Month: August 2017

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Weekly Lessons

Week 2: How It Works

From Stop-Motion to CG

We know that animation is made up of deliberately composed frames, but how do those frames end up on the screen?  There are currently three basic techniques used for “capturing” animation, with a few outliers and overlaps.

The first technique is frame-by-frame animation.  In frame-by-frame animation, an animator creates each frame individually.  This is the oldest technique and, potentially, the most time-consuming.  Hand-drawn or cel-based animation is a done frame-by-frame, as is stop-motion.  Since each frame is being created, frame-rate is a major consideration for frame-by-frame work.  Animation being done at 24 frames-per-second requires twice as many frames to be created as animation done at 12 frames-per-second.

By its very nature, frame-by-frame animation is the most exacting and precise technique used.  Every aspect of frame-by-frame animation is controlled by the animator.  Hand-drawn animation (such as “classic” Disney films) and stop-motion are the most obvious examples of frame-by-frame animation.  In frame-by-frame animation, the animator has to have a good sense of timing, physics, and movement – and how those factors translate into individual static frames.  In a way, frame-by-frame animators have to operate in two different states of time simultaneously.  The work of animation is done between the frames.

https://youtu.be/EgvfVusJS2k

The second technique is keyframe animation, which evolved from the frame-by-frame technique.  In keyframe animation, an animator defines the “key” moments in a sequence and software fills in the blanks.  If, for example, we were animating a spaceship moving from one side of the frame to another over two seconds, frame-by-frame animation would require us to create up to 48 individual frames (depending on the frame rate being used).  Keyframe animation might only require us to create two frames – the start point and the end point – and animation software would fill in the rest.

That sounds like a huge time savings – and it can be! – but keyframe animation can also be incredibly involved.   Keyframing works well for setting start points and end points, but often animation involved multiple things moving at different rhythms simultaneously.  For example, a person walking is moving almost every part of their body – upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, hands, head, hips, torso – and all of those parts need to be keyframed separately in a way that appears seamless and natural.

The third technique is motion capture.  This is the newest animation technique and the one that requires the most specialized knowledge and software.  In motion capture, an actor wears a special suit (or make up, for facial motion capture) covered with reflective dots that can be tracked by software.  As the actor moves, a camera interprets the movement of the dots and applies them to the movement of an animated character.  Sometimes this is done after the fact and sometimes it is done instantaneously.

Because motion capture is created using “real world” movement, it can be used to create animation that is realistic and subtle.  Motion capture is often used in the special effects industry, where believability is of the utmost importance.  It is also commonly used to create animation for video games.

The biggest benefits of motion capture are speed, realism, and the ability to improvise.  A motion capture actor can collaborate in the animation process – keyframe and frame-by-frame techniques rely solely on the animator.  The downside of motion capture is that it can introduce too much realism – or, perhaps, the wrong kind of realism – into the animation process.  When we watch something that we know is animated, we accept (and even anticipate) a certain level of exaggeration and a certain level of simplification.  This relates back to our discussion of “iconic” imagery.  Animation that looks nearly real, but seems just slightly “off” can be incredibly distracting.  The industry term for this phenomenon is the “uncanny valley.”  Animated films like The Polar Express have been criticized for looking too real to be cartoons and too cartoony to be real.  The uncanny valley refers to this disconnect with regard to both visual representation and movement.

While these three categories of animation might initially seem distinct and clearly defined, they often overlap with each other.  For example, keyframe or frame-by-frame techniques are often used to tweak and refine motion captured animation.  Frame-by-frame animation is often started by a “key” animator, who only draws the keyframes.  This work is then passed off to “in-between” animators, who fill in the gaps, essentially acting like human animation software.  There are also some techniques that defy easy categorization.  Marionette or puppet-based films are not truly animated, but they fit the definition of iconic cartoon representation.  Rotoscoping, a technique wherein live-action photography is covered with cartoon art, falls somewhere motion capture and the other techniques.  There are also still-image-based films (also called “diaporamas”) that are composed of frames in sequence, but do not give the illusion of movement.

