To Conclude...

I have found whilst researching for my dissertation, that there are many factors that need to be considered in order to produce an effective character performance. These include;

Illusion of Thought

“Performances are based and built on the thinking process, and characters changing moods and emotional states and their interactions are a result of these thought processes” (Webster, 2012). Sometimes it is simply the case of moving the eyes to indicate thought and maintain the life of a character.

Body Language

Body language can give insights into character's characteristics, and paying close attention to it a more believable character can be achieved as they will have a more distinct personality.

Emotion and Empathy

A character should be driven by emotions, as when we feel emotion we "do something about it" (Hooks, 2011). The emotions we feel in any given situation will differ between individuals due to our own values and mental associations, but emotion must be animated for an audience to be able to empathise with characters. "We humans empathise only with emotion" (Hooks, 2011).

These factors, when accompanied with suitable staging can result in a good character performance, so long as the character looks as though it intended to make the movements it did, which according to Webster (2005), should be your ultimate intention. 

I've also found through my practical testing, that the use of reference material is definitely going to have an effect on animated performance. Despite there being a lot of negative opinions about Rotoscoping, I don't think it should be disputed as a suitable method of capturing a performance, as I have been able produce some very smooth and realistic animations. Though whether it would be suitable for animations/actions that are more exaggerated and lively, I'm unsure; perhaps it is the type of movement you are working with that will determine whether Rotoscoping is suitable or not, though only further testing and practice with Rotoscoping will determine this. 

Despite not being entirely confident with my writing and researching skills, I have been nowhere near as stressed throughout the past few months than what I initially expected to be. Though I did have trouble getting started with writing, once I was able to make this start I found myself being able to progress with minimal difficulty. My project planning definitely helped me with this. By planning out a schedule, and making a note of what chapters I wanted to write about in my dissertation, I was able to see how much I need to write per day and about what topic, in order to be finished by a date I was comfortable with. I was able to get my practical finished before Christmas, which allowed me to focus on writing for the remaining weeks. I actually ended up finishing my writing and proof reading a week or so before deadline, which gave me good time to get my dissertation bound and finish off other tasks for hand in. I know it's a work ethic I have adapted in previous modules/years, but I've found it to be extremely useful in this instance, so I definitely will be continuing to organise my projects in this manner. 

I've certainly found CoP to be extremely useful, and I have learnt vital information to better myself as a character animator, which I will be able to apply to other modules. 

CoP Practical: Collecting Further Feedback

I produced another short questionnaire on Survey Monkey, in an attempt to receive feedback on my animations. Once again I put together the three tests into one clip, and asked my audience which one they preferred.

Test Two

Questionnaire Results

Once again, I received similar results to my first test; a majority of the audience thought the rotoscoped animation was the best, claiming that it was the 'most realistic'. However, not as many people participated in this questionnaire as last time, so it maybe too early to conclude that the rotoscoped animation was the preferred version. I will try to push others to submit answers to try and make the results more definite, but as it stands the rotoscoped animation does have a large lead with it being preferred over 80% of the time.

CoP Practical: Test Two - Rotoscoping

My final task for my practical was to rotoscope my reference footage.

Rotoscope

When I rotoscoped last time, I drew over EVERY component in EVERY frame, but this time around to save time and in hopes of reducing line boiling, I copied and pasted elements that didn't move/had very little movement. I think this resulted in a more visually pleasing animation.

I'm going to have to disagree with what I have read during my dissertation research, as I think this is my favourite out of the three animations.Though I think it is very close between this and my 'with reference' test, I think this animation is just so smooth. The timings of this animation portrays the hesitancy of the character as they look for the cup with their hand really well. Though some practitioners seem to think that rotoscoping drains the life out of characters and makes them 'wooden', I don't believe this to be the case in this animation. I think it is the most lifelike out of the three and portrays the most realistic movements.
I do think if I was to give myself more time, I would be able to make my 'with reference' more realistic by adding in more in-betweens to slow down the motion to imply a greater sense of hesitancy. I only spent two days working on the 'with reference test' where-as this rotoscoping session took around 3-4 days as the video was much longer. Having said this, it is only a test and the rotoscoping method has produced some realistic movements anyway.

CoP Practical: Test Two - Animating With Reference

The second part of my testing was to animate the same sequence, but this time around I allowed myself to look at the reference material I had recorded.

Attempt One

Even though my animation wasn't quite finished, I very much preferred it when I compared it to my 'no reference' animation. Though at the time I was pleased with my first animation, looking back the arm feels a little too mechanical when the character takes a drink and moves the cup away from their face. I also don't like the shape of the cups as the character is taking a drink, and if this were for an actual production or short film rather than just for testing, I would completely re-animate this section.

I felt my first attempt at animating with reference required a few more in-betweens as the cup is brought to and away from the face. 

Attempt Two

I thought this test went much better than the first, and I like that the addition of the in-betweens has made the movement feel more natural. I think the motion is smooth, and I like that it feels like the cup has content due to how slowly it is tipped towards the mouth.

CoP Practical: Test Two - Animating Without Reference

The first part of my second test was obviously going to have to be animating without reference material, in order to make my testing fair. Again - similarly to my last test - I had to record the reference material before I started animating, so I knew how I was going to frame each animation. So once again I am animating Frank Thomas' view of looking at the material and then putting it away.

