How to use Reference for Animation

On all the feature films I've worked on, I used reference maybe twice, and loosely. NEVER did I upload it into Maya or a computer. I firmly believe that the stigma surrounding the importance of reference is overcooked. "Don't open Maya until you have solid reference," blah blah, is drilled into us so heavily that it holds us back at the start.

It takes away the element of play and training our eye to look at animation to actually see why it isn't working. "Ah, let me check my reference." No. Watch it and analyze it. Are the principles in there? What looks funky? Is it the hips? Find what is weird and understand why it's not working, then fix it. You don't need to go back to a reference of a human doing human things in a human world.

However, I do use reference when I need it, and I find it very useful indeed. It's just that I need it less than most, and I think most need it less than we are made to believe.

However, the problem lies in how we use and analyze it.

A big problem we see with people's animation is they imitate the reference 1 to 1. This makes your animation look weightless and often floaty and not right. The reason is very simple: the proportions are off, and humans just don't move as cool. We're not flexible (well, I am not), and we are not dynamic. We move according to our weight and human ability, and if you use different size characters, they need to move differently.

The next thing we see is people overanalyzing reference. Looking at too many frames, or every 3 frames, etc. Looking at every minute movement like it must be in the animation.

Just relax. Breathe. Look for what's cool, extract that, push that, and build upon that.

Remember, unless you edited it, most likely the timing is not going to be good, and something you need to push in the shot anyway; so you don't need to put the frame 5 pose on frame 5 in Maya.

Just get the cool bits, chuck out the rest, and play with it, build it, create it, animate it, in Maya.

Just a quick caveat: this is not to say you don't need a plan! I don't use reference much, but I do draw thumbnails a lot, stand up and act an action out, or use cubes for previs. I always have a clear vision of what I want to achieve, which is important; otherwise, you are animating with no direction.

Unless you are just playing around, you should generally have a vision of what you want. So if you can envision it, just make it. No need to search for hours for reference that suits your vision, or try to film some half attempt at parkour!

However, if you do use reference, here is a video teaching you how to analyze it :)