At the start of this project I panicked. I thought wow there is not a lot of time at all, and I would need to pick an idea very quickly and work on it. I looked quite forward for doing animation because video in general is my favourite media form. I look back now and I would change so many things. First of all I would pick a song before sketching any form of idea. I found it very time consuming picking music after I had got my idea, for it to fit. Choosing music first can let you build the animation to the music, considering art styles as well to go with it. So that was one I could say mistake I will learn from.
Cause of the short time we got, I knew I had to make an idea solid and doable in the time given. So simplicity in the art style was influenced a bit from the time given. Building my animation in after effects I found was very stressful and time consuming. I had to learn how to use the program whilst building the animation in a short amount of time which was very hard. I feel looking at my animation it looks easy to make, but it was actually hard for me. My pleased levels with my animation are average to be honest. Im happy with how it looks and i'm pleased with the art style, and my outcome compared to my proposal. But I would be happier making more secondary actions in the whole animation. Like i said earlier in one of the working progress' i could add more animatics such as for example someone mowing the lawn in one of the houses. Just things like that would make it less boring, more realistic etc. But cause of the time I didn't have enough to do these improvements. If I knew after effects better I would definitely of done it. I don't like the program due to this project. I had a lot of frustrating moments such as making the waves look like waves in the polar bear scene, I had to watch so many youtube videos to help me. Other things as well like the text at the end it took me a while to get a cloudy dissolve effect. And just in general making things move was a long process, I had to edit so many things in illustrator, add them in again and re-edit. Till I knew now you could add the illustrator file straight to after effects and live edit them.
Reviewing my animation I think my favourite part is the slow down scene when the Co2 characters get red and hot. I just like the emphasis and the synced music. When you first see the co2 characters in the scene I really like how music has an evil bass sound to go with it. I think my text at the end is really effective too, people have also told me the font and effect looks really good so im very happy with that. I think its easy to understand too whilst the animation being fun that driving cars causes consequences (global warming).
My proposal I think is very accurate to my final outcome. The moods I wanted to come across I think have been successful which was playful, fun, childish but strong and serious too. My target audience would be children but it can still appeal to adults in my opinion. The serious ironic looking message at the end is strong for anyone to consider. But younger age is targeted, and for something like this I think is really good to for children to be targeted as they will be the upcoming generation, it will be something they can learn and realise before they start driving themselves.
Overall it wasn't one of my favourite projects but its definitely learnt a lot in my designing education. If i could go back to the start of the project I know I could do a lot better.
Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Reflecting my animation to the principles
Squash and stretch
- I have used this principle in my opinion. One example where i used it was when the little co2 cloud from the car shot up into the sky, one of the co2 characters ate it up but whilst it shot up the co2 character speeds up to eat it up and gets a bit bigger to demonstrate the eating it up. Also my driver blinks in the car which portrays this,
Anticipation
- The scene where the characters are introduce in the sky, just before the polar bear scene. The fading to black whilst keeping the two evil clouds red, then they enlarge and fly off the screen anticipates that its building up to a scene, in my case its building up to an evil scene for the co2 clouds which is shown by the clouds being last on screen and having an evil enlarge.
Staging
- Staging is directing the audience's eye to a certain importance in the scene. In my animation theres not so much an obvious part where i used staging but I could say an example of staging is where the co2 comes out the car, and goes up into the sky. The camera tracks it and its the only animated element so it draws the audience eye to look at it.
Slow in and out
- Again in the scene of the characters in the sky, the scene is fast pace till the co2 character eats the little co2 cloud the scene slows down in sync with the music. This emphasises that something bad is happening.
Arcs
- For Arcs I could say the wheels spinning on the car are spun from the central point of the alloy wheel to look realistic.
Secondary action
- My secondary action can be blinking and the movement of eyes of the driver in the car. The little exhaust smoke coming out, the flames spinning round the sun. The exclamation mark that appears when the female polar bear is woken up, her eyes open and her mouth looks more shocked too.
Timing
- When the car leaves the scene at the start the street stops panning and the car is drives off screen whilst the scene is fading out to black in the background. The reactions of the characters when the polar bear is separated is timed well too, each character don't react at the exact same time but at very very similar times which is more realistic.
Exaggeration
- The co2 characters colour tints to red to show that they are hot is an example of exaggeration. Also the reactions of the characters in the sky can be classed as exaggeration.
Solid drawing
- My whole art style is consistent, 2D unnatural, childish cartoon look.
Appeal
- As my animation is based on characters and personalities, appeal is portrayed a lot. You could describe the characters as cute, playful and fun. Each character has a personality which is conveyed by the facial features e.g. the Co2 cloud looks evil which appeals. The sun looks nervous and anxious. The clouds look peaceful. The human driving the car looks unaware, casual and just plain.
- I have used this principle in my opinion. One example where i used it was when the little co2 cloud from the car shot up into the sky, one of the co2 characters ate it up but whilst it shot up the co2 character speeds up to eat it up and gets a bit bigger to demonstrate the eating it up. Also my driver blinks in the car which portrays this,
Anticipation
- The scene where the characters are introduce in the sky, just before the polar bear scene. The fading to black whilst keeping the two evil clouds red, then they enlarge and fly off the screen anticipates that its building up to a scene, in my case its building up to an evil scene for the co2 clouds which is shown by the clouds being last on screen and having an evil enlarge.
Staging
- Staging is directing the audience's eye to a certain importance in the scene. In my animation theres not so much an obvious part where i used staging but I could say an example of staging is where the co2 comes out the car, and goes up into the sky. The camera tracks it and its the only animated element so it draws the audience eye to look at it.
Slow in and out
- Again in the scene of the characters in the sky, the scene is fast pace till the co2 character eats the little co2 cloud the scene slows down in sync with the music. This emphasises that something bad is happening.
Arcs
- For Arcs I could say the wheels spinning on the car are spun from the central point of the alloy wheel to look realistic.
Secondary action
- My secondary action can be blinking and the movement of eyes of the driver in the car. The little exhaust smoke coming out, the flames spinning round the sun. The exclamation mark that appears when the female polar bear is woken up, her eyes open and her mouth looks more shocked too.
Timing
- When the car leaves the scene at the start the street stops panning and the car is drives off screen whilst the scene is fading out to black in the background. The reactions of the characters when the polar bear is separated is timed well too, each character don't react at the exact same time but at very very similar times which is more realistic.
Exaggeration
- The co2 characters colour tints to red to show that they are hot is an example of exaggeration. Also the reactions of the characters in the sky can be classed as exaggeration.
Solid drawing
- My whole art style is consistent, 2D unnatural, childish cartoon look.
Appeal
- As my animation is based on characters and personalities, appeal is portrayed a lot. You could describe the characters as cute, playful and fun. Each character has a personality which is conveyed by the facial features e.g. the Co2 cloud looks evil which appeals. The sun looks nervous and anxious. The clouds look peaceful. The human driving the car looks unaware, casual and just plain.
Final piece
This is my final version I have changed the scene where the co2 clouds are introduce, I scaled them bigger so they look like they fly out at the screen. This brings the animation principle staging into effect, it shows the clouds are the most important element in the scene, I think it shows they are more evil too.
Working progress #2 - (Shown for Crit)
For crit I didnt manage to complete a full 30 second animation but I manage to crit 23 odd seconds of it. This was the video what was shown.
The feedback given was:
- Dont use the red lines to spit the polar bears
- Zoom into the Co2 clouds before the polar bears
- Music synced well to different parts of the story (Evil sounding bass when co2 clouds are introduced)
- Move the umbrella
There wasn't much feedback to be honest, probably cause the last one was shown... But ill take what was said and use it to improve. I know what I can do to improve it anyway in some ways and what to do for the end parts. I want to change the polar bears, i think their too big.
- Dont use the red lines to spit the polar bears
- Zoom into the Co2 clouds before the polar bears
- Music synced well to different parts of the story (Evil sounding bass when co2 clouds are introduced)
- Move the umbrella
There wasn't much feedback to be honest, probably cause the last one was shown... But ill take what was said and use it to improve. I know what I can do to improve it anyway in some ways and what to do for the end parts. I want to change the polar bears, i think their too big.
Friday, 25 October 2013
Update(*)
Im listening to different pieces of music and I have decided I want a more inspiring/emotional soundtrack to create a big irony and try create a stronger impact to my message I am trying to give across.
Shortlist:
Sort Of (Instrumental) - Ingrid Michaelson
Shortlist:
Sort Of (Instrumental) - Ingrid Michaelson
Radical Face 'Welcome Home'
Foxes - Youth
(Advert version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JEDA2p2MHk)
Foxes - Youth
(Advert version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JEDA2p2MHk)
Working Progress #1
Here is my animation so far. The first scene basics is complete, the man walks out his house, trots down to his car and drives off to town, which is shown isn't very far due to the sign saying 0.5. Here people can clearly see where he's going. From this i can already see where i can add/improve when ive made my whole animation. I could add more elements to the scene to make it more dynamic, realistic, motion. I could have birds flying in the sky, two people throwing a ball to each other out on their garden, a dog maybe etc. After effects is getting easier the more i'm using it. Im really annoyed though because I have a really good idea what I could of done for this project, when listening to music I found a peice that gave me a really cool thought in my head of making an epic fight between Co2 and things to prevent it, using characters. I really wish I chose music first for this project. I shall learn from that. But carrying on with this I shall now begin my next scenes.
Monday, 21 October 2013
Text - Font choice
The message at the end I have finalised as:
"Co2 is increasing global warming. Don't drive when you can walk."
The message is short, snappy, straight to the point and strong. It is built up from a jokey theme to sudden emotional theme then the encouraging theme.
The font choice can be either b to fit with seriousness, be strong, bold and fit the bill. Or it can be in the same style of being jokey and fun to keep the consistent theme.
I will analyse different fonts and think what would be best in my opinion.
Research
"Co2 is increasing global warming. Don't drive when you can walk."
The message is short, snappy, straight to the point and strong. It is built up from a jokey theme to sudden emotional theme then the encouraging theme.
The font choice can be either b to fit with seriousness, be strong, bold and fit the bill. Or it can be in the same style of being jokey and fun to keep the consistent theme.
I will analyse different fonts and think what would be best in my opinion.
Research
The fonts above are all a very serious horrific style of font. It has a very strong theme what would encourage and go well with my message, it just wouldn't fit the jokey theme, i think the contrast of themes is too much.
The fonts above are a typewriter style. Again I think it would fit a serious message, but I cant see it going with my animation, the sudden change in theme would be too much.
I have decided I want to pick a font from this bunch, it is a cartoony fun font to go with my theme. And having the serious message in the jokey message creates irony, and i think this irony will work. It will still be strong and enforced by the irony even more. I like the use of capitals cause it looks more serious and I like how the letters in 'Peach Milk' are blacked out. That again shows a more serious edge but still a jokey twist. So therefore i will use peach milk as my font.