I decided that I was going to produce all of my animations in Photoshop this time around. By doing so, not only will it allow me to practice animating digitally (as I have pushed it aside as I have a love and a strong preference for animating on paper at the moment), but it will also make my test much more reliable. By making all the outcomes look alike in line quality and overall finish, I'm hoping that it will be much harder to distinguish between the different methods of working. This will mean that the results I get will be purely down to the performance of the character. 

Attempt One

Already I was much more pleased with how this test was going. For me, there is a significant difference between my first 'no reference' animation test and this one; this test being much more successful. Whether this be down to the change of perspective or the change of medium, or perhaps even practice at animating the action of picking up mugs, I am unsure. I have definitely been able to draw more accurately this time around, and have been able to convey more emotion and intent in this attempt. However, I still thought it was lacking some small elements. The main example being that I thought the book and the right arm should have more movement.

Attempt Two

In the second attempt, I made sure to make the hand with the book drop as the left hand missed the cup for a second time. I thought this would help enhance the characters intentions, as they are taking a break from reading to look where the mug is, in order to be able to grab it and take a drink. I also made it dip a bit to indicate the weight of the book, and how this has been distributed now that the left hand is no longer keeping it balanced. Though these tweaks have been small, I think they have greatly improved the performance, making for a more believable, naturalistic action. 

CoP Practical: Starting a New Test

Originally for the second part of my practical, I was going to test a different theory/subject that was - or going to be - discussed in my dissertation; for instance, anthropomorphic characters. However, when it came to writing about my first lot of test animations and the responses I had received, I realised that it might not have been the most reliable test. I decided that I wanted to do-over the test but this time try to eliminate or minimize test limitations, such as the inconsistency in animation method (traditional and digital). A lot of participants may have only chose the rotoscoped animation as it had cleaner lines and a cleaner, digital finish, when compared to the other two tests, rather than focusing on the performance, which is what I asked for.

This time, I'm going to focus more on expressing the emotion of the character, rather than purely trying to animate someone picking up a cup. I'm going to try to bear in mind what I have learnt so far whilst writing and researching for my dissertation, and really try to portray intent behind a character's actions. I have re-recorded some reference material of myself taking a drink whilst being focused on work, and it is this that I am going to try to capture in my three animation tests.

Reference Material One

Reference Material Two

Once I am finished, I am going to conduct another survey/questionnaire exactly like I did before, and from here I will be able to evaluate my results and compare them to my first test.

Case Study: The Iron Giant

I've chosen to look at the Iron Giant more closely, as I think it is a great example of animated performance. I watched it over the summer for my own amusement having not seen it in years, and I was soon reminded of what a brilliant film it is; I'd forgotten how emotional it was too. I knew I just had to write about it in my dissertation.

The scenes I want to talk about in particular, are;
- When Hogarth meets the Giant properly for the first time, and teaches him the name of objects
- Hogarth saying grace at the dinner table
- The witness of a deer being hunted
- The ending

There is a range of different displayed emotions within these scenes, yet they all portray the illusion of thought extremely well. This will be a good opportunity for me to refer back to previous statements and findings within my essay, to emphasise the importance of your character having thought processes and intention behind the movements they make. I also think these scenes have a great display of acting, especially the one where Hogarth is trying to say grace and alert the hand to get out of the kitchen simultaneously.

Buster Keaton: Visual Comedy Research

I thought it was essential for me to research into Buster Keaton for my essay, as his work relies solely on his performance. Keaton didn't like when other directors told their stories through title cards, so he would try to minimise the use of them in his own films. Instead, he would tell the audience everything they needed to know though action, and though body language. In order to make a lot of his gags believable, he would strive to capture them in one take. He thought this was the best way to convince his audience what they were seeing was real, so often if a gag wasn't captured in one take, it would be scraped.

As the worlds he acted in were 'flat' (he would only move left, right, up, down, away from the camera or towards it), this meant his gags relied heavily on staging too. Where the camera was placed for each scene had to be carefully considered, otherwise the gag might not have worked as well.

Buster Keaton - The Art of The Gag

Quotes:

Tony Zhou - Every Frame a Painting

"Visual gags generally work best from one particular angle, and if you change the angle you're changing the gag, and it might not work as well."
"Never fake a gag"
"For Keaton there was only one way to convince an audience that what they were seeing was real. He had to actually do it without cutting."
"Either we get this in one shot or we throw out the gag."
"Each gesture should be unique."

