The Principles of Animation

Nathan Laird and I found a really interesting book in the Massey library that explains all the techniques and principles of animation throughout history. 

The book is titled "The Illusion of Life - Disney Animation" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and describes process and fascinating story behind the Disney cartoons and films. The most interesting information we gathered is about their principles of animation, which are as follows:

Squash and Stretch
This is the most important principle, the purpose of the squash and stretch is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to characters/ or drawn objects.

Anticipation
The anticipation was introduced to prepare the audience for an action displaying a more realistic build up to an event. This way the audience would never miss the gag.

Staging
Similar to theatre, staging’s purpose is to direct the audiences attention and make clear what is of greatest importance to the scene.

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose’
These describe the different approaches to the drawing process. “Straight Ahead Action” is drawing a scene out frame by frame from beginning to end, and ‘Pose to Pose’ involves starting with drawing a few key frames, then filling the intervals later.

Follow through and Overlapping action
This action describes two closely related techniques, which help render the movement more realistically. This helps give a more realistic impression. ‘Follow through’ means the separate parts of the body will continue moving after the character has stopped.

‘Overlapping action’ is where parts of the body move at different rates.

Slow in and Slow out
The movement of the character, and the timings to create a realistic movement particularly through acceleration and deceleration.

Arcs
Natural actions tend to follow more arched/ smooth paths rather then rigid ones. Therefore Adding arc movements to a character tends to add greater realism.

Secondary Action
Secondary actions often give support to a main action performed, therefore adding more life. They often are used to emphasize, rather then take attention away from the main action.

Timing
This refers to the number of drawings used for any given action. Timing is crucial for establishing a characters mood, emotion and reaction.

Exaggeration
This is essential for cartoons and animation, as it helps give a sense of realism and believeability to the given scene. There should be a balance in how the elements are exaggerated in relation to each other.

Solid Drawing
Solid drawing means keeping in mind the forms of three dimensional space/ form, giving a character volume and weight.This requires a basic understanding of three dimensional shapes, anatomy, weight, balance, light, etc.

Appeal
This relates to what the audience wants to see, in terms of charisma in a character. The important thing is that they feel the character is real and interesting.

More Brainstorming

Brainstorming Ideas

Potential Styles

There are a few potential styles I am interested in using. As I've previously stated, I'm already interested in either digitally painting my sets or incorporating other mediums (eg photography) to create them. These are the ones im currently drawn to-

Yasukon's "Tamagotchi", URL- http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kuchipatchi?before=19

-Childrens cartoons are often very simple and are vector based. This one displays a clear outline of the character filled with flat minimal colour. Expression is shown through the symbols used (hearts, drool, mouth).

Julian Dorado's Typeface Character, URL- http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/text-effects/how-to-create-typeface-characters/

- Using the bear minimum, Dorado focuses more on the positive and negative spaces to create his creatures. There is no outline displayed and has used only one fill colour. I admire the cleanliness and clarity of this style, and how we can still easily interpret its form despite its minimalism.

Ai Dong's "Lovely Girl", URL- http://www.wallcoo.net/cartoon/ai_dong_zoo_2/html/wallpaper12.html

- As for people, I enjoy the clearness of Ai Dong's character illustrations.  She designs cute characters, with the focus more on the line and modesty of her work. I also like the simple monochromatic flat colouring of this particular design. The textured background helps contrast the girl and add depth to the image.

Methods of 2D Animation

Traditional

Traditional animation is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until the invention of computer animation.  Traditionally animated productions similar to now would start with a storyboard, which allows the animation team to plan the flow of the plot and the composition of the imagery. A soundtrack is then recorded featuring music, sound effects and dialogue performed by the voice actors. Often an animatic would then be created to give the animators and directors work out any timing and script issues. Model sheets of each character were made, to gives looks from a variety of angles and a variety of facial expressions. In the traditional animation process, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on sheets of transparent paper often using colour pencils.  The drawings are then transfrerred to a clear cel sheet and are inked & painted. Each of these cels is then stacked in sequencial order and photographed using a special animation camera. Then lastly the photographs sent in for development and the film is created.

An example of a classical film that uses the traditonal animation method is Walt Disney's "The Aristocats" (1970)-

URL- http://www.listal.com/viewimage/4351213

Traditionally the sets of these animations were painted by the background artists, and the character cells.  However nowadays, most films are purely created digitally. I am thinking of incorporating a similar method into my animation- where I digitally paint the set, and illustrate the character(s) over top. This method is similar to the Studio Ghibli films whom I have been inspired by! One example is Their film "Tales From Earthsea"-

URL- http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/tales-from-earthsea/images/5977704/title/tales-from-earthsea-dragon-photo

Rubber hose

In the early days of the hand drawn animation in the 1920s, animation was a new phenomenon and there weren't experienced animators.  However there were skilled artists working in newspapers and creating comic strips, and many of them saw a lot of new opportunities and challenges to use their skills on something exciting. This is why many of the first cartoons looked like moving comic strips. As animators gained experience through trial, the cartoons became more professional and dominated by specific rules to make them.  This style ecevtually faded as Walt Disney decided he wanted to make his cartoons more realistic.

An example of a Rubber hose short film is Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" (1928)-

URL- http://fogsmoviereviews.com/2012/09/10/movies-that-everyone-should-see-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs/

I like the simplicity of the comic strip Illustration style, and could create my characters in this form.  I also like the traditional media used.

