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."
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
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."
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."
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
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.
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.
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.
Getting Organised
Last year I found that it was incredibly useful to have my schedule drawn out, as it made juggling projects a lot easier. So I have gone ahead and drawn up my timetable for the next couple of months in hopes that it will keep me organised for this year.
I've made sure to include my PPP and Extended Practice sessions too, to help me juggle the work load, as well as setting milestones as deadlines for certain tasks to be completed by. Dissertation, let's have you.
Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Key Text: Animation: The Mechanics of Motion by Chris Webster
I'm beginning to see a pattern across all of the books I am reading. Although this book differs from the others I have read, in that it explains things like Dope Sheets and Holds in great detail (something that is relatively new to me, which I shall bear in mind and refer back to when it comes to animating), I found that a lot of the content is the same, just from a different artist's/animator's perspective. It seems to me at the moment that the key to a good performance lies in being able to empathize with the characters we create, and this is done through a number of ways, the main focus being on principles such as timings, appeal, weight and balance, and body language to name a few.
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
Peter Lord: "As with acting, which is its first-cousin, animation is crucially a matter of feeling and emotional understanding."
"The notion of'good timing' is entirely wrapped up in and linked to what the animator is trying to achieve. A good dramatic performance demands different acting skills to that of a comic actor, not greater or lesser - just different. Most abstract or cartoon animation has very different qualities to naturalistic animation; therefore, good timing could be said to be somewhat subjective, yet it is animation timing that makes an animation believable, funny, frightening, moving, poetically beautiful or just downright silly."
"Weight and balance are two key factors in making believable animation."
"Your ultimate intention should be to make your characters look like they intended to make the movement and that the motivation for the action comes from within them."
"It's not simply the visual design of great animation characters that makes them believable. How well they are drawn or how well crafted the modelling is does not make them real to us. However, there is no doubt that the physical appearance is important and there can be no denying that it adds appeal..." "It's the fact that the characters demonstrate the kind of traits we recognise in ourselves and in others that brings them to life."
"In order to get the most out of your characters you must; know your characters, empathize with your characters, and become your characters."
"The motivation of a character is the vital aspect of a script that drives the acting and enables a performance."
"Acting in character animation does not necessarily mean having your characters behave naturally. The main aim in acting is not even to be believable, it's to express emotion, to elicit pre-considered results, to take your audience on an emotional journey. In order to do this, you must understand what you are trying to achieve before you begin."
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
Peter Lord: "As with acting, which is its first-cousin, animation is crucially a matter of feeling and emotional understanding."
"The notion of'good timing' is entirely wrapped up in and linked to what the animator is trying to achieve. A good dramatic performance demands different acting skills to that of a comic actor, not greater or lesser - just different. Most abstract or cartoon animation has very different qualities to naturalistic animation; therefore, good timing could be said to be somewhat subjective, yet it is animation timing that makes an animation believable, funny, frightening, moving, poetically beautiful or just downright silly."
"Weight and balance are two key factors in making believable animation."
"Your ultimate intention should be to make your characters look like they intended to make the movement and that the motivation for the action comes from within them."
"It's not simply the visual design of great animation characters that makes them believable. How well they are drawn or how well crafted the modelling is does not make them real to us. However, there is no doubt that the physical appearance is important and there can be no denying that it adds appeal..." "It's the fact that the characters demonstrate the kind of traits we recognise in ourselves and in others that brings them to life."
"In order to get the most out of your characters you must; know your characters, empathize with your characters, and become your characters."
"The motivation of a character is the vital aspect of a script that drives the acting and enables a performance."
"Acting in character animation does not necessarily mean having your characters behave naturally. The main aim in acting is not even to be believable, it's to express emotion, to elicit pre-considered results, to take your audience on an emotional journey. In order to do this, you must understand what you are trying to achieve before you begin."
Key Text: Acting for Animators by Ed Hooks (First Edition)
I took out the first edition of Ed Hooks' book to see if there was anything it in that the third edition had missed out. Most of what the book covers I had previously read about, but I did find that there were a few chapters about live referencing and rotoscoping, that I thought would be useful to me.
Live Action Reference:
- Most voice-over sessions are videotaped for later reference
- Valuable reference but it has some limitations
- "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."
Rotoscoping:
- "...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."
Mocap:
- "Once the performance is thus captured, it falls to the animator to take the computer image and enhance it, to make it into animation. The basic movement is already taken care of, so the animator just has to fill in the blanks, so to speak."
