Terry Gilliam

        Terry Gilliam, aside from being a film maker, is the creator of distinctive and quirky animations which stand out thanks to his use of cut out engravings, photographs and his own drawings. These images are then melded together in surreal scenarios, which are all the more unusual considering the juxtaposition between the stern, Victorian photos and the silliness of the comedy.

        Initially, Gilliam's animations were used as a link between the sketches of Monty Python's Flying Circus, but soon became an integral part of the show and have come to define the visual language of the group through use for their other media including book and LP covers. It is in Monty Python's films that Gilliam was allowed to stretch his animating legs, not only through the title sequences, but with action sequences involving fantastical monsters (The Holy Grail). The choice to use Gilliam's signature animated style to create the 'Legendary Black Beast of Aarrrggghh' over any other technique not only heightens the comedy, but further enhances the inseparability of Terry Gilliam's animation and Monty Python.   

 

        "The whole point of animation to me is to tell a story, make a joke, express an idea. The technique itself doesn't really matter. Whatever works is the thing to use."- A quote from Gilliam when he appeared on the Do-it-yourself Animation Show in the early 1970s. It is a terrible shame that there aren't programmes like this any more, where people can watch and learn from their animating icons.

PES

        There are a couple of films by PES (Adam Pesapane) that have really appealed to me, both using everyday objects to create something quirky and inspiring.
 

         The first is The Deep. An ersatz nature film, the use of metal objects including tools, chains and ammunition to create underwater creatures transforms the mundane into the sublime. The sequence where two differently shaped types of callipers are transformed into an ethereally beautiful jellyfish-like creature was particularly outstanding to me.

        Western Spaghetti is similar in that it is not an animation that tells a story, but looks at something familiar from a different perspective, in this case the everyday task of cooking. Using regular household items like dice, pin cushions and rubber bands is a perfect demonstration of how an excellent animation can be made without reams of complex props and equipment. The creativity of the artist's ideas, the simplicity and the smooth execution combine to make attention grabbing films, full of quietly stunning moments (see the post-it note butter melt seamlessly). The culinary follow up Fresh Guacamole was Oscar nominated.  

Storyboard Research

        Looking at a selection of storyboards for well known films, I was surprised to discover that the majority are not finely finished, exquisitely painted works of art. Instead, although well drawn, there is a sense  of speed and energy behind them, as though the artist has ideas tumbling out of their minds. Most importantly, these drawings don't seem laboured over; what is important is conveying a the essence of what is happening on screen.

David Lowery for Jurassic Park.

Sylvain Despretz for Gladiator.

         What the above two segments of storyboard share is a sense of dynamism. By not sticking to the confines of the box/frame, the movement within is so much stronger and somehow more exciting. It also provides a clearer sense of where a character is going to or coming from as the frame provides a definite start/end point. The simple black and white lines manage to paint the scene without distracting from the content of the scene; important given the point of a storyboard in the first place (to clearly map out a scene for everyone involved in the film).   

Zack Snyder for Watchmen.

        This storyboard for Watchmen, I feel, is a little underdeveloped. Certainly, the drawing doesn't detract from the action, but the lines are so simple and the character so vaguely draw that I find it harder than with the others to follow what is happening. It just isn't that exciting...but it appears that frames from the original graphic novel have been used as a reference, so perhaps the purpose of the storyboard in this case is to fill in the blanks, as the graphic novel has already depicted the characters, settings and main action.

The Grand Old Duke Of York

The Grand Old Duke of York,

He had 10,000 men.

He marched them up to the top of the hill,

And he marched them down again.

And when they were up they were up,

And when they were down they were down,

And when they were only half way up,

They were neither up nor down.

 

 

 

        This is the nursery rhyme that I chose as a subject for a storyboarding task. To create a 12 frame sequence out of most nursery rhymes is not as straightforward as it seems, as most of the stories are simply not that long, and require some imagination and embellishment. An added challenge that I found with The Grand Old Duke of York is that it is quite repetitive, with much of the story concerned with going up and down hills, and my job was to explore the different shot types and camera angles which would depict this.

