On Set Previs Artist
It is very common for Animators to do previsualization work, although they are not attracted to it. Animators prefer to have full animation shots that they can take to a polishing stage.
That is changing right now, there is an evolved position from the old days that might get some attention from today's Animators. During the old Disney days they would bring a Story board artist along to the meetings to draw in a "real time" fashion whatever the Director would ask him, for instance, a medium shot from a character seen from a full front angle, draw!!, then from a long angle, draw!!, then from a 3/4 angle, draw!! until the director said, Voila! that's is what I want.
Now a days this is called "On set previs", where the studio will send an animator to the Set to work for the Director as he is shooting some other scenes. The animator will have a fully loaded laptop with a 3D application and all the assets already built by the studio, he is just in charge of bringing life to the shot. This could mean animating characters or cameras.
This is a very exciting position to be in, starting from the stress of what it means to be driving a 3D application in real time as somebody watches over your shoulder giving you instructions on what he/she wants to see. If you are doing previs work for a large production you'll get to work with big name Directors and see Actors delivering their lines.
Previs for live action films is coming more and more popular, it is a powerful tool for the Directors, they can have 3D characters fully choreographed for an entire sequence, then they'll set their cameras to portray the feeling they want to achieve.
This generates 2 points of view:
1)Directors don't know what they want, they are supposed to have the whole sequence in a storyboard format and go over it a hundred times before they release it for production. This new tool is just making them lazy, they don't want to think and maybe they don't want to plan ahead. What would Alfred Hitchcock about this?. Planning, we need planning!
2)Previs is a powerful tool, it allows the Directors to explore every single possibility, yes... every single possibility. They can push the real world limitations, lets say for instance; by creating wild camera movements that defy real world physics to be later recreated with live cameras. It is not about being lazy, it is about finding break grounding tools and produce never seen before footage for a more demanding audience.
Most likely you'll be experiencing on both sides at one point in your career, and you will get to see that both opinions hold truth.
The previs for Blades of Glory required about 7 animators getting the entire choreography as a whole for the three figure skating competitions, no cuts at all. Later the Directios will pick and choose their camera angles based on what the digital actors were doing.
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