- Can be a big money-saver
- "Most animators actively hate mocap because it puts them into a secondary position creatively. The live performers have already delivered the essence - and, what is worse, the live performance itself may well be lacking if its focus is on movement rather than performance."
- Can only use it for human figures
- Can't capture the motion of a skinny person and turn it into animation for a fat person, because weight moves differently with skinny and fat.
Look of Memory:
- "Understanding the way memory works is important to animators because there is a particular kind of expression on the face of a person who is remembering something."
- "A bad actor 'indicates' the act of remembering. He'll scratch his head, stroke his chin."
- "The act of remembering tends to still a person, not animate him."
- "Not only does a face involved in memory become more still, the eyes shift in predictable ways."
- "When you remember something, you do not continue to gaze straight ahead."
Live Action Reference:
- Most voice-over sessions are videotaped for later reference
- Valuable reference but it has some limitations
- "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."
Rotoscoping:
- "...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."
Mocap:
- "Once the performance is thus captured, it falls to the animator to take the computer image and enhance it, to make it into animation. The basic movement is already taken care of, so the animator just has to fill in the blanks, so to speak."
- Can be a big money-saver
- "Most animators actively hate mocap because it puts them into a secondary position creatively. The live performers have already delivered the essence - and, what is worse, the live performance itself may well be lacking if its focus is on movement rather than performance."
- Can only use it for human figures
- Can't capture the motion of a skinny person and turn it into animation for a fat person, because weight moves differently with skinny and fat.
Look of Memory:
- "Understanding the way memory works is important to animators because there is a particular kind of expression on the face of a person who is remembering something."
- "A bad actor 'indicates' the act of remembering. He'll scratch his head, stroke his chin."
- "The act of remembering tends to still a person, not animate him."
- "Not only does a face involved in memory become more still, the eyes shift in predictable ways."
- "When you remember something, you do not continue to gaze straight ahead."
Key Text: Drawn to Life (Volume One) by Walt Stanchfield
Walt Stanchfield's book has been an absolute pleasure to read. Drawn to Life is filled with his lectures on gesture drawing and performance, and is written in a way that is easy to read. Towards the end of the book I felt that the chapters seemed to repeat themselves a bit, but I'm glad I stuck it out because of how motivating and inspiring it has been to read. Stanchfield really stresses the importance of practicing your drawing, and to really feel the pose or emotion that you are trying to capture. It has made me come to the conclusion that I am going to keep a separate sketchbook to work in alongside writing and researching for my dissertation, so that I can begin to practice capturing gesture, which has been pointed out to be a huge aspect of performance in animation.
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
"I have concentrated on gesture drawings because that is one of the foundations of good animation." "Necessary to good gesture drawing are acting, caricature, anatomy, body language, perspective, etc."
"Your mental and emotional processes are you."
"Nothing moves independently in full animation. All the parts of a drawing are related."
"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."
"Silhouette is a test of whether or not the lines have successfully depicted the pose."
"Usually the part of the body that is curved is the muscular or fleshy part, that bends or folds inward. The straight is usually the boney part, which stretches or pulls tight when a bend takes place."
"Some of the main things we should be concentrating on are the basic principles of squash and stretch, balance and weight distribution, and how these things work for us in animation. Copying the model without this awareness would be like copying a novel to learn how to right novels."
"The goal is to find the essence of the gesture and make all the parts of the body contribute to and enhance that gesture."
"Break one of your bad habits today. Which one? Not sketching."
"Tangents are the enemy of the illusion of depth and to be avoided at all cost. Tangents occur when two or more lines converge, or when one line ends at some point then seems to continue on at another point."
"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."
"The ability to animate is akin to the ability to act. Animation is, in effecting, acting on paper." "This doesn't mean an animator must be able to act well on stage or before a camera, but that he must certainly be sensitive to poses and gestures that portray the various moods and emotions that story telling demands."
"Don Graham in his chapter on reality (from the unpublished Art of Animation) called the extreme 'a story-telling drawing', and that by making this drawing more expressive; the intervening action could be suggested rather than delineated. He also suggested 'posed' animation is like watching a hummingbird darting from flower to flower. The rest periods when the bird is hovering in midair or when it is poised with its beak buried in a flower are the poses we have to see. The intervening action can be mere blurs, but the essence of the action will be clear."
"Good crisp timing will make blurs unnecessary."
"Other things not to see, especially in the initial stages of a drawing, is anything that complicates or dilutes your first impression. The first impression should be as simple and direct as you can possibly make it."
