Editing in Animation

Unlike the live action Editor who has a variety of "takes" or footage that can be assembled to tell a story. Editing for Animation usually is planned out during the storyboard stage at the beginning of the production. Editors are still needed to assemble the scenes, help the pace of the film and to make sure the shots are all working together to tell the story visually. As an Animator, you need to understand how editing works and can help tell your story to your audience without boring them with too much information.

Director Alfred Hitchcock was a master of editing and help pioneer a lot of the editing techniques we see in films today. Here he is explaining how "Cutting" works, the process of going from one shot to the next to create a mood or to build tension for the audience.

Hitchcock looks like he wants to cut the interviewer in half with that last question.

This montage technique is also known as the Kuleshov Effect. Using a sequence of shots to create a mood or an emotional state in the mind of the viewer. The Moscow Film School (1919) was setup to train communist filmmakers to create newsreels for agitation and propaganda. The co-founder of the school, Lev Kuleshov pioneered film theory and came up with this cutting technique, shown below.

Audiences back then, felt they were watching the performance of a great actor, when in fact all the shots of the actor were the same shot. The other shots inbetween the actor's created this psychological effect. Today's audiences are not as sensitive towards this example. Below is a modern example of this technique with a faster pace to the cutting.

Here's a slower paced example with explanation.

 

Beginning animation students tend to use this formula when storyboarding an assignment where a character enters a room to find a mysterious box. They usually begin with an establishing shot, (Side view) with the character entering to see a box in the middle of the frame. We cut to the box (usually the character's POV). Next we are back to the wide establishing shot. At this point, we have pulled away from the box of interest. Instead of going to a close up of our character's reaction to see what the character thinks about what they are looking at, they cut away from the action. There is a lot of cutting from side view to front view to side to front which is also distracting visually and this doesn't help build the montage.

But what does an animation editor do?

Since most animation films are planned out in advanced, an animation editor will do a variety of tasks like cutting together the animatic,