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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 13 - Video Essay

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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics Video Essay script

The 12 Principles of Animation by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston is a universal guide used by animators to understand the rules of motion on screen, frame by frame.

1) Timing

Timing is the decision of when certain key poses happen within a time. It is a crucial principal that can affect many elements in an action and even the properties or personality of the subject. For example, a bowling ball would stop bouncing faster compared to a rubber ball.

2) Squash & Stretch

Squash and Stretch is used to show the flexibility and volume of an object, affected by its gravity and weight. however, squash and stretch should be not be used too much so that it keeps its volume and shape.

3) Pose to Pose & Straight Ahead

These are two techniques of animating actions. Pose to Pose requires the planning of key ‘storytelling’ poses in an action in a set timeline. It gives more ‘clarity’ when animating these poses.

Straight ahead is where the animator starts animating in every single frame from frame 1 till the end. It can be used to explore in animating certain movements but can be time-consuming.

4) Arcs

Arcs show the path of an action can make it look ‘organic’ and interesting. It can sometimes show ‘strength’ of an action. An example, would be the arc of an arrow compared to the path of a bullet, both traveling a long distance.

5) Overlap & Follow through

Are used to identify the delayed movements of certain parts of the main moving body. It is a ‘result’ of the main action, because not everything stops at the same time. For example, when the ball is landing downwards, the tail is being dragged behind it, this is overlapping action. After landing, the ball has stopped moving, but the tail continues the path downwards, this is follow through.

6) Exaggeration

This principle takes advantage of animation’s ability to go outside the bounds of reality. It pushes a subjects flexibility and makes the animation dynamic. In this example, the character’s lower body is delayed as its upper moves upward for the jump, causing him to stretch. He also stays in the air a bit longer.

7) Anticipation

Anticipation are actions before most main actions, where it helps the character and audience to prepare for an action ,and is almost always in the opposite direction of the main action. It enhances and adds realism to an animation. 

8) Staging

It keeps important ideas as the focus in a scene on screen. It is planning and placing of objects to maintain clarity through clear silhouettes, or through the use of camera.

9) Slow in & Out

Slow in & Out are ways to animate movement and adds realism and avoids it from being ‘robotic’. This is because it mimics acceleration and deceleration and conveys weight and force.

10) Secondary Action

An extra action by the character which supports the main action. In acting, it can be used to convey a character’s personality or emotion through movement. For example, a dog wagging it’s tail, while it is running, excited to see its owner.

11) Solid Drawing

This means giving the look of volume, weight, solidity and three dimensions to the subject while it is in motion, providing visual consistency in the animation.

12) Appeal

When combining said principles, it is important to maintain appeal so that it is interesting and engaging. This can be done through the movement of the character or to the quality of the artwork and design.

In conclusion, the 12 principles of animation is significant in helping animators quickly grasp the concepts of movement and convey it in the best way possible.

References: 

FilmIsNow Movie Bloopers & Extras. 2016. "Go Behind the Scenes of Kubo and the Two Strings | stop-motion and voice production YouTube video, Oct 15, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHyTYL1Z1aM.

Williams, R.E . 2001. The Animator's Survival Kit. London: Faber and Faber

Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie . 2003. "309. Of Fox and Hounds (1940)" Accessed August 19, 2017. http://likelylooneymostlymerrie.blogspot.com/2013/11/309-of-fox-and-hounds-1940.html

Blender. 2017. "The Principles of Animation" YouTube video, Oct 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJeoPAGbfY&t=354s.

Entertainment. 2015. "The Illusion of Life | Principle of Animation | 12 Basic Principle of Animation" YouTube video, Oct 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGY0qiy8fY

Jukin Media. 2017. "Bull Terrier Excited to See Owner" YouTube video, Oct 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6dUYWUyIBU

Oregon. 2018. "Only Slightly Exaggerated | Travel Oregon" YouTube video, Oct 15, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXRBLyQQ78A

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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 12 - Walks with Personality

I’ve chosen to animate this walk cycle for the character Link from The Legend of Zelda. A strong confident character walk.

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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 11 - Realistic Bipedal Walk

[Video Below]

Had to animate a realistic walk for two rigs, legs only and full body. The legs were made and finished in class.

For both, I tried to consider how the shapes and disposition of their bodies ‘realistically’ would make them walk.

