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earning the technical aspects of animation is extremely important if the action is to be viewed to maximum effect.
The dope sheet, or camera instruction sheet, makes it possible for you to organize your thinking in relation to your proposed animation and for the cameraman to accurately chart your wishes. At first glance the dope sheet appears to be a formidable adversary, with a mass of intersecting lines indicating apparent confusion. The dope sheet can, however, be broken down into quite simple section headings. Every horizontal line, for example, represents one frame of film. There are 16 frames of action for every foot of 35mm film; therefore, every sixteenth horizontal line is printed thicker to indicate each foot of film. And, when you know that (with the exception of some TV systems) there are 24 frames of action projected every second, you can visualize each foot and a half of lines as one second of screen time.
□ The vertical divisions are a little more complicated, but are easy to understand when taken in simple order. Refer to the illustration on page 89. The column on the far left is used by the animator to scribble down any thoughts about the action visualized for the scene. These notes are solely for the animator's benefit—reminders of what he or she wants the action to do at a particular frame of film.
□ The next column, to the right, is the dialogue column. Here all the dialogue is marked (phonetically) in relation to the frame of action with which it coincides in the film. Alternatively, if music synchronization is necessary for the action, the music beat and principal sounds are indicated in this column.
□ The next six columns are concerned with the various eel levels of animation—or levels of acetate—to be shot. Often an animation scene is built up of several levels, so this is where the animator indicates the precise order in which they are to be shot—the lowest level in the right-hand column, the highest to the left. As you can see, there are five levels to play with, plus a background artwork level. It is preferable for the animation to take place on only one or two levels, because the more levels of acetate used, the greater the loss of light and color intensity. Five tends to be the maximum number of workable levels.
□ In the column on the far right labeled "Camera Instructions," the animator writes any specific instructions (such as field size and truck and panning movements) for the cameraman. This information must be clearly and precisely written; any inaccuracy will result in misunderstanding by the cameraman and potential mistakes in filming.
□ Finally, at the top of the dope sheet, the animator writes in the sequence and scene number on the left and the sheet number on the right. (Almost invariably the animator is working on a scene that lasts for more than one page in length, so each additional page has to be numbered in successive order.) The space in the middle—between the scene box and the sheet box—is usually used to write in the title of the scene concerned.
The example shows the dop'e sheet for a simple scene—entitled "A New Day"—of one level of animation (plus a background) to be filmed on twos (one drawing for every two frames).
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