Promoting Good Animation

Noah Nies
Noah Nies
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read
“D&D5E Mage Hand” animated short by Zee Bashew

Zee Bashew is an independent American animator, who primarily makes educational animations centered around the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons. Bashew’s style of animation, using relatively intricate character design but incredibly simple movement and transitions, lends itself to his weekly uploads of 2–5 minute animated shorts. Weekly animations would be a daunting task for even the most skilled animators for sure. Additionally, his style is wholly unique in it’s use of hatching and almost cartographical lines and shading. He often utilizes small tricks that might go unnoticed that, that if he tried to simply animate by drawing frame by frame, would be unrealistic to finish given the time frame. This can be found in the above video, like at 0:55, where the character Gideon moves towards the camera while holding an oil lantern.

The way the character moves is by the different pieces of his body independently moving up and down and closer to the camera; however, because of the light dancing in front of and on his face. Had he not done something like this, to mask the somewhat clumsy movement, it would have greatly undermined the drama of the scene.

Of course, no one piece of animation can be perfect, and this one is no exception. The easiest things to critique really are the overall fluidity and realism of the movement, and the sound design of the shorts. The characters have a highly stylized way of moving, that despite being well done, is not particularly realistic. As far as sound, Bashew doesn’t use any effects or foley (but does sometimes use clips of music), and narrates directly to the viewer much like in a podcast or radio show. This can somewhat take the immersion out of the clips, and can make the viewer feel less in the moment. It plays more to the educational aspect of the animation, which may or may not be positive and will vary from viewer to viewer.

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

Noah Nies

Written by

Noah Nies

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

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