Case Study 05 - "Anna and Bella"

Case Study 05 - "Anna and Bella"

"Anna and Bella" by Borge Ring

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0qnXOzxQgA

My first thought on this animation, from an animation perspective more than a character performance one, is that the characters move with so much joy and life. There is also a tremendous amount of squash and stretch.

As for the character performance, you must first know that the animation follows two sisters where we see them as children, young adults and old ladies. The character design obviously helps to distinguish these characters from each other but also, the character's performances help to establish a clear difference in personality. The sister with the glasses seems to have a better opportunity for me to analyze in terms of character performance. There is a change in her body (literally all her body parts droop, including her glasses)

This physically shows the audience that she is upset at her boyfriend running off with her sister. Her body movements completely change though after the car crash when she is trying to save her sister. That scene is particularly interesting because as the sister is trying to save her sister after the crash; the scene changes to them when they are older and reminiscing over old photos. When the scene cuts, the sister is still in the motion trying to save her sisters life then the sister (who is dying in the scene before) still has her upbeat tempo carried over from just before they crashed and is still laughing over other photos with fond memories. This can be seen in the GIF below. It starts with the sister with glasses trying to put her dying sisters soul back into her body. The dying sisters attitude stays the same from before the crash, to after the crash, to when they are old ladies again.



This will be a better description below. With the next series of GIFs I invite you to first look at the performance from the character with the glasses and then look through them again but looking at the performance of the other character.

The set up is that the sister with glasses knows her boyfriend has cheated on her with her own sister. This is evident in this scene because one sister is super relaxed while the other is super rigid. These are clear indications of their different moods at that particular time.


This is the change in the character with glasses when she realizes her sister is dead. Her body suddenly becomes more expressive and animated as she becomes crazed, trying to save her sister.


Here the dying characters soul seems to keep her original mood from the scene before. This is a form of continuity in character performance. This combined  with the realistic animations just help to make the overall character performances more believable.


Here is the character with glasses frantically trying to save her sister, again, this is a complete change from the first GIF when she is mad at her sister. You can tell while watching the animation that in the moment she realizes her sister is dead, she has almost forgiven her since what caused the crash is something petty compared to that of death.


This is the final GIF where the "dead" sister still has the same mood as all the rest, further contrasting with her sister who changes through out them. The way that the one sister stays the same throughout all this lets the audience focus on the emotional changes of the other sister going through the life threatening situation of her sisters death.


In conclusion, the two characters are shown from childhood right up to old age and their personality seems to carry through all the way through the animation. This is a piece of successful character animation in my eyes.

Life Drawing 05

Life Drawing 05

Today I had life drawing again, I went for a pretty varied approach reflecting back on these images. Sometimes when I am drawing I begin to question what the point of it is (this often occurs when I'm struggling with a particular pose) but of course, when I am having more success I seem to be more willing to go with it. I want to get to the point where I see the benefits of life drawing for animation by myself. I feel that at the moment I am more in the mind-set that because the professionals say life drawing is crucial for animation that it must be true and my feelings on the subject don't matter. Instead of questioning it I feel I should be doing what industry tells me. I do see the benefits of it sometimes though but I truly believe that observation is almost enough for me. I also understand the process of putting into practice what you observe to truly understand it.

Summary:

I am still somewhat enjoying life drawing. There isn't much to summarise though for this post.

Life drawing is life drawing, sometimes I find it boring and sometimes I feel inspired (mostly boring though for some reason). I much prefer doing quick poses that come thick and fast, this keeps my brain engaged and doesn't allow me to focus too much on mistakes.

Case Study 04 - "Man"

Case Study 04 - "Man"

"Man" by Steve Cutts

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/01/03/man/

This will be a rather short case study I believe. The reason I chose this animation is because of the simplicity, and also consistency, of the character’s performance. The narrative revolves around man and in a way, ‘man’ is represented by the main character as he walks across the lands murdering animals for selfish needs. The beauty in his performance comes from the consistency. He literally walks for the whole animation with the exception with when he begins to dance a little.

This image below is from about 20 seconds into the animation. At this point he has already killed the first creature before this point, so bare that in mind when looking at this image. 

This second screenshot below is from around the middle, here he has just killed a lot of fish...and as you can see, his walk is still pretty much the same. This to me seems intentional, the animator must of had a clear image of this one walk through the animation as the narrative progresses and the environment with it.

This third a screenshot below is where he is picking up in his evil antics and he, himself, picks up in pace begins to prance around the screen while continuing towards the left of screen.