Buster Keaton (Interview with Buster Keaton)

"The average picture used 240 titles, that was about the average... and the most I ever used was 56."
"We eliminated subtitles just as fast as we could if we could possibly tell it in action."
"I remember you once told me something about ten years ago about you and Charlie Chaplin having friendly contests, who could do the feature film with the least amount of subtitles?" "I think Chaplin won that. He got down to... One of his pictures is something like 21 titles and I had 23" "And this is for an hour and a half film" "Yeah. Seven reel picture"
"We didn't repeat gags, and we didn't steal from each other."
"This is a shock to anybody who is in the motion picture business today... Neither Chaplin, Harold Lloyd or myself, ever had a script." "We never even thought about writing a script. We didn't need to."
"When we get the start and the finish we've got it, because the middle we can always take care of, that's easy."  "We can always go into any story, and pad and fill in the middle."
"We didn't rehearse a scene to perfection. We didn't want that, because it was mechanical then." "We only sat down and talked about it." "We didn't want anything to look mechanical."
"A poison thing to us was a misplaced gag."
"I always wanted an audience to outguess me, and then I'd double cross them sometimes"

Research Into Realism: Collecting Quotes

My dissertation is about 'Realism in Animated Performance' and so far I haven't even touched on realism in my research, let alone my writing. So in order to progress with my dissertation I have begun trying to formulate a definition of realism, that I will be able to refer to over the course of my writing. 

Quotes on Realism:

Wells, P. (2006). The Fundamentals of Animation. Switzerland: AVA Publishing.

"Everyone is blessed with the ability to fantasise - to re-imagine the world on our own terms and conditions, fulfilling our inner most passions and desires. Most people realise their fantasies are often in stark contrast to the real world in which they live. This is very juxtaposition can be very fruitful for the artist, as acute observation of the patterns of the real world set against a free imagination unfettered by rules, regulation and convention, can produce interesting points of comparison. This can set off potent ideas for personal expression." - pg. 16

Wells, P. (1998). Understanding Animation. Oxon: Routledge.

"Even though Disney dealt with what was a predominately abstract, non-realist form, he insisted on verisimilitude in his characters, contexts and narratives. He wanted animated figures to move like real figures and be informed by plausable motivation." - pg. 23

"Disney's animators undertook programmes of training in the skills and techniques of fine art in the constant drive towards ever greater notions of realism." - pg. 23

"Any definition of 'reality' is necessarily subjective. Any definition of 'realism' as it operates within any image-making practice is also open to interpretation." - pg 24

"'Realism', it seems, is a relative thing, but the kind of film which seems to most accurately represent 'reality' is the kind of film which attempts to rid itself of obvious cinematic conventions in the prioritisation of recording the people, objects, environments and events which characterise the common understanding of lived experiences. - pg 24

"As Eco notes, apropos of Disney's theme parks, 'to speak of things that one wants to connote as real, these things must seem real. The "completely real" becomes identified with the "completely fake". Absolute unreality is offered as real presence'". - pg 25  (Eco, U. (1986) Travels in Hyper-Reality. London: Picador.)

"The relativity of  'realism' within the context of animation may prove to be a valid analytical tool because some films may be categorised as more 'realistic' than others, or may work in a style that connotes a greater degree of 'realism' than another style etc." - pg 25

"Former Disney Chief, Jeffrey Katzenberg says of Pochahontas (1995), the studio's most live-action oriented cartoon feature, that it is exaggerated reality, where the real possibility of Pocahontas diving 100 feet from a cliff into a pool of water may be made more spectacular is she were to appear to dive 300 feet, a feat enacted in entire safety, and with persuasive plausibility, in the animated form. At one and the same time 'the very conditions of rationality' have been challenged but made to comply to a different, yet convincing, realist rationale." - pg 26  (The Project on Disney (Karen Klugman, Jane Kuenz, Shelton Weldrep and Susan Willis), (1995) Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World. London & Durham: Duke University Press.)

"Reality in animation, therefore, can only be a comparative and relative form, half-dedicated to representational authenticity, half-dedicated to the narrational forms which heighten and exhibit the fluid conditions of the real world." - pg 28

Nochlin, L. (1990). Realism. England: Penguin Books.

“Realism, as an historical movement in the figurative arts and in literature, attained its most coherent and consistent formulation in France, with echoes, parallels and variants elsewhere on the Continent, in England and in the United States.” - pg 13

“The Dominant movement from about 1840 until 1970-80.” - pg 13

“Its aim was to give truthful, objective and impartial representation of the real world, based on meticulous observation of contemporary life.” - Pg 13

“A basic cause of the confusion bedevilling the notion of Realism is its ambiguous relationship to the highly problematical concept of reality.”

“In contradistinction to Realist doctrine, poetry itself was most real and was ‘only completely true in another world’ since the things of this world were merely a ‘hieroglyphic dictionary’.  - pg 14

“The commonplace notion that Realism is a ‘styleless’ or transparent style, a mere simulacrum or mirror image of visual reality, is another barrier to its understanding as an historical and stylistic phenomenon.”

“This insistence on catching the present moment in art - whether the encounter of Courbet and his patron on the road to Séte in The Meeting, the corps de ballet making a révérence in a Degas or a chance effect of light or atmosphere in a monet landscape - is an essential aspect of the Realist conception of the nature of time. Realist motion is always motion captured as it is ‘now’, as it is perceived in a flash of vision.” - pg 28-9

“For Champfleury, the essential Realist formula was ‘sincerity in art’ - the artist’s duty to represent only what he had seen or experienced, without any alteration and without any conventional response or aesthetic affectation.” Pg 36

Malpas, J. (1997) Movements in Modern Art: Realism. London: Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd

“As a quality, realism is positive, denoting toughness, down to earth attitudes to life or death and a practical outlook on the way things should be managed. It also presupposes the need for management of, or at least of some measure of control by man over, the environment or his fellow human beings.” - pg 7

