Clay animation is one of the many forms we see in todays stop motion animation. Clay is a good item to use in the formation of stop motion animation because it is deformable and can easily be changed from its original creation, also clay can be manually moved rather than acting as the actor would have to remember the position that they were in. In our stop motion ident for the childrens TV station "Cbeebies" we will be using plasticine clay in bright colours to attract the childs attention and seem child attention. Primary colours are more widely used in childrens programming rather than dull bland colours such as grey as primary colours are bright and attract the attention of the children.
In clay animation each item is sculpted, usually around a skeleton architecture. In our meeting we had many ideas of what we would be doing, these included the small "blob-like" creatures currently used on the Cbeebies idents or using a morph like creation. We would most likely be creating a centre object and have the action occuring around this centre item. We have not yet decided on what the centre object may be, we will come to this conclusion in a second meeting after each group member has conducted their research. If we were to go with the "blob-like" idea then the clay would take on a freeform motion where as the morph idea would involve using character motion where the character will be recognizable throughout the motion. An idea we looked in to during the meeting involved strata-cut animation which would involve slicing a loaf of clay in to various scenes and then moulding from that but we felt that would limit the amount of creativity we could put in to producing the ident and would not be suitable for the station we have decided to create for; Cbeebies.
The creation process
When creating our stop motion ident we will need plasticine or polymer clay as well as wire to hold the pieces together and give them a spinal structure.
The wire will then be beant in to shape and then we will mould the clay on to this structure.
We will most likely need to use a base clay which we can add clay on to, for this we will use a neutral colour such as grey.
We will then add the following layers of clay on to this.
The clay shall then be animated, for this we shall be using a digital camera, perhaps on a tripod so we can keep a consistant camera shot.
We will use a flat service to base the creations on.
We will then move the figure in to its next position.
We shall then load the images on to a computer and this will then be pieced together to form a motion using software such as Pinnacle or Power Director.
The chosen form of clay the group shall be using is Plasticine clay as this clay does not harden as easy as other forms of clay and we will be producing this motion over the course of a few days.
Clay animation is a great technique to use but the process can get tiring in long productions which involve a lot of frames which is why we don't often see this used in long processes with not many resources. As we are working in a team of four and have a certain amount of plasticine, this technique will be suitable for our ident production.
1 comments
Group Activity
10:00
Jack | Jordan | Dan | Gary | |
Stick to subject | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Sitting appropriately | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Using pauses | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Correct voice tone | Y | Y | Y | Y |
0937 – Discussing ideas
0939 discuss character ideas
0941 discuss resources
0945 research idents
0949 summarise research
0952 channel research
0954 cbeebies ident is chosen idea
0956 colours used etc
0958 Meeting closed
Jack – research childrens idents
Jordan – research cbeebies
Gary – research clay stop motion
Dan – research stop motion animation techniques
Research Findings
10:53
I uploaded the survey we carried out to a group of teenagers. Below are the findings in chronological order:
Favourite Music Genre:
How often do you watch music videos?
How do you consume music videos?
Who do you watch music videos with?
Do you have to see a music video befoe you commit to purchase a song?
How do you watch music videos?
Order of Importance
Favourite Music Genre:
- RnB
- Indie
- Electro
- Grime
- Pop
- Rock
- Dubstep
- Rap
How often do you watch music videos?
- Daily
- Weekly
- Fortnightly
How do you consume music videos?
- Internet
- TV
- Mobile
Who do you watch music videos with?
- Alone
- Friends
- Family
Do you have to see a music video befoe you commit to purchase a song?
- No
- Depends
- Yes
How do you watch music videos?
- Home
- Work
- Friends
- Family
Order of Importance
- Music
- Story
- Comedy
- Popularity
- Dancing
- Special Effects
- Emotion
- Aspirational Lifestyle
- Fashion
Music Video Planning
10:13
The song we are basing our music video upon is called "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by a band of 2 people called "Daft Punk". We are hoping to capture what Daft Punk is all about, mainly using lots of technology in the video and merging this with real life such as electronic helmets that display messages which may be a problem with our budget but we hope to convey this as much as possible in our video. We are currently in the process of investigating our findings from our research so we are not making any strong decisions at the moment as we hope to have looked at our collected data and then make decisions with our findings in mind.