Pitch - Analysis
After pitching my proposal to the class everyone understands now my chosen themes and the idea I want to create. My themes were keyed as: Playful, Fun, Jokey, Emotional, Childish, Imperfect, Organic, Orginal, Funny, Strong, Bold and simple. The recations of the class were people finding it funny which is a postive reaction. Someone said it would affect children more, which I agree. Cartoons make children more emotionally attached to characters. The polar bear can do this which I would want to make an impact on everyone not just kids, I want people to feel sorry for the polar bear which would encourage to reduce Co2 emissions. You could say affecting kids more can affect adults even more as obviously they are parents to the young audience, and its their future generation being affected by global warming.
I am ready to start making my illustrations and animation.
I am ready to start making my illustrations and animation.
Sunday, 13 October 2013
Music
Choosing music was so hard for me, I think it would of been so much easier to pick music first then design my idea to the music because each piece of music is different and would have its own style to fit it. As I already have my idea and I know visually what I want it to look like, finding music what can fit the correct times of different scenes and relate to it is difficult. I first thought if putting calm, slow music such as pieces from bastille, but they didn't really fit when I tried them in my animatic. I looked at coldplay songs but I thought they were too emotional for my jokey fun theme. I listen to songs from embrace and I thought they could work, I found a track called celebrate which I am familiar with anyway, as i see it in a lot of football videos with emotional clips in, its a epic song which goes well with dramatic clips. I tried it in my animatic and I think it actually went really well. The slow quiet build up led up to the drop of a dramatic instrumental tune which synced really good with my animatic, the dramatic drop went with the polar bear drifting away from the other polar bear. It looked really dramatic and emotional but funny at the same time which fits my theme perfectly. Unless something else pops up embrace - Celebrate is the music i have chosen.
shortlist- (Songs other people can look at and might find useful).
-Coldplay paradise instrumental
-imagine dragons it's time
-embrace - natures law - instrumental
-embrace - celebrate - instrumental
shortlist- (Songs other people can look at and might find useful).
-Coldplay paradise instrumental
-imagine dragons it's time
-embrace - natures law - instrumental
-embrace - celebrate - instrumental
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Research - Art style/ visual style
For my art style, i'm just going to look for inspiration as I don't want to copy anyones style as I want my drawing to be original.
Family guy
Family guy
Family guy characters are created by Seth MacFarlane. Each character is drawn with a weirdly shaped head which is nice and original, I like their eyes as well, you can see the comic and humour through the characters eyes, especially through peter griffin.
Courage, the cowardly dog
Courage the cowardly dog has its own original style. The bold lines, the different shapes and sizes of facial features are the most important factor of the appeal principle. You can tell this character is a coward which is how he is meant to be. The tiny powerless arms, the big worried eyes and the yellow teeth sum up the personality of the character.
Sonic the hedgehog
Sonic the hedgehog enforces the appeal principle perfectly too. Just from a still image the art style of sonic portrays his personality as cool, heroic, his hair looks aerodynamic which enforces his fast speed aspect. The big hands and feet and the skinny arms and legs I think looks cool, the imperfection is something I really want to establish in my own work.
Monday, 7 October 2013
Research - Animation
Right now I am not certain at all what visual style of animation/drawing I want to undertake. This research will be very useful for inspiring my choice of style and drawing whilst incorporating the principles of animation.
Roobarb, When Custard Got Too Near The Bone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4aVXeDg3U4
This animation of Roobarb, works really and I really like the visual style. It is drawn in a personal and organic look, already I want to go down this route. I want to make my animation look original, in a style whats not copying any other. Digital style for me is too cliche, I think if its your own style then it deserves more appreciation. In this animation the artist has this scribble, imperfect effect. I like how the dog is drawn it inspires me as I am using two polar bears to draw them like how the dog looks, i just like how the colour isn't completely filled in and the animation has this sort of shake and vibrate effect on all the lines drawn which gives it that more realistic and dynamic look which I really like.
Looney Tunes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3GE-DrE3eE
Looney tunes is a great inspiration for animation, the reason it was one of the biggest cartoons in the 90's is how brilliant the animation is made. Each character has their own personality and all their actions depend on their personality; how fast they move in motion, how they move around, their facial expression. The portray squash and stretch and anticipation brilliant for example road runner, his legs spin to generate the energy then when he starts running his neck and whole body looks aerodynamic to how fast he is running, looney tunes is just a great example to understand the principles of animation.
The personalities of each character are so brilliant as they relate to their animals lifestyle, bugs bunny for example is a chilled character and daffy duck is a more short tempered character who gets angry easily, ducks in real life can get angry really easily. Their movements portray their personal which i really like.
I already know how I want my animation to look like with the key themes I want to go about, my animation is going to reflect character personalities like looney tunes does. With symbolic objects like the sun, clouds, co2 are going to have faces and a personality. I want to portray a same jokey immature theme too.
Wacky Races
Wacky races is similar to looney tunes in the way the characters react and their actions are influenced on their personality. The visual style is really original, the cars and characters look really organic, i love how they are drawn. It looks really unrealistic and imperfect which makes it perfect. Things are drawn which wouldn't make sense in reality; the cars are designed really nicely with each car matching the personalities of the character driving them but some of the cars for example theres a car made of wood with razor blades as wheels what wouldn't work in reality. I like how this metaphoric and imperfect style it is really something to consider myself.