“In relation to art, realism has the great advantage of ubiquitous subject matter. Anything that actually happens or exists is seen as worth material. However, it is at the level of interpretation of those events and things that the interesting difficulties in defining realism appear.” - pg 7

“Realism in the twentieth century, then, exhibits a protean stylistic and ideological approach. It can range from the passionate and quirky individualism of a Stanley Spencer to, contemporaneously, the most demoralised institutionalism of an ‘apparatchik’ painter like Alexander Gerasimov in the Stalinist USSR, where it appears under the guise of ‘socialist realism’”. Pg 7-8

William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti: “Their realism consisted partly in their doctrine of painting every element in a picture meticulously from life. In doing this they sometimes achieved an illusionism which is almost hallucinatory.” - pg 13

“Another English realist style popular in the 1880s particularly, derived from topographical painting. Atkinson Grimshaw’s moody, atmospheric nocturnal scenes, with tonal subtleties and flickering chiaroscuro that seem to owe as much to photography as to painting are good representatives of this trend.” pg 14-15

Stremmel, K. (2004). Realism. Germany: Taschen

“The original semantic field covered by the term “realism” - as far as the visual arts were concerned - was more constrained: it denoted a 19th-century artistic style which was the first in the history of art to call itself realistic, and it did this with the express purpose of drawing a line between itself and its idealistic opposite numbers.” - pg 6

“The term is often used synonymously with Naturalism to refer to an attempt at true-to-life reproduction of external reality.” pg 7

“The confusion surrounding styles in the 20th century is increased still further by the fact that the same terms are applied to very different manifestations of Realism.” - pg 8

“Realism is not what real things are like, but what things are really like.” - pg 9 (Bertolt Brecht)

“Socialist Realism, understood as the highest form of artistic development, was to obey the definition coined by Friedrich Engels in respect of Honoré de Balzac: ‘In my opinion, Realism means, alongside fidelity to detail, the faithful reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances.’ Important, then, is not true-to-life depiction of reality in all its details, but the representation of the ‘essentials’, the ‘truth’ about reality, whereby concrete reality must always be taken as the starting point.” - pg 11

Primary Research: Questioning Joanna Quinn

I emailed Joanna Quinn to see whether I'd be able to ask her a few questions regarding reference material and character performance, and after a few days of back and forth messaging, I was fortunate enough to meet up with her at Manchester Animation Festival. I asked her about the sorts of reference material she uses when she animates, and it was really interesting to find out that she doesn't use live-action footage when animating. However, she does use a lot of other references, and will usually collect a folder full of photographs of places, objects and people, though her go to reference is usually herself. She believes strongly in acting into a mirror to see and feel the movements that she is trying to animate, which conflicts with what Ed Hooks says in his book Acting for Animators; "you must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside."

She will often act out in slow motion to really focus on the rhythm of the movement, and to work out the key poses. Because of this, I wondered whether life drawing played a big role in (her) animating. Joanna said that she thought it was helpful, but not essential as she understands not everyone has the time or ability to attend life drawing sessions. Though she did say that she thought it was important to draw from life to capture the truth in your subject, but from here we should exaggerate to really bring a performance to life and give it more character. It's nice to strive for original movements, so it's also a good idea to add any extra little quirks that you may think of if you have the time. For example, as Joanna works for herself she was able to spend an extra week animating Beryl as a child, making her whinny like a horse. It didn't add anything to the story and it wasn't remotely planned – she claims she probably shouldn't have done it, otherwise she'll never get the film finished – though it did give more insight to the character, adding to the likability and believability of the character

I asked Joanna if there were any instances where she worked differently and used different reference materials, but on the whole she works in the same way each time. The only thing she pointed out to me was in her short Britannia, she did collect a few reference images of dogs for the dog character, and she did study how dogs moved in real life, but again a lot of her reference came from herself. All the facial expressions were Joanna's.

Moving away from CoP, I asked Joanna how she got started out in industry and if she had any tips. She pointed out to me that it's really down to what work I want to do, but the way she went about it was sending her graduate film out to festivals. She said that it's a good idea to reach out to animation studios and rather than asking for a summer internship, ask for a week. Not many places offer long work placements, and sometimes it's just a matter of getting known and showing people who you are. You may not end up there for good, but if you have a good personality and worked well, you're more likely to have your name passed onto other places. More often than not, studios are looking for personality and how well you work as part of a team. Because of this it is a MUST that when reaching out to studios, that you make the letters or emails personal.

Primary Research: Questioning Barry Purves

For my dissertation I wanted to touch on looking at different animations that I thought were good examples of animated performances, and look at the extent that they referred to reference material; if they had/used any.

Though Barry Purves works in stop motion and I'm personally wanting to focus on 2D, I always found his work to be extremely beautiful and well made, so I shouldn't dismiss it. For this reason, I decided to get in contact with him, and see whether he'd be able to give me some insights into his working methods. I also asked him what he thought was essential in creating a good character performance.

