lean into what I now know are my strengths~

[@TheArizus]

I honestly get rly excited when u upload 😊

[@kristymong90]

this video really helps and very appreciate the effort you put into this video!

[@rabbit_graned]

Sir Wade is such a youtuber who can talk about some thing.. and at the top of the link right away, like, expand, here in more detail. There is a separate detailed video about absolutely everything 😃😃

[@ramdogproductions]

Need to mimic the T pose more haha @16:41 ... Great tutorial!!

[@GamingOnABout]

Omg this helped so much, I've had 3 teachers and each teacher had a slightly different workflow, and it was quite confusing... Now I recognize the work flow between the teachers...

[@siyaskeyframes]

I’ve been focusing so much on workflow I’m glad you released this video

[@paolaabril9250]

When you were talking about layered animation, i thought you wee talking about animation layers, i was getting confused! hahah.. thanks for the aclarations! .. I found out that i combine many workflows depending on the shots and if it's personal or for work, also depending on the rig. I like to use every workflow that matches the intention of the shot.

[@virtual_intel]

I just wig it and use whatever scraps I manage to scrape together :) explains why I truly suck at animation. I am learning though and that's a start I guess.

[@ZephrusPrime]

What a small world! I didn't know you used to work with one of my old teachers Bradd! Love what you've been doing!

[@ZaDussault]

I made paper stop motion. I animated all the shots in toon boom beforehand, and then procedeed with the actual shooting. It's a LOT of planning

[@brain_apostrophe_t]

The layered workflow allows for some good backtracking as well. If theres an issue, you can find the compartment you stored that part in and fix it

[@deeleon]

I love layer plus extreme

[@MakotoIchinose]

Personally I went with mix of Pose to Pose and Reference Blocking most of the time, and kind of making stuff up in between. For some actions like throwing objects in place, Straight Ahead would be more fitting.

[@zauliqe1783]

Really cool, thank you!! :)

[@Luxalpa]

I'm just starting out on animation (in Houdini) and my first instinctive approach was the layered approach (I currently isolated just the feet and only move them into the Z direction). I'm glad that it's apparently a legit workflow as well :)

[@JSAbbott]

I definitely need to try the layered workflow. It makes a lot of sense to me and seems much more manageable.

[@ankushgogna4628]

That reference and plagiarism talk was very interesting. Because i've NEVER heard that. (Maybe because not much people are talking about it). Can you make a video specifically on THAT topic?? And teach some ways how can i avoid making my animation look too much rotoscopy.

[@void8810]

You're a great teacher. Thank you

[@lizardltd]

i can't count anymore how many times i went to like the video, and discovered I've already liked it xD

[@ericdrob]

Shots fired @ Ringling!

[@SirWade]

I wasn't referring to Ringling but I've heard PLENTY of things about them lately :O

[@winterkat8693]

I think I needed this video. cuz ive been confused and scared if im doing something wrong while im modeling or any thing. so thankyou.

[@fadegboye]

I love the "key categories" workflow. Keeps me sane! Nice one Sir Wade! 😁

[@foxcrone8605]

Something I was taught (my major is game design so perhaps the rules are a bit different) was to NEVER touch the joints of a model so seeing you just grab the spine to move the guard at 5:16 made me physically recoil lol

[@iseeuc603]

This is the exact issue I've been having recently and trying to figure out what kind of workflow works for me. Couldn't have asked for better timing!

[@XAVES]

I used to use pose-to-pose for animations with a good reference, but I'm going to start using the extremes technique from now on when I have good reference. It looks like it'd gel with how my brain works. My brain does NOT let me blocked keys, either... so animations with little to no reference I unfortunately have to go with straight ahead.

[@creativecareer8516]

I love the layering approach. I teach kids/teens animation and I found my students work better when they can focus on 1 thing at a time, instead of getting stressed out that some other part of the body isn't working. Doing it that way for years, students like it! BUT, when you teach someone from scratch (with little to no experience) that method 1st I find it's not hard for them to grasp, but if you're not used to it ( with more experience/muscle memory), I can see what at first it seems a bit weird.

[@RShakes]

This was really helpful! I'm just starting 3d animation in Blender and I've been working in the pose to pose method but it hasn't felt great to work this way so far. Straight Ahead + Extremes actually seems really cool and I'll definitely be giving it a shot. Edit: I've been giving it a go for about an hour this morning and it has drastically sped up my workflow. This makes way more sense to me, thank you!

