JBaxterAnimationBa1a

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Sketchbook Task

We were given a small sketchbook to fill halfway with sketches, textures, photographs etc. and to add various degrees of abstraction. The aim was to identify silhouettes and textures that could be used to help with designing a character. The task proved very useful, as I found a silhouette which I wanted to explore.

I covered a page in black ink, and then slashed it with a knife. The silhouette reminded me of a chicken in a mech-suit.

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Lecture Notes - Uncanny Valley - 23/10/18

Recap on Gender

• Mickey and Minnie Mouse

• Mickey is default design

• Added knickers and dress, eyelashes and high heels

• Donald naked from the waste down, daisy has this area covered.

• animals are eroticised by cartoons.

• Cartoons break physical rules, which gives way to breaking social rules

• The wise quacking duck 1943- daffy performs a stip tease. Adds to the idea that animals in cartoons are just people in Animal costumes. When he is performing the strip tease, he becomes very feminised, with red lips and eye lashes. When his ‘dress’ is removed he has boxers on to cover ‘genitals’. However, his feathers are removed later in cartoon and there are no boxers or genitals.

• Male genders are in constant flux, drag is seen as comedic?

Animals and Sex in Cartoons

• There is cross species coupling in cartoons and it is seen as normal

• Animal groom/husband stories eg. Beauty and the Beast.

• Pattern -> heroin meets future husband/beast -> father gives daughter away to beast (if reluctantly) -> mother is absent or unimportant, but FEMALE sorcerer turns man into beast.

• Sex is taboo for children. But is important for life later on.

• In fairy tales - when the beast returns to man hood it a a metaphor for the woman reaching sexual maturity

• When he is a beast, sex is frightening and disgusting. When he is then turned into a man, the woman has released sexual maturity sex or ‘the beast’ is no longer frightening, it is now appropriate and desired.

The Uncanny

• ‘limininal’ - the surface between things, a sense of doubt.

• ‘Meat Love’ -Jan Svankmajer - 2 slabs of meat become self aware, fuck eat other and then get cooked. Are we just meat machines?

• Uncanny is related to deep primal fears. Underlying sense of unease when our sense of the laws of the universe are questioned. Unsettling, unnerving, unearthly, uncomfortable

• ‘Uncanny’ was first discussed in 1835 by German philosopher Friedrich Schelling.

• “Apprehension rather than experience, dread rather than terror... The Uncanny is built on uncertainty” -(Reagan, 2014)

• ‘Animation... Casts doubt over reality” -(Svankmajer quoted in wells 1988)

• German word for uncanny, Unheimlich - means Un Homely

• 1874 Thomas Henry Huxley On the Hypothesis that animal are automata - essentially stated thar we are machines with consciousness

• Automaton- device or machine that is self operating once set in motion.

• If we are machines, can we be programmed?

• At what point did we become conscious?

The Quay Brothers

• The Street of Crocodiles - The Quay Brothers 1987

• https://youtu.be/SUzoC-RlxBo

• The uncanny can be ‘strangely beautiful. It can excite our curiosity, but at the same time be frightening. It is the irresistible seduction of mystery. It come in the uncertainties of silence, solitude and darkness. The uncanny has to do with the sense of a secret encounter’ (Reagan, 2014).

Uncanny Valley

• In animation, the human presence has to be replaced by puppets, drawings and simulation.

• It is much harder to simulate a human, than to film one.

• “Animation cannot record reality, but must always invent it” -(Bensen 2004)

• Rowley (2006) - 5 distinct categories of realism in animation:

1.Visual realism

2. Aural realism

3. realism of motion

4. Naritive and character realism

5. Social realism

Rubber Hose animation - the first true American animation style

• bouncy boneless feel

• Character could break the laws of physics

• Gullivers travels (1939, Fleischer brothers) - realistic and rubber hose animation combined result in an uncanny experience.

• Disney’s more realistic animation led the move away from rubber hose animation in the 1930s.

• Verisimilitude - the quality of seeming real or true

• Reality is not the goal more so believability.

• Some believed that realistic animation stifled creative potential.

• The multi plane camera - Disney said it would make cartoons more realistic and enjoyable.

