Animation Fixers: the Art of Grounding Characters

In this interview, Davide Inacio talks about his journey from graphic design to technical animation and shares his advice for aspiring technical animators.

What does your role at Cinesite involve?
As Technical Animator, I’m in charge of fixing all the animation problems, like foot contact with the floor, what we call the ‘polish’ stage, but I also do lots of things like adding poses for CFX (creature effects) or doing repairs for the layout department.

What inspired you to want to work in the film industry?
The film that inspired me to want to do animation was The Lion King. It’s a film that really made an impression on me when I saw it for the first time. I watched it countless times as a child. I loved the story, the characters, the music and above all the visuals, which are absolutely incredible. Now that I have a better eye, I can also see their intentions with the music, but especially with the animation and the way they show the emotions of the characters with the mix of colours and music. Everything I saw in that film in terms of animation is what really appealed to me and what pushed me to try and get into the industry in the first place.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I started out in graphic design and I didn’t really like it. It was more based on advertising and that didn’t really appeal to me. So when I was finishing my DEC at Collège Ahuntsic, I pushed to get into a 3D school.

I initially wanted to be an animator when I started out, but I didn’t have the basics in animation. So I started as a runner and moved from there into technical animation. I particularly like being at the centre of different departments and translating the needs of animation.

What are the differences between the roles of animator and technical animator?
Basically, an animator is really in charge of animating the characters. Once they’ve finished and published what they’ve done, the whole thing is sent to the Quality Control (QC) department, which looks after identifying any problems. For example, sometimes you have to change the floor in a set. So QC tells us that there is a problem with the contact between the feet and the floor. Then the technical animation team enters the scene and we fix the problems identified. It’s more of a technical role than an artistic one, with an emphasis on ‘cleaning up’ the animation.

What do you like best about your job?
My favourite thing is finding solutions. It’s a bit like a puzzle. For example, we have hundreds of shots where there’s an intention that’s been put in place by the animator and we absolutely have to keep to that as much as possible. But sometimes we also have to make changes because we have no choice. When we’re able to make changes and find interesting alternatives while respecting the intention and expectations of the animation department, it’s always satisfying. I love the fact that we’re never working on the same thing over and over again, and it all happens quite quickly.

What’s your biggest challenge on a daily basis?
What I find most difficult is not always being able to fix the problems that I see. Sometimes, those issues fall outside of our remit and are beyond what technical animation is able to change. I like to fix everything, where I can!

What’s a typical day like for you?
We’ll often receive the repairs to be done in the morning, and then throughout the day we’ll receive new requests. In the morning, after dailies, we receive any notes, and working on them can keep us busy until around midday. We often get special requests after the animation review meetings too. So once we’ve got our requests, we open the scene in Maya, try to understand what’s going on with the scene and analyse the renders too. Sometimes it’s simple, sometimes it’s not so simple and sometimes it only takes five minutes to sort out. Then we publish and, depending on the size of the changes, it can take two or three hours before the render is ready to be sent to animation for approval. After that, there’s often feedback from other departments about the changes, so we remain available to respond to them and to make more changes if necessary.

What software should students familiarise themselves with to get into technical animation?
The two tools we use most frequently are Autodesk Maya and Animbot (an animation tool in Maya). I don’t tend to use it myself, but I really like it. Firstly, we have it in the animation department and secondly, the animators love it.

What qualities do you think you need to have to get into the business?
One of the best things about starting out is not being afraid to ask questions. That, in my opinion, is the best thing you can do if you have any problems. There’s no such thing as a stupid question. When someone asks questions, you’re able to manage them better. Paying attention to detail and making sure that repairs are done properly is also very important. Being able to question yourself and not getting discouraged easily is a big plus too, because often our work can be quite tedious and time consuming.

What have you learned from working with juniors?
I’d say I always learn something new with them. It often pushes me to try and teach in different ways. I try to adapt so that I’m able to explain things in a way that the person in front of me understands. That’s helped me develop my vulgarisation skills. I try to reduce the amount of detail, and give them as much as they need to get started. There are also a lot of tools that I’ve learnt to use with other technical animators. Some of them really push things further. I’m well grounded in what I know how to do, but people come in and help me discover tools and ways of doing things that I didn’t know. In short, I’m learning all the time. The juniors, in my opinion, are the people who always have a fresher perspective, and they’re always very important to me because they surprise us and drive us forward.