Legs: The body is just a round sphere shape and technically has no hips that can lift the legs up as it moves. So, in this walk, the character is tilting his body opposite of the side of his legs. The rest of the walk follows the standard timing and spacing of each key frame. To add abit of realism, I added some overlap which slows out for the foot as the thighs moves forward. Adds more weight to each lift of his foot.

Video Links: https://vimeo.com/297598018 & https://vimeo.com/297598053

Space Pirate: Since she’s wearing high heels, I tried to mimic the movement of for someone wearing one. In these references of ‘how to walk in heels’, it shows that

1. The hips rotate up and down more

2. The feet land in the center of the path (tight rope)

3. Each contact of the foot to the ground starts from the heels, meaning that there is an extra ‘mini-contact’ before the soles fully cover the ground.

4. Wearers seem to ‘glide’ a bit longer and have shorter moments of lowering their height.

5. The feet moving forward goes faster than backwards(between after contact and before lift)

6. The balance shifts abit more back towards the heels, to balance the displaced weight.

Taking these into consideration, I had to adjust the timing of the hips and the feet. For the hips, it goes down briefly between contact and the ‘mini-contact’ before being pushed back up after full contact. This is probably due to heel wearers always exerting force on the ground to keep balance as they walk.

For the feet, I made the overlap as the hips then foot move forward more noticeable, making the swing after contact to the next contact faster (.Small slow in, faster slow out)

For her upper torso, I moved the shoulders and chest opposite of the direction of swing so she faces forward. Then I added overlap and follow through to the arms like the pendulum.

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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 10 - Character Weight Shift

When animating a weight shift its important to remember to balance the center of gravity where the mass is equal on each side. 

When shifting side to side, the hips also tilt upwards on the foot its balancing on. 

For the full body animation, the body curves into an S shape from the head to the hips. There is an overlap for the spine as the hips move.

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design

Environment Rough Concept

Above are some rough sketches for the environment of the Guardhouse, its fictional city and The Lion’s Maw. 

Guardhouse: It is quite spacious, as it houses two desks. One is at the front, as wide as the structure with the button to permit entry into staff area. The other is at the back, it is small but holds a Coffee maker and some snacks brought in by the guards. There are glass windows at the front and sides. Only the sides have single push-up windows.

It is located behind the Lion and stops tourists from entering through the Lion’s tail.

Below are some references:

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design Set Piece: The ‘Lion’s Maw’

“He rushed up a Palm, When the weather was calm, And observed all the ruins of Philae. “

A colossal statue that overlooks the island ruins at the centre of the river. This statue is located somewhere near the bank of the river. It is big enough for one funicular railway to bring tourists to the lion’s maw. The main entrance is through its belly and staff entrance through its tail.

At first I thought of a literal Palm or building in the shape of a Palm tree for the character to ‘observe the ruins’. But inspired by the a few real tourist attractions and other tall monuments, I decided to go with a cool big statue.

Below are said influences:

Vietnam’s Golden Bridge

Abandoned Waterpark in Vietnam

Funicular Railway system up steep mountain

Statue of Liberty view inside head

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design Final Character Design: “The Guard” (Side Character)

The ‘Goliath’ to our ‘David’, he’s there for his evening shift of guard duty and a cup of coffee. Not the most expressive guy but does what he needs to.

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design Final Character Design: “Pili” (Main Character)

“There was an Old Person of Philae, Whose conduct was scroobious and wily; “

Pili is the main character for the chosen limerick story. 

Age:13-15, he is a restless boy always seeking for adventure. But this also means that he can be be abit mischevious and might try to do things ‘his way’ when he sets his mind to it. Even so, he is quite smart and likes new experiences and exploring.

“ People with this name tend to initiate events, to be leaders rather than followers, with powerful personalities. They tend to be focused on specific goals, experience a wealth of creative new ideas, and have the ability to implement these ideas with efficiency and determination. They tend to be courageous and sometimes aggressive. As unique, creative individuals, they tend to resent authority, and are sometimes stubborn, proud, and impatient. “

I always wanted his name to be a play on words of Philae or Phil, which is why I chose his name to be Pili when searching for an Egyptian name, its meaning a good bonus. I also considered a few things when designning him; His angular ‘wily’ face, unruly hair,the recurring circle motif on his shirt. It’s also abit hot, so he rolled up his sleeves and pants for maximum mobility and comfort & extra pockets.I might change his slippers.