Aardman Studios
09:53
Aardman studios was founded in 1976 and began as a low budget project by Peter Lord and David Broxton. The two wanted to put their dream into action of creating animated motion pictures. The partnership had provided motions to the BBC for deaf children called "Vision On" which created Morph which was a simple clay character that is still used in an art programme on CBBC called "Smart".
Later in time Aardman produced many shorts for Channel 4 which included the "Conversation Pieces". At this point Aardman started hiring more animators. Three of these new animators made directional debut's with Aardman creating the "Lip Synch" series.
October 28 1999 was a very special day for Aardman studios as they had been signed a $250 million deal to create 5 feature films with DreamWorks (Now DreamWorks animation) which included Chicken Run. On 1 October 2006 just before the release of Flushed Away, The New York Times reported that due to creative differences DreamWorks animation and Aardman would not be extending their contract and the deal was officially terminated on January 30th 2007. Aardmans spokesperson, Arthur Sheriff stated "The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa".
In April 2007 Aardman signed a three year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment which was renewed in 2010. Aardman co-founder Peter Lord stated "We are all very excited by the potential and have a number of projects we are keen to bring to fruition with this new relationship. In June 2007 these ideas were released:
This article contains references from Wikipedia EN
Later in time Aardman produced many shorts for Channel 4 which included the "Conversation Pieces". At this point Aardman started hiring more animators. Three of these new animators made directional debut's with Aardman creating the "Lip Synch" series.
October 28 1999 was a very special day for Aardman studios as they had been signed a $250 million deal to create 5 feature films with DreamWorks (Now DreamWorks animation) which included Chicken Run. On 1 October 2006 just before the release of Flushed Away, The New York Times reported that due to creative differences DreamWorks animation and Aardman would not be extending their contract and the deal was officially terminated on January 30th 2007. Aardmans spokesperson, Arthur Sheriff stated "The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa".
In April 2007 Aardman signed a three year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment which was renewed in 2010. Aardman co-founder Peter Lord stated "We are all very excited by the potential and have a number of projects we are keen to bring to fruition with this new relationship. In June 2007 these ideas were released:
- Arthur Christmas
- The Pirates!
- The Cat Burglars
- And an untitled project involving Nick Park.
This article contains references from Wikipedia EN
Response to Peer-Assessment
10:54
I have commented on 3 blogs of my classmates. These blogs include:
Paul Edwards
Callum Glavey
Daniel Gregory
I evaluated their work on techniques and development posts concerning the subject of stop motion animation. In turn, my blog posts recieved feedback from my classmates. These are as follows:
Joe Said:
I will meet these targets by very closely looking at the specification and by creating an action plan so I can see what I need to do to aim for these targets in a more clear fashion.
During this episode of learning I have most enjoyed learning a new form of creative media; stop motion animation. This is something I have not done before and I am looking forward to producing a stop motion animation.
During this module I have been challenged with creating and displaying various techniques through the medium of blu-tack. Although this is not clay it is very similar and I have learnt using the blu-tack how difficult it can be to add detail to the creations. Another challenging aspect of this unit was keeping the camera stationary whilst moving the objects. I feel I need to experiment more with the angle of the camera when taking the pictures.
In the future I feel it would benefit me to use a tripod, make the creationg larger so more detail can be added to the creations allowing me to express more creativity in producing a better end product; a stop motion film.