Luckily he got back to me, and it was interesting to find out that he doesn't actually use any reference material when animating:

Hi Lauren, and sorry to disappoint but I never use visual reference - I don't like rotoscope, which I think is cheating, and I don't like copying live action videos, as whilst they may be helping to see how things work, any live action timing is not much use to us animators as we have to emphasise the story telling moments in an action more than live action and this affects the timing. And why would we want to copy live action - animation should liberate us, allowing to have fun with movement. I do use reference when researching a subject, Tchaikovsky for example, and we did look at photographs and I went to his house. perhaps if there was a technical action like a tango or something then I might watch to see the steps but I would never copy it. To some extent the puppet tells you how it should move.

A good character performance -well make sure we can read the thought process. allow time for the thoughts to register. make sure that the puppet, above all, has good expressive eyes.

Hope this makes sense

Barry

Tchaikovsky - Barry Purves

The insights Barry provided were not just interesting, but also potentially extremely useful for progressing further with my dissertation writing. Hopefully I'll be able to bump into him at Manchester Animation Festival, to thank him properly for his time. 

A Scanner Darkly

"In many of today's films, rotoscoping is used not as a means of 'hiding' the fact that live footage is traced, but rather as a starting off point in more experimental films such as those produced by Bob Sabiston and Flat Black Films. In these cases, the artists go beyond the rotoscoped look and add their own unique artistic vision to the projects." - (Kriger, J. (2012) Animated Realism. Oxford: Focal Press)

I've chose to research into A Scanner Darkly, as it is a film that has been entirely rotoscoped and will be a good example to refer to in my dissertation when I speak about rotoscoping as a technique.

Personally, it took me a while to understand what was going on in the film due to how uncomfortable I was watching it. There was just so much going on visually, that it was hard for me to focus on what was actually happening. I was curious to see if anyone else shared this viewpoint, and by researching film reviews online, I've found that I'm not entirely alone. Michael Booth from The Denver Post, writes in his review "the artiness gets in the way of thrilling plot twists; we're still trying to sort out images when we should be sorting out facts."

On the other hand, once I was able to look past this and settle down and take in what was going on, I don't think this film would have been as effective as just a life action. Sabiston has been able to use rotoscoping to bring to life the scramble-suits and the sci-fi elements of the film, which they would not have been able to do in live-action, and this would have been much more expensive using CGI. The rotoscoping also made for very interesting hallucination scenes, which again, just wouldn't have been as effective in another medium. Bob Sabiston also doesn't feel that the film would have worked as a live-action, stating in Animated Realism "the subject of these documentaries is just the means to determine whether or not I can find something that is meaningful to animate. I don't know if the subject without the animation would stand on its own."

I also didn't feel that the performance was 'wooden', rather it is still incredibly life-like, so much so that I questioned why it wasn't left as a live-action film (before I was made aware of the relevance of the rotoscoping). By watching the special features of the DVD, I found that the actors were encouraged "to contribute and to try things" so they would often over-act or perform in a way they wouldn't normally as "it was going to be animated." The rotoscope wouldn't have felt lacking as "the performances were fantastic to begin with." (One summer in Austin: The Story of Filming 'A Scanner Darkly' [Special Features])

Individual Tutorial 8/11

Yesterday I sat down with Mike and discussed my progress so far. I had been struggling to get started with writing, so it was a bit of a relief to know that I was off to a good start. I was beginning to think that I had hit a bit of a wall in terms of progressing further, but talking through what I had already achieved opened my eyes to things I had not previously considered. For example, looking at existing examples of animations that have been made with different levels of reference material, and discussing these in my dissertation.

I definitely feel better after having this discussion, and am determined to make heads way on exploring my other chapters.

CoP Practical: Collecting Feedback and Questionnaire Results

To try and get as much feedback as I possibly could regarding my animation testing, I produced a short questionnaire on Survey Monkey, and have posted the link to my social media websites, as well as asking my classmates to take a look at the survey.

My Questionnaire

Questionnaire Results

The results of my questionnaire shocked me quite a bit. I was expecting there to be more of a tie between test two and three, but instead the rotoscope test received 77% of the votes. I definitely wasn't expecting this to be the case at all, especially after most of my research for my dissertation outlined that rotoscoping footage drained the life out of a performance and made it feel 'wooden', yet the most popular response for choosing this option was that it 'seemed the most realistic' and 'smooth'. 

On the other hand, I do have to bear in mind that my sample may not be the most accurate I could have selected. A majority of the people that have taken part in my survey don't have an animation background, and may have selected the choice that they did for other reasons than it has the greatest animated performance. For instance, one participant claims they chose the rotoscope test because "The mug looked better when placed back down , on 1 and 2 you can see the line of the table on the mug". They have focused on how clean the animation is, rather than the content, which isn't necessarily fair as the first two tests are simply line tests, and have yet to be edited/cleaned up.

When I focus on the responses that sound like they have come from an animators point of view - IE they use animation terms in their answers - the results are more tied, though the rotoscope test is still favoured.

To conclude, I think it depends on what sort of performance you are striving for. In this test, my character was bored/focused with work and the rotoscoping technique was able to capture this well due to the timings of my original footage, and the action carried out was very linear. Had I have been trying to animate someone dancing around or being lively and energetic, maybe I would have received a different outcome.