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design Early Sketches and Ideas

As you can see, I've already decided to make the ‘view’ as a reward for our main character at the end of his journey. This view is based on the image below. I also wanted to have a recurring circle motif in the design that can be seen in the ancient architecture of the lion including the fictional modern clothing and buildings of the world.

I spent alot on determining the design of Pili from his age and silhoutte. My first starting point are from characters such as Disney’s Aladdin. 

The perspective landscape of the view referenced from image below:

By Zakaria Rabea - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43834572

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design (INSPIRATIONS & INFLUENCES) 2/2

Here are a few animated shorts that feature a silent and light-hearted story. I will use some of their elements such as the visual, style and story. 

My chosen story will be 2D animated and I want it to be visually bright and colourful similar to the above shorts.

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design (INSPIRATIONS & INFLUENCES) Part 1/2 

I really liked the concept of ruins and ancient sites. I find them fascinating and its one of my favourite themes in storytelling, mostly seen in actioon-adventure video games such as Lara Croft Tomb Raider and Uncharted or games like Shadow of the Colossus which uses a desolate and ancient stone ruins and architecture for its world setting. 

As such , I was glad to see that ‘the ruins of Philae’ is based on a real ancient site in Egypt. Because of that, I’ve chosen to make the setting of the story loosely based near this island. A full description of the story environment will be in its own post. 

Below are a few environmental concept art for the mentioned games, showcasing the stone structure and ruins.

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design

Environment Mood Board

A general idea for the setting is a fusion of modern with ancient structures as well as the interiors.

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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 9 - Showing Weight and the Use of Parent Constraints

In this week we had to choose to do 2 animations in order to show weight in our animation using parent constraints. I chose to do a pickup and pulling animation using pose to pose technique. For these two, I used references that were provided. [VIDEOS BELOW]

Pickup: Firstly, I started by making a rough pose to pose using the references above. I mainly focused on splitting the animation in 2 halves, before constraint(pickup) and after. 

As seen, picking up requires alot of strength that is used in your back where it starts from your hips. As you pull it upwards, more muscle is trained upwards to compensate, which stretches to pull up the vase. This then makes it curve in backwards almost instantly due to built up tension, but not all at once, but with overlapping action from the base of the spine and follow through to the torso. Since its heavy, you would make the timing short to quickly stand upright to balance weight, which ‘squashes’ the spine as he re-balances.

The weight continues to be showed by having the character move slow, and rise upwards slower than when he makes contact with his feet. In this blocking, I focused on animating the hips and spine first before the rest. Near the end, i put a hold as he lifts it up before putting it on the table (anticipation), showing weight. 

Then, since he strains and curved his spine backward and pushes his hip upward, after releasing that energy and setting the vase down, his body shows the remainder of that energy through a follow through that makes his legs continue to push himself upwards abit, then letting go of the tension from his legs bringing him down.

Lift: This process is more straightforward, I used the pose to pose pdf and video reference for the pull animation. The video especially helped me in understanding which poses were moving holds, and how the character balances himself on his feet as he switches and moves forward. 

There are significant overlaps as he anticipates to pull the 2nd time. This is where he moves his hips a bit backwards and starts to straighten his spine from the base. The overlap occurs in the next pose(anticipation) after he puts his right foot forward and rotates his hips back as the spine follows. 

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KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design (Story Treatment)

This is the final story treatment for the chosen limerick; no.39.

It will have 2 characters. Main character ‘Pili’ and ‘The (Security) Guard’.

Environment Setting:

Time period: set in a fictional location in Egypt with modern day (2018) elements. Takes place during Day till Evening.

The city/town: A fictional city in Egypt set near a river (similar to Brisbane), it has modern skyscrapers right near its ancient sites and monuments.

Aesthetic elements: will be taken from ancient stone designs/architecture from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Babylon & South America.

Set Pieces:

City street: surrounded with 2 story stores and shops nearby the river, with the view of the ‘Island Ruins’ and the Lion Statue.

Lion Statue: A tourist attraction called the ‘Lion’s Maw’. You can see the island ruins in the centre of the wide river from the mouth of the gaping lion.