[@ohevotah23]

0:38 Does anyone use this vertical mouse? Is it comfortable for animation?

[@Firebear31]

I use pose2pose as making the KEYframes makes it easier to fill in-betweens, as well as, get potential distance movement correct. With straight ahead it's just too hard. Layered is also what I do - just do one thing after another - especially for secondary animation this is really good. And for reference blocking, well, if you animate without reference you are a madlad :D

[@MasoudSabahi]

Many of thanks. It was really helpful.

[@paolaabril9250]

The one of sketch blocking, i did once, without knowing that was a workflow... cause i felt more free to animate something...but for work it is more time consuming. Fr acting choices looks great and fun..however it doesn't show the limitations of the rig... but it's great.. will try it out for next acting/pandotmime shot i will do.Cause for some kind of shots like more cartoony, reference is not enough to plan some specific stuff, so it's great :D

[@Brietron]

This is so helpful to have all the different types of workflows laid out, thank you! As a student, I'm still developing my own workflow - which i think is a layered approach?? - but this is a great guide for me to experiment with other styles. NICE!

[@RisuNiku]

just discovered this channel, I learned so many things, super glad you don't forget game animators, it's really appreciated! was strictly doing pose to pose until now, I will try other methods, right now my animations look okay until I switch from constants to any kind of interpolations o/

[@Astronet2030]

This is so insightful! I use pose to pose workflow a lot but at some point, I noticed all the animations always feel one kind of weird "animated" way.. eventually, I started breaking the timing for extremes for each component and it just feels convoluted and weird but it works! makes everything feel natural.. Your explanation of extreme workflow gives a far better approach to what I was trying to do. ANd I'm definitely gonna try it next. disclaimer: I only ever animate products, cameras, and all other random stuff that are definitely not as complex as a character. I can only imagine just how maddening it must feel using the extremes approach on a character

[@FancyFun3433]

dude I just found my weird ass workflow.... I block out the main poses then I add the simple inbetweens then I go back and re-key each limp seperately which causes breakup then I go through and clean the graph editor which adds more break up then I get to choose to add more to it with layers and cleaning or it's just done after that... :,D It's so straight ahead I can't help but love it...

[@GreenFogg]

This video helped me straighten out my Honour Project plan THANK YOU for making this! :D

[@MichaelHurdleStudio]

Great advice dude. Well done.

[@TWIXExpert]

Why are you so amazing. Thanks man!

[@kathleenz2412]

This is so great! Thank you for breaking this down. I’m excited to experiment with these methods

[@ashleya.1080]

I know it’s 2 years later but I’d love to know more about the last workflow!

[@diegomonteirobatera]

This was VERY VERY VERY helpful!

[@RichardRoy2]

Definitely sub'd. Really fascinating breakdown. Thanks.

[@AshokAnanth]

Best video so far.. Thank you Wade... 👍

[@paolaabril9250]

Woow! The extremes one blew my mind I had to watched it about 5 times to understand it hahaha. But got it!!! Now I realize I mostly use Pose To Pose, Key Categories, and then layered ( not in animation layers) for some parts, in my spline/blocking plus phase. And straight ahead for overlapings of secondary animation. That is how it works for me often. But sometimes when i have time i kinda do sketch blocking ( not time for that at work, but for personal works, works well for me) and also reference when peosible..but just to take the key poses and sense of the timing, but always end up ignoring the real timing hahaha... Thanks for this! I only thought of workflows as pose to pose ad straight ahead. But din't know there were 77.. ormaybe did know without knowing they were workflows.

[@TBMAnimateZ]

Straight ahead is something I've done because I wasn't aware of what blocking was lol

[@TheAlkesh007]

Love your talks! Thank you for doing them! If you have not already done, can you do a video on primary animation (say body animation - walking, moving hands and body) and secondary facial animation (talking, expression changes)? I see videos where facial animation (say blendshape) is usually explained with head only, without the full body, but they dont cover how to combine blendshape, and other techniques of facial animation with primary animation of the whole body.

[@HASSENIDDER]

4:05 when he used screen space i figured where i saw his look (Ace ventura)

[@bardiakenway]

Yea you're right, it's not only a way to get from A to B, me myself animation with mixture of all of these and it's wierd but it's working, and here we go😅.

[@lucasprieto123cheese]

Really great video! It seems I generally use a combination of a few different workflows whilst I work :)

[@halilyasar-xd8wd]

You are a great teacher

[@avtpro]

Very Meaty video! No Fluff. Loved it. Thanks Very Useful.