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Character Design Workshop Tasks - 22/10/18

Task 1

• We were given a sheet of ink blots and black shapes.

• The first task was to turn into or combine the ink blots into characters

Task 2

• combine the black shapes in the into character silhouettes

Task 3

• using the past two tasks as reference, create a simple character in the circle in the middle.

Task 4

• everyone’s characters were photographed and put on the projector.

• We then had to draw our own versions of the characters in our own style, adding components and limbs that were missing.

Here is everyone’s version of my character

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Character Design Worksop Notes - 22/10/18

Basic Character Design Principles

Shape

• Characters can be made up of 3 core shapes (and variations of these shapes).

• Shape can often dictate the personality of the character, e.g. sharp angles often relate to evil characters.

Silhouette

• Used for clarity and appeal.

• Can the characters be identified without any of their features/colours?

Asymmetry

• symmetrical characters are visually unappealing

• asymmetry can come from character design, or avoiding posing the character straight on.

Abstraction

• Abstracting the human/animal form to communicate emotion of the character or tone of the animation

• Finding your own visual language and style of character design.

Appeal

• Character has to be visually appealing from all angles

• Makes the character more dynamic, can be shot from all angles.

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Reflective Journal Week 4 - 15/10/18 - 21/10/18

This was a more workshop intensive week, with life drawing starting, jump sequence project and the dynamic exercise project.

In retrospect, I am incredibly happy with my jump sequence. It had a very rocky start: the legs flicked out in front during the fall, and the arms moved in very unnatural circles. After a lot of editing, including removing frames, I came to a conclusion I was happy with. The whole process took a long while, partly due to me making a character for the jump, the features of which I also had to draw and animate. In future, I would probably do tests of a basic humanoid, and add the features later to save time. I also learned that removing frames is sometimes the key to fixing an animation.

I wasn’t particularly please with my life drawing, my skills were very rusty. I have done a lot of life drawing, much of which I am very proud of however, this was over a year ago. I hope that with a little practice, I can get back to the standard I was happy with, and improve further.

I have my work cut out to me with the dynamic expercise, having two characters to animate. I am pleased with my character design and hope that the end result will be amusing.

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Workshop - Dynamic Exercise - 18/10/18

Choose a pair of words

• weight and effort

• Speed and acceleration

• Stretch and squash

• Impact and reaction

• 50-75 frames

• Digitally or hand drawn

• One shot only

• Black and white

• Keep it simple

Live Action Reference

• Animator use live action reference to understand movement and timing

• Director will act out a scene to communicate to the animation team what actions they want in the scene - Wes Anderson did this for Fantastic Mr Fox

• It enables more realistic animation

• Look at Hercules live action side by side - https://youtu.be/sCoJvu8PF7Q

• Research Don Hetzfeldt - Billys balloon - https://youtu.be/7jksRQcI9NA

• Research Bill Pympton - How to kiss - https://youtu.be/Vr6b3KBKDAA

This is a basic character plan for my sequence. I chose ‘weight and effort’. I am to create a juxtaposition in the animation. The buff gym rat is going to struggle with lifting the small weight, whilst the skinny, nerdy man is going to lift the huge weight with ease.

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This week I also caught up on some work I had neglected. This is a simple squash a stretch ball.

The plan for the bounce.

After implementing squash and stretch in a couple of sequences, I now feel fairly competent with the principle.

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Life Drawing - 18/10/18

Our first task was to do a series of drawings oof different poses. To start with, we had 2 minutes to draw, which was reduced every couple of drawings until we only had 10 seconds to do the last one. Unfortunately, I slept through my alarm and turned up slightly late and therefore missed the first couple of drawings. I used charcoal for these.

Next, we had 20 minutes to do a drawing, using pencil.

I have done a fair amount of life drawing before this however, I have not done any in almost a year. This, I believed was evident as the drawings produced were very rusty in comparison to work I have done before. I did start to pick it up again at the end, and I look forward to improving in the future.

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When doing the jump sequence, I opted to design a simple character, instead of a faceless humanoid. Although it gave the jump more character, animating the sequence took far longer as I had to animate all the details.