        The first task was to break down the rhyme into its key elements, before drafting frames on to post-it notes so that they could be interchanged, shuffled around and adjusted before I settled on a definite sequence.

 

        In order to elongate the eight lines into twelve frames, I needed to figure out a back story and motivation for the repetitive actions, and I settled on the idea of the Duke being lost but 'nobly' leading his men on regardless. Once I was satisfied with the order and layout of my post-it note draft, I could flesh out the characters a little and work on a colour scheme in the second draft before doing a final version.

        I settled on watercolours and a simplified style for the characters, due to the fact that as a nursery rhyme  (and one without sinister hidden meaning) this would be aimed predominantly at children, so I wanted a soft colour scheme and friendly looking characters to match accordingly. Also, as the story is historical, I felt that hand drawing the frames would be more sympathetic, as opposed to the clean lines and bright colours of digital drawings. Unfortunately, this did mean that once scanned into the computer, some of the softer, more subtle paint colours didn't show up very clearly. However, I don't think that this small problem has overly affected the final result.       

Brambly Hedge

        One of my childhood favourites, Brambly Hedge manages to ingratiate author Jill Barklem's original illustrations into stop motion films that retain a style that is remarkably sympathetic to the original vision. As the illustrations are used to show cross sections of the trees that the mice inhabit, it could be said that their inclusion is a strategic way of avoiding the need to construct complex and expensive sets. However, building the many trees as they are in the books, filled with mazes of chambers and corridors, would not be an efficient use of time considering the amount of time such shots are on screen, and the illustrations are an effective substitute as it adds to the traditional feel.

 

 

        Often when working with animals, animators choose between keeping the animal on all fours and emphasising the gestures of tails and ears for communication (see Bambi and The Fox and the Hound) or giving them more human qualities and movements (see Bugs Bunny and Wile E Coyote). With Brambly Hedge makes use of the mice's tails while also using anthropomorphism, thereby optimising the expressive abilities of puppets which have limited facial manoeuvrability- they don't even blink.  

 

 

       

Love- Further Development

        Once I had made the decision to go with my idea for 'love' using just hands, I began to storyboard my grand vision. Although this storyboard shows the frames in a square format, they will actually be closer to 16:9 ratio, so I will have to consider what else will be in shot. The nature of my idea means that most shots will be relatively close up.

 



     

        Other areas of consideration are the type of hands that I will use. This will have a major impact on the story, as the appearance of the hands will influence how the audience sees them as characters, and may also alter the message of the sequence. For example, using both male/female hands might give the film a more political undercurrent than using one of each gender. Similarly, age, skin colour, tattoos and jewellery could drastically adjust the meaning.

 

        I have settled on the use of one real hand (female) and an artist's mannequin hand (male). The story that I hope this will depict is the desire of the wooden hand to be real and find a loving relationship, sort of like a romantic Pinocchio. As such, there is a dream like, fantastical slant to my idea, and all the scenarios should be accordingly 'perfect'. To further emphasise this idea the lighting should be soft and warm where possible and the locations should be cosy and homely. 

 

        Now that all the decisions have been made, all that remains is to shoot it! 

        Oh, and one final note. To avoid the problems timing and spacing issues I had with my first attempt at pixilation I will be using this guide as a reference throughout the photography stage:

 

Pose to Pose Animation

        Pose to pose is a method of animation where key frames are drawn first, and the in between frames filled in later. The task of drawing out the inbetweens can be left to an animator's assistant once the key frames have been drawn strongly. This method allows careful control over timing, as the movement to be animated can effectively be broken down and the frames mapped out in a diagram such as this: 
       

        As an introduction to pose to pose animation, as well as to have a go at the traditional animation technique of using Acme punched paper and a light table, I used a simple pendulum swing as the subject. At least, it sounds simple.