"Gesture drawing to the animator is what acting is to the stage or movie actor. What the actor portrays on the stage or before the camera is what the animator draws on paper." "So a perceptive and keen observation in regard to gesture (acting) is essential to the animator."
"When making a drawing for animation or for animation study, it must be saying something; that is, depicting an action or a mood, otherwise it becomes a mere doodle." "So...whenever studying drawing to better yourself for animation, don't doodle (draw aimlessly), draw with a purpose - go for the gesture. Save your doodling for telephone calls."
"...you must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside." "Never allow yourself externally to portray anything that you have not inwardly experienced and is not interesting to you." (Stanislavski in An Actor Prepares)
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."
Walt Disney: "In other words, in most instances, the driving force behind the action is mood, the personality, the attitude of the character - or all three."
"What is going to make an artist out of you is a combination of a few basic facts about the body, a few basic principles of drawing, and an extensive, obsessive desire and urge to express your feelings and impressions."
"Animators are not just recorders of facts; they are storytellers, using their drawing vocabulary instead of words to spin a tale. They have at their disposal many exciting and dramatic ways to make expressive drawings, some of which are squash and stretch, twisting, contrast, angles, tension, perspective, and thrust. These are not physical things but they are what give life to physical things."
"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 animaton."
"It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be young, to continue growing - not to settle and accept."
"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."
"The mime uses gestures, he uses attitudes of the body, and he uses illusion. Attitudes of the body suggest what the character is feeling. The mime has to show more than one thing: what the character is like, how he is involved, his traits, his environment, and what is motivating him." "The mime 'magnifies' the truth - he doesn't just exaggerate. This is an interesting concept, for we animators think of exaggeration when we caricature a character or action. 'magnify' seems to be less mechanical, less surface adjustment. Character and feeling and ideas are from deep within, they are the truth of the character and therefor to magnify their truth seems more completely expressive."
"One of the hazards of putting too much work into a drawing that isn't right, gesture-wise, is that you are likely to fall in love with it (you worked so hard on the details) and hate the thought of changing it, even though it needs improvement."
"To get someone's attention and make an appeal, universal body language requires that you lean towards the person. This intensifies the eye contact, in the hope of making a more sure contact, arousing interest, or even pity."
"Think first, then draw."
"I'm thinking that the quality of empathy is a needed ingredient in becoming a good animator or assistant animator. One needs t be sensitive to the feelings emotions, and passions of others and to be able to portray these feelings to an audience in a sincere and often humorous way."
"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." "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."
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
"I have concentrated on gesture drawings because that is one of the foundations of good animation." "Necessary to good gesture drawing are acting, caricature, anatomy, body language, perspective, etc."
"Your mental and emotional processes are you."
"Nothing moves independently in full animation. All the parts of a drawing are related."
"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."
"Silhouette is a test of whether or not the lines have successfully depicted the pose."
"Usually the part of the body that is curved is the muscular or fleshy part, that bends or folds inward. The straight is usually the boney part, which stretches or pulls tight when a bend takes place."
"Some of the main things we should be concentrating on are the basic principles of squash and stretch, balance and weight distribution, and how these things work for us in animation. Copying the model without this awareness would be like copying a novel to learn how to right novels."
"The goal is to find the essence of the gesture and make all the parts of the body contribute to and enhance that gesture."
"Break one of your bad habits today. Which one? Not sketching."
"Tangents are the enemy of the illusion of depth and to be avoided at all cost. Tangents occur when two or more lines converge, or when one line ends at some point then seems to continue on at another point."
"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."
"The ability to animate is akin to the ability to act. Animation is, in effecting, acting on paper." "This doesn't mean an animator must be able to act well on stage or before a camera, but that he must certainly be sensitive to poses and gestures that portray the various moods and emotions that story telling demands."
"Don Graham in his chapter on reality (from the unpublished Art of Animation) called the extreme 'a story-telling drawing', and that by making this drawing more expressive; the intervening action could be suggested rather than delineated. He also suggested 'posed' animation is like watching a hummingbird darting from flower to flower. The rest periods when the bird is hovering in midair or when it is poised with its beak buried in a flower are the poses we have to see. The intervening action can be mere blurs, but the essence of the action will be clear."
"Good crisp timing will make blurs unnecessary."
"Other things not to see, especially in the initial stages of a drawing, is anything that complicates or dilutes your first impression. The first impression should be as simple and direct as you can possibly make it."