CoP Practical: Animating With Reference Material

The final part of my testing involved animating picking up the mug, but allowing myself to refer to my reference material. Once I had finished scanning and putting together the frames for this test, I was able to make a separate video that featured all three tests; a video I am going to show my peers/practitioners for feedback.

With Reference Material - Line Test

Testing the Effects of Reference Material

Now that I've been able to see my animation tests side by side, I personally prefer the attempt with the use of reference. I prefer animating traditionally over digitally, as I feel I have much more control over my line making, and I think this shows the most in my 'with reference' test.

Not only am I happy with the line work, but I personally think the performance is the best in this test. Yes, the rotoscoped attempt is very smooth, but I like that the foreshortening is emphasised in my final attempt. Though it is not as much as the 'without reference' test, it has just enough to still keep the level of realism I was striving for, but not so much so that it is too 'uniform', such as with the rotoscope.

Making a Start on Triangulating

I've really been struggling to begin writing. At the moment the thought of it is still very daunting, so I thought it would be a good idea to begin to try to organise the wall of text that is my collected quotes, not only so I am more organised and that my research will make more sense, but also in an attempt to de-stress.

I've began to categorise my quotes and group them up based on their content and potential chapters they could fall into;


Referencing

Walt S (1):  "Whenever we stayed too close to the photostats or directly copied even a tiny piece of human actions, the results looked very strange. The moves appeared real enough, but the figure lost the illusion of life... Not until we realised that photographs must be redrawn in animatable shapes (our proven tools of communications) were we able to transfer this knowledge to cartoon animation."

Walt S (1): "In the case of using live action as a basis for animation, the animator soon learns that tracings of photostats will not suffice. Here is where his ability to understand and draw gestures really hits pay dirt. I have seen scenes where photostats had been practically traced, and the scene was lifeless. One of the reasons for this is that live action actors do not move from extreme to extreme as animated characters do. Studying live action clips will reveal that many actors mince through their parts like a cloud changing shapes in a breezy sky. Often actors are used whose gestures are broad and crisp, making the animator's job much easier."

Walt S (1): "So what I guess I'm driving at is the importance of studying a live model for gesture, and of realizing that the extremes used in animation should have the same care of investigation and thoroughness as the study drawings. I continually suggest (implore) that you do not attempt to copy the model, but rather capture and draw the gesture."

Ed Hooks (1): “What an actor does with a line in front of a microphone in a recording studio is not necessarily what he would do with that same line if he was playing a scene on location or on stage.”

Ed Hooks (1): "...you must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside."

Nancy Beiman: "A photograph eliminates the third dimension; this leads to the notorious 'flatness' of animation that is traced directly from individual frames of motion-picture film."

Chris Webster (Action Analysis): "A collection of reference material is absolutely vital to the animator who wants to develop their craft." pg 3

Nancy Beiman: "Take a look at the reference footage. Then put it away and never look at it again" - Frank Thomas to Nancy (1985) pg 68

Demystifying Disney: “Disney himself once remarked how useful filmed action could be when viewed frame by frame, stating ‘I used to see things there that I could never imagine.’”

Rotoscoping

Ed Hooks (1): - "...by definition, a second-generation performance, so you're already swimming upstream if you want to create a sense of theatrical spontaneity in the animation."

- "...possibility that the original live-action performance you are rotoscoping lack a 'feeling for acting' in the first place."

Walt S (1):  “I have seen scenes where photostats had been practically traced, and the scene was lifeless.”

Demystifying Disney: “Strictly rotoscoped animation had a tendency to ‘lose the illusion of life.’” “Paul Ward had also argued that entirely rotoscoped animation often look(s) strange, eerie or out of place.” - “ A key strength of the Disney animators, therefore, lay in their decision to ‘use the photostats only as a reference’, after which subsequent ‘animation picked up a crispness, a force, and a richness it never had before.’”

Gesture

Kimon Nicolaides: “You should draw, not what the thing looks like, not even what it is, but what it is doing.” -  pg 15

Walt S (1): "Thinking of your drawing as a verb will add life and movement to even the subtlest action." "You can carry the thought a little further by adding an adverb."  pg 243

Kimon Nicolaides: “You must also seek to understand the impulse that exists inside the model and causes the pose which you see. The drawing starts with the impulse not the position.” pg 23

“To be able to see the gesture, you must be able to feel it in your own body.” pg 15

Walt S (1): “I repeatedly harp on feeling the pose rather than merely looking at it. In feeling the pose you actually picture yourself as doing the pose.” pg 78

Walt S (1) Quoting Eric Larson?: "There is no inner experience without external physical expression. In other words, what is our character thinking to make it act, behave, and move as it does? As the animator, we have to feel within ourselves every move and mood we want our drawings to exhibit. They are the image of our thoughts." pg 192

Walt S (1): "The goal is to find the essence of the gesture and make all the parts of the body contribute to and enhance that gesture."

Walt S (2) Quoting Bob Thomas and Don Graham: "The unfortunate and limited use of the term 'gesture' to imply only hand action is widespread. except in rare incidents the hand action is to an animator merely part of the gesture. The mood or spirit of the whole action dictates the hand actions; and the total impact of the action - body, heads, hands - is the gesture."

Kimon Nicolaides: "Gesture describes the compound of all forces acting in and against, and utilised by, the model. The term action is not sufficient."