         Although a pendulum is not really affected by squash and stretch, others of Disney's 12 principles of animation do apply, particularly timing and spacing, while the most important is the slow in and out as the pendulum reaches the peaks of it's swing. To achieve the appropriate sense of weight and gravity it is essential that the pendulum slows as it rises and speeds as it descends, rather than moving in an arc at a constant speed. This is where spacing comes in.

         To make the 25 frame, two second animation a pose to pose rather than straight ahead exercise, I firstly plotted the key points i.e. the highest and lowest points of the pendulum's arc. The it was time to fill in the in between frames. To do this, I found it helpful to draw a diagram that would approximately show the spacing between each frame before starting on the punched paper.

Love

        For the final task in the Animation skills module, we have been given free rein to use any of the skills learnt in the other tasks to create a short animation. The only guidance given is that it should concern one of the following words: longing, hate, love, lateness, surprise, happiness or fear. Initially, no particular word stood out to me so I began by sketching ideas for all of them.

 

        Having only a couple of weeks for this project from start to finish, I realised that I would be pushed to draw the required 60-120 frames required for a 5-10 second animation, on op of all the planning and preparation. Instead I have opted to do the pixilation option, which should be between 20-30 seconds and would give me a chance to improve upon my earlier pixilation attempt. This then narrowed down the number of my ideas which would be practical to work with (i.e. eliminating any which involved animals). I finally made the choice to go with my idea for 'love'.

        This idea involves depicting a romantic, perhaps idealised version of love, but using just hands and allowing their movements to communicate the story. As reference, I looked at the movements of the omnipotent hand of the state in Jiri Trnka's The Hand (which wheedles, flirts and intimidates equally well), and the more eccentric 'Thing' in The Addams Family. Both characters manage to embody strong characteristics without uttering a word. This is what I wanted from the hands in my pixilation, and so it is essential that I take great care with the animation and make each movement clear and relevant.

 

Quantic Dream

        Every time I go to the cinema it is almost a given that one of the trailers will be for a new game and these trailers are often bigger, louder and more action packed than those for the actual films. As game technology advances at an astonishing rate, the advertising, let alone the gameplay, becomes ever more cinematic and engaging.

 

        Quantic Dream is one company that seems to be at the forefront of closing the gap between game and film. Their use of motion capture technology has increased the range and depth of emotion that can be achieved in games characters (see Kara), allowing for more complex and involving narratives. As this technology has been making deeper inroads into cinema as well (Avatar, Lord of the Rings and the less photorealistic Beowulf) there is now less of a visual discrepancy between the two mediums.

 

        The next step after sharing techniques seems to be sharing talent. While it is not new for actors to reprise their roles by voicing characters in video game imaginings of their films, Beyond: Two Souls allows gamers to interact with characters brought to life, both vocally and physically, by Hollywood actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. The process of acting for a game does not seem so very far removed from film production, aside from the increased quantity of story which is needed to accommodate multiple scenarios rather than one linear narrative. Perhaps it will not be long before cinema becomes interactive.   

 

       

Cats Like Felix...

        In 1989, Felix Cat Food had just a 6% share of the cat food market. Ten years later, the company was Britain's biggest selling competitor on the market. What could have accounted for this phenomenal change in fortunes? To avoid being delisted by supermarkets, the owners of the brand were pushed into advertising to create awareness. The result was an animated black and white cat, created by Boase Massimi Pollitt.

 

 

        Keeping the beleaguered owner's faces out of frame placed Felix the cat at the centre of the campaign, while the mischievous, recognisable scenarios appeal to viewers as they may bring to mind pleasing associations with viewers' own pets. Making the character's movements as close to those of his real life counterparts as possible,  rather than making him cartoonish or anthropomorphic, also helps strengthen the appeal to cat lovers.