Digital 

Nowadays, most films and cartoons are created using a 100% computer animation process. Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. Computer generated animations are more controllable than other more physically based processes.  To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to it, but advanced slightly in time. For 2D vector animations, the rendering process is the key frame illustration process, while tweened frames are rendered as needed.

An example of a typical Digital animated television series is Pendleton Ward's "Adventure Time"-

URL- http://animatedtv.about.com/od/picturegallerie1/ig/-Adventure-Time--Pictures/Princesses.htm

I enjoy the illustration style of this cartoon, particularly the clarity and block colours. However, there are alot of modern childrens shows that incorporate different medias into their animations. I quite like this technique! As it gives depth and a somewhat sense of realism to them through 2D. An example I have seen, is Ben Bocquelet's "The Amazing World of Gumball"-

URL- http://animatedtv.about.com/od/picturegallerie1/ig/-Gumball--Pictures/School-Hallway.htm

Nursery Rhymes

Ring o Roses

Ring­a­ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A­tishoo! A­tishoo!
We all fall down.

Origin-
There are many versions of this rhyme, some of which use entirely different words to the roses/rosy variants. It is often suggested that the rhyme relates to the symptoms of plague, specifically the Black Death - the bubonic plague that spread through Europe in the 1340s, or to the Great Plague of London, 1665/6. The plausible-sounding theory has it that the 'ring' was the ring of sores around the mouths of plague victims, who subsequently sneezed and fell down dead.

Some however believe that the plague theory is false. The idea is usually dismissed for a number of reasons- the most common being that the first appearance of the rhyme dated far too late for the Great Plague to have been the origin. The alternative explanation is that the words are playful nonsense.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Origin-
There are several theories behind the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, and these are the most common:

-Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon during the English Civil War. It was mounted on top of the St Marys at the Wall Church in Colchester to defend the city.  The church tower was hit by the enemy and the top of the tower was blown off, sending "Humpty" tumbling to the ground. Naturally the King's men tried to mend him but in vain. I.e, The "men" would have been infantry, and "horses" the cavalry troops

-"Humpty Dumpty" referred to King Richard III. At the Battle of Bosworth Field, he fell from his steed, a horse he had named "Wall". Richard was surrounded by enemy troops in the battle, and was butchered right there, his body being hacked to pieces. Hence the final part of the rhyme: "All the King's Horses and All the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again"

-Humpty Dumpty refers to the British use of a machine called a Testudo (an ancient Roman war machine). It was often used cross moats and climb over castle walls. One day the British army was trying to conquer a castle with a moat, but they had no way to get over the wall, so decide to construct a Testudo. The next morning when the British attacked, their valuable machine plummeted from the wall into the moat. Humpty Dumpty refers to both the look of the machine (it gets its name because it looks like a tortoise) and also to the noise the wheels make as the machine moves forward.

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet

Eating her curds and whey,

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Origin-
This nursery rhyme also has several possible theories behind its origin/ meaning which include:

-the rhyme refers to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was supposed to have been frightened by John Knox, a Scottish clergyman and religious reformer. However, the rhyme does not seem to have been printed before 1805 so this meaning is skeptical.

-The rhyme was probably written by Thomas Muffet, a doctor and an entomologist (someone who studies insects) who lived during the late sixteenth century. It is believed that Little Miss Muffet is supposed to be his daughter, Patience.

-Some scholars suggest that the rhyme could have been associated with the Cushion Dance. This was a dance popular in England during the 16th century. The dance was associated with mating and marriage rituals and the May Day festival. 

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.

Origin-
Jack and Jill has two possible origins, both stating the last bit of verse was added later to give a happier ending to a children’s poem. One speculation is that Jack is King Louis XVI who broke his crown by being beheaded, and Jill would be Marie Antionette whose head came tumbling after. Another theory is that the Jack refers to a half pint, and Jill is a gill which is a quarter pint measure. In the 17th century when King Charles I wanted to reform taxes on liquid measures, he was refused by Parliament. So being crafty, he decided to decree a downsize instead to make more money.

Orange and Lemons

Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin's.

Origin-
The words to "Oranges and lemons" have been much loved by numerous generations of children. The neighbourhood names relate to some of the many churches of London and the tune that accompanies the lyrics emulates the sound of the ringing of the individual church bells.

The words of the nursery rhyme are chanted by children as they play the game of 'Oranges and lemons' the end of which culminates in a child being caught between the joined arms of two others, emulating the act of chopping off their head.

Research

Motion Graphics Design

Motion Design is a subset of graphic design that uses graphic design principles through filmmaking or video production (or any other temporally evolving visual medium) through the use ofanimation or filmic techniques. Some examples include the kinetic typography and graphics seen as the titles for a film, or opening sequences for television series', web-based animations, three-dimensional station identification logos for a television channel.

The elevation of Motion Graphics Design is largely due to technology improvements. Computer programs for the film and video industry have become vastly more powerful and more available. Probably the leading program used by motion graphic designers is Adobe After Effects, which allows them to create and modify graphics over time. Adobe After Effects is sometimes referred to as "Photoshop for film."  This is the program I will be using to complete this brief.

The Digital Revolution

The Digital Revolution refers to the advancement of technology from analog electronic and mechanical devices to the digital technology available today. The era started to during the 1980s and is ongoing. The Digital Revolution also marks the beginning of the Information Era. 

Resources-
-Techopedia
-Wikipedia