Roobarb, When Custard Got Too Near The Bone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4aVXeDg3U4
This animation of Roobarb, works really and I really like the visual style. It is drawn in a personal and organic look, already I want to go down this route. I want to make my animation look original, in a style whats not copying any other. Digital style for me is too cliche, I think if its your own style then it deserves more appreciation. In this animation the artist has this scribble, imperfect effect. I like how the dog is drawn it inspires me as I am using two polar bears to draw them like how the dog looks, i just like how the colour isn't completely filled in and the animation has this sort of shake and vibrate effect on all the lines drawn which gives it that more realistic and dynamic look which I really like.
- Shakey effect
- Hand drawn style - original./organic
Looney Tunes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3GE-DrE3eE
Looney tunes is a great inspiration for animation, the reason it was one of the biggest cartoons in the 90's is how brilliant the animation is made. Each character has their own personality and all their actions depend on their personality; how fast they move in motion, how they move around, their facial expression. The portray squash and stretch and anticipation brilliant for example road runner, his legs spin to generate the energy then when he starts running his neck and whole body looks aerodynamic to how fast he is running, looney tunes is just a great example to understand the principles of animation.
The personalities of each character are so brilliant as they relate to their animals lifestyle, bugs bunny for example is a chilled character and daffy duck is a more short tempered character who gets angry easily, ducks in real life can get angry really easily. Their movements portray their personal which i really like.
- Character personality
- Funny
- Portrays principles
I already know how I want my animation to look like with the key themes I want to go about, my animation is going to reflect character personalities like looney tunes does. With symbolic objects like the sun, clouds, co2 are going to have faces and a personality. I want to portray a same jokey immature theme too.
Wacky Races
Wacky races is similar to looney tunes in the way the characters react and their actions are influenced on their personality. The visual style is really original, the cars and characters look really organic, i love how they are drawn. It looks really unrealistic and imperfect which makes it perfect. Things are drawn which wouldn't make sense in reality; the cars are designed really nicely with each car matching the personalities of the character driving them but some of the cars for example theres a car made of wood with razor blades as wheels what wouldn't work in reality. I like how this metaphoric and imperfect style it is really something to consider myself.
- metaphoric
- imperfect makes perfect
- personalitys
Cramp twins
Cramp twins is a very unusual cartoon, two twins with pretty much opposite personalities live extraordinary lives. There personalities are expressed really well in the cartoon. Wayne the blue twin is the evil, dumb and energetic character where as lucian the other twin is the smart, geeky twin. I actually like how they are drawn. Big heads with little facial features and alien looking features such as their nose. The characters have this black line stoke around them to give it a more 3D and realistic effect which is nice, but it can be quite uncomfortable to look at in my opinion, as other objects don't have it its not consistent.
EDP (Jessica Walsh)
This animation if effective for its style which is built up of simple 2D shapes. The animation shows like a journey through everyday life, each and every element is built up of shapes which I think is a really nice simplistic style. It has really made me want to use the same sort of style, I want to build my whole animation made of shapes just because its different and fits with my proposed theme of fun, playfulness and simple.
Mr bean animated
Cramp twins is a very unusual cartoon, two twins with pretty much opposite personalities live extraordinary lives. There personalities are expressed really well in the cartoon. Wayne the blue twin is the evil, dumb and energetic character where as lucian the other twin is the smart, geeky twin. I actually like how they are drawn. Big heads with little facial features and alien looking features such as their nose. The characters have this black line stoke around them to give it a more 3D and realistic effect which is nice, but it can be quite uncomfortable to look at in my opinion, as other objects don't have it its not consistent.
EDP (Jessica Walsh)
This animation if effective for its style which is built up of simple 2D shapes. The animation shows like a journey through everyday life, each and every element is built up of shapes which I think is a really nice simplistic style. It has really made me want to use the same sort of style, I want to build my whole animation made of shapes just because its different and fits with my proposed theme of fun, playfulness and simple.
Mr bean animated
Mr Bean the animated series is a animation which can inspire my technical style. The use of character personalities is the whole theme in this which is emphasised by the imperfect drawing style. I couldnt find the artist that done the drawings which I would of liked to of saw. The boldness of the strokes in this are very bold, I wouldnt make it that bold in my animation but I do want to use quite a thick black stroke.
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Research - Transport/Global warming
Transport
There are five different kinds of transport that give off Co2 emissions they are: Cars, ships, trains, buses and planes. Im thinking for my animation I either want to show Co2 coming off one of these transport or just completely focus on the consequences of global warming. I could either merge both of them, showing how transport can help global warming
Global warming
Global warming is caused by the sun heating up the earth; some heat is reflected back out to space but some is kept in a cloud of Co2 in a circumference above the earth which heats up the earth even more. Co2 which we know is caused in many ways I particularly see it from transport.
The consequences of global warming are quite extreme. The four key themes of consequence are: Weather, Wildlife, Environment and health.
I want to go down route of the polar ice caps melting which disturbs wildlife of polar bears. I will sketch out some ideas in my sketchbook using this theme, whether I will show that transport causes global warming in the first place i'm yet to to decide on.
There are five different kinds of transport that give off Co2 emissions they are: Cars, ships, trains, buses and planes. Im thinking for my animation I either want to show Co2 coming off one of these transport or just completely focus on the consequences of global warming. I could either merge both of them, showing how transport can help global warming
Global warming
Global warming is caused by the sun heating up the earth; some heat is reflected back out to space but some is kept in a cloud of Co2 in a circumference above the earth which heats up the earth even more. Co2 which we know is caused in many ways I particularly see it from transport.
The consequences of global warming are quite extreme. The four key themes of consequence are: Weather, Wildlife, Environment and health.