The 12 Principles

As mentioned earlier, one reason that the so-called “uncanny valley” is a problem is that we don’t expect animated things to move in a completely realistic way.  Of course, the effectiveness of animation is determined by more than realism.  The best guide for how movement should be animated probably comes from two former Disney animators named Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their book Illusion of Life.  Johnston and Thomas defined twelve “basic principles” that animators should master.  They are as follows:

  1. Squash and Stretch – The idea that the shape of objects and characters is flexible and determined by their movement.  The classic example is of a rubber ball elongating as it falls and squishing down as it hits the ground.
  2. Anticipation –  This is a small action that precedes a larger one, such as when you duck down slightly before jumping.
  3. Staging – This deals with the way a scene is arranged.  Ideally, it should direct the viewer’s attention in a clear way.
  4. Straight Ahead Action andPose To Pose –  Essentially, this is the difference between frame-by-frame (straight ahead) and keyframe (pose to pose) animation.
  5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action –  These two techniques help animation seem more natural.  In follow through, moving objects tend to keep moving past their destination because of inertia; for example, your arm keeps swinging after you throw a baseball.  Overlapping action is the movement of multiple objects or body parts simultaneously, but at different rhythms or speeds.
  6. Slow In and Slow Out: generally, objects in motion don’t move at a steady rate.  Instead, they accelerate or decelerate depending on a number of factors.  Slow in and slow out can tell the viewer a lot about an object’s weight, mass, and speed.
  7. Arc –  Things very rarely move in perfectly straight lines – most action follows an arc trajectory.  A thrown ball will move in a rounder or flatter arc depending on its speed.  Walking is composed of small arcs from step to step.
  8. Secondary Action –  This is a smaller action added by the animator to emphasize a bigger one.  Things like facial expressions and hand gestures are often used as secondary actions.
  9. Timing –  In its simplest terms, timing describes how long animated actions take to occur.  Johnston and Thomas are specifically referring to the number of frames an action takes and how manipulating that number can change the meaning of that action.
  10. Exaggeration –  The amount of exaggeration in animation is largely determined by the level of realism in the work.  Often, exaggeration is used for comedic effect in animation.
  11. Solid Drawing –  In two-dimensional animation, the animator should consider how the character or object would exist in three-dimensional space.  This helps give things mass, weight, and balance.  Without solid drawing, things tend to appear flat and floaty.
  12. Appeal –  This relates to character design.  Animated characters should be pleasing to look at.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that they must by physically attractive, but they should be interesting to the eye.  Exaggerating proportions and playing with shape is a good way to do this.

For an excellent and concise explanation of each of the twelve basic principles, check out Alan Becker’s series on YouTube.

Keep in mind that Johnston and Thomas’s principles are just that – principles, not hard-and-fast rules.  Squash and stretch or exaggeration can be used to varying degrees to make a piece more realistic or more cartoony.  The principle of solid drawing could be ignored to make a piece deliberately surreal.  Whether you follow the principles closely or purposely break them, the most important thing is that you understand and consider them as you move forward with your own animated projects.

Project 2:  Frame By Frame

For your first animation assignment, I’d like you to create something without the use of a computer.  It can be done using stop-motion puppetry, paper cut-outs, collage, drawing on paper, drawing with chalk or a white board, or another “hands-on” technique.  Create at least five seconds of animation at a minimum average of 12 frames-per-second (in other words, you must create at least 60 frames).  Plan it out in advance and, as you work, keep the basic principles of animation in mind.

The easiest way to capture your animation is probably using your phone.  There are a number of free apps for creating animation; I’d suggest Stop Motion Studio, which is available for both Android and iPhone.  Stop Motion Studio allows you to take photos within the app and choose the frame rate at which they play back.  If you’d rather hand draw your animation, that’s fine too.  There is a cool app called Animation Desk that allows you to draw frames within the program.  Both apps are fairly intuitive and there are lots of resources online if you get stuck.

