Think About How Your Animation Is Received

Have you ever asked yourself what happens to your work once it is approved and sent down the pipeline?

Approval does not mean your responsibility ends. It means your work is now someone else's problem or someone else's success.

As an animator, you must pay close attention to the poses you create and respect anatomy, deformation, and balance. Every pose you approve affects cloth, hair, muscle, corrective shapes, lighting, and rendering. Animation does not live in isolation.

My students at USC used to call me "savage" because I insisted on clean poses that did not break the asset. That insistence was never about ego or control. It was about professionalism. Clean posing creates better Animation, but more importantly, it respects the people downstream who have to deal with the consequences of sloppy work.

For example, when the pelvis does not follow the spine, cloth simulations break. When joints are twisted incorrectly, geometry collapses. Someone then has to fix it. That someone is often under time pressure and did not create the problem in the first place.

Your reputation as an animator is built on polish, awareness, and respect for anatomy and the rig. Expecting other artists to fix broken Animation later is not collaboration. It is offloading responsibility.

Some studios have dedicated tech, Animation, or simulation teams to absorb this damage. Many do not. In those cases, the burden falls back on other animators or leads who are already stretched thin.

To be clear, this is not about intentional stylization. Pushing an arm past realistic limits for a cartoony whip, scaling a limb for a blur frame, or breaking anatomy for a specific gag can be valid choices. Those decisions are intentional and are usually discussed with the departments affected.

This lesson is about avoidable damage, such as:

• Rotating the shoulders until they tear or collapse unnaturally

• Misaligning the pelvis, groin, and belly button along the spine

• Failing to rotate the clavicles with arm motion

• Ignoring foot mechanics when the knee bends beyond a natural range

• Not caring what poses are doing to the geometry

• Allowing penetrations between the body, clothing, and props

• Failing to maintain proper ground and object contact

• Creating poses that are fundamentally off balance

These issues break the pipeline later. They tear clothing, destroy simulations, and force others to spend time repairing avoidable mistakes. In short, they create more work for the team.

So no, this is not about being a "hard ass" as a teacher or mentor. Insisting on balance, torque through the body, and anatomically sound posing is about protecting your future. It is about making sure you get hired again.

Taking pride in polishing your work matters. Adjusting a pose so that the cloth does not penetrate. Making sure feet are grounded. Ensuring the rig is respected. These small choices add up. They make you look reliable, thoughtful, and professional.

Think about it. You may get the job because of who you know. You keep the job because of the quality of your work and the reputation you build.

Now ask yourself this:

• What if your approved shots required no fixes?

• What if no one had to clean them up for Sims to work?

• What would that say about you as an animator?

That is the standard worth aiming for.