So the thing to take away from this case study is that the character may not be a realistic interpretation of a human and he me not move realistically either but since his performance is consistent all the way through we (the viewer) believe in his character. If for some reason he had a change of heart and started moving differently then it would still make sense and make him believable but only if the audience see his change. If a character changes their attitude without it being clear to the audience then you run the risk of them losing interest since the character is no longer believable in that moment.

Summary:

A believable character performance comes from consistency, whether its exaggerated animation or realistic. The animation needs to first establish the performance the character is giving and either stick with it or make it clear when it changes.

Brian Robinson Meeting

Brian Robinson Meeting

A few days ago I found out my mentor, Brian Robinson, so decided to get some quick feedback from him on my proposal. It's worth noting that I got feedback from another lecturer on Monday on the proposal and had gone to Brian with the edited version. It only consisted of an introduction and bullet points for the structure of the rest.

His main points were for me to get a more clear idea of what I want my showreel (the final outcome for this project), as in, realistic animations.

The other point was for me to refer to some specific animations, in my introduction at least, to paint a clear image in the heads of the readers so they can imagine what I want to achieve.

Summary:

All my research is still intact, in terms of I can still use it for my proposal, but I just have a little bit extra to go out and find to support my point in my proposal.

Honours Progress

Honours Progress

Yesterday’s classes for honours were based around the project proposal again and various research methods/techniques. It was basically filled with tips on writing and researching our project proposal. I won’t be starting any other animations this week. My plan is to work on the proposal the next few days before week seven so I can get feedback on what I have by then.

I will hopefully start animating again after next week but I will still have the mammoth project proposal looming over my keyboard that will distract me all the way up to week 10 when the deadline for it is.

Life Drawing 04

Life Drawing 04

Today I had another life drawing session. The emphasis was on silhouettes and focusing more on building up the form of the model through identifying with the shapes of the environment around them.

This process was helpful because it got me to literally focus on the outside shape of the model even though I wasn't directly drawing the figure of the model. When just drawing a model normally, it is easy to get caught up in the small details that make up the interior of the body, this process relieved me of such pains and literally helped me to develop silhouettes.

Summary:

My fourth life drawing session is over and I think my understanding of the human body is slowly improving. Just watching the models moving around has been inciteful for my brain.

Lip Sync Update

Lip Sync Update

This is a link to my latest playblast for my first lip sync animation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY_DNTUjENA&feature=youtu.be

Today is Friday and I have a progress pitch (not graded) this coming Tuesday. This lip sync has been completed in a sense for this pitch. It is not perfect but it’s as close as I feel I can get it  to for this pitch. This pitch will be a guide for the lecturers to assign us a mentor for the remaining year. I hope to get feedback on this lip sync from a lecturer within the next couple of weeks. I know that they will be able to provide plenty of critique on it.

At the moment I have been reading a lot about acting and about applying acting theory to animation and I have been trying to apply that to my lip sync animation where I could. Again, I have gone against what these books have told me and I have started with the lips then moved onto the rest of the face, it has seemed to work out for me but I won't know for sure until I get some proper critique on it.

Summary:

This first lip sync has been a bit monotonous at times but it has also been enjoyable at other times. I think because I’ve been working on it on and off for the last few weeks it has allowed me to keep going back to it with fresh mind. I think for my first attempt it has been reasonably successful, if not in the final outcome then in the learning at least. I have really felt (more so than other animations) I have really thought more about acting theory and the principles while animating. The final goal is to be able to apply them efficiently and successfully.

You Thought I was sleeping...Acting!

You Thought I was Sleeping...Acting!

Today I attended a one-day course, The Acting Lab, at Abertay University. It was an introductory course on acting where we did a handful of activities that focused around confidence and improvisation.

The reason I attended this was that I have read in many well received books on animation that acting is key for bringing a character to life. It isn’t perhaps necessary for an animator to be a fully-fledged actor because they are different careers but a lot of the theory from acting applies to animation.

I was also able to analyse how other people were performing, how they responded in certain situations and how they reacted to unforeseen problems. How body language plays a part in how we think people are feeling.

Summary:

This acting lab has been an insightful experience and has allowed me to see first-hand the art of acting. It has also made me look more into acting theory as well since in most of the books I have looked into to do with character performance for animation use acting theory to base their own knowledge on, particularly Konstantin Stanislavski who is a well-known actor and teacher from the early 20^th century whose theories have been the basis of acting for many decades now.