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Lecture Notes 16/10/18 - Anthropomorphism and the Uncanny

Caricature

• animation deliberately exploits stereotypes (Paul Wells 1998)

a) For a design strategy

b) for comedic value

• can radically subvert them also

Animism

• animals, plants, objects may possess a spirit.

Anthropomorphism

• attribution of human characteristics, appearance or behaviour to animals, gods and objects.

• “Endow lifeless things with life’s, or living things with a difference life” - Erwin Panofsky quoted in Furness 2012

Anthropocentrism

• belief that human beings are the most significant entity in the universe.

• Descartes 1637- animals are soul-less beings, no consciousness and therefore machines

Apophenia

• seeing patterns and connections in random meaningless data

Pareidolia

• seeing familiar objects (particularly human faces), where none exists

Lascause Cave Painitngs

• 20,000 years old (estimated)

• 100s of animals, only 1 human

• Animals suggest movement, Seen by animators (inc. Walt Disney) saw these ‘moving’ animals as the ancestors of animation

Why are animators obsessed with animals?

• Early animators were less confident in human characters, and whether they could convey emotion.

• “It is easier to humanise animals than it is to humanise humans” - Chuck Jones, Warner Brothers animator 1990.

• ‘On the whole, animals substitute people’ - Sergei Eisenstein

Beyond Live Action

• “If cartoons, with their untitled potential for exaggeration and flights of fancy, couldn’t venture Blount the reason of a live action film , what was the point?” Leonard Maltin, American film critic, 2002.

More Reasons why people animate animals

• Political or social commentary on human culture

• ‘Dilute’ or ‘amplify’ a political or social message (Wells,2009)

• For comedy purposes

• Disruption of natural and or social order

• Child friendly

• Cuteness as a shortcut to empathy

• Symbolic or representative

• Avoid the uncanny valley

• Explore animal/human divide

FThe Animal/Human Divide

• animal natural - animalisation

• Human cultural - anthropomorphism

Pure animal

• wild

• Natural

• Unknowable

Animal Appropriation

• pets

• symbols, religion myth storytelling

• Substitute humans (quasai-human), clothes, emotions, language

Animated animals are often just people in animal suits.

Bestial ambivalence model

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This is my final edit of the jump. This sequence took many attempts, as I had a problem with the leg and arm movements: the would jerk in a very unatural way. The fall was also too slow, so I removed some frames to fix this. I am happy with this final result, although I feel as though a few more frames at the top of the jump, and when he dips down, would have helped achieve a better result.

The plan for the jump.

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Workshop Notes Week 4: Jumping - 15/10/18

Anticipation and follow through

Alan Becker

• Anticipation- https://youtu.be/F8OtE60T8yU

• Follow through- https://youtu.be/4OxphYV8W3E

The principles

• make it easy as possible for the audience to know what is going on?

• The principles are a sort of ‘check list’

• Always observe where they can be applied to enhance movement and communication

Anticipation

• movement requires an energy or a force

• Anticipation - the force is gathered before the movement happens.

• Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, giving them a visual clue.

• It will make the movement appear more realistic

Follow through

• energy is also required to stop a movement

• Parts of an object will continue to move after the main action has finished and the centre of mass has stopped moving.

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Reflective Journal Week 3 08/10/18 - 14/10/18

This week I did my first walk cycle. I was very pleased with this first attempt, it does have the characteristics of a real walk, despite being slightly jerky between a few frames. When adding the arms, I regret rushing the sequence. The arm movement isn’t as smooth as it could be, and the limbs themselves are too thin. It is also only a half walk (single step), so looks odd when on a loop.

Later I want to add more animation principles to my walk cycles, such as squash and stretch or secondary animation, in order create a greater sense of attitude and character within the cycle.

We had Robert Morgan as a guest lecturer, who showed us many highly disturbing, award winning, stop motion horror films he had made. I am a huge fan of horror films and have been greatly inspired by his work. He taught us how to create suspense in films, and many stop motion techniques including puppet and set design.

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Guest Lecturer - Robert Morgan 10/10/18

The Cat with Hands, 2001

• 3 min short film for Chanel 4. Animator in residence for Museum of Moving Image, London.