I want to go down route of the polar ice caps melting which disturbs wildlife of polar bears. I will sketch out some ideas in my sketchbook using this theme, whether I will show that transport causes global warming in the first place i'm yet to to decide on.
First thoughts of my direction
After looking at the brief. I had 4 starting point directions I could take, that is either: The General Message, Food, Transport or lifestyle. Im not really familiar with anything to do with Co2 emissions, its not really a subject I take interest in at all so this project will be quite challenging. I've made basic animation in Flash before and done used after effects a little bit before for a short film I made so this will be nice to learn after effects a bit more. Straight away this project is making me feel uncomfortable, which is good as I have been taught it is good to come out the comfort zone.
After looking at the 4 different directions, I am more swayed to do more transport because it gave me the strongest visualisations in my head about what i could do than the other subjects. Im gonna research into CO2 emissions of transport to get some better knowledge of it and hope to generate some visualisation which I can then express into sketches in my sketchbook. Im going to try use this new start of the new year to improve my thoughts to sketches, I struggled before to draw more.
I want to conduct research into just one of the 4 because for me I think it is more efficient to pick one of the options as quick as possible, (the one that feels best) which produces more time for thinking, thoughts and more detailed research instead of spending time deciding. Time consumption is important in design.
After watching an 'Inconvenient truth' I made some sketch notes, and it actually really helped. It gave me some ideas on the theme of global warming and how CO2 is making it worse.
I think what I want to do is do research on transport and global warming, then the consequences. This is the area I want to do my animation on. I think this area can generate lots of ideas.
After looking at the 4 different directions, I am more swayed to do more transport because it gave me the strongest visualisations in my head about what i could do than the other subjects. Im gonna research into CO2 emissions of transport to get some better knowledge of it and hope to generate some visualisation which I can then express into sketches in my sketchbook. Im going to try use this new start of the new year to improve my thoughts to sketches, I struggled before to draw more.
I want to conduct research into just one of the 4 because for me I think it is more efficient to pick one of the options as quick as possible, (the one that feels best) which produces more time for thinking, thoughts and more detailed research instead of spending time deciding. Time consumption is important in design.
After watching an 'Inconvenient truth' I made some sketch notes, and it actually really helped. It gave me some ideas on the theme of global warming and how CO2 is making it worse.
I think what I want to do is do research on transport and global warming, then the consequences. This is the area I want to do my animation on. I think this area can generate lots of ideas.
Monday, 30 September 2013
Research - 12 principles of animation
Squash and Stretch
"The most important principle is "squash and stretch", the purpose of which is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or more complex constructions, like the musculature of a human face. Taken to an extreme point, a figure stretched or squashed to an exaggerated degree can have a comical effect. In realistic animation, however, the most important aspect of this principle is the fact that an object's volume does not change when squashed or stretched. If the length of a ball is stretched vertically, its width (in three dimensions, also its depth) needs to contract correspondingly horizontally."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
"When real objects move only totally rigid ones, e.g., a chair, remain rigid in motion. Living creatures always deform in shape in some manner. For example, if you bend your arm, your bicep muscles contract and bulge out. They then lengthen and disappear when your arm straightens out. The squashed position shows the form flattened out and the stretched position shows the form extended. An important rule is that the volume of the object should remain constant at rest, squashed, or stretched. If this rule is not obeyed, then the object appears to shrink when squashed and to grow when stretched."
"This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves. Also squash and stretch is useful in animating dialogue and doing facial expressions. How extreme the use of squash and stretch is, depends on what is required in animating the scene. Usually it's broader in a short style of picture and subtler in a feature. It is used in all forms of character animation from a bouncing ball to the body weight of a person walking. This is the most important element you will be required to master and will be used often."
"Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic. A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first. The technique can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick up."
For special effect, anticipation can also be omitted in cases where it is expected. The resulting sense of anticlimax will produce a feeling of surprise in the viewer, and can often add comedy to a scene.This is often referred to as a 'surprise gag'."
"This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump or change expression. A dancer does not just leap off the floor. A backwards motion occurs before the forward action is executed. The backward motion is the anticipation. A comic effect can be done by not using anticipation after a series of gags that used anticipation. Almost all real action has major or minor anticipation such as a pitcher's wind-up or a golfers' back swing. Feature animation is often less broad than short animation unless a scene requires it to develop a characters personality."
This principle is akin to staging as it is known in theatre and film. Its purpose is to direct the audience's attention, and make it clear what is of greatest importance in a scene; Johnston and Thomas defined it as "the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear", whether that idea is an action, a personality, an expression or a mood. This can be done by various means, such as the placement of a character in the frame, the use of light and shadow, and the angle and position of the camera. The essence of this principle is keeping focus on what is relevant, and avoiding unnecessary detail.
These are two different approaches to the actual drawing process. "Straight ahead action" means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, while "pose to pose" involves starting with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the intervals later. "Straight ahead action" creates a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement, and is better for producing realistic action sequences. On the other hand, it is hard to maintain proportions, and to create exact, convincing poses along the way. "Pose to pose" works better for dramatic or emotional scenes, where composition and relation to the surroundings are of greater importance. A combination of the two techniques is often used.
Computer animation removes the problems of proportion related to "straight ahead action" drawing; however, "pose to pose" is still used for computer animation, because of the advantages it brings in composition. The use of computers facilitates this method, as computers can fill in the missing sequences in between poses automatically. It is, however, still important to oversee this process and apply the other principles discussed.