Guardhouse: Central story location. An obstacle that the main character must overcome.

Story

A young boy is walking down the streets of a city, looking bored and restless. He looks up and sees a poster among the paper-filled wall, which says ‘FINAL DAY FOR TOURISTS TO SEE THE FORGOTTEN CITY THROUGH THE LION’S MAW’. The ‘Lion’s Maw is a towering sculpture of a lion with its mouth agape. From there, you can see the expansive ruins of an ancient city on an island bordered by the city’s river(see island of Phiale).

Curious and ready for an adventure, we see the boy, Pili, ‘scouting’ the entrance to the lion statue. He sees a guardhouse from atop a Palm tree and the afternoon guard entering for his shift. Pili also knows that the lion statue has a ‘backdoor’ for staff only entry. Thus, Pili is thinking of stealing the keys from this guard.

Next, we see the inside of the guardhouse. It is quite spacious, as it houses two desks. One is at the front, as wide as the structure with the button for allowing tour buses. The other is at the back, it is small but holds a Coffee maker and some snacks brought in by the guards. There are glass windows at the front and sides. Only the sides have single push-up windows.

Pili is then seen sneaking under the windows staying close to the short walls of the guardhouse. The guard places the keys on the front table near the window, near enough fro Pili to reach. The guard then goes to the coffee maker. Pili reaches inside and gets the keys but makes a noise as he goes out. 

The guard is alarmed from the noise, holding his coffee and looks to the front looking for the source of noise. He puts the coffee on the front desk. Luckily, he does not notice the missing keys yet but plans to check outside, reaching for the door.

Cut to Pili, he is sitting near the wall and looks into his pockets, finding something that could help him. He only has a stinky piece of leftover cheese and some metal knick-knacks. He panics and throws the stinky cheese into the guardhouse, which lands into the coffee mug.

The guard almost opening the door, hears the ‘plop’ and is reminded of his hot coffee, its aroma beckoning him. After a brief pause he shrugs and decides to enjoy his coffee first. Hearing his footsteps back towards the front of the guardhouse, Pili sighs in relief and makes his exit.

Scene cuts to Pili, walking towards the front of the Lion’s Maw among the tourists and the camera follows to display a sweeping vista of the island and its ancient ruins with the setting sun. END SCENE.

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There was an Old Person of Philae, Whose conduct was scroobious and wily; He rushed up a Palm, When the weather was calm, And observed all the ruins of Philae.

Edward Lear, Nonsense Poem No.39 from Book of Nonsense

KNB136 - Visual Storytelling: Production Design

Chosen Limerick for Assessment 1: Concept Design

I’ve chosen this limerick because I liked the adventurous character that this poem conveys. I also liked the idea of ruins, forgotten and ancient sites as a setting. 

The poem also gives a brief description of the character’s personality, which I think will help alot in writing the story. It gives me an idea for a mischievous and fun character for the concept design.

The ‘ruins’ of Philae is also the name of a real ancient site in Egypt. It is an island in the Egyptian river, which contains an Egyptian Temple, The Temple of Isis. Because of this, Its inspired me to loosely base the setting of the story in Egypt. It will be a fictional modern city which still holds many of its ancient monuments and buildings. 

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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 8 - Polishing (cartoon stylised) Character Jump

From what ive seen, alot of cartoon animations ‘exaggerate’ movements by making the moving hold between actions longer. This also creates the illusion of greater energy where the character pent-up and releases an equal amount of force, launching him higher. 

When compared to the previous animation, you can see that there is more:

Squash and stretch; on key poses. During the jump upwards, the upper body reaches the highest height of the jump first, with the body following afterwards (reminds me of a released rubberband).

Anticipation; movement before jumping and after landing. He balances on his toes to and stretches himself before folding as small as possible to store the energy. He tries to find footing, adding character and showing that it was a forceful jump&landing.

Moving hold; a longer ‘air-time’ for the cartoony style, complimenting the squash and stretch. and giving bigger Arcs.

Overlapping action: delaying the secondary actions(arms, legs, spine, head, hip, heels) to  emphasise the movement of the character

The added arm swing during mid-air also adds abit of realism in the cartoon style and exaggeration to the movement. It also seems to ‘enhance’ the momentum of the jump (seen by athletes below: