Flavio X-Sheets!
Well today marks the day I am officially starting my X-Sheets for Flavio and I have a goal of about a hundred feet (of film) per day to crank out which should be easy enough as in some freelance jobs I have had to do over 200 ft a day.
For those few uninitiated, the X-Sheets or Exposure Sheets are the process whereby the entire film’s soundtrack is broken down and written phonetically on big 11X17 sheets of paper.
Then the Animation director (in this case me…) transposes all the storyboard poses to the sheets adding nuances and details such as blinks and head bobs as well as adding any poses that the storyboard artist forgot to add or didn’t realize how much time it took to say a line.
If you look closely you will see a few abbreviations on the sheets such as HP which stands for Hold Pose, CUSH which stands for cushion and OVS which stands for Overshoot referring to when the animation elastics past the end piont of the pose and cushions to a stop. You can also see I am calling to specific poses on the storyboard such as Pose 2
I also like to add small thumbnail drawings to help the animators get from one pose to another. I love doing sheets as it’s a final way to tweak your film before it is sent overseas.
Anyway, gotta get back to it. 40 more feet to go before the day is over!
Crack that whip!
Ka-chaw!
For those of you who know all this already, please ignore this post! 
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On July 14th, 2006 at 12:00 am
These sheets are sooo complicated! Ahh!!
On July 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yeah they are. You get used to them though. It’s really just animating with numbers. I hate math but I love sheets. Weird!
On July 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I finally finished mine! Aiuggghghhhh!!
On July 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yay Jun! You did it! Congratulations! =)
On July 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yey! Dope sheets!
Uhm - I couldn’t figure out how to use them. But this is a good post and maybe I can learn from the experts.
On July 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Hey Tibby! Its actually easier than it looks believe it or not. If you can animate you can do Sheets. Most actions fall into a cadence and over time you notice patterns in actions. Truthfully tno’ the way I do Sheets is a bit different than most in that I draw a constant line connecting the characters actions. For me it seems easier to follow but most timers do not do this.