Bricks in Motion
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Hey all, as I edit together a quick trailer for my channel I've noticed that the pacing for my recent films is quite jarring, most scenes move too quickly and I want to fix the flow of my animations. That being said, does anyone have any suggestions to help me fix this issue?
-Formal Lens
One thing you can do, is to copy the first frame multiple times, until it looks okay. You can also start the shot with a different movement in the background, and then continue with the main movement of the shot.
I hope that helps... 
One thing you can do, is to copy the first frame multiple times, until it looks okay. You can also start the shot with a different movement in the background, and then continue with the main movement of the shot.
Not quite sure what you mean by the first suggestion, the one about copying the first frame.
-Formal Lens
Are you having pacing issues with your storytelling or your animation? It sounds like you might be having a little issue with both areas. One thing I have really found helpful with my animation is shooting reference footage.
I have an example here, I added a frame counter in my video editor, but I also animated a reference shot that I sort of re-timed in After Effect to figure out the timing before I did the final animation. I realise it's a lot more work but you will get much better at animation if you use reference footage. And you can also look for reference on youtube if you don't want to record it yourself. I also did a Twitch stream for another shot where I went from finding reference footage to animating the final shot for a complete look at the process, although it is 3 and a half hours, I haven't had much luck downloading it so I can condense the footage into something more watchable.
I second Sloth's suggestion to use/shoot reference footage beforehand.
Similarly, if you have audio clips from all of the voice actors, you could cut these together in an audio or video editor, just like a radio play, and fix pacing there... That way, when you animate, you can base it directly off of the audio. (i.e. if it takes exactly 2 seconds for one character to say "what's up?", you know that'll be exactly 30 frames at 15 fps... and so on)
Are you having pacing issues with your storytelling or your animation? It sounds like you might be having a little issue with both areas. One thing I have really found helpful with my animation is shooting reference footage.
I find my issues are more related to writing than animation, though I will definitely keep the reference footage idea in mind for later, love your animations by the way.
Similarly, if you have audio clips from all of the voice actors, you could cut these together in an audio or video editor, just like a radio play, and fix pacing there... That way, when you animate, you can base it directly off of the audio. (i.e. if it takes exactly 2 seconds for one character to say "what's up?", you know that'll be exactly 30 frames at 15 fps... and so on)
I'm thinking more in regards to short films without dialogue as I find my animations with dialogue are far better paced.
I suppose I should clarify,
I am bothered mainly by my two most recent animations as they both skip from location to location far too quickly and do not allow the viewer to process what they are being shown. The solutions I have managed to come up with involve having more happen in one location and cutting from shot to shot less, instead using one shot to portray multiple actions. I understand that pacing and especially how one edits a film's pacing depends on the emotion and tone of a scene but I can't help but feel I am over-complicating the problem I am having.
That being said, does anyone have suggestions in regards to the pacing of writing and editing?
One thing I find helpful is making an establishing shot of your new location, try and have a wide angle shot that is 4-6 seconds long that establishes the new place, I used this quite a bit in Beyond the Eleventh Dimension, you'll see when I cut to a new place I show a mini-version of that place, like here, when I cut to the city I open with a wide shot of a micro scale full city, then a really wide shot of a mini-fig scale city before cutting closer.
And I'm glad you like my animations
Perhaps you should watch something like A Trip to the Moon. In those early, early days of film, budget constraints and camera limitations meant that films were shot more like plays, with minimal cuts and mostly a standard head-on camera placement.
Watching some early stuff like this can be really helpful when learning how to write/edit a film today because these older silent films are almost jarringly different from the editing styles of today... In watching someting like this, you may get "bored" of a shot that lingers on for too long, or you may notice jumps between the special effects cutting...
For me, watching some old silent films like this really helped me to get my bearings in the editing room. I never really picked up on how long I should stay on a shot/when to cut/how to pace from scene to scene until I saw examples of films that didn't follow the standards of modern cinema (blockbusters, independent films, brickfilms, etc.) Learn from the positives and take what you dislike (if anything) from these early films to change the way you approach scene changes within a story.
Also, Sloth's suggestion to use an establishing shot is very helpful. However, it won't solve every situation... and if overdone in a brickfilm, could end up looking like a cheesy sitcom (the rapid scene changes transitioned by establishing shots...) Beyond the Eleventh Dimension doesn't overuse the establishing shot, though. It's pretty much a perfect blend of pacing to help make the wacky story more comprehensible and fun.
Do you storyboard? If you don't, perhaps you could do some test animatics synced with audio just to see if anything moves too quickly... That way, you'd catch the pacing issue(s) before you even start filming...
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