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beansandco · 4 years

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Research for Specialist Subject

When thinking about what I should research, I thought about what would make me a better Animator. Well I know from my Advert that I can draw pretty characters. However, when I think of Cupti & Shaker; which I wanted to be smooth Rubber Hose fluid animation, I dont think it ticked all the boxes. As a first real crack at animating, I learnt a lot about software and the practicality of it ( the long time it takes). However when I look at it, it doesn't feel as professional as I would have liked. Since then I've pulled away from the Animate CC software quite a bit. I felt like it held back the possibilities for drawing and detail because of its limited brush features. I'm using Photoshop a lot more as I get a professional feeling and look from my work. Despite finding a style that feels good, Cupti & Shaker; which was heavily inspired by "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit", doesn't reach its level of fluid motion. So I decided to work on my actual understanding of the motion that is used in animation. I went to the library on campus and found a book titled "The Animators Survival Kit" which funnily enough, was written by the creator of "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit". From reading it he gives an intro into his early experience in the industry and his idolization of the man he worked with. Richard Williams, learnt much from, Grim Natwick (born Myron Nordveig). When William's first met him he was told by Natwick that "Animation, its all in the timing and the spacing". For me this is what I read and thought this is exactly what I need to know! I decided to read on in the book and it goes on to perfectly explain the animators "Timing Chart" and the main forms of drawings that they make while animating a scene which are (In order of importance), Key Frames, Extremes, Breakdowns and Inbetweens. (Williams,.2009) Obviously all the drawings are important but the idea of expressive animation, is the key poses. They are so important to get right because they are the story telling poses. So long as those frames explain the story and expression, the the playing of or the "acting" of the character comes in the extremes and breakdowns. These are things I was only vaugely informed on during the animating of "Cupti & Shaker". So apart from the frames. There is the timing. The time charts are usually made for other animators that are helping with the animation to understand what is wanted from the scene being drawn. Because the timing explains where each picture is as a frame in the scene. The timing comes hand in hand with the spacing however. The spacing is the distance of each drawing in a frame compared to eachother. This effects the speed and "fluidity" of the movement. If you have someone running, each frame they are drawn, they will be considerably further away from the last frame. However if he were to slow down, he would not suddenly be still in the next frame, there will have to be frames in between gradually getting closer together to "slow in" to the stop. This is one of the most used methods for realistic animation. Timing & Spacing is considered widely among the animation community, that it is a core principle to have. I specifically want to study this because I know it is something I have misunderstood in previous projects. With Cupti & Shaker I know specifically that I would animate, pose to pose, with a frame drawn evenly between the next. This means most movements are simply sliding at a constant rate. This can be considerably similar to the movement of digital animations. A problem with digital animations is how “perfect” a lot of the movement is. With computers being able to figure out how to time things, the specificity of the movement can make it unbelievable, reaching a kind of “uncanny valley”, where its too real to be real. Similarly I mentioned something similar with the animation of the new The Lion King remake where the movement is “floaty” which is a popular term used among animators to describe a movement that forgets weight. (The Lion Kind, 2019) Broadening the subject slightly, Timing and Spacing also relies heavily on other aspects of drawing. Being something I focused on recently; drawing. When it comes to animation, you need to think of what you’re drawing as a 3D object moving in space. That way, through the use of timing and spacing, your characters will also be consistent with their movements. The human brain is very good at subconsciously knowing if something is keeping its shape, however it is very difficult to then put this into our work. This is why some animators actually draw rough passes using the shapes of the characters before the details. What I’ve read when it comes to this, there is no way to research this, its more to do with practicing, because it is a practical skill. The skill should be developed along side animating. One person who I have been following on his YouTube channel is Aaron Blaise, he is an ex animator/director for the Walt Disney Company who now creates tutorials and streams for aspiring animators like myself. He’s been incredibly helpful with tips for animators who need to learn to draw thinking about shapes and perspectives. He’s one of the reasons I’ve taken to practicing drawing a lot more. (Aaron Blaise, 2012)

My idea for the Specialist Subject is to create a series of designed characters and have some small animated movements as a practice of timing and spacing. These short animated characters will help to give me an understanding of moving characters in 3D space in a 2D format and also to use my new understanding of timing and spacing. This could be similar to the industry standard of “Rough Passes” used when producing animated films. These rough passes are animations that are incomplete but have the full movement planned and fleshed out above secondary motions like hair and clothing.

As an example of other creators using rough passes would be, Disney. They say testing is a crucial part of the production. As soon as a sequence was ready they would put it into the multi-plane camera and have it made into film. This way they could watch it over and over and see the movement. With new software it is possible to always test your animation, methods known such as “Scrubbing through”, where you use a play head to drag trough the frames, you can quick export to view it as a video file ect. I find this helps me specifically when trying to visualize the characters in a 3D space on a 2D plane.

Of all the styles of animation I’ve mainly held myself to the “pose-to-pose” method. This allows to keep characters more consistent and planed out. However, with this being a realistic and restrictive method, I have mind to try using the “straight ahead” method which is very different. This is a form of animation where you draw a frame and then draw the next one after another. This allows for a lot of freedom and spontaneity. Most animators use this for character hair, fire or fight scenes where things are far more random. This could benefit me within animations as it provides visual interest and doesn't require anywhere as much time because you don’t need to worry about the consistency. If I were to use this style, I might want to use it as more of a “main feature” than a characters hair or such. An idea that comes to mind is something like magic. This is represented in many animations and is usually a form of character expression. Something that springs to mind is the story of “The Sorcerers Apprentice” in the Disney classic Fantasia. This could be a “realistic” pose to pose character, that uses straight ahead magic. (Fantasia,1940)

Animation as an Art form is comparatively young and compared to others. As I went into in my FMP last year, animation had a boom of popularity around 1920′s however it really came into its own when animators developed “Methods” that all aspiring animators would benefit from learning. These are a set of rules for animation. I’ve spoken about the principles of animation however I haven’t mentioned that despite these being “Rules” many animators that are experienced find that they are there to be broken. A lot of the character and story telling done in movement is made unique and eye catching when the rules are bent but not so far that is seems unbelievable. This is where originality and skills comes in most. Sometimes animating on two’s works better than one’s and this we still aren't sure why, probably because techniques for everything are still being discovered today. Theres no way to know exactly how best timing will work in scenes. So even when you use the principles you might find deviating from them works better. ( Thomas, F. Johnston, O, 1981)

However, there is one thing that animators have found that DO stick to certain rules, and these work across the board. The timing of a walk is very specific in animations because people in real life all tend to walk at the same pace. Our unconscious recognises this and holds animation to the same standard. most people walk on 12′s. This means theres is 12 frames per step they take. Walks can be animated on 2′s but runs are always animated on 1′s. The more a position of a character changes the more time you might add to have more frames to reach there, or you would want more frames in a shorter time. Most companies animate on a standard of 2′s however when running or theres a fast change of shape your would need to animate on 1′s to compensate. This is why animations where made with music and it worked so well, because everything could be reduced to the beat of a characters walk.

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