"Gesture drawing to the animator is what acting is to the stage or movie actor. What the actor portrays on the stage or before the camera is what the animator draws on paper." "So a perceptive and keen observation in regard to gesture (acting) is essential to the animator."
"When making a drawing for animation or for animation study, it must be saying something; that is, depicting an action or a mood, otherwise it becomes a mere doodle." "So...whenever studying drawing to better yourself for animation, don't doodle (draw aimlessly), draw with a purpose - go for the gesture. Save your doodling for telephone calls."
"...you must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside." "Never allow yourself externally to portray anything that you have not inwardly experienced and is not interesting to you." (Stanislavski in An Actor Prepares)
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."
Walt Disney: "In other words, in most instances, the driving force behind the action is mood, the personality, the attitude of the character - or all three."
"What is going to make an artist out of you is a combination of a few basic facts about the body, a few basic principles of drawing, and an extensive, obsessive desire and urge to express your feelings and impressions."
"Animators are not just recorders of facts; they are storytellers, using their drawing vocabulary instead of words to spin a tale. They have at their disposal many exciting and dramatic ways to make expressive drawings, some of which are squash and stretch, twisting, contrast, angles, tension, perspective, and thrust. These are not physical things but they are what give life to physical things."
"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 animaton."
"It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be young, to continue growing - not to settle and accept."
"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."
"The mime uses gestures, he uses attitudes of the body, and he uses illusion. Attitudes of the body suggest what the character is feeling. The mime has to show more than one thing: what the character is like, how he is involved, his traits, his environment, and what is motivating him." "The mime 'magnifies' the truth - he doesn't just exaggerate. This is an interesting concept, for we animators think of exaggeration when we caricature a character or action. 'magnify' seems to be less mechanical, less surface adjustment. Character and feeling and ideas are from deep within, they are the truth of the character and therefor to magnify their truth seems more completely expressive."
"One of the hazards of putting too much work into a drawing that isn't right, gesture-wise, is that you are likely to fall in love with it (you worked so hard on the details) and hate the thought of changing it, even though it needs improvement."
"To get someone's attention and make an appeal, universal body language requires that you lean towards the person. This intensifies the eye contact, in the hope of making a more sure contact, arousing interest, or even pity."
"Think first, then draw."
"I'm thinking that the quality of empathy is a needed ingredient in becoming a good animator or assistant animator. One needs t be sensitive to the feelings emotions, and passions of others and to be able to portray these feelings to an audience in a sincere and often humorous way."
"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." "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."
Thursday, 6 October 2016
Key Text: Action Analysis for Animators by Chris Webster
Just like the book I read by Nancy Beiman, Chris Webster goes into great detail about the fundamental skills and techniques needed to create believable motion. Webster also discusses the principles of animation, and how they can affect an animated performance, but also goes on to define the different 'types of motion' and how each present their own range of possibilities.
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
"Tricks, tips, and dodges have their place and allow an animator to develop his or her animation skills to a certain degree. They will even allow a student to imitate work of others. However, if this approach is taken as the sole way of learning and creating animation, it can only lead to students developing their craft by rote, creating little other than formulaic animation."
"A collection of reference material is absolutely vital to the animator who wants to develop their craft."
"Timing gives meaning to motion."
"Although timing forms the basis for all performance-based animation, it does not provide that performance; it simply provides the believable movement that underpins acting. Timing gives meaning to motion, and without this meaning we are left with simple activity."
"If it looks right, it is right."
"Solid Drawing. This is a principle clearly more appropriate to animators who work in 2D classical animation."
"Pose-to-pose allows for more control. Straight-ahead often has more liveliness."
"Over use of squash and stretch will change the illusion of the material." "When taken to extremes it is less useful for naturalistic actions."
"Action does play a vital role in all animated performances and is a fundamental part of acting, but that's not to say that all animated performances depend on movement and action in the same way."
"What creates a good performance is open to interpretation, however." "It would be better to look at appropriate performances." "It is far better for us to consider both the animation and the performance as being appropriate to each of the work."
"Acting is undoubtedly a major part of a performance, but it is not the only part. Creating a good performance also depends on the standard of the directing, enhanced by design, sound design, music, staging, and overall production values."
"It is very important to acknowledge that the recognition of body language associated with any particular group can only ever provide a starting point for our study and understanding of body language." "Rely too much on body language we will create stereotypes."
"The observation of body language can provide a basis on which to build a performance; the use of body language alone may be enough to provide the animator with a basis for building a performance."