 

 

 

        More than 20 years later, Felix still uses the same character, same style and same simple, effective  and time tested formula of a cheeky cat's unstoppable attempts to get his food. This clearly demonstrates that some things are best not tampered with.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Title Sequence

        Often one of the prime uses of animation, particularly in film, is to show things which it may not always be possible to capture in live action. The title sequence for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, created by Blur Studios, comprises of a sequence of such vignettes which are intended to provide a peek into Lisbet Salander's troubled psyche.

 

        From the eponymous tattoo bursting to life to a brain made of wires and cables, all consumed by a layer of cloying black fluid, the sequence is full of images which would have been impossible to create without the use of animation but maintain a photorealistic look thanks to the use of digital scanning. Director David Fincher recognized the difficulties posed by his vision, and that CG would give ultimate control. Luckily, this approach is the studio's strength.

        An animation, visual effects and design company, Blur Studios specialise in highly realistic effects shots for films such as Avatar as well as stunning animation for games such as Batman: Arkham Origins/City/Asylum.

 

        As a piece intended to mentally prepare the audience for the feature film, as well as incorporate key elements from all three of Stieg Larsson's source novels, the sequence races through a variety of shots which build from the smoothly hypnotic into a frenzied crescendo which mirrors the instability and trauma hidden beneath Lisbeth's impersonal exterior.  

Joanna Quinn Charmin Adverts

       Joanna Quinn's series of adverts for Charmin, featuring a variety of animals from bears to sloths to flamingos, are a seemingly perfect choice to demonstrate the gentle softness the company no doubt wished to depict.

 

 

       With only a limited amount of time (approximately 30 seconds) to communicate an idea, there is a lot of pressure within commercial animation to make every second count. Every aspect of Quinn's animation from the pencil lines, the muted, almost pastel colour palette and rounded character design suggests cushiony softness.

 

 

        Using hand drawn animation (Quinn's signature design) creates a mellow effect that would have been difficult to replicate with the cleaner, crisper lines of 2D computer animation. The lines and colours change subtly from frame to frame which makes the animation flicker slightly; not enough to disrupt viewing, but to give the adverts a comforting, cosy quality. As Quinn's animations were also used for a not dissimilar campaign for Whiskas cat food, it must have been a style that appealed to audiences.

 

        Yet while these adverts are recognizably Quinn's, her animations are not always quite so gentle. The fluid lines are used in Britannia, Body Beautiful and The Wife of Bath for a quite different effect. The movement between frames works extremely well as the characters transform and shape shift between dog and Queen Victoria, and as a middle aged woman's body morphs into that of a body builder. The animation style manages to make such dramatic changes seem easy and naturalistic as one image simply flows into another.

A still from The Wife of Bath, but it works on its own.

        As she works using animation paper, drawing each frame one after another, Quinn's work lends itself to the flip book format, as not only can you watch the animation sequence as a whole, it is easy to stop, look and admire individual frames as beautiful drawings in their own right.   

 

Carn

        While browsing through Short of the Week, I came across Carn by Jeff Le Bars. Initially, I wasn't sure that I'd like it, as the 2D animation seemed a little flat and without much detail. This was not the case.

 

 

        The dramatic silhouettes are enhanced by subtle colour variations which give the illusion of texture. Particularly with the wolf, the outline is not silhouette sharp when she is in close up; instead there is delicate feathering between the body and background, making her fur look thick and plush. The pattern of the speckled snow on the boy's hat also conveys it's furry texture well.

 

        The strong yet sparse style allows Le Bars' animation to be the main focus, as the delicate movements are not overshadowed. The way in which simple shapes and block colours are combined to create an image with greater depth mirrors the unembellished yet affecting story of trust and betrayal.

 

Jurassic Park

        Although heralded as a milestone in digital animation (and rightly so) what appeals to me about Jurassic Park is the way that computer effects are combined so seamlessly with more traditional animation techniques. Steven Spielberg assembled a team including Stan Winston (animatronics), Phil Tippett (go motion), Michael Lantieri (on set effects) and Dennis Muren (Industrial Light and Magic, Digital compositing) to ensure that the dinosaurs the audience would see on screen were not monsters but believable living and breathing animals.