As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose. Fewer drawings make the action faster and more drawings make the action slower. Slow-ins and slow-outs soften the action, making it more life-like. For a gag action, we may omit some slow-out or slow-ins for shock appeal or the surprise element. This will give more snap to the scene.
All actions, with few exceptions (such as the animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or slightly circular path. This is especially true of the human figure and the action of animals. Arcs give animation a more natural action and better flow. Think of natural movements in the terms of a pendulum swinging. All arm movement, head turns and even eye movements are executed on an arcs.
This action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation, supplementing and/or re-enforcing the main action. Example: A character is angrily walking toward another character. The walk is forceful, aggressive, and forward leaning. The leg action is just short of a stomping walk. The secondary action is a few strong gestures of the arms working with the walk. Also, the possibility of dialogue being delivered at the same time with tilts and turns of the head to accentuate the walk and dialogue, but not so much as to distract from the walk action. All of these actions should work together in support of one another. Think of the walk as the primary action and arm swings, head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action.
Expertise in timing comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the trial and error method in refining technique. The basics are: more drawings between poses slow and smooth the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Most animation is done on twos (one drawing photographed on two frames of film) or on ones (one drawing photographed on each frame of film). Twos are used most of the time, and ones are used during camera moves such as trucks, pans and occasionally for subtle and quick dialogue animation. Also, there is timing in the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion, and reaction to another character or to a situation. Studying movement of actors and performers on stage and in films is useful when animating human or animal characters. This frame by frame examination of film footage will aid you in understanding timing for animation. This is a great way to learn from the others.
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
"The most important principle is "squash and stretch", the purpose of which is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or more complex constructions, like the musculature of a human face. Taken to an extreme point, a figure stretched or squashed to an exaggerated degree can have a comical effect. In realistic animation, however, the most important aspect of this principle is the fact that an object's volume does not change when squashed or stretched. If the length of a ball is stretched vertically, its width (in three dimensions, also its depth) needs to contract correspondingly horizontally."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
"When real objects move only totally rigid ones, e.g., a chair, remain rigid in motion. Living creatures always deform in shape in some manner. For example, if you bend your arm, your bicep muscles contract and bulge out. They then lengthen and disappear when your arm straightens out. The squashed position shows the form flattened out and the stretched position shows the form extended. An important rule is that the volume of the object should remain constant at rest, squashed, or stretched. If this rule is not obeyed, then the object appears to shrink when squashed and to grow when stretched."
http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/principles/squash_and_stretch.htm
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Stretch and Squash
1.The squash and stretch principle consists of the definition of the object. The weight and flexibility of when an object is in motion. Considered the most important principle because it is what makes the animation as realistic as it can be. An example of it is that it could be a tennis player hitting the tennis ball with his racket; the motion of the racket would look thinner as it builds up speed whilst it is swung. The ball when hit would stretch to give it that realistic effect of it traveling at speed through the air.
Anticipation
"Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic. A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first. The technique can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick up."
For special effect, anticipation can also be omitted in cases where it is expected. The resulting sense of anticlimax will produce a feeling of surprise in the viewer, and can often add comedy to a scene.This is often referred to as a 'surprise gag'."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
"An action occurs in three parts:
- the preparation for the action - this is anticipation
- the action
- the termination of the action."
"Anticipation can be the anatomical preparation for the action, e.g., retracting a foot before kicking a ball. It can also be a device to attract the viewer's attention to the proper screen area and to prepare them for the action, e.g., raising the arms and staring at something before picking it up, or staring off-screen at something and then reacting to it before the action moves on-screen. An example of this is the opening scene of Luxo, jr.. The father is looking off-screen and then reacts to something. This sets up the viewers to look at that part of the screen so they are prepared when Luxo, jr. hops in from off-screen."
"A properly timed anticipation can enable the viewer to better understand a rapid action, e.g., preparing to run and then dashing off-screen."
"Anticipation can also create the perception of weight or mass, e.g., a heavy person might put their arms on a chair before they rise, whereas a smaller person might just stand up."
- the preparation for the action - this is anticipation
- the action
- the termination of the action."
"Anticipation can be the anatomical preparation for the action, e.g., retracting a foot before kicking a ball. It can also be a device to attract the viewer's attention to the proper screen area and to prepare them for the action, e.g., raising the arms and staring at something before picking it up, or staring off-screen at something and then reacting to it before the action moves on-screen. An example of this is the opening scene of Luxo, jr.. The father is looking off-screen and then reacts to something. This sets up the viewers to look at that part of the screen so they are prepared when Luxo, jr. hops in from off-screen."
"A properly timed anticipation can enable the viewer to better understand a rapid action, e.g., preparing to run and then dashing off-screen."
"Anticipation can also create the perception of weight or mass, e.g., a heavy person might put their arms on a chair before they rise, whereas a smaller person might just stand up."
http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/principles/anticipation.htm
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Anticipation
2. Anticipation is preparation for an action that requires detailed aspects of. It is considering movement of elements whilst taking in perceptions of weight, mass and height. An example of this would be someone jumping into some water off a bridge; the camera would shown the camera shot of the person about to jump off then straight away cut to the water when the person hits the water, the persons weight and angel would define how the water would splash out.
Staging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
My definition - Staging
3. Staging is creating emphasis on a certain importance in the scene. This can be enforced by camera angles, lighting and positioning. For example someone who is really angry standing next to someone who isn't, staging here could be that the angry person could be much bigger due to positioning, the other person could be positioned in the corner of the scene and angled away from the angry person to make us as the audience draw our attention to the angry person.