• Chanel 4 thought it was too scary, put it on later

• Based on a nightmare his sister had when she was a kid

• Shot on 35mm film

• Real stuffed cat

• Used a cast of child’s hands, made out of silicone rubber.

• Because of life sized cat, the entire set and other props had to be lifesized too.

• 1 month for animation, 2 weeks for live action

• https://youtu.be/n4PR9NZlAB4

The Separation

• funded by S4C (Welsh Chanel 4)

• Morgan pretended to be welsh to get the film funded. He had to move to Wales to shoot it.

• 35mm, with a big budget

• Puppets were around 20-30cm tall

• Animation sets have to be large

• Initial idea- films and stories of conjoined twins, how they want to be apart. This film twisted that, separated twins wanted to be together.

• https://youtu.be/ltIG3v_ySuU

Bobby Yeah

• film was made in his own time with own funding, in his spare bedroom.

• Submitted to festivals but wasn’t successful, it then started to pick up and win awards.

• Completely improvised, moment to moment, took 3 years to make.

• No meaning or storyline, just a weird nightmare sequence.

• Used real toenails on puppets.

• https://youtu.be/hJv5gjA3atA

Belial’s Dream

• commission

• Special feature on the ‘Basket Case’ anniversary Blu-ray.

• https://youtu.be/MtWSyIRJ_qw

To dust

• A commission for an American independent film- Morgan made stop motion sequences.

• About a Jewish cantor who’s is suffering from depression after his wife died of cancer.

• Dreams are about what is physically happening to the corpse

• Sequences would have been spread throughout the feature film.

ABCs of death 2.

• directors asked to make 5 mins film about death beginning with the letter they were assigned

• Robert was given ‘L’. He made it about a louse

• Asked to change to ‘D’ so it because de-loused.

• https://youtu.be/z_8BQzB9TZA

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Lecture notes 09/10/18 - Archetypes and Stereotypes (2/2)

The Herald

Qualities

• Often sounds the call to adventure (which sets the plot in motion).

• Represents our inner understanding of the need for change.

• Gives the hero motivation to begin their journey

• May also issue a warning

• Heroes are often afraid of the challenge presented by the herald.

• Needn’t be a person; might be a force of nature, e.g. a storm, earthquake, outbreak of war etc.

The Threshold Guardian

Qualities

• Not usually the ’main’ villain.

• Might be a guard, thug, mercenary etc.

• Represents the ‘ordinary obstacles’ we face in our daily lives: ‘bad weather, bad luck, prejudice, etc.’

• Tests or challenges the hero

• Can be overcome and turned into an ally

The Trickster

Qualities

• Delights in breaking rules

• Often a comedy sidekick, and a popular character with audiences.

• Controls her Hero’s ego

• Brings lighter relief to a darker story

• Might be a ‘Catalyst Character’- they affect the lives of others but remains unchanged.

The Trickster Hero is a common archetype e.g. Bugs Bunny

The Ally

Qualities

• The Hero may have many allies on their journey , many represent the other archetypes.

Representation

• The way in which issues such as gender, sexuality, age or ethnicity are presented to audiences.

• It is hard to challenge stereotypes without understanding their origin or continued usage

• However, stereotypes are not necessarily created or perpetuated through malicious intent.

• Acceptable attitudes shift and ahcnge over time.

‘Queer-coding’- the practice of giving a character certain traits that audiences will subconsciously read as ‘queer’

• In film and media studeies, the term ‘queer’ relates to work that tents to priorities LGBTQ characters and issues and rejects ‘fixed’ ideas about sexuality and identity.

• The term isn’t necessarily synonymous with ‘gay’ bit represents anyone who might be ‘othered’ by a culture of so-called heteronormativity.

• Nico Lang in The Guardian (2015) notes that ‘queer people’ have been both ‘punchlines’ and ‘representations of evil’.

Does caricature = stereotype?

• cartoons such as Felix the Cat or Mickey Mouse have been seen by some critics as ‘Cartoon Minstrels’ (blackface).

• ‘White gloves, bulging eyes, pronounced lips’ (Herhuth, 2017, p.51)

• ‘White-washing’ - casting white actors in place of characters of other ethnicities, e.g. Scarlett Johansson in the live action version of ‘Ghost in the Shell’.

