Body Animation Hand

Hand trial

This is my first attempt at animation, I thought an initial experiment of 11 frames would help me understand some basics. I have read on the About tech website that 24 frames is the traditional, but the number ranges up to 30 in some digital and as low as 7 in Japanese manga animation.

The 12 Principles of Animation

Animation Principles

During my experiments in animation I will incorporate as many of these principles as possible where appropriate. 

 Anticipation: This is used to prepare and engage the audience prior to a major action the character is about to perform . It can be done in many ways,one example would be if the character were about to jump, the preparation for this would be to bend it's knees in 'anticipation' of the jump.

 Direction/Staging: This is the consideration of a number of elements that will communicate to the audience the mood and attitude of the character. It will portray the reaction or idea of the character within the tail. It is the effective application of background design which will work in harmony with  the characters, props, scenery in depicting the desired image. Scene length is also part of this principle, camera angle and lighting. It also directs the attention of the audience in relation to the story. In short its about all the right things being in all the right places at the right time to best get across the story being told.

Squash and Stretch : This is actions that will depict and describe weight and volume in a character during its movement, whether it be whole body movement or facial expression. It can be used in varying degrees depending on the speed/reaction/drama required. 

Straight Ahead : This relates to the drawing sequence method, drawing one consecutive frame after another. This method has its pros and cons. On one hand the form,volume and scale can be tricky to maintain, but on the other hand there is a freedom and rawness which has it's own appeal. This method lends itself to scenes which aim to convey rapid action.

Pose to Pose : This method of drawing firstly considers the full movement/scene right from the start. The move will be broken down into key stages, these drawings will be done with spaces in between that will be later filled in. By doing this the cons that we found in the Straight Ahead method are addressed. This method would at times be shared between the main animator and their junior, the senior animator then can focus their time on planning. Both Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose are generally used along side each other.

 Follow Through : This refers to when a character comes to a halt but their limbs and or attire will continue along its trajectory for a period.

Overlapping : This brings realism and fluidity to the animation by making some parts of the body or clothing lead- move first- and some parts of the body are following- move later. This can also happen for a short period if the character changes direction, if you imaging how a skirt would naturally move when the wearer turns the material takes a while to stop after the wearer has stopped.

Slow Out and Slow In : This method in animation can create a more life like appearance. If you imagine when you accelerate in a car it takes time to pick up speed and when you break it also takes time to slow down. So by creating more frames at the beginning of the action and more at the end, these two parts appear slower and then there is a sense of anticipation and follow through. In my 1st sea animation the limpets move in and out of the frame in this manner.

Arcs: In my animation of the paper cut out person arcs are traced by the movement of the limbs, arcs are the lines natural movements follow.

Secondary Action : This is an action that enhances the action that is going on. It creates a fuller character, as they walk the legs move , this is the primary action, also to  swing the arms and have the body move up and down with the steps is all secondary action that creates a fuller experience for the viewer.

Timing : This needs to be considered in a couple of ways, not only in the fast and slow combination of actions (see above for slow in and slow out, more pics mace action smooth, less make it fast) but also in the actual acting of the characters. The speed in acting can enhance and create mood, signify response and also describe emotion.

Exageration : This should not be used excessively, but when used selectively it will make the animation more life like. Strangely if animation apes life directly it can come across as stiff and dull. So this principle should be used carefully so as not to come across overly dramatic.

Solid drawing : This is simply to use movement, shade, colour, contour and perspective to create the illusion of 3 dimensions, weight, form and volume. Movement through time is the 4th dimention

Appeal : This is about making the audience best able to relate to the character, creating personality in character. By careful consideration and use of the other principles appeal should certainly be beginning to be created.