Techniques and Principles

Chris Webster: "Overuse of squash and stretch will change the illusion of the material." "When taken to extremes it is less useful for naturalistic actions." pg 50?

Walt S (1): "Stretch and squash is one of the most useful principles in animation. The lack of it can make a scene seem lifeless." "The over use of it has not yet occurred." "Look for ways to use it. It can mean the difference between animating an object or just moving it." pg 14

Dymist Disney: “By employing a more studied variety of squash and stretch movement, from one drawing to the next, it quickly became the very essence of animation.” “Squash and stretch had the potential to affect all aspects of animation.”

Chris Webster: "Pose-to-pose allows for more control. Straight-ahead often has more liveliness."

CoP Practical: Rotoscoping my Reference Material

I chose to rotoscope my reference next, as I thought it would give me a break from having to work out timings and keyframes, which I definitely thought I needed due to how much my mind hurt from working with no reference.

Rotoscoped Footage

This method was definitely much quicker than working without a reference. I was able to practically switch off and power through on auto-pilot, but I found myself getting rather bored and unsatisfied with animating. As much as it pained me to try work out the keyframes of the first test, I very much preferred the challenge of working traditionally.

Though this method certainly has its advantages. Not only was it much quicker to produce (it took me roughly a day and a half to complete), I prefer the timings of this animation as I was happy with the action in the original footage. I think my first test could have benefitted from some extra frames slotted in when the character grabs the mug, as this movement seemed to be a bit too quick.
On the other hand, whilst the overall look of this animation is cleaner due to it being produced in Photoshop, I prefer the line work in my first test. The lines seem to be much more wobbly in the Rotoscope test, though this will be down to my own personal preference for traditional animation, and my lack of experience at Rotoscoping.

CoP Practical: Animating Without Reference Material

There's no way I could have avoided looking at the reference material and still check to see if I thought it was suitable to use, so I had watched through my reference material once. In effect, I was testing Frank Thomas' view point of looking at the reference material and then putting it away and never looking at it again. 

Before I got started with animating, I did a rough plan of the timings of the action. I knew roughly how long the sequence was to last, so worked with that.

Planning the Timings

No Reference Material - Line Test

Due to the angle that I was working with, I found it really hard to work out how the arm should be drawn, to make it appear as though it was reaching out for the mug. It made me question why anyone would work without a reference, as material to look at here would definitely have helped me. Then again, I was working with an angle I've not looked at before, and people in industry would have a lot more experience animating than I have. I think I did well though, considering how much I struggled to visualise the movement. 

I think it's going to be a good idea to record how long each test takes, as to get more of an idea why or why not reference material is used in industry. Perhaps it's a matter of time; it took me roughly three days to produce this line test.

Planning an Animation Test for my Practical

With MAF quickly approaching, I thought it would be best for me to at least start my practical so I would have something to show potential practitioners and professionals. The test I was certain on doing was looking into the effect that reference material can have on performance, so I started with this one.

In order for my testing to be fair and consistent, I first needed to decide on what action/movement I was going to animate, and the shot framing that I would use. I quickly made a list of any simple actions that came to mind and thumb-nailed potential shots. I also started sketching out potential character designs, but in the end I decided that I would leave the face blank and include no features at all. This would leave the character genderless and allow me to focus purely on animating the movement, which is really the aim of this testing.

Brainstorming

I decided I'd like to go for drinking from a mug, so I filmed myself a couple of times in the desired angle and chose the take that I was happy with, so that the animated movement would be consistent through-out, allowing for a fair test.

Reference Material

Now I have all I need to start testing, but I am going to have to start by working with no reference material, as working in a different order just wouldn't make sense.

Key Text: The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides

I came across this book as it was referenced in Walt Stanchfield's Drawn to Life, and took the opportunity to take a look at it to get some supporting quotes. I did manage to do this which will be incredibly useful to me, but the rest of the book - whilst interesting - was not overly relevant. Similarly to Drawn to Life, the book is made up of lectures and lessons that Nicolaides encourages you to partake in as you read along, some focusing on contour drawing for instance. While I appreciate that this could help me in my drawing practice and gesture drawing, it is not what I am looking for this time around.

Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:

"You must also seek to understand the impulse that exists inside the model and causes the pose which you see." "The drawing starts with the impulse not the position."
"To be able to see the gesture, you must be able to feel it in your own body."
"The study of gesture is not simply a matter of looking at the movement that the model makes. You must also seek to understand the impulse that exists inside the model and causes the pose that you see."
"You should draw, not what the thing looks like, not even what it is, but what it is doing." "Feel how the figure lifts or droops - pushes forward here - pulls back there - pushes out here - drops down easily there."
"If you do not respond in like manner to what the model is doing, you cannot understand what you see."
"Gesture describes the compound of all forces acting in and against, and utilised by, the model. The term action is not sufficient." "Even a pancake has gesture."
"Look at a lamp and think of what it is doing." "By using your feeling or imagination you can relate the gestures you see to those which are more universally understood." "Such observation is more instructive, as well as more interesting, than an observation of static lines and planes, and it results in a kind of knowledge that can be recalled ten years from now even though you have forgotten all about the act of observing."
"To me weight is the essence of form, and since the life of a thing is its only real significance, I think of form as the living expression of weight."
Drapery: "There is only one important principle to remember. Wherever drapery is held; either against the wall with a thumbtack or on the figure, as it is at the knee and the elbow, the point becomes a hub from which the folds radiate."