Paul Edwards
Callum Glavey
Daniel Gregory
I evaluated their work on techniques and development posts concerning the subject of stop motion animation. In turn, my blog posts recieved feedback from my classmates. These are as follows:
Joe Said:
this is some good work gary, with good examples and pictures. i would give it a meritJoshua Said:
Grade: MeritDan Said:
This has some good examples and information
Target : Distinction
I would give this work a distinction as it explains the techniques clearly and has some good examples.I am very grateful for the feedback I have recieved and am taking this on board to guide me through this unit. From Joe's comment there is no comment on how to approve but he has graded me a merit, so I am taking this that I need to read the specification for a distinction grade and I should aim for this. From Josh's comment I have recieved some feedback but again got no comment as to where I can move forward with my work; I shall study the specification for reaching a Distinction and make this my target. From Dan's comment I can see what the strong points were in my work so I shall need to study on areas not laid out in the comments above from the distinction criterea, these include Using terminology correctly, Generate more original ideas, produce all work of a professional standard and to crtically evaluate all aspects of my work.
I will meet these targets by very closely looking at the specification and by creating an action plan so I can see what I need to do to aim for these targets in a more clear fashion.
During this episode of learning I have most enjoyed learning a new form of creative media; stop motion animation. This is something I have not done before and I am looking forward to producing a stop motion animation.
During this module I have been challenged with creating and displaying various techniques through the medium of blu-tack. Although this is not clay it is very similar and I have learnt using the blu-tack how difficult it can be to add detail to the creations. Another challenging aspect of this unit was keeping the camera stationary whilst moving the objects. I feel I need to experiment more with the angle of the camera when taking the pictures.
In the future I feel it would benefit me to use a tripod, make the creationg larger so more detail can be added to the creations allowing me to express more creativity in producing a better end product; a stop motion film.
Music Powerpoint
01:15
Above is mine and Dan's powerpoint comparing a popular band (The Killers) with a not so popular band (Walk Off the Earth {WOTE}). Also, please note that this displays differently on Google documents, rest assured the powerpoint version works fine, also there are many interactive elements to this such as hyperlinks and embedded video which will not display on the online version.
Sitcom
11:52
Characters:
Runner (Male)
Runner (Female)
Director (Male - cheesey cool kind of guy)
Producer (Female - Often chasing around the directors mistakes)
The idea for our first episode is that no one really knows what the show actually is but it shows backstage of a show with some cool acting director whom is not actually cool. The producer of often doing more of a directors role than the director himself is. We are trying to make the backstage of this rather equal so that we can attract a much wider audience and not mislead anyone about the industry. The comedy from the show will occur from the "drop-in" characters; celebrities. These will be a mixture of four elements, keen, fame orientated, greedy, snobby. By keen we mean that the celebrities will often be interfering with the dynamics of behind the scenes. By fame orientated we mean that the celebrities will be based around themselves, being selfish and having very weird demands such as cardboard cut outs of themselves etc. By greedy we mean that the celebrities will be using up every service that the behind the scenes staff have to offer such as using the runners for their own purposes or stopping them from helping other people in need of their assistance. By snobby we mean that the celebrity will be criticising all of the movements, an example of this would be if a director came to the green room then we would notice that they would be criticising the on scene directors roles.
Runner (Male)
Runner (Female)
Director (Male - cheesey cool kind of guy)
Producer (Female - Often chasing around the directors mistakes)
The idea for our first episode is that no one really knows what the show actually is but it shows backstage of a show with some cool acting director whom is not actually cool. The producer of often doing more of a directors role than the director himself is. We are trying to make the backstage of this rather equal so that we can attract a much wider audience and not mislead anyone about the industry. The comedy from the show will occur from the "drop-in" characters; celebrities. These will be a mixture of four elements, keen, fame orientated, greedy, snobby. By keen we mean that the celebrities will often be interfering with the dynamics of behind the scenes. By fame orientated we mean that the celebrities will be based around themselves, being selfish and having very weird demands such as cardboard cut outs of themselves etc. By greedy we mean that the celebrities will be using up every service that the behind the scenes staff have to offer such as using the runners for their own purposes or stopping them from helping other people in need of their assistance. By snobby we mean that the celebrity will be criticising all of the movements, an example of this would be if a director came to the green room then we would notice that they would be criticising the on scene directors roles.
Development
10:50
More information here
William Horner evolved the idea of the phenakitoscope with his 'zoetrope'. This was a device that would hold a motion picture inside of a spinning circle, if you were to lay the inside image out it would be a very long rectangle, one could simply replace this to change the motion. 