Ludvig- Paper animation

Paper cut out animated series

Ludwig is an animated series of 25 x 4 minute episodes, made by the Czechoslovakian  father and son team, Mirek and Peter Lang in the seventies. 
Ludvig was basic in many ways but incredibly well thought out in its subtleties, due to the makers having English as their second language there was a simple narration by John Glover (iludvig 2013) This avoided the need for lip syncing.
Ludvig was a great lover of Beethoven so the predominant soundtrack was various pieces by this composer. Ludvig also played violin, which would be produced from one of his many faceted secret compartments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ThMmLVWZo8

Ludvig was a mechanical creature and the presentation of him in the animation is quite jerky, I wonder if his personality and appearance came to being because of their technique, they began at home;basic equipment, kitchen table. Was it the resulting appearance that informed the character?  The light is constantly changing in the cartoon which for me watching as a child didn't bother me in the slightest and now when I watch adds to the atmosphere. This is partly the reason I have not set up 'studio lighting conditions' in some of my experiments as I just wanted to see if the animation was enhanced in any way by this occurrence of changing light. You can see my attempt at paper cut out animation in the Walk Cycle post.
As I am currently finding, the more frames per second; less movement from frame to frame, makes for a much smoother animation. So the mechanization of Ludvig is made more believable by the jerky movements. Also with the choice of small animals and birds, they are all naturally twitchy in their movement, constantly on their guard as they are all prey to larger creatures. If I imaging this cartoon with horses and cows, which naturally move much more fluidly it would look very odd. I feel this is a key discovery which I will consider in my experiments; turning limitations into assets.  
He was found by magpies and dropped off in the forest, it is unclear where he is from but he is an alien of sorts. It is clear that he is unfamiliar with the objects he finds which have been discarded by humans. The makers were very interested in lateral thinking and logic puzzels and this comes through in the animation as Ludvig presents the animals with his scavenged objects and they then proceed to laterally work out the use of the items.

This cartoon, though quite 'off the wall' in that familiar 70's way, it still was i feel educational. It sparked imagination and didn't take the direct route to solve the problems that were presented in each episode.

Walk-cycle-Paper Cut Out

Paper cut out

I chose to use a paper cut out for my first experiment in effecting a walk cycle. I was able to obtain this image of the stages and so able to study the 'rise and fall' and the 'arcs' created by the limbs in hope of creating the most natural flow possible.

In this experiment of primary action I am concentrating on the movement with no regard, as yet, to character and appeal . I am reasonably happy with my representation, the body is well proportioned and moves quite smoothly. I have a shadow across the bottom of the image which I would need rectify by better lighting: 2 point lighting

I researched a 80s animation which you can see in the Ludvig post. I feel the movement that is created in this style of animation definitely adds to that atmosphere of the image. I feel it wouldn’t take too much work on my part to achieve a reasonable standard in this House style. Though I’m in the early stages of my experience and am not greatly drawn to this style.

I found the split pins good in that they gave great freedom of movement but this also had to be closely monitored or I could have joints bending in the wrong direction – this may be a plus if I were doing a comical scene. Also the pin backs can catch on other limbs so I had to trim some and cover some with tape at the back to remedy this. I also had to use bluetac on the back of the head and bottom because I initially found when I moved an arm for example, the leg could also move. If I pursue this method, I may split the torso into chest, stomach and bottom to give a less stiff appearance. The animators of Ludvig have removed this problem by trying to represent a human by creating a walking egg – this may well be a good idea, the movement can become part of the character.

Landscape photo Animation

Experimenting outdoors

Sunrise

In this short animation I thought it would be interesting to do a time laps of the sun rising. Depending on how far I get in my animation experiments and skills I wonder if I might use this as a back drop for a hand rendered animation which I'm sure I would be able to do in Photo shop.

Cemetary

With the weather being so unpredictable, which causes the light levels to change dramatically very quickly, I decided to shoot at night. By doing this I could change the aperture and exposure settings on my camera, allowing in as much or as little light as I wanted. This gave me full control. As above I hope I may draw onto these in Photo shop-time allowing.