If you decide to do stop motion, one challenge is going to be keeping your phone steady as you work.  You may want to consider securing your phone to a stable surface using rubber bands, tape, or clay.  Even just leaning your phone up against something can help a lot.  You will probably have to do some problem-solving and improvising to make things work – have fun and get creative!  There are also a limited number of phone mounts and small tripods in the equipment collection.  The library Equipment Services may have options as well.

Animating frame-by-frame like this is  time-consuming and difficult to master.  Don’t get discouraged!  Seeing animation that you’ve created with your own hands come to life is incredibly rewarding.  The goal here is to get a better understanding of things like motion, speed, and timing.

When your animation is finished, export the video and email it to me at dan014@bucknell.edu.  If your file happens to be too big to email, drop it in your Google Drive storage and send me a link.  Happy animating!

Categories
Projects

Project 1: Watch This

Max

Jon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWk-VpK4hJo

Jen

Veronica

Rebecca

Dante

 

Categories
Blog Posts

The Weird, Wonderful World of PES

Guacamole Spaghetti Sandwich

One of the most visually inventive animators I know of is PES, an American animator whose stop-motion films often incorporate everyday objects in clever, unexpected ways.  In addition to short films, PES has also done some very interesting ad work.  Check out the following examples – there are tons more on his YouTube channel as well.

Categories
Blog Posts

Animated Documentary Shorts

Keeping It Real

Animation is often (unfairly) pigeonholed as a medium for children’s fairy tales, but it can be used to tell all kinds of stories.  Here are a few short documentaries that use animation to great effect.

Categories
Weekly Lessons

Week 1: Animation Through The Ages

The Illusion of Movement

To study animation, I believe that it’s important to understand two central aspects of the form: one is technical and the other is aesthetic.  The technical aspect of animation deals with the mechanics of its creation – how animation, in it various forms, is made.  The aesthetic aspect of animation examines the unique qualities of animation as a medium, as opposed to other forms (such as live-action cinema, photography, and literature).  Put simply, these two aspects comprise how animation works and what animation can do as a medium.

To get started, let’s get some very basic definitions out of the way.  At its most basic, animation is the illusion of movement created by viewing a series of images in rapid succession.  The base element of animation – the frame – is not meant to be viewed individually, but as part of a larger whole.  This means that a flip book is animated, since the images therein are viewed sequentially, but a comic book is not, since the panels that make it up are considered individually.

The root of the word “animate” translates roughly to “instill with life” – processes within the brain breathe movement into static images when they are viewed one-after-another at high speed.  This illusion is commonly referred to as “persistence of vision,” which is technically incorrect, but has a nice poetic ring to it.  By definition, all film and video – live action or otherwise – is animated, since all film is made up of individual frames that have the illusion of movement when played together.  To avoid confusion and adhere to the common usage of the word, we’ll limit our definition of the term to works that use representative art instead of photography.

However, it’s vital to appreciate how intertwined “cartoon” animation and live action cinema really are.  While animation is often dismissed as a childish offshoot of “real” film, on a technical level, live-action cinema is actually a subcategory of animation.

The Evolution of Animation

Animation is old.  It can be traced back to the very inception of cinema and beyond – potentially, much further beyond.  With an open mind and a bit of imagination, you can connect animation to the dawn of art and civilization itself.  In the beautifully preserved cave paintings in Chauvet Cave (located in southern France) you can find horses and bison drawn with extra limbs and lions that seem to rush forward.  Some scholars have theorized that prehistoric people would have seen the illusion of movement in these images, watching them through the flickering light of a cave fire.  They are estimated to date between 32,000 and 30,000 B.C.E.

There are several other examples of pre-cinema animation from through human history.  An Iranian bowl dating from around 3,000 B.C.E. shows a goat leaping into a tree in multiple “frames.”  Some Egyptian hieroglyphics show sequential movement and the multiple limbs in DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man imply movement in the same way that the paintings in Chauvet Cave do.

In the roughly 300 years before the birth of cinema, the precursors of animation took the form of toys and curiousities, such as the magic lantern, thaumatrope, zoetrope, flip book, and praxinoscope.  Eadweard Muybridge’s famous photographic studies of galloping horses were another milestone – more explicitly than ever before, they divided fluid movement into static frames.