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
3. Staging is creating emphasis on a certain importance in the scene. This can be enforced by camera angles, lighting and positioning. For example someone who is really angry standing next to someone who isn't, staging here could be that the angry person could be much bigger due to positioning, the other person could be positioned in the corner of the scene and angled away from the angry person to make us as the audience draw our attention to the angry person.
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
These are two different approaches to the actual drawing process. "Straight ahead action" means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, while "pose to pose" involves starting with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the intervals later. "Straight ahead action" creates a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement, and is better for producing realistic action sequences. On the other hand, it is hard to maintain proportions, and to create exact, convincing poses along the way. "Pose to pose" works better for dramatic or emotional scenes, where composition and relation to the surroundings are of greater importance. A combination of the two techniques is often used.
Computer animation removes the problems of proportion related to "straight ahead action" drawing; however, "pose to pose" is still used for computer animation, because of the advantages it brings in composition. The use of computers facilitates this method, as computers can fill in the missing sequences in between poses automatically. It is, however, still important to oversee this process and apply the other principles discussed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
My definition - Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Straight ahead means the scene is built up by frame by frame. Creating a spontaneous look to the animation. Pose to pose is when the scene is built up of a couple of key frames (poses) and then the animator draws the in-between frames. Straight ahead is better for fluidity and pose to pose is better for dramatic and playing with exaggerated emotions.
Follow through and overlapping action
Follow through and overlapping action is a general heading for two closely related techniques which help to render movement more realistically, and help to give the impression that characters follow the laws of physics. "Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. "Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates (an arm will move on different timing of the head and so on). A third related technique is "drag", where a character starts to move and parts of him take a few frames to catch up. These parts can be inanimate objects like clothing or the antenna on a car, or parts of the body, such as arms or hair. On the human body, the torso is the core, with arms, legs, head and hair appendices that normally follow the torso's movement. Body parts with much tissue, such as large stomachs and breasts, or the loose skin on a dog, are more prone to independent movement than bonier body parts. Again, exaggerated use of the technique can produce a comical effect, while more realistic animation must time the actions exactly, to produce a convincing result.
Thomas and Johnston also developed the principle of the "moving hold". A character not in movement can be rendered absolutely still; this is often done, particularly to draw attention to the main action. According to Thomas and Johnston, however, this gave a dull and lifeless result, and should be avoided. Even characters sitting still can display some sort of movement, such as the torso moving in and out with breathing.
Straight ahead means the scene is built up by frame by frame. Creating a spontaneous look to the animation. Pose to pose is when the scene is built up of a couple of key frames (poses) and then the animator draws the in-between frames. Straight ahead is better for fluidity and pose to pose is better for dramatic and playing with exaggerated emotions.
Follow through and overlapping action
Follow through and overlapping action is a general heading for two closely related techniques which help to render movement more realistically, and help to give the impression that characters follow the laws of physics. "Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. "Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates (an arm will move on different timing of the head and so on). A third related technique is "drag", where a character starts to move and parts of him take a few frames to catch up. These parts can be inanimate objects like clothing or the antenna on a car, or parts of the body, such as arms or hair. On the human body, the torso is the core, with arms, legs, head and hair appendices that normally follow the torso's movement. Body parts with much tissue, such as large stomachs and breasts, or the loose skin on a dog, are more prone to independent movement than bonier body parts. Again, exaggerated use of the technique can produce a comical effect, while more realistic animation must time the actions exactly, to produce a convincing result.
Thomas and Johnston also developed the principle of the "moving hold". A character not in movement can be rendered absolutely still; this is often done, particularly to draw attention to the main action. According to Thomas and Johnston, however, this gave a dull and lifeless result, and should be avoided. Even characters sitting still can display some sort of movement, such as the torso moving in and out with breathing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
My definition - Follow through and overlapping action
Follow through and overlapping action is two similar techniques which aid in making the animation more realistic. The follow through technique means when a character has stopped moving certain parts of the body will continue moving such as the arms for example. Overlapping means certain parts of a characters body will move at different rates for example arms would move at a different rate than legs when walking.
Slow in and out
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Slow in and out
Slow in and out basically makes the animation more realistic again. Some frames would have a slow in and some frames would have a slow out depending on the circumstance. For example if a character saw a ghost and was supposed to look scared the reaction would be a slow in due to being shocked which would bring a more emphasised emotion.
Arcs
My definition - Arcs
Arcs means the path of movement which would follow a circular path which looks like an arc. I imagine it as like a compass you use in maths, it creates a perfect circle from the anchor point in the middle. An arm would move round exactly like this with the shoulder being the anchor point.
Secondary action
This action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation, supplementing and/or re-enforcing the main action. Example: A character is angrily walking toward another character. The walk is forceful, aggressive, and forward leaning. The leg action is just short of a stomping walk. The secondary action is a few strong gestures of the arms working with the walk. Also, the possibility of dialogue being delivered at the same time with tilts and turns of the head to accentuate the walk and dialogue, but not so much as to distract from the walk action. All of these actions should work together in support of one another. Think of the walk as the primary action and arm swings, head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action.
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Secondary action
The secondary action is a more in depth action to support the main action. It enforces emotion across better making it more understandable and realistic. For example if a character was exhausted from walking they would be walking sluggish with small steps. The secondary action to support this could be making the characters arms look floppy and tired, they could be slouched over, theyre mouth could be showing they are breathing heavy, there legs could be shaking a little bit too.