White Board-The Mark Maker

White Board Animation

This is a short animation I found by the artist Johnny Lawrence. Right from the beginning he incorporates his hand in the filming. It is a series of images which become absorbed into a new image, constantly morphing and moving. Through this he is playing with perspective, form and volume. It's appeal is so absorbing even though there seems to be little narrative initially, the meaning does all become apparent. I enjoyed the loose line he uses, and the fluidity of the movement is beautiful. I would have really liked to have seen his story board, by the amount of changes am sure it would have been very long and fascinating.

I can see in at certain points in the animation there is 2 areas of reflection on the white board where Johnny must be using 2 point lighting, it wasn't very noticeable only that I was actually looking for it.  I just used single point, overhead lighting in mine combined with natural back light. I like the atmosphere I have created by the constant changes in light levels as the sun comes and goes. I also chose to work in monochrome, though an accent color could have been very effective in my final frames. I was unable to obtain any information on his methods. Unlike my work, his black or lack of it is pretty crisp where as mine is rather more murky. He works very cleanly.

White board

Bow and Arrow

After reading up on the 12 Principles of animation I decided to attempt a relatively simple white board animation to incorporate what I had learnt http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html
I researched an artist called Johnny Lawrence who's work can be found in the Mark Maker post to follow.

By beginning with the bow up close I  hoped it would focus the audiences eye in preparation for the coming action, creating a form of anticipation. I added the dashes/marks in order to enhance movement- punctuate the action. I also attempted squash and stretch through the flight of the arrow though I feel the arrow needed a longer path to affect this. I also used follow through when the arrow hits the target in the form of the up and down movement of the arrows fletchings. The lighting is poor in that again I didn't use artificial light and  exclude natural light - I was shooting in front of a window and as the sun came and went behind clouds the light level changes. Also I think I could have done 2 pictures per image in the first part close up part of the animation. I feel I could really slow down alot of my animations to give the audience more time to take it in. I think because I am familiar with the images I am not realizing how long it may take a new viewer to be able to take it in. As I look closely at my animation I also see that , possibly because of my lighting set up, I have unintentionally managed to capture the reflection of my hand and camera in the lower right 1/4 of the screen. I think because of  Johnnys consideration in his lighting his imagery is much cleaner than mine with no unwanted reflections. 

Story Board

I created this story board to follow, it was really useful but now I realize I could have done with even more detailed instruction, particularly regarding the initial frames as I give the impression of panning out, I havn't managed to zoom out smoothly. The quality of the drawing is very scratchy and there isn't really any appeal to the animation. I am still pleased with the result as I have learn many things in the process of making it, which will be transferable to other House styles. I don't feel that I want to pursue this style at present

Body Paint-Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

This was probably my first encounter with Body Paint Animation. The Sledgehammer music video was released in 1986 and it was really ground breaking in its eclectic use of props, scenes and style. I really liked the way Peter’s face was slowly painted over in blue and then clouds drift across giving us a clue that he is actually part of the sky. There was something very pleasing about this blend of body and environment and so I began to think of how I could build on my initial hand experiment (see seashore post).  Peter’s production incorporates a lot of different mediums as well as the Body Paint house style which encouraged me to experiment with different ideas of how to enhance my animation.

I found it very interesting to observe how jerky all of the movements were in the animation of his face - if they had done a lot more frames per second it would have been much smoother to view but would lose a lot of appeal – it would just look filmed and lose its relationship with the rhythm of the music which it was, in its timing, greatly enhancing.

In my “Final Piece” post, you can see how I have incorporated props with my Body Paint then enhanced them with Claymation to create appeal in my animation.