In 1892, (a year before Edison invented the kinetoscope and two years before the Lumiere brothers invented the cinematograph) Charles-Émile Reynaud debuted the Théâtre Optique in Paris.  Reynaud showed a series of short films, each comprised of 300 to 700 painted frames of animation.  These frames were strung together into what was essentially a filmstrip and projected using a magic lantern.

The development of motion picture cameras brought animation to a state that more closely resembles its current form.  The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by J. Stuart Blackton is often cited as one of the earliest examples, although Emile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie (1908) captures animated movement in a much more sophisticated manner.  The brilliant illustrator Winsor McCay debuted his Gertie the Dinosaur cartoons in 1914.  McCay even incorporated himself into the action, interacting with the animated Gertie in a well-timed theatrical performance.

It’s believed that the first feature-length animated film was the 1917 Argentinian political satire El Apóstol, which was tragically lost when fire destroyed the only known print.  The oldest surviving animated feature is the 1922 film The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger.  Reiniger painstakingly created the film using intricate paper cutouts.  The resulting film was then hand-tinted, creating a striking aesthetic.

The evolution of animation throughout the twentieth century includes too many milestones to list here.  A few highlights include:

  • The rise of Disney in the late 1920s, with Steamboat Willie
  • The “golden age” of American animation (including the work of Warner Brothers, MGM, Fleischer Studios, and Disney) from the 1930s through the 1950
  • The explosion of animated television programs beginning in the 1960s
  • Pioneers like Ralph Bakshi in the 1970s and 1980s, who pushed animation into more adult territory
  • Pixar’s groundbreaking work in the 1980s and 1990s in the world of computer animation, most significantly with the release of Toy Story in 1995.

For a lovely visual representation of the history on animation, check out this site: https://history-of-animation.webflow.io

Of course this is only a brief – and admittedly U.S.-centric – overview.  Animation has branched out into styles and techniques too varied to cover and you can find fascinating examples from every corner of the globe.  Notably, in Japan, animation has a position of cultural importance that is difficult to overstate – but that goes far beyond the scope of what we can cover here.  There are simply too many rabbit holes to follow.

With that caveat in place, here are a few video essays exploring the work of a few very different animators: Chuck Jones, Brad Bird, John Kricfalusi, and Satoshi Kon.

The Language of Symbols

What do you see below?

: )

A face?  A human face tied to a specific emotion?  Why would something so simple call to mind something as complex as a human being experiencing the concept of happiness?  This is the sort of  question that pertains to all visual art, of course, but something about the illusion of life in animation makes it seem especially relevant.

I’m going to borrow pretty heavily from Scott McCloud and his excellent Understanding Comicsfor this discussion.  McCloud is obviously focused on comics, but a lot of what he writes about is applicable to animation as well.  In his chapter “The Vocabulary of Comics,” McCloud spends a lot of time talking about what he calls icons and how the level of visual realism they carry imbues them with different qualities.

McCloud argues that cartoon icons – simplified visual representations of real-world things – contain a unique power.  For one, the generalization present in cartoon representation allows the viewer to project themselves into the character.  McCloud ties this to the fascination that children have with animated characters.

Another power of cartoon representation lies in its ability to magnify certain qualities of the character or thing being shown.  Because cartoons use fewer elements (details, shading, realistic proportions, etc.), the elements that are present become incredibly potent.

In the following images, the idea of nervousness or fear is shown with decreasing realism.  While the photograph is potent, it’s also complex and specific.  The stick figure (which is from Don Hertzfeldt’s Billy’s Balloon) conveys a similar emotion with far greater economy – and, potentially, more power.  Just as an exercise, consider this: the last time a movie made you really emotional, was it live-action or animated?

To close, here are a few clips from short films by Don Hertzfeldt, one of my favorite animators.  His work appears simple at a glance, but the animation is meticulously drawn and his work manages to be simultaneously absurd, tragic, and hilarious.  I think the Hertzfeldt’s work exemplifies the kind of iconic power that animation possesses.