"In creating a performance, animators' work becomes more complex, considering the mood and temperament the individual character is required to display throughout the performance."
"The unspoken words and the thinking process are internal processes that not only drive action; they may be made visible through facial and body movement; pose, gait and timing." "Create the 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."
"Many young animators make the simple mistake of over animating their characters."
"One way you could begin to analyze performance is to initially watch a film in its entirety and try to enjoy the experience as it was intended; as entertainment." "Try to identify the particular emotional traits and personalities of the characters." "...one with a dynamic arc that demonstrates a change of behavior or thinking in more than one character."
"Animators will probably find themselves dealing with two distinct types of motion: naturalistic action and abstract action. Each of these types of motion presents its own range of possibilities and, as one might expect, is own particular difficulties."
(- Naturalistic: Recognizable movements, organic or non organic, undertaken in a completely believable manner. As the audience can easily recognize the actual motion, anything deviating from the first-hand experience will be instantly identifiable as erroneous and the suspension of disbelief will fail
- Abstract: May be open to interpretation. some cases can't be easily measured against any 'real' equivalent. Believably maybe the attribution of weight. Momentum.)
"Often the outcomes you are trying to achieve determine the approach you will take and indicate the level of knowledge of the laws of physics you will need."
"Divide animated motion into three separate categories of movement: Simulation, representation, and interpretation."
(- Simulation: High degree of accuracy. In its replication of naturalistic actions. Movement is replicated 'exactly'. Used for highly naturalistic movements of objects/figures and effects such as water. Suspension of disbelief must be total.
- Representation: Doesn't have the same constraints as Simulation. It demands less accurate movements that can be strictly evidence in the actual behaviour of the subject. May pass as 'real', even if the actual movements themselves can not be evidenced as such, for example Dinosaurs. we can consider the weight, shape, size, and flexibility of the creature and look to existing subjects with similar qualities to use as a guide.
- Interpretation: More creative use of animation. Personal expression. Does not depend on either naturalistic or believable movement, though it is not limited to abstract forms.)
Four A's of Animation: Acting, Animation, Action, Activity.
"Not an alternative to the principles of animation, rather they offer a useful addition."
"Identify the nature of movements in various subjects."
- Activity: The simplest. Movements are extremely basic and describe a type of dynamic that can not be easily associated with any naturalistic movement. Examples include sparkles on moving water, neon signs and credit sequences. Moving text is clearly animated but has no form of movement that we can attribute to the image itself.
- Action: Identifiable movements of an object or image that are natural to that object. "Subjects move without the intention to move at all, let alone in any given way; it is simply in their nature to move the way they do." "The intention to move is the topic that takes us one step higher in the hierarchy of action."
- Animation: All movements - naturalistic or otherwise - that are generated from the subject itself. Some variations are down to the choices the animal makes; others are a result of physical and behavioural dissimilarities. Define the type of action. They demonstrate a choice in their movement, and that is the key to animation in this context. Intention.
- Acting: The highest form of action in animation. "For the performance to be believable, it must transcend the manipulation of the physical and deal with mood, temperament, personality, and thought."
Objectives of movements; Balance, locomotion (move from A-B), projection (eg. throwing), manipulation, effort.
Monday, 3 October 2016
Key Text: Animated Performance: Bringing Imaginary Animal, Human and Fantasy Characters to Life by Nancy Beiman
I thought this book was a great read, and I can definitely see myself referring back to it when it comes to writing my dissertation, as well as producing the practical side of it too. Beiman talks about the many ways in which character's movements will vary according to the emotional and narrative context of their situation, and the book is also filled with exercises to try that demonstrate these points.
There are a few chapters that I thought were too specific to be useful this time around, for example there is a section that demonstrates how you would bring inanimate objects to life, but I read them anyway as it really made me think differently about how I would approach animating a character. It got me thinking about the objects/character's personality, and things like "whether it likes its job", as things like this would effect how the object/character would move or act. The book also points out that things like gender and age will take a toll on this too.
Or then again, is this a road I could go down? Do I look at how inanimate objects are given life, and how even though they may not speak and are just objects, we are still able empathize with them?
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
"The weight of the fabric is shown by the movement of the cloth, not by the number of lines used to indicate wrinkles."
"Believably is more important than realism." (In regards to animating fabrics)
"One common mistake made by beginning animators is to have all the characters moving all the time." "Maintain 'life' in characters that are in held poses by using a moving hold. An occasional eye blink or slight tilt of the head breaks up the stillness and keeps the character 'alive' without distracting the viewer from the main action."