George Pal was born in Hungaria and his use of animation was phenomenal. He raduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928 and after his stay there he began making films for Hunnia Films in Budapest. He migrated to Europe when the Nazi's came in to power where he bagan working for Paramount Pictures. George created many productions for Paramount including Puppetoons and switched to live action film making producing The Great Rupert. George was presented with an honorary in 1944 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons". George passed away at the age of 72, he has got a star on the Hollywood walk of fame and in 1980 the Academy of Motion Pitcure Arts and Sciences founded the "George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in FIlm" in his memory.
Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor had also made a contribution to the animation movement. He invented the Kinetoscope. This was not a movie projector but it projected images within the device for individual viewing. The device had the basic parts that we still see today in movie projectors. Edison's creation created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip or perforated film within a sequence and displaying this via a source of light and high speed shutter. The sequence you can see to the left is titled "Fred Ott's Sneeze" and not only was this a major movement but it seen the first awarded copyright of a motion in the United States.
Walk off the Earth
18:41
Genre: Indie / Reggae / Ska Location Burlington, Ontario, CA Profile Views: 717479 Last Login: 07/01/2011 Member Since 15/05/2006 Website walkofftheearth.com Record Label Slapdash Records Type of Label Indiesource: http://www.myspace.com/walkofftheearth
About Walk Off the Earth.. Hailing from Burlington, Ontario Walk Off the Earth are comprised of 3 members, all with extensive backgrounds in the Canadian music scene - usually behind the scenes as writers or producers. In two short years, the band sold over 2000 CD’s through their own label, SlapDash Records while sharing the stage with noteworthy outfits like Bedouin Soundclash, K-OS, Ill Scarlett, The Johnstones, and many more! Their sophomore album, ‘My Rock’, is due in 2009 and will take off where their charming reggae-rock debut Smooth Like Stone on a Beach took off! Taking cues from legends before them like; The Clash and The Police - it’s just a matter of time before we’re all humming their infectious melodies down the street on the way to work! Walk Off the Earth will join Warped Tour this year for a few dates and tour their new release. Expect to hear more from these cats..... “The tracks recorded for Smooth Like Stone On A Beach showcase solid musicianship and a keen sense of pop sensibility but the humour and energy of WOTE’s ska-tinged reggae rock is undeniably infectious. The fact that these guys are professional party makers oozes on every track.” - View Magazine.... Everyone loves a good stoner band, which is why Walk Off The Earth's sophomore album, My Rock, warrants some serious summer spin time. Their smooth reggae music is perfectly chill and collected, best suited for party campfires and backyard barbeques. It's a much stronger effort than their debut, Smooth Like A Stone On The Beach, which was packed with memorable tracks but not the star power of this release. My Rock finds the band moving in a more imaginative and solid direction, where the reggae is balanced with soothing melodies, smart lyrics and tangy guitars. "Money Tree" best emphasizes their harmonious side, "Julia" and the re-recorded "Broke" show off their penchant for summer beats, and their cover of Treble Charger's "Red" shows their ability to take something beautiful and add their flavour. This is definitely a record to bring to the cottage this summer. (SlapDash) .... .... ..Booking Inquiries.. Ryan Heerschap - Underground Operations.. ..ryan[at]undergroundoperations.com......
This video isn't a convential music video we see on our screens every day, such as Mr Brightside - The Killers, however, The Killers will have had more financial backing and resources to make their music video appeal to their audience. Where the videos by WOTE will have most likely been a viral attempt by the band manager and these seem to be paying off quite well if you look at the bands youtube's channels subscription figures:
#24 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Musicians - Canada#14 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Musicians - Canada#55 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Partners - CanadaThese videos have taken on their own style in the production of the videos, for example we can see all instruments and equipment used on the screen; this will also be appealing to talent scouts as they can see all of the equipment being used. On the bands youtube channel I found a video titled 'Ceiling Kick' where it shows two of the band members on tour where they attempt to kick the ceiling and later the wall, this shows the bands personalities, relationships showing they're not 'manufactured' and may also be another attempt in making the band 'viral' as there is this common story we hear about rock stars on tours in hotel rooms getting up to 'rock star antics' and this may have been a modern day take on the supposedly 'rebellious' nature of rock stars.