Timing
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Timing
Timing basically means the timing of movements and actions of characters and things. The more drawings means the scene slower and smooth and the less drawings means the scene is faster. Timing the amount of drawings is important to establish what you want your animation to portray. For example if a character was about to get hit by a car, the drawings should be slow at first then faster when the car hits the character to portray the emotion and damage the car has caused.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time. Its like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical. In feature animation, a character must move more broadly to look natural. The same is true of facial expressions, but the action should not be as broad as in a short cartoon style. Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head turn will give your film more appeal. Use good taste and common sense to keep from becoming too theatrical and excessively animated.Exaggeration
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it does to academic drawing. The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the classical sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life. You transform these into color and movement giving the characters the illusion of three-and four-dimensional life. Three dimensional is movement in space. The fourth dimension is movement in time.
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Exaggeration
Exaggeration means what is says on the tin. Certain elements in the frame can be exaggerated to draw the viewers eye, or it can portray a visual style in the animation overall. For example If the visual style was a fast actioned comedy like tom and jerry, fast movements when running, turning the head, punching, kicking, showing anger can be exaggerated using fast movements.
Solid drawing
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
My definition - Solid drawing
Solid drawing is taking consideration into volume and weight. This means drawings will have the three dimensional look giving it a more realistic look again.
Appeal
A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest. Early cartoons were basically a series of gags strung together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye.
My definition - Appeal
Appeal
A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest. Early cartoons were basically a series of gags strung together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye.
My definition - Appeal
Appeal means characters in the animation have to live up to what you want them to be seen like. For example id you want the character to be evil, that means being appealing as being evil. They can have many different actions to enforce the personality.
Year 2 Begins, first brief. AF201 Animation.
Climate
Change Awareness Animation
· Present contextual research with annotations that demonstrate a basic knowledge of commercial applications of animation practices.
· Produce sketchbook/s and deliver a verbal presentation to peers that demonstrate an understanding of general animation principles and an ability to apply them to practical outcomes. Produce a short animated sequence that demonstrates competence with identified animation techniques.
The Brief
We have been commissioned to produce a short (20 – 30 seconds) animation which promotes a message of engagement in activities which will limit CO2 emissions as part of a public information campaign.
The themes you need to consider are as follows:
I need to undertake research into
1. The principles of animation
2. Examples of existing animations which are used to convey information or are designed to persuade
I will follow a design process, from initial idea generation (e.g. brainstorms, rough and thumbnail sketches), through to storyboarding and mocking-up artwork, generating a script and an animatic. I will pitch my ideas, storyboards, art direction and animatic on Monday 14th October in the classes in the morning. The animatic must feature a sound track, so any music tracks, sound effects or voice over recordings will have been prepared to build my animatic against.
I will produce the artwork in any combination of Photoshop or Illustrator, which I will import into After Effects to animate. I will be using the core, foundational techniques in After Effects (e.g. transform properties, keyframing, easing, layers, pre-comping) so I will not use After Effects plug-ins to create my animated sequences. My blog should contain entries on how you create your artwork and animations.
I will show my finished animation in crit on Monday 4th November. I should write up a review of this crit, the feedback you were offered and your response to it, including changes you make, in your blog.
AF201 Animation
Learning Outcomes
· Present contextual research with annotations that demonstrate a basic knowledge of commercial applications of animation practices.
· Produce sketchbook/s and deliver a verbal presentation to peers that demonstrate an understanding of general animation principles and an ability to apply them to practical outcomes. Produce a short animated sequence that demonstrates competence with identified animation techniques.
The Brief
We have been commissioned to produce a short (20 – 30 seconds) animation which promotes a message of engagement in activities which will limit CO2 emissions as part of a public information campaign.
The themes you need to consider are as follows:
- The General Message: This needs to express the seriousness of the message that time is running out, but be optimistic that we still have an opportunity to shape our future. The message about the consequences of no action on global warming can be scary but your film should be designed to motivate to action.
- Food: The food chain contributes significantly to climate change and food is essential for life. Actions you can take to make the food supply more sustainable include growing your own veg, buying local and eating seasonally.
- Transport: Flying gives you a huge carbon footprint, so your film can encourage holidaying closer to home. There’s really no excuse for driving a car round towns like Eastbourne or Brighton where catching the bus is cheap and easy, cycling is good for your fitness and walking slows life down to a liveable pace and creates a sense of community.
- Consumption/Lifestyle: We live in a throw away culture in which we buy new stuff and bin our old stuff without a thought. Your aim is to get viewers of your film to question this acquisitiveness, to ask questions like ‘do I really need to upgrade that phone’? You also want to promote a message of ‘reduce and recycle’, to promote mending, sharing, swapping and buying second hand. Look at services like Freecycle and Furniture Now for inspiration.
I need to undertake research into
1. The principles of animation
2. Examples of existing animations which are used to convey information or are designed to persuade
I will follow a design process, from initial idea generation (e.g. brainstorms, rough and thumbnail sketches), through to storyboarding and mocking-up artwork, generating a script and an animatic. I will pitch my ideas, storyboards, art direction and animatic on Monday 14th October in the classes in the morning. The animatic must feature a sound track, so any music tracks, sound effects or voice over recordings will have been prepared to build my animatic against.
I will produce the artwork in any combination of Photoshop or Illustrator, which I will import into After Effects to animate. I will be using the core, foundational techniques in After Effects (e.g. transform properties, keyframing, easing, layers, pre-comping) so I will not use After Effects plug-ins to create my animated sequences. My blog should contain entries on how you create your artwork and animations.
I will show my finished animation in crit on Monday 4th November. I should write up a review of this crit, the feedback you were offered and your response to it, including changes you make, in your blog.
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