 

       The ambition to use full size mechanical dinosaurs was quickly replaced with Phil Tippett's go motion technique, which would incorporate animated model dinosaurs into live action sequences with the actors, with motion blur for added realism, but although Tippett's tests produced some incredibly smooth and realistic results, Spielberg was not satisfied and Muren posed the idea that ILM could advance their work from The Abyss and Terminator 2 and create the dinosaurs digitally. The rest is history.

 

A stop motion animatic created by Phil Tippett. It is remarkably close to the finished sequence.

 

        Yet the transition to digital didn't mean that the traditional animators were out of a job. The go motion animators' knowledge of the dinosaurs movements informed the digital creations, while Tippet's early model animatics were used as a reference. A device dubbed the 'Dinosaur Input Device' even allowed a mechanical dinosaur skeleton to be animated by hand and the information transferred to a digital model; a sort of early motion capture. As much of the technology was in its infancy during the film's production new obstacles were overcome and new techniques were being developed constantly.

 

 

 

        Yet the excitement of new technology was not allowed to interfere with the vision of creating 'real' dinosaurs. Animators mimed, acted out sequences and referred to footage of animals to improve their understanding and immerse themselves in their work as well as consulting palaeontologists.

 

        Whereas many films now seem to revolve around their special effects, in Jurassic park they enhance the story and are used in a considered fashion, with the most appropriate method being selected for each moment. The triceratops animatronic allows the actors to actually touch and interact with a dinosaur, which helps the audience invest in the digital animals. It is in this fusion of art and technology that Jurassic Park succeeds, while the attention to detail means that the effects, both practical and digital, still hold up 20 years later.        

Cletus Clay

        As an animation student, I am ashamed to say I am not a big gamer. I have never used an xbox, and have only ever used a PlayStation to play Crash Bandicoot, and not since I was about seven years old. As such, this is the area of animation that I have least knowledge of; very little knowledge in fact.

       Since most of my awareness of the games industry comes from what is advertised on TV, or in Empire magazine, that only really encompasses the big, popular, blockbuster releases, and not the smaller, less mainstream games. Joining this course means that I can learn from other student's as they share animations that appeal to them.

        One such example are Anthony Flack's scrolling platform games Cletus Clay and the earlier Platypus. I have always imagined that video games are all digital and, well, made on computers. It had never occurred to me that someone might use claymation to develop  a game, mainly as it sounds like a ridiculous amount of hard work:

 

        What Flack says about the stop motion creating a level of intimacy and eliciting a response from the gamer, similar to a how a viewer responds to a hand made animation, made sense to me. Video games seem to be moving more and more in a cinematic, first person shooter direction, aiming to place the gamer in the midst of the action, yet are so broad in their scope and ambition that many details must become lost in the fray. The more traditional platform format is well suited to traditional stop motion as the smaller environment means that the gamer can take in the whole scene and can appreciate and enjoy the depth and character the clay models contribute to the game's aesthetic. This unusual combination makes the game stand out in a rapidly growing market.

Dinosaur

        Aside from Toy Story, Disney's Dinosaur was the first 3D computer animation I had seen. The difference between the former and the later is that the characters in Toy Story are mostly toys and live in a correspondingly soft, idyllic toy box world. The dinosaurs on the other hand are depictions of living, breathing animals, inhabiting a harsh pre historic landscape, hence the animation style is slightly more naturalistic.

 

        As a child I distinctly remember being bowled over at the realism of the water and other habitats. Later, I discovered that this was due to the fact that many of the locations were real places, filmed and used as a backdrop. However, the animated creatures blend seamlessly into these environments, adding to the magic a young audience would no doubt feel at these long extinct being brought back to life before their eyes.

        There is a lot to admire in the way the dinosaurs move; flesh rippling as they run, fight and tumble which really adds a sense of weight and substance to these digitally rendered images. Also, despite being made just before the 'breakthrough' fur animation of Monsters Inc, the Lemurs' fur is very convincing and looks soft enough to touch.