Sitcom idea
16:31
Finish school @ 12.30 Wednesday, orthodontist appointment.
"Green Room"
Follows the musings of various celebrities (Celebs played by people, can't afford to hire celebs). The show is focused on the runners of the green room as well as administration team and a lot of the things are hidden from the camera, ie the studio, corridors etc. we plan to only have the green room on show. The celebrities often will not be shown on seperate episodes and would change on a per-episode basis.
Equipment Needed:
Preferrably 2 cameras
2 Tripod
1 Dolly (I think it'd dolly, ie the thing that moves with a tripod on it)
Boom + Boom Mic
Stage lights, about 2
Props:
2 sofas
Water cooler
microphones that wrap around head with half headphone (xbox type of ones)
few plants
Story needs a bit of development but thats the idea i could think of. 2 runners, 1 boy, 1 girl, a studio manager and a director. studio manager is female and director is male. Appeals to both genders, equal amount of authoritative people.
Target audience, primarily, young adults (20 - 35), secondary, adults (35 - 50).
"Green Room"
Follows the musings of various celebrities (Celebs played by people, can't afford to hire celebs). The show is focused on the runners of the green room as well as administration team and a lot of the things are hidden from the camera, ie the studio, corridors etc. we plan to only have the green room on show. The celebrities often will not be shown on seperate episodes and would change on a per-episode basis.
Equipment Needed:
Preferrably 2 cameras
2 Tripod
1 Dolly (I think it'd dolly, ie the thing that moves with a tripod on it)
Boom + Boom Mic
Stage lights, about 2
Props:
2 sofas
Water cooler
microphones that wrap around head with half headphone (xbox type of ones)
few plants
Story needs a bit of development but thats the idea i could think of. 2 runners, 1 boy, 1 girl, a studio manager and a director. studio manager is female and director is male. Appeals to both genders, equal amount of authoritative people.
Target audience, primarily, young adults (20 - 35), secondary, adults (35 - 50).
Editing Task
16:04
Editing for Teenagers from Gary and Dan on Vimeo.
Above is the film we created, we used Pinnacle Studio 12 to create this, enjoy!
Above is the groups powerpoint, I'm working with Daniel and Gavin. The powerpoint is not yet completed, we are going to add information about the band Walk off the earth.
Techniques
10:15
-The Principles of Animation.
Squash and Stretch
This is one of the most important techniques in the animation process. The purpose of this technique is to give a sense of flexibility and weight to the objects being animated. This technique can be applied to simple objects such as a bouncy ball or to complex items such as facial expressions.
Anticipation
This technique is used to prepare the audience for action in the film. This makes the action seem more realistic. An example of this would be a tennis player preparing to hit the tennis ball and hitting the tennis ball. This technique is not only used in physical actions, it's used also in many less physical items such as a character looking off the screen to see somebody arriving or to focus attention on an object which will become part of the action.
Staging
This technique is similar to staging as we know it in film and theatre. The purpose of this effect is to direct the audiences attention and to make it clear what the superlative is of the scene, what is happening in the current scene and what is about to happen in that scene or in further scenes. This technique can be put in to action through various ways such as where the character has been placed, the use of light and shadow and the camera angles. The objective of this technique is keeping focus on what is relevant and to avoid any unnecessary detail. Examples of this 'type' of technique is what we often see on the news but in a slightly different essence where the backgrounds of a still frame is blurred out so that a person or object becomes the most noticeable on screen.
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Straight ahead action means to draw out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, I had experience of this in drawing a flip book and it is a long process especially if this was used in creation of a children's cartoon. It can also be very easily misconstrued such as forgetting bits of a scene.
Pose to pose involves drawing out a few major frames and filling in the intervals later on. This may be drawing a fish tank with a moving plant as that could consist of only around ten frames, you could then add the fish later on with a new layer to the film.