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Lecture notes 09/10/18 - Archetypes and Stereotypes (1/2)

Archetypes and Stereotypes

• ‘Each one of us is unique. There is only one of us in existence, and only ever will be... And yet... we share similarities... We are unique and universal’ (Vogler, 2007)

• Characters must be indentifiable- like somebody [we] have known.

• Archetype - A very typical example of a person or thing. Roots from Ancient Greek meaning ‘first-moulded as a model’.

• ‘The writers journey’ by Christopher Vogler, he identifies 8 character archetypes

• Jungian depth psychology has 2 levels

1. The personal unconscious- developed through personal experience

2. The collective Unconscious- universal, innate, unlearned, hereditary, ‘biologically acquired’

(3.) The conscious mind, or ego- the outward facing part of our psyche

• Karl Jung suggests that archetypes represent patterns of instinctual behaviour.

• Archetypes are patterns of behaviour adopted by a character in a particular setting, situation or scenario.

• A character can switch between archetypes or may represent more than one.

• ‘Ideally, every well-rounded character should manifest a touch of every archetype, because the archetypes are expressions of the parts that make up complete personality’ (Vogler, 2007, p.33)

• Unique and universal- copies can ‘vary a great deal in detail without losing their basic pattern’ (Jung, A Man and his Symbols, 1961)

• We are all unique individuals, at the same time we share universal traits.

Christopher Vogler’s Archetypes (The Writer’ Journey)

1. Hero

2. Shadow

3. Shapeshifter

4. Mentor

5. Threshold Guardian

6. Trickster

7. Herald

8. Ally

The Hero

Qualities

• Identifiable

• The most active

• Has flaws as well as strengths

• Changes or grows

• Faces death

• Self-sacrifice

• You admire a character more for trying than for their successes.

• The hero is our ‘window’ (Vogler, 2007, p.30) into the story

• Heroes are indetifiable die to a combination of qualities, and universal and unique characteristics.

• Heroes can be willing - Butch, tough, gang-ho

• Unwilling- Uncertain, timid, full of doubt- BUT ONLY AT THE BEGINNING

• Heroes need to be motivated- convincing reasons to propel them into the story.

• Protagonist must be empathetic, but not necessarily sympathetic.

• Animation is home to the unlikely hero, anything is possible in animation

Anti-heroes and tragic heroes

• anti-heroes are protagonists who are deeply flawed but are essentially still likeable

• tragic heroes have their roots in Greek tragedy. Admirable heroes who have a tragic flaw, which leads to their downfall. Their death is therefore a ‘happy’ ending.

Catalyst heroes- They affect the lives of others but remain unchanged themselves

In order for a hero to show ‘true character’ they have to be tested. Therefore a hero needs a villain

The Shadow

Qualities

• represents the energy of the dark side

• Needn’t be a physical being

• Couldn’t be a personality trait within the hero

• Threatens the hero and forces them to rise to the challenge

• The line between anti-hero and shadow is a grey area.

• Sometimes the shadow is just a hero who made bad decisions

The function of the shadow

• to challenge the hero and hive them a worthy opponent in the struggle

• To create conflict and bring out the best in the hero

• ‘A story is only as good as the villain, because a strong enemy forces a hero to rise to the challenge.’ (Vogler, 2009, p.66)

• Villains do not need to be completely evil or sinister.

How to make convincing Villians

• backstory

• Putting yourself in others shoes

The Shape-Shifter

Qualities

• Changes the appearance or mood

• Can’t be trusted, brings doubt and suspense to the story

• (Usually) aware that they are a shape-shifter

• Could be a love interest

• Many Shadows or shape-shifters

• ‘Villains... may wear the shape-shifter mask to seduce or confuse a hero’ (Vogler, 2007, p.63).

The Mentor

Qualities

• Often a teacher or a trainer

• Represents our ‘better’ self (conscious).

• Often a gift giver (but gifts must be earned).

• A mentor might provide an example of what not to do.

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This is my walk cycle with arms. It is not a full cycle, just one step on a loop and therefore appears very jumpy. Despite this I feel as though there is a nice swing to the arms, although they do look a little feeble.