Photography Induction Part 1

        What I mainly learnt from this induction is that I am photography illiterate. Although I can see that changing the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance for different conditions improves the quality of the image, I don't know why and most of my images are not very good.

A couple of the 'better' images from the first workshop.

         So, to improve my knowledge I have done a little research into what each of the above terms actually means:

• Aperture- refers to the diameter of the opening in the lens, which can be adjusted to control the amount of light that reaches the film/digital sensor. (F-stop)
• Shutter Speed-  measurement that determines how long the shutter remains open as the picture is taken. The slower the shutter speed the longer the exposure. Together with aperture, controls the amount of light reaching the sensor. (Fractions of a second)
• ISO- refers to light sensitivity. The higher the number the more sensitive to light. Lower sensitivity requires longer exposure to light, but results in a better quality image, so use the lowest sensitivity you can get away with. (100, 200, 400, 800)
• White Balance- used to compensate for different colours of light. Allows a digital camera to be calibrated to correctly display the colour white.

        Hopefully with practice I'll manage to improve.

Parasite Pixiliation

        In order to further explore the process behind pixilation, I am going to make my own based on the relationship between a host and parasite. The pixilation needs to be between 600 and 1000 frames long, at a rate of 12 frames per second, which would make the animation between 50 and 72 seconds long. This may not sound much, but looks can be deceiving.

 

        After coming up with a few concepts, including a tired person being consumed by their duvet, I decided to use a mobile phone as a parasite, with earphones and cables as 'tentacles'. Once I had plotted a rough story outline, it was then time to draft a storyboard showing the kind of framing and camera movements I envisaged, in case I needed to do the actig and get someone else to man the camera. Here is the result...

 

 

        There were a few practical problems that needed sorting out in the plot, such as how to firmly secure the phone to a hand and give the cables enough stability to hold their shape to be photographed. 

 

         

        While the fungus in the clip below is dramatic and eerily beautiful, it was not was I was looking for and doesn't really fit in with the use of a mobile phone as a prop.

 

 

        In the initial stages of this project, what sprang to mind for the word parasite was this scene from John Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing. The grasping whip-like tentacles wrapping around the frantic dogs in particular was what seemed suitable for the wires and cables that could emerge from the body of the phone. 

 



 

        The facehuggers from the Alien films also provide a good reference point for my pixilation, as their super strength constricting tails are quite similar to what interested me in The Thing. 

Pixilation

        Before this task, I had never heard of pixilation, and could only imagine that it was a digital process, having something to do with pixels. Therefore I was surprised to discover that it was a technique not dissimilar to stop motion animation, only using photographs of people and props rather than puppets. In principle, all you need to create a pixilation animation is a camera and maybe a tripod.

        In spite of these similarities to stop motion (one of my favourite styles of animation), I found it difficult to find much to admire in some of the examples we were shown, though this may be to do with the subject rather than style. Jan Svankmajer's Food was quite nauseating (though it was undoubtedly intended to be so) and I found the clay animation effects crude and jarring. On first viewing it, I didn't really see what Svankmajer was trying to communicate, but after doing a little research the general consensus seems to be that the vignettes are highlighting human greed and consumerism, but for me this message was lost behind the surreal stories.

        Norman McLaren's Neighbours was far more enjoyable. The pixilation in this film made the two characters (not to mention their homes and garden furniture) move in a slightly off kilter way reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin and other films of the silent era, which combined with the perfectly suburban setting, created a charming picture book feel to the film. Until that is all hell breaks loose over a flower and the two protagonists go to war, destroying everything and eventually each other. The simple plot works well as a microcosm for the cold war, allowing the audience to focus on the characters rather than searching for hidden metaphors. By using pixilation, McLaren is able not only to create effects which would not be possible with live actions, but is able to depict things which would be abhorrent if done realistically (a man throwing an infant across a garden) and make them funny. It is true that, to quote Terry Gilliam, "serious ideas can often be communicated very powerfully with humour" (from Frame by Frame Stop Motion: Non Traditional Approaches to Stop Motion Animation by Tom Gasek).

Frame by Frame Animation in Photoshop



        Following on from our Flip Book study task, we were asked to use the skills we had learnt to create 3 short frame by frame animations using Photoshop. Once again the key principles of animation that we should have been taking into consideration were the use of squashing and stretching, as well as timing and spacing.

 

        As a rigid object, a pendulum would not squash and stretch as it moves through the air. However, the use of spacing and timing is critical to create the correct swing speed. By adding more frames at the highest points on the pendulum's arc, it appears to slow as though through the effects of gravity, while fewer frames and larger gaps towards the centre of the arc creates the illusion of speed and a gain in momentum.

         A bouncing ball on the other hand, will squash upon impact with the ground, and stretch as it moves quickly through the air. The more the ball stretches, the more elastic and springy it will appear. As with the pendulum, the ball needs to slow as it reaches the highest peak of its path (slow in and slow out) and speed up as it falls, so that it appears to be governed by gravity, rather than merely floating. To make this ball bounce as smoothly as the pendulum swings, I could increase the 12 frames that I used.

       This final animation is a combines the movement in an arc with squashing and stretching. It was more challenging than either the pendulum or the simple ball bounce, as it required me to consider the length of each arc/bounce and how many frames each should take, in conjunction with the changing ball shape.

        These tasks also provided me with an opportunity to experiment with a graphics tablet for the first time. While I admit I did find it tricky to get used to, not to mention frustrating at times, it is far more easy than drawing using a mouse and I can see that it will be a valuable tool for later digital work. 

Flip Books

        We have been tasked to create a series of flip book animations taking into consideration the 12 principles of animation developed for Disney in the 1930s by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Although there have been many great animations developed without these principles, they are helpful when you are a student taking your first steps into the world of animation.

 

        Thomas and Johnston's principles are:

• Squash and Stretch (illusion of weight and volume)
• Anticipation (the movement made before a major action)
• Staging/Mise-en-scene (presentation of an idea through framing, scenery etc.)
• Straight ahead (animating frame after frame without planning key frames) and Pose to Pose (work out key frames before drawing the in between frames)
• Follow through and Overlapping (actions that happen once the main body of the character/object has stopped moving i.e. hair, clothes, ears and jowls)
• Slow out and Slow in (more frames at beginning/end of pose to give more lifelike movement)
• Arcs (most actions follow arcs or circular paths)
• Secondary action
• Timing (more drawings = slower and smoother; fewer drawings = faster and crisper)
• Exaggeration (can mean more subtle, as well as more extreme. A contrast to normal)
• Solid Drawing (form, weight, volume, illusion of life etc.)
• Appeal (character personality, creates interest)

 

        The highlighted principles are what we were asked to focus on for our flip books showing a bouncing ball, however others such as slow ins, arcs and anticipation naturally began to work their way in.

        

        Above is a scanned version of my Spacehopper flip book, which in addition to timing and squash and stretch contains a little anticipation (could maybe have done with an extra page to make this more noticeable), follow through and hopefully appeal. After drawing so many faceless balls, I found it fun to be able to give the Spacehopper some character by changing his facial expressions.

 

Creature Discomforts

        Similarly to Animal Farm, in Creature Discomforts, Aardman's disability awareness campaign for Leonard Cheshire Disability, a familiar style is used to introduce a subject to a wider audience. The claymation animation, made popular by Nick Park's Creature Comforts is both highly recognisable and immensely popular.

        Indeed every aspect of the two animation series is similar. The only difference is that rather than extoling the joys of hot water or the wonders of science, the creatures discuss how their disabilities effect their lives and impact on how others perceive them.

        By using a format that has already proven successful and that appeals to a broad range of viewers, Aardman ensures there is already an existing audience for the campaign. As disability is a topic that is often glossed over and skirted around, the choice to make the brief animations comedic and anthropomorphic makes the message more accessible, while preventing the dialogue cutting too close to the bone.

        The overall effect is not to overly soften or trivialise a serious subject, but to invite the audience to consider how they perceive disability and realise that it is not a taboo discussion point.

Animal Farm

        As animation is often used as a medium for children, it can be used to make a difficult or challenging subject more accessible.

        In Animal Farm George Orwell disguised a scathing political parable behind the façade of a farmyard tale, just as Halas and Batchelor's animated adaptation ostensibly appears to be a children's cartoon, yet becomes something much darker.

 

 

 

        The use of a Disneyesque animation style by Halas and Batchelor perpetuates a sense of innocence, even as the communist and Stalinist comparisons become more apparent. This discrepancy between style and substance brings the film to a wider audience, although as many of these viewers would be unsuspecting children it is disputable how much of the political message would be received.

 

As the film progresses, the political themes become unmistakable.

 

        Yet maybe the choice of style has a greater purpose than to draw in a younger audience. As totalitarian regimes are often borne out of desperation and the promise of a perfect solution, before revealing oppression and extremism, perhaps the familiar animation style reflects the false security at the birth of the pigs' regime.

Storyboards

        Storyboarding is an essential process not just to animators, but to all film makers. Planning shots in advance helps prevent mistakes occurring while filming, allows key moments in the story to be plotted and changes to be made in the sequencing, and means a schedule can be drawn up for when actors/equipment are required; all of which prevent costs from spiralling.

 

        In animation there are further uses for storyboards. Knowing when a character will appear in close up or when the story will be told through actions means that it is not necessary to spend valuable time developing detailed expression that will never appear in the completed film.

 

        Also, on a collaborative project where there may be hundreds of people working together, storyboarding lets everyone know how a sequence should look, and what order the events of the story should follow. Consequently, every member of the team will know their role and be able to work together towards the same end.

Terminator

        As the use of CG in blockbuster films becomes more commonplace, it is quite special to come across practical effects and animation which, at least in my opinion, do the job better than their computer generated counterparts.

 

        A prime example of this is the Terminator franchise, a series of films which spans 30 years and consequently encompasses a broad spectrum of animation techniques. While I don't dispute the effectiveness of the ground breaking CG animation used for the liquid metal T-1000 (Terminator 2) the change from stop motion animation (The Terminator) to CG (Terminator Salvation) for the metal endoskeleton is jarring.

 

Stop Motion Sequence from The Terminator.

 

CG cyborg from Terminator Salvation.

 

       As the character portrayed is a robot, the mechanical an wooden stride produced by stop motion is ideal, while the digital version is too slick, too smooth and too human; it just doesn't quite communicate the impression of an emotionless, unstoppable machine.

Peter & The Wolf

        The first animation that I have chosen to examine is perhaps my favourite; Suzie Templeton's Peter & The Wolf. Although lack of dialogue in animations is not unusual, it is not something I have often seen in films of this length or with so many characters. Yet this absence is not keenly felt, largely due to the harmony between what the audience sees and what they hear.

 

        As a composition intended to cultivate musical tastes in young children, Sergei Prokofiev's characterful music is often performed in conjunction with spoken narration which would help introduce the young audience to Peter's exploits. This is not the case in Templeton's interpretation, where the responsibility for telling the story is ultimately in the hands of the animators. 

 Peter, the eponymous yet voiceless hero. His highly mobile face compensates for the lack of words. 

         Working with an already established score, there was a need for the characters to reflect the tone of their own instruments, which inform their specific movements, expressions, personalities and actions. The animators manage to convey all of the above with such subtle motions as the twitch of an eye, or the flick of a paw, tiny actions that make these creatures absorbing while demonstrating that words aren’t always necessary to tell a story.

 

“I thought the animators would animate her in a more complex and interesting way if they thought she was female”- Templeton on the Wolf.