Straight ahead action creates more fluid dynamic action of illusion in making your eyes feel this is a very natural production . The negative points to this technique is it can be very hard to maintain proportion and creating the exact poses frame to frame.
Pose to pose is better when using dramatic or emotional scenes in which composition and relation to surroundings are of a greater importance to a production. A lot of the time a combination if these two techniques are often used to create a production but with the advancement of computer animation these techniques can often be used slightly differently as computers can allow you to maintain the aspect ratio whilst keeping separate frames and then combining these on separate layers displaying the end product of an animation.
Follow through and overlapping action
These two techniques are very closely related. They both help in the process of rendering movement of objects and helping to create a more realistic look to the objects on frame; giving the impression that characters are being applied to the laws of physics.
Follow through refers to separate parts of the body continuing to move after the moving character has stopped such as a character walking down the street, stopping and putting ones hand to ones chin in order to think whilst the legs still remain static.
Overlapping action is how the tendency of parts of the body can move at different rates, we could imagine this technique being used in a scene where a character is running and the characters head turns right to look at the other side of a running track, the head would move at a different pace to the legs as if it was moving as fast as the legs either the character would be moving very slowly or the head should move at this different pace on order to show emotion on the face and not make this look like a production error.
A third technique is known as 'drag' where a character begins to move and parts of the character takes a few frames to catch up with the character. An example of this could be Marge Simpson, famous for huge hair out of 'The Simpsons' is running and then sharply stops, if she is applied to the laws of physics her hair will be slightly behind her head whilst running and presumably would fall forwards or to its natural position after the sharp stop so we can see the force of this 'drag' through the hair, this could be a small thing to consider when animating but the end result in registering this technique in the viewers head would be huge. Body parts with much tissue like large stomachs, breasts or loose skin on a dog would be much more prone to force than the torso of the dog which is more static as it has more bones.
An example of the moving hold would be in 'Thomas and Johnston' where the character is rendered absolutely still and this is often used in drawing attention to the main character. Thomas and Johnston said that this gave a dull and lifeless effect on a character but this could produce a powerful emotional scene on how one was to use camera angles and lighting in a scene.
Slow in and slow out
Movement of the human and many other objects need time to accelerate and slow down. This makes animation look more realistic if it has more frames near the beginning and end of the sequence. This applies to characters moving between two extreme poses like sitting down and standing up, this also applies to inanimate moving objects such as a bouncing ball.
Arcs
Most human and animal motions occur along an arched trajectory and by animating this the motion picture should make these movements more realistic. This technique can be used on bodily items such as a moving limb by rotating the joint the limb's attached to, or an item being thrown along a parabolic trajectory. The exception of this technique is a mechanical movement which typically would move in a straight line.
Secondary Action
By adding a secondary action to the main action, this makes a scene more life like and can help in supporting a main action. A character whom is walking could simultaneously swing its arms or keep ones arms in ones pockets, the character could be speaking or whistling or be expressing emotions through facial expressions. One of the utmost important things one should consider when using secondary actions is that the action should empathize and compliment the main action; not taking attention away from the main action. If the secondary action is taking attention from the main action then perhaps the action is better to be left out. A point of note is when using facial actions in a dramatic scene then these will often go unnoticed, when in these circumstances it's better to use this secondary action at the beginning and end of the motion rather than during the motion.
Timing
The timing is referring to the number of drawing or frames allocated per action, thus translating to the speed of the film. On a strictly physical level, correct timing to an object would make the item to appear to the laws of physics thus having a more realistic motion; for example, the weight of an object would decide how it reacts to a moving force such as a push. The timing is also of vital importance for establishing the
mood of a character along with its emotion and reaction. Timing can also be a device to communicate the aspects of a characters personality.