Body paint with small objects

Seashore

This is my first attempt at body paint, my initial reaction is that I could have slowed it down alot. I was able to duplicate the photos I took and then add them to the series in reverse order to have the tide come in and then go out again for the first tide then I had to wash up and begin again for the second tide. This was really helpful as to paint the tide going out would have been time consuming, and as I discovered unnecessary. I sadly didn't use enough artificial light- just used 1 point light and wrongly relied on natural light. When I retake this and improve I will use 2 point lighting at least and exclude all natural light. I will probably need to diffuse the light too in order to reduce the shine on the wet paint. I feel I will also be able to improve on the timing as i don't think my slow in and out worked very well. I did create a story board for this but I think I should have planed my frames in more detail for the movement of the limpets. I also plan to incorporate claymation to create appeal, I will really need to plan this well as I hope for the characters to show more in the way of facial expressions and with there being 3 of them. I'll need to make sure I have the timing right for all of them and not forget one in the corner. I may actually create separate story boards for me to follow solely for facial expressions that work alongside the main action story boars- more like the walk cycle plan . The background will be extended too so I will be able to pan and create narrative.

Claymation-Trapdoor

Trap Door

The Trap Door…

Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions where nobody goes stands an ancient castle. Deep within this dank and uninviting place lives Berk, overworked servant of The Thing Upstairs. But that’s nothing compared to the horrors that lurk beneath the trap door. For there is always something down there, in the dark, waiting to come out…

We salute Terry Brain and Charlie Mills, creators of 1980s children’s stop-motion animated TV series, 

Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-trap-door/39538/the-trap-door-celebrating-a-much-loved-80s-animated-series#ixzz47hx2ZDHv
 I decided to have a look at this animation from the 80's to find out more about movement of simple forms. I remember finding this quite funny when I watched it years ago with my nieces and nephews and just wanted to refresh my memory and watch it with critical eye.
I did experiment with a wire frame clay clad character but found it incredibly difficult to balance it- even after adding a tail. So I was very interested to look closely at this animation and see how the viewer is entertained with the amount of action going on- it is a very complex set but the characters are very simple forms. Their movement isn't too challenging, just a smooth sliding a lot of the time. In my final piece I have chosen to enhance my main Body Paint character with objects that have claymation features. 
The blinks are rapid, they just go from open to closed eye and there is a blink between each eye movement. I think I will experiment with a 3 stage blink incorporating a half closed lid too on the close or on the open depending on the mood/ reaction I am trying to create.

Final Animation

Seaside

In my final piece I have decided to improve on my “Body Paint” experiment. In the Peter Gabriel music video I was so taken with the way they had applied the technique, I felt this was the one to pursue. Because I was using my own hand this was limiting in my movement around the set and I had to spend quite some time considering how I would manage this. So with regard to directing and staging I finally came up with the idea of extending the set to about 80cm in length, this would then allow me to pan right to the upper shore. This freed up my left hand. Also by taking my hand out of the frame I also eliminated the problem of keeping the tide ebbing and flowing whilst I had the other characters moving around. I think as well as this being incredibly difficult to manage (I’d have to be painting the sea going out as well as coming in) it may also be too busy and distract from the story I was wanting to portray.

I used 2 point highlighting at either end of my set and excluded all natural light. I improved on my original set by adding sand so that wheels would also be able to make traces as would the 3 limpets bringing more life, movement and texture to the animation. The addition of the pebbles framed the right of the set and stopped the eye wandering off.

I wanted to shoot at a lower level than in my original so that the audience would feel more part of the scene and have some eye contact with the characters. In doing this I have also had to create a backdrop which I did in the form of some brown paper to give the impression of a sand dune, I was quite pleased with the colour match. As the upper shore was all rather neutral and natural in its tones I decided that limpets would benefit from different coloured eyes to make them stand out. 

I did experiment with some Claymation characters but even with a wire frame found it very difficult to create a satisfactory character with moveable limbs that would balance. This was when I turned to “Trap Door” to consider simpler forms. I knew that I may well be working with one hand and know how sticky plasticise can be so to use solid objects - the limpet shells – as a base to add features to felt like a rather good solution. I feel that by using the limpet shells I have created an element of surprise, the beach is all nature, pebbles, sand and molluscs, so it brings humour when their eyes appear.

It took me a couple of attempts to get the story boarding right as I was working out how the scene change would work, the characters major and minor movements, and having enough hands to do it all

The second story board is a much simplified version with basic moves.I found the timing needed adjusting on my first review of this animation, in order to have the right amount of frames throughout for smooth viewing. I had taken a one frame per move but because I had done so many frames for the tide, the second part of the animation with the limpets was way to short – in length of time - I really didn’t want the first scene of the ebbing and flowing tide to be any longer as it felt well timed as it was but the second scene with the limpets was too frantic and too short. My solution was to make twice as many images for the limpet scene. I copied them all so had 2 frames per move. When I re-ran this through Gifmaker it had a far better appearance.

Lost at Sea

So in my final piece I have begun with “slow-in” as I introduce the audience to the primary object in my animation - my hand. I really liked the way this also gave weight to my hand as it thudded down onto the sand. Like in the Peter Gabriel video where his face melts into its surroundings, my hand is gradually absorbed by its environment – the beach; the sand gradually creeping over my skin. Then with the use of multiple shades of colour, I introduce the sea, the tide comes in and recedes - I was able to duplicate the images I had taken of the sea coming in and then play them in reverse order to create the ebbing tide.

Now that I had set the scene, I am able to pan right to introduce more characters. I chose to pan to an empty shore in order to prepare and engage my audience in anticipation of the story to follow. Slowly in came 3 limpets acting quite naturally until they all turn to see another limpet on wheels, their characters are suddenly enhanced and given appeal by their big blinking eyes. I chose to have their eyes appear one at a time to enhance anticipation and to give direction to the audience. As well as needing the eyes to be big enough to be clearly seen, the use of big eyes is appealing and we as humans are naturally attracted to them.  It is a deep rooted thing, built in nurturing, babies have disproportionally large eyes and this is what we pick up on in the animation.

Having the 3 limpets move back gives centre stage to “wheels” as it skids in and pulls a wheelie then reverses and comes to a halt to bask smugly, momentarily unaware of what is to come. The 3 limpets add to the atmosphere as they blink and suddenly appear to have raised eyebrows in alarm of what is to come.

Now that the audience were aware that my hand was the sea, I decided it was fine for my hand to just appear as the ocean seeping away “Wheels” without any more of the flowing tide.

I hoped that the 3 limpets running off quickly at the end would be humorous simply because it is a ridiculous idea that limpets would fear the sea. It took me quite a while to realise that the numbers of the jpegs had anything to do with the order in which they loaded into Gifmaker. Because I was running about 30 copies in reverse it totally threw my sequences out. I worked it out after much frustration and renamed them all in the correct numerical order. On discovering that I needed to double up on the whole limpet scheme I needed to renumber again.

So the narrative is simply: It’s a day at the seaside, tide is doing its usual ebbing and flowing. Limpets are doing their usual scuttling around till the crazy new kid on the beach turns up. He is so busy showing off his new accessories he forgets where he is and is swept away.

Lip Syncing

This is a tool which is created in order to give instruction on character movement, camera angle, script, camera position, focus and also timeline. To describe it simply, it is rather like a comic form of the animation. It is simply drawn and helps with the planning of the animation once the initial concept has been formed.

It can come in various forms. I drew pencil on paper so that I could easily alter, also drew very basic forms of my characters as it was just an aid to filming and had no aesthetic value. I have read that some animators will draw it out on index cards which can then be moved around to alter the story line if desired. It doesn’t have to be drawn, computers can be used or photographs also images from magazines. My Storyboards can be seen in posts “Bow and Arrow” and my “Final Piece”. I discovered “Storyboard Language”  these are universal terms which are used in Storyboarding and it was actually very useful to read through and consider how my animation was going to look, could I incorporate some of the techniques to enhance my animations?

CLOSE-UP SHOT:   A close range of distance between the camera and the subject.

DISSOVLE: A transition between two shots, where one shot fades away and simultaneously another shot fades in.

FADE - A transition from a shot to black where the image gradually becomes darker is a Fade Out; or from black where the image gradually becomes brighter is a Fade In.

HIGH CAMERA ANGLE:  A camera angle which looks down on its subject making it look small, weak or unimportant.

JUMP CUT: A rapid, jerky transition from one frame to the next, either disrupting the flow of time or movement within a scene or making an abrupt transition from one scene to another.

LEVEL CAMERA ANGLE:  A camera angle which is even with the subject; it may be used as a neutral shot.

LONG SHOT:  A long range of distance between the camera and the subject, often providing a broader range of the setting.

LOW CAMERA ANGLE:  A camera angle which looks up at its subject; it makes the subject seem important and powerful.

PAN:  A steady, sweeping movement from one point in a scene to another.

POV (point of view shot): A shot which is understood to be seen from the point of view of a character within the scene.

REACTION SHOT- 1.: A shot of someone looking off screen. 2.: A reaction shot can also be a shot of someone in a conversation where they are not given a line of dialogue but are just listening to the other person speak.

TILT:  Using a camera on a tripod, the camera moves up or down to follow the action.

ZOOM:  Use of the camera lens to move closely towards the subject.

Lip Sync

In amination this is the art of having the character’s mouth move at the right speed and into the right shapes in tandem with pre-recorded dialogue in order to give the impression of them speaking. Phenomes are the smallest units of sound that make up the spoken language and are often referred to as “the building blocks of speech”. Phenomes are blurred together into patters to create words which run together into sentences – our brains then separate them into words to understand. English has 42-45 basic phenomes – depending on the accent of the person speaking. When Lip Syncing in animation it is easiest to represent the phenomes by using alphabetical combinations. As you can see from the images, the mouth, tongue and lips create different shapes as they say these different sounds.

Not every part of a word need be represented, lip syncing can just show part or parts of some words and the viewers’ brain will fill in the rest. Often the beginning and ends of words will be sufficient for effect.  Also, the very simplest form of lip syncing is to simply open and close the mouth rather like a glove puppet is made to speak. A believable representation of speech can be created by using approximately 8-10 different mouth shapes. Each mouth shape needs to generally last 2 frames, less than this and the mouth can seem too busy – but you may want this if the character is talking fast. As I mentioned earlier, the viewers eye can fill things in but also to incorporate body language rather than just having a talking head can emphasise dialogue. From the storyboard a series of poses can be worked on and developed so that the body language can work well with the speech - these further drawings are sometimes referred to as dope sheets where facial expressions, poses and words or phrases are matched up.

References

References

Den of Geek, The Trap Door: celebrating a much-loved 80s animated series, March 30 2016

: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-trap-door/39538/the-trap-door-celebrating-a-much-loved-80s-animated-series#ixzz47i1NTyI8



About tech, Frames per second Online Available at:  http://animation.about.com/od/faqs/f/faq_fpsnumber.htm Accessed on 23. 4.16

Story board http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/Storyboard%20Resource/

Animation notes #9 Lip sync Animation http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_lipsync.html

Mark maker, Lawrence.J.( 2010) White Board Animation. Online  Available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vZ0iqUS6sg 

Type and Typography book

White board animation 2010 Lawrence.J Online available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vZ0iqUS6sg accessed on 3.6.16

Introduction to Animation. Ruelle.J
http://introtoanimation.com/Site/Walk_Cycle_.html

Ludvig(1979)http://www.thechestnut.com/ludwig.htm

12 Principles of Animation  http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html


Images
You tube, Trap door, don't open the Trap door online  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldlCD7GR2JI

Peter Gabriel , Sledge Hammer. Online Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0x7T4Q

Ludvig(2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ThMmLVWZo8