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7 Top Tips For Animating Sketch Comedy
7 Top Tips For Animating Sketch Comedy
7 Top Tips For Animating Sketch Comedy
7 Top Tip for Animating ketch Comed
POTD MARCH 3, 2022 Y CHRI CRAY
A an animator, I love when a cript i full of outlandih cenario that
will e fun to draw and when it’ hort enough for the animation to e
achievale at a high qualit. When ou couple thi with m love of joke,
ou won’t e urpried that I’ve found melf making animated ketch
comed.
Here I’ve mapped out ome of the mot ueful approache that I’ve found while
animating m cript.
00:26
1. et the cene quickl
With hort-form content, there’ a lot to take in, in a mall pace of time. It’ important
to etalih who, what, and where the ketch i aout quickl o that the audience can
to etalih who, what, and where the ketch i aout quickl o that the audience can
concentrate on the joke. Recogniale character tpe and cenario are a huge ene t
here and archetpe, cliche, and trope, far from eing undeirale, are eential to ke
the audience into the cene quickl. Onl once the audience ha gured out what’
going on can the nd it funn.
00:17
Focu on cript with viual interet.
2.
With animation, ou can uild a world from cratch and control it frame frame. Thi
take time and e ort, and conidering the production of a ketch can e a imple a
lming ourelf on a phone’ front-facing camera, there ha to e a reaon wh ou’re
animating it. When conidering what ketch to animate, here’ a helpful quetion to ak
ourelf:
‘I there omething aout thi ketch that would ene t from eing drawn?’
Drawing can eail and appealingl put together impoile and incongruou element.
Thi i one reaon wh m ketche are lled with root, fairie, ring-wearing h, and
train tation tunt. Thi i alo wh I have leaned into a tlied colour palette- ecaue
thee are element where their viual appeal pla to the trength of 2D animation.
00:22
3. Make the face legile.
Comed will often come from a character having an unexpected reaction to a cenario,
o the character’ attitude will e important in telling the joke. Therefore, it’ crucial
that the audience can read the expreion on the character’ face. Thi mean that while
there can e a great appeal in ver minimal character deign or in deigning mall-
headed character, for ketch comed, it’ ideal to have the face at a ize and level of
detail that the expreion are eail legile to the audience.
00:20
Pare ack the 몭lmmaking
4. Pare ack the 몭lmmaking
If the audience i thinking, then the’re not laughing. Thi include thinking aout the
artitr of our lm-making. o ever camera move and tranition need to e
impli ed to keep the audience’ mind on the comed. The director need to ak,
‘where i the joke?’ and focu on putting it on creen in the clearet and mot concie
wa poile. For a nuanced piece of dialogue, a locked-o camera or utle move will
work et, wherea jump-cut are great a an extra jolt of urprie that can heighten a
laugh. However, when we cut awa, we’ll need to give a moment for the audience to
reorientate themelve. Due to the conciion of time in ketch comed, there’ a
urpriing amount of retraint required in animating it.
00:17
5. Learn from comic.
When our goal i to get a gag acro conciel uing dialogue and drawn character, a
great ource of inpiration i comic trip. Mapping out a joke into four eat i eential
for creating a four-panel trip, ut it can alo add clarit to thinking aout the pacing
and timing of our animation. The character and ackground deign in comic have
their origin in eing printed mall and inexactl newpaper. Thi ha led to a trend
of implifing the deign into old and graphic line work. Thi approach i incredil
ueful a a large part of our animation’ audience will e watching on their phone,
which are a imilar cale to newpaper trip. If ou take our cue from comic, ou’ll
automaticall end up with a ocial- rt deign, telling joke with clear tor eat.
automaticall end up with a ocial- rt deign, telling joke with clear tor eat.
6. Repurpoe Character
ketch comed can have a lot of non-recurring character. The e ort involved in making
them could put people o animating them at all. Rigged puppet animation i a valuale
technique for thi, a once a character ha een created, it can e adapted to ecome
multiple character. I often view m rigged character a comed performer that I will
add cotume, prothetic, and makeup to o the can ecome new non-recurring
character in a ketch.
A I create more of thee puppet, I feel like I’m making a 2D ketch troupe, which
mean I need not fear the volume of character in the cript. I am careful to deign thee
character in a wa that I can eail lip into hand-drawn animation for more elaorate
equence or for more nuanced element of their performance.
equence or for more nuanced element of their performance.
00:18
Put them together to make an epiode.
7.
Whether or not our ketche were conceived a part of a larger whole, wh not put
them together into one? Animator will know from making their howreel that there’ a
jo in equencing work and in watching the meaning of the piece utl change a
the’re juxtapoed againt each other. In equencing our ketche, the ecome like
modular deign unit that are put together to form a larger piece. You might nd that
ou have uilt a more coherent world than ou expected. You can call it a compilation,
or adding a title and end equence a umper on either end of the ketche, ou’ll
have made a hort epiode of animated ketch comed.
01:08
HAR
TAG: animating comed, ketch comed, top tip
AOUT TH AUTHOR
Chri Cra / omeene.co.uk/
Chri Cra i an animator and director aed in London. Hi work i digitall handdrawn, with an
emphai on old deign, wellcrafted motion, and charming character performance. Chri tudied
Fine Art and Hitor of Art at Goldmith, Univerit of London, and Character Animation at Central aint
Martin, Univerit of the Art London. He ha directed and animated commercial, hort 몭lm, app,
itcom, and muic video. Chri i the founder of the animation tudio omeene.
MOR Y CHRI >