"Storyboard is mainly concerned with the WHY of a film. Animation is concerned with HOW the story points are put across."
"The animated character, like a human actor, does not stand alone. It is influenced by its background and its relationship with other elements in the scene."
"Remember that animation acting is movement with a purpose."
"Take a look at the reference footage. Then put it away and never look at it again" - Frank Thomas to Nancy (1985)
"A motion picture lets you see the [tennis] players in motion from different angles and study moves in sequential order, but filmed action cannot substitute for personal observation and artistic interpretation.
"Your sketches from life reflect your view of the world and its creatures rather than a filmed and edited depiction of action frozen in time".
"A photograph eliminates the third dimension; this leads to the notoious 'flatness' of animation that is traced directly from individual frames of motion-picture film."
"Newton's third law of motion states that 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.' Animation will vary from real life in this respect; while every action will generate an opposite reaction, it will not necessarily be an equal one. Unlike 'real life', an animated character's movement may emphasise or caricature the main action and underplay the opposing action for dramatic or comedic effect. An animated character's actions and reactions may be impossible in real life, but believable in the animated context."
"Weight is conveyed by varying the timing of overlapping action on different parts of the body after the initial contact."
There are a few chapters that I thought were too specific to be useful this time around, for example there is a section that demonstrates how you would bring inanimate objects to life, but I read them anyway as it really made me think differently about how I would approach animating a character. It got me thinking about the objects/character's personality, and things like "whether it likes its job", as things like this would effect how the object/character would move or act. The book also points out that things like gender and age will take a toll on this too.
Or then again, is this a road I could go down? Do I look at how inanimate objects are given life, and how even though they may not speak and are just objects, we are still able empathize with them?
Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:
"The weight of the fabric is shown by the movement of the cloth, not by the number of lines used to indicate wrinkles."
"Believably is more important than realism." (In regards to animating fabrics)
"One common mistake made by beginning animators is to have all the characters moving all the time." "Maintain 'life' in characters that are in held poses by using a moving hold. An occasional eye blink or slight tilt of the head breaks up the stillness and keeps the character 'alive' without distracting the viewer from the main action."
"Storyboard is mainly concerned with the WHY of a film. Animation is concerned with HOW the story points are put across."
"The animated character, like a human actor, does not stand alone. It is influenced by its background and its relationship with other elements in the scene."
"Remember that animation acting is movement with a purpose."
"Take a look at the reference footage. Then put it away and never look at it again" - Frank Thomas to Nancy (1985)
"A motion picture lets you see the [tennis] players in motion from different angles and study moves in sequential order, but filmed action cannot substitute for personal observation and artistic interpretation.
"Your sketches from life reflect your view of the world and its creatures rather than a filmed and edited depiction of action frozen in time".
"A photograph eliminates the third dimension; this leads to the notoious 'flatness' of animation that is traced directly from individual frames of motion-picture film."
"Newton's third law of motion states that 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.' Animation will vary from real life in this respect; while every action will generate an opposite reaction, it will not necessarily be an equal one. Unlike 'real life', an animated character's movement may emphasise or caricature the main action and underplay the opposing action for dramatic or comedic effect. An animated character's actions and reactions may be impossible in real life, but believable in the animated context."
"Weight is conveyed by varying the timing of overlapping action on different parts of the body after the initial contact."
Presentation of Initial Research and Progress
I was hoping that presenting to my peers about my initial research and ideas would give me a greater understanding of what my next steps should be. I discussed the books I have read and what I intend to look at, as well as the questions I was asking myself about the direction my dissertation could take, hoping to receive further opinions on the matter.
Presentation Slides
I didn't receive a great deal of comments, and I'd like to think that this means that I'm heading in the right direction and already looking at good sources of information. It was pointed out that I could consider looking at Mocap, which is something I have already taken note of, but I'm not too sure about it at this stage because I'm wanting to focus on 2D animation as this is what I am most interested in.
Annabeth suggested designing a character that I could go on to use for the line tests that I intend to carry out later in the project, and I think this was a good idea. I am hoping to design a character similar to the one that Nancy Beiman uses in her book to carry out her animation exercises, one that is plain and genderless so that I can focus entirely on how the character moves and expresses itself.
'Sam' - Nancy Beiman
I shall get started on this within the next few weeks, alongside finishing my books and expanding my bibliography.
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