Exaggeration
This is technique which is very useful for animation; a good mimic of reality can look static and dull when used in cartoons. The degree of the exaggeration used can depend on whether one seeks realism or a certain style such as a caricature or a style of an artist. The classic definition of exaggeration which was used by Walt Disney was to remain true to reality but presenting it in a more wild and extreme form. Other forms of exaggeration can involve the supernatural or surreal alliterations involving the physical features of a character, or elements in the storyline. It's important to employ a certain level of restraint when using exaggeration; if a scene contains many elements then there should be a balance in how those elements are exaggeration in relation to one another, thus avoiding confusion or overawing the viewer.
Solid Drawing
The principle of solid drawing means taking in to account the many forms used in three dimensional space, thus giving volume and weight. The animator needs to be experienced in creating mechanical drawings to show advancement when drawing the 3D shapes, the anatomy, weight, balance, light and shadow. For the classic animator this would involve taking art classes and drawing real life sketches. One thing in particular which Johnston and Thomas warned about was creating 'twins'; characters whom were mirrored either side of one another as this made the characters appear lifeless. Modern computer animators draw less because of the advancement in the facilities a computer can offer. Yet this work benefits extremely with basic understanding of the principles of animation as well as the basic computer animation know-how.
Appeal
In cartoon characters, appeal is what we know as charisma which would be seen in an actor. A character that is appealing isn't necessarily sympathetic; villains and monsters can also be appealing; the important thing is when using appeal is that the character appears to be real and interesting. There's many tricks for making a character connect better with an audience; for likable characters a symmetrical or particularly baby-like face is often effective.
Referenced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
This is one of the most important techniques in the animation process. The purpose of this technique is to give a sense of flexibility and weight to the objects being animated. This technique can be applied to simple objects such as a bouncy ball or to complex items such as facial expressions.
This technique is used to prepare the audience for action in the film. This makes the action seem more realistic. An example of this would be a tennis player preparing to hit the tennis ball and hitting the tennis ball. This technique is not only used in physical actions, it's used also in many less physical items such as a character looking off the screen to see somebody arriving or to focus attention on an object which will become part of the action.
This technique is similar to staging as we know it in film and theatre. The purpose of this effect is to direct the audiences attention and to make it clear what the superlative is of the scene, what is happening in the current scene and what is about to happen in that scene or in further scenes. This technique can be put in to action through various ways such as where the character has been placed, the use of light and shadow and the camera angles. The objective of this technique is keeping focus on what is relevant and to avoid any unnecessary detail. Examples of this 'type' of technique is what we often see on the news but in a slightly different essence where the backgrounds of a still frame is blurred out so that a person or object becomes the most noticeable on screen.
Straight ahead action means to draw out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, I had experience of this in drawing a flip book and it is a long process especially if this was used in creation of a children's cartoon. It can also be very easily misconstrued such as forgetting bits of a scene.
Pose to pose involves drawing out a few major frames and filling in the intervals later on. This may be drawing a fish tank with a moving plant as that could consist of only around ten frames, you could then add the fish later on with a new layer to the film.
Straight ahead action creates more fluid dynamic action of illusion in making your eyes feel this is a very natural production . The negative points to this technique is it can be very hard to maintain proportion and creating the exact poses frame to frame.
Pose to pose is better when using dramatic or emotional scenes in which composition and relation to surroundings are of a greater importance to a production. A lot of the time a combination if these two techniques are often used to create a production but with the advancement of computer animation these techniques can often be used slightly differently as computers can allow you to maintain the aspect ratio whilst keeping separate frames and then combining these on separate layers displaying the end product of an animation.
These two techniques are very closely related. They both help in the process of rendering movement of objects and helping to create a more realistic look to the objects on frame; giving the impression that characters are being applied to the laws of physics.
Follow through refers to separate parts of the body continuing to move after the moving character has stopped such as a character walking down the street, stopping and putting ones hand to ones chin in order to think whilst the legs still remain static.
Overlapping action is how the tendency of parts of the body can move at different rates, we could imagine this technique being used in a scene where a character is running and the characters head turns right to look at the other side of a running track, the head would move at a different pace to the legs as if it was moving as fast as the legs either the character would be moving very slowly or the head should move at this different pace on order to show emotion on the face and not make this look like a production error.