Project 1: Watch This

I think that it’s really important to watch lots of animation if you’re going to create animation.  For your first assignment, I’d like you to watch an animated short film.  There are lots of channels dedicated to animation on YouTube and Vimeo; you could also try a site like Cartoon Hangover, Cartoon Brew, or Short of the Week.  There are endless options, just find something interesting.  It can be any length, just keep it under 20 minutes.  It must be available to watch (legally) online.

Once you’ve found your short film, write a few sentences about why you think it’s interesting.  How does the animator use imagery and sound?  Are any clever editing techniques being used?  Are the characters iconic or more realistic?  Just write up a brief analysis of the film and email it to me (dan014@bucknell.edu) with a link to the film itself.  Send them to me by next Thursday morning at the latest, so that I can review the films and post them online before class.

Categories
Blog Posts

Previous Student Projects

Hip Hop, Wolves, and Drowned Venice

After Effects might seem overwhelming at first, but once you understand the essentials, you’ll be animating in no time.  Here are a few of the many weird and wonderful projects that previous students have done.

https://youtu.be/Y0IleYo9pu4

Categories
Class Business

Welcome!

Before We Begin…

Welcome to the Spring 2017 edition of the Film/Media Studies Production Practicum!  This course is focused on using Adobe After Effects for the creation of animation.  After Effects is a powerful and versatile program – it can be used for everything from compositing to character animation to special effects to title design and graphics.  We will also use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and other applications throughout the semester.

There are a few odds and ends we need to take care of before we can really dive into the exciting world of animation.  First, you should make sure that you have this class listed as .5 credit on your schedule.  It defaults to .25 credit, so you may need to change it manually.  If you have trouble with this, please contact Carol Randall at car029@bucknell.edu.

I’ll set up access to the course Moodle page for everyone soon, but I generally only use Moodle for grading.  For weekly lessons, we’ll be using this very blog: fmspracticumspring2017.blogs.bucknell.edu.  This site will contain assignment details, lectures, work created in class, fun videos to check out, and lots more.  It will essentially be your textbook for the course, so be sure to keep it handy!

The only material required for this class is an external hard drive for saving your work.  I would suggest an external hard drive over a small thumb drive because they are faster and have higher storage capacity.  If you don’t have a hard drive already, I’d suggest getting a USB 3.0 drive with at least 500GB of storage.  You can pick up 1TB drives from the Bertrand Library Equipment Services for around $60.  There are also lots of options at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, etc..  Both the Digital Video Editing Lab in the library and the Marts video studio have networked storage systems, but they are (unfortunately) different networked storage systems and such options are not always completely reliable.  Working of an external hard drive allows you to be mobile.  Of course, I would also suggest backing up important work to a different hard drive and/or cloud-based storage, just to be safe.

The course syllabus and schedule are available from the top menu on this website.  Of course, I want this course to meet your needs, so if there is anything in particular you’d like to learn, please let me know!  If you come across any interesting animated videos online, please send them my way as well.

Regarding attendance and assignments, the basic rules of college etiquette apply here.  If you need to miss class, please let me know beforehand if at all possible.  If you can’t do that, please touch base with me afterwards.  Our in-class time is very limited and we have a lot of material to cover, so please be mindful of that.  You will generally be assigned one project per week, which is due before class the next week, unless otherwise specified.  If you need to turn something in late, again, let me know beforehand if you can.  I will accept late work for reduced credit.

In addition to weekly assignments that overview the lesson materials, you will work on a longer animated project throughout the semester.  This project will make up a significant portion of your final grade and serve as a showcase for everything you learned throughout the course.  We’ll discuss this project in more detail over the coming weeks, but it’s never too late to start thinking about what sort of piece you’d like to create!

Finally, if you are struggling with anything in the course, please do reach out to me.  I am more than happy to work with you, but you need to make that initial request.  My office hours this semester are right before class, from 1:30 to 3:00 on Thursdays.  I can also meet with you by appointment if that time doesn’t work for your schedule.