Key Text: Drawn to Life (Volume Two) by Walt Stanchfield

As the first volume was such a delight to read, I thought I'd take a look at the second to see if there were any more interesting insights into gesture drawing. Skim-reading it, I found that on the whole it tended to simply elaborate further on what was mentioned in the first book, or showed different students examples for what was being put forward. However, I did still find it useful as it mentioned other artist's views on capturing the essence of a gesture; a great opportunity for me to triangulate in my writing.

Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:

"Acting is the parallel between you and the stage actor - the difference being, you act with a pencil, he acts with his body. But the background, training, and preparation are all the same - the knowledge and understanding of human (and animal) nature."
"So I encourage the artists not to copy what is before them but add some zest to the gesture - to become the comic actor, so to speak, and step out of the ordinary."
"Ron [Husband] believes quick sketching is an aid to animation. He maintains sketching will enhance drawing ability, quicken your eye, help you to analyse action in a shorter period of time."
"Quick sketching is benefical because it bypasses the temptation to analyse or copy - there is only time to get 'that visual sensation' and hastening it onto paper."
Maren Elwood in Characters Make Your Story: "No fuzzy thinking is allowable if you are to create a full emotional effect of the character on the reader."
Bob Thomas & Don Graham in The Art of Animation: "A gesture always implies an idea." "The unfortunate and limited use of the term 'gesture' to imply only hand action is widespread. except in rare incidents the hand action is to an animator merely part of the gesture. The mood or spirit of the whole action dictates the hand actions; and the total impact of the action - body, heads, hands - is the gesture." 

Considering My Practical

The group tutorial that I attended yesterday also enabled me to think more about the practical element of my CoP project. I have already established that I want to work in 2D and that my dissertation provides me with a great opportunity to produce a series of line test animations, that explore the different techniques and methods that can enhance an animated performance. However, through my reading and researching, I have been able to solidify a couple of ideas for some practical tests. 

An experiment I'm almost certain I shall be carrying out is looking at how different methods of referencing or how this reference material is used, can have different impacts on animated performance. I'm planning on animating a simple movement/action a series of times, but the first time I animate shall be without using any reference what-so-ever. Then I shall animate the same movement but with a reference video to refer to. I could even look into Rotoscoping, and have a third result to compare. There's also the potential to test whether the extent to which I look at the reference effects the performance. It was pointed out in Animated Performance: Bringing Imaginary Animal, Human and Fantasy Characters to Life that Frank Thomas suggested to Nancy Beiman that she should "Take a look at the reference footage, then put it away and never look at it again", and I think this would be really interesting to explore, and see whether looking at footage too much can make a scene feel lifeless, as Walt Stanchfield suggests in Drawn to Life. 

There is also the opportunity to test the difference between animating Straight Ahead and from Pose-to-Pose, as well as testing drawing techniques such as Blending and Smearing, to then analyse the effect they can have on performance. It also might be a good idea to produce a short line test for each theory or suggestion (or at least most of them) that I have researched and will talk about in my dissertation. For example, an animation that focuses on squash and stretch, or one that demonstrates weight, forces, balance, body language or 'the look of memory', to name a few.

Then there is also the opportunity to produce a short animation that focuses on all the successes from my testing and research. It wouldn't necessarily have to be very long, but just long enough to demonstrate what I have learnt and bring a character or object to life. 

Group Tutorial 17/10

Yesterday we had the chance to sit down in our groups and discuss our progress with our research. This presented me with the opportunity to talk about my research question, because as it stands, I still don't have one. Whilst this is allowing me to be a little bit broader with my researching, I'm starting to panic a little bit because I feel i'm just going around in circles and not progressing anywhere.

Tutorial Notes

It turns out the tutorial left me with even more unanswered questions. Some really good points were made, and some potential questions were but forward to me (such as "Does shot framing effect performance?" and "Is theatrical performance the way to go with animating?"), so it was useful in that respect, but I feel the discussion has only presented me with more options and roads to go down, rather than narrowing down on a specific area.

As I was feeling a bit stuck I thought it would be best for me to take Richard's advice from our first lecture and write out a list of all my potential questions and thoughts, only I thought I'd take it one step further and take note of any potential chapters my dissertation could have, too. Though I don't feel that I'm much closer to determining a research question, it has made me feel like I'm on the right track again. It has also made me think about other aspects of my dissertation that I have not yet considered; for instance I've come to realise that I would like to focus on films for my research and case studies, rather than TV series or otherwise, and although I would personally like to focus on 2D (especially for the practical element of my project) it would be beneficial for me to not rule out 3D films and techniques at this stage. It may be that I just write the odd chapter on this topic as it is certainly relevant. 

It also seems that I am leaning towards looking at realism in performance, and looking at animations with naturalistic actions. The next steps from here could be to start looking at identifying examples that fit this description, so that I can do a close reading of them. Whether this will include human or anthropomorphic characters, I am yet undecided, so it's probably for the best I have a selection of the two.