A third technique is known as 'drag' where a character begins to move and parts of the character takes a few frames to catch up with the character. An example of this could be Marge Simpson, famous for huge hair out of 'The Simpsons' is running and then sharply stops, if she is applied to the laws of physics her hair will be slightly behind her head whilst running and presumably would fall forwards or to its natural position after the sharp stop so we can see the force of this 'drag' through the hair, this could be a small thing to consider when animating but the end result in registering this technique in the viewers head would be huge. Body parts with much tissue like large stomachs, breasts or loose skin on a dog would be much more prone to force than the torso of the dog which is more static as it has more bones.
An example of the moving hold would be in 'Thomas and Johnston' where the character is rendered absolutely still and this is often used in drawing attention to the main character. Thomas and Johnston said that this gave a dull and lifeless effect on a character but this could produce a powerful emotional scene on how one was to use camera angles and lighting in a scene.
Movement of the human and many other objects need time to accelerate and slow down. This makes animation look more realistic if it has more frames near the beginning and end of the sequence. This applies to characters moving between two extreme poses like sitting down and standing up, this also applies to inanimate moving objects such as a bouncing ball.
Most human and animal motions occur along an arched trajectory and by animating this the motion picture should make these movements more realistic. This technique can be used on bodily items such as a moving limb by rotating the joint the limb's attached to, or an item being thrown along a parabolic trajectory. The exception of this technique is a mechanical movement which typically would move in a straight line.
By adding a secondary action to the main action, this makes a scene more life like and can help in supporting a main action. A character whom is walking could simultaneously swing its arms or keep ones arms in ones pockets, the character could be speaking or whistling or be expressing emotions through facial expressions. One of the utmost important things one should consider when using secondary actions is that the action should empathize and compliment the main action; not taking attention away from the main action. If the secondary action is taking attention from the main action then perhaps the action is better to be left out. A point of note is when using facial actions in a dramatic scene then these will often go unnoticed, when in these circumstances it's better to use this secondary action at the beginning and end of the motion rather than during the motion.
The timing is referring to the number of drawing or frames allocated per action, thus translating to the speed of the film. On a strictly physical level, correct timing to an object would make the item to appear to the laws of physics thus having a more realistic motion; for example, the weight of an object would decide how it reacts to a moving force such as a push. The timing is also of vital importance for establishing the
mood of a character along with its emotion and reaction. Timing can also be a device to communicate the aspects of a characters personality.
This is technique which is very useful for animation; a good mimic of reality can look static and dull when used in cartoons. The degree of the exaggeration used can depend on whether one seeks realism or a certain style such as a caricature or a style of an artist. The classic definition of exaggeration which was used by Walt Disney was to remain true to reality but presenting it in a more wild and extreme form. Other forms of exaggeration can involve the supernatural or surreal alliterations involving the physical features of a character, or elements in the storyline. It's important to employ a certain level of restraint when using exaggeration; if a scene contains many elements then there should be a balance in how those elements are exaggeration in relation to one another, thus avoiding confusion or overawing the viewer.
Solid Drawing
The principle of solid drawing means taking in to account the many forms used in three dimensional space, thus giving volume and weight. The animator needs to be experienced in creating mechanical drawings to show advancement when drawing the 3D shapes, the anatomy, weight, balance, light and shadow. For the classic animator this would involve taking art classes and drawing real life sketches. One thing in particular which Johnston and Thomas warned about was creating 'twins'; characters whom were mirrored either side of one another as this made the characters appear lifeless. Modern computer animators draw less because of the advancement in the facilities a computer can offer. Yet this work benefits extremely with basic understanding of the principles of animation as well as the basic computer animation know-how.
In cartoon characters, appeal is what we know as charisma which would be seen in an actor. A character that is appealing isn't necessarily sympathetic; villains and monsters can also be appealing; the important thing is when using appeal is that the character appears to be real and interesting. There's many tricks for making a character connect better with an audience; for likable characters a symmetrical or particularly baby-like face is often effective.
Referenced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)