To try and show the effect of happiness I thought that I would pose the character to literally be leaping in joy. The character’s body expression is very open and also very extended out to the world, as opposed to a different expression that may be more closed off.
This scared pose has the character crouched and seeming to be pleasing with their hands clasped together. Their head is tilted up as if looking at something that they are fearful of that is larger or taller than them. With the body scrunched up they seem unconfident and uncomfortable.
For the sad pose I wanted to add a seated pose for more variety in my poses. The character holds their head and is hunched in on themselves. The hands covering part of the face implies that the character is hiding their emotions, as if they do not want to show that they are sad and are holding themselves for comfort.
This dance pose looks as if the character is extending their body as far as they possibly can, whilst balancing on their toe as if they are a ballet dancer. The pose may not be particularly realistic as one being held for an extended period of time, but more like one that is caught in the midst of movement.
For this pose I wanted to get a sports pose, so I chose baseball as I thought that it is effective to show anticipation in the pose. The line of the body is an arc and shows that he is ready to swing his body towards where his head is facing. I think that to improve this pose I could’ve improved the positioning of the arms and the bat to be even further turned perhaps.
I wanted to add a pose from a film, so I chose Neo’s iconic pose from “The Matrix” series. Though it’s not really a pose that is humanly possible I think you can get a feel for what movement is happing in the picture. I think that I could reposition one of the hands to look better in the future.
Basic bouncing ball animation, created in class and refined using the animation graph editor.
I decided to animate another bouncing ball and this time I used a different rig and trajectory for the ball. The timing was faster for this one to more realistically try and get the feeling of gravity, as I thought that the first ball I animated looked a little bit floaty as if it was in low gravity.
Ball on an obstacle course
Before I created the obstacle course I thought about what kind of path I wanted the ball to take and what movements could show off different elements such as speeding up/slowing down as well as squash and stretch. I thought adding the moving part of the obstacle course could show the ball having some force to it, even if the physics of it would not necessarily work like that in real life. I also wanted to make my animation loop, so creating a good arc for the ball at the end to finish in the starting position was something I had to take into account.
In animation, what is good or bad can sometimes be obvious whilst not actually knowing the reason why it is good or bad, it just is. For example, in “Shark Tale”, most people would think it’s sort of an ok film, but it is clearly worse than some other animated films of the time. The character design is a bit unsettling, as the attempts to make fish have human-like features did not turn out well, and the textures and models also are sub-par, though this can be partially attributed to it being an older film. The animation also at times seems weirdly stiff, and as the film is set underwater starring sea creatures this is even worse and more jarring. Comparing this to “Shrek” (by the same company of Dreamworks and released three years earlier) is night and day. Whilst Shrek is also outdated in terms of textures and models, the rest of the film more than makes up for it. It is inventive in how it uses animation in certain periods such as when Shrek blows up a frog as a balloon. The film leans on the fact that it is not exactly realistic having the setting of a fairytale, with exaggerated movements that work fluidly in spite of not being realistic. Shrek (at least when I last watched it) had less noticeable points in it where the animation clearly looks off. When comparing “Shrek” to “Shark Tale”, you can see that “Shrek” feels a lot more like the people who made it really put a piece of themselves into it, and “Shark Tale” feels like the people who made it maybe had less time or something. I am somewhat biased as I have watched “Shrek” many times growing up, whereas “Shark Tale” I have only watched maybe twice, and also the rest of the film not involving animation (sound design, soundtrack, storyline, etc) is a lot stronger in “Shrek” too, but general popularity does often speak to quality.
Another film that I think is good animation is “Into The Spiderverse”. This film is in 3D (for the characters and backgrounds) but also utilises 2D animation and overall doesn’t look much like other 3D films. For example, the character modellers added line-work to the characters’ faces to allow more expressive, cartoonish poses. They were also innovative with the frame rates, occasionally animating characters on 12 frames per second instead of 24 to intentionally give a certain less-fluid effect. As 2D animation is often animating at 12 frames per second, this further pushes the film’s 2D and 3D hybrid effect. The film also does not use motion blur like many other 3D films, instead opting to add quick drawings between frames to give the effect. As the film was also made with a comic book style, the filmmakers also utilised a depth of field effect that makes the out of focus objects begin splitting up into RGB colours, an effect that sometimes occurred in printing errors for comic books. The innovative techniques combined with incredibly smooth animation make for a very interesting animation. Another bad animated film example would be “Hoodwinked”. The animation in the film has very little weight and nothing feels like it has much impact when characters make exaggerated movements. The character expressions are very creepy, and it does not feel like an intentional effect with many of the characters not seeming to have eyelids and never blinking because of this. Overall there seem to be very few secondary movements in the characters possibly due to budget constraints, and this makes most of the movements seem very unnatural and inhuman.
In terms of 2D animation, a good example I enjoy is “The Wolf” music video for the band “Siames” by “RUDO Co”. The animation is entirely in black and white and cleverly uses negative space to tell the story. Though the drawn animation in itself isn’t particularly complex, the usage of animation as a metaphor is used to great effect, with the monster in the music video morphing several times into different looking creatures whilst still being recognisable as the original, as a metaphor for how people have different fears. The camera angles are great and really show the skill of the animator, for example in the chase scene a character leaps down a hill and slides down whilst the camera zooms in and around, making it extra impressive that they were able to continue to make the character movements realistic. An example of bad 2D animation would be the 2016 Berserk anime, which combines some 2D with CG. The characters’ expressions look like they are feeling nothing even when in intense situations like a sword battle. The colour palette seems dull and boring and the animation is clunky and lacking in fluidity. As it is a series that focuses heavily on sword fighting, fluidity of animation is a must in making it look good, as realistically professional fighters who use swords will not be moving in a clunky way, and will have smooth movements. As this series was unable to do this it was a complete failure, basically not being able to achieve the one important goal to make it at least watchable.
The first principle of animation is squash and stretch. This principle is a very useful way to add additional weight and flexibility to objects, especially when creating work that is more stylised and cartoony. The volume is kept the same, so for example, if you had a cube at 10cm x 10cm you would need to keep the volume at 10cm squared, even when squishing it down. Squash and stretch is even used in realism, with parts of the body squashing and stretching when humans move, though the further you exaggerate this effect the more cartoony your animation can look.
The next principle is anticipation, which is a key feature in any form of storytelling. Most movements look unnatural if there is no build-up towards them, as an example to swing a bat there needs to be some preparatory movement instead of just instantly swinging it for it to look more natural. Anticipation can be exaggerated heavily to really give an audience an idea of what is going to happen next.
Principle 3 is staging. This is similar to composition, in that you need to be able to draw the audiences eye towards what is important in the scene. The most important object in the scene should usually move the most, with less important objects staying stationary or moving only a small amount.
Straight ahead action and pose to pose are the fourth principle. Straight ahead action is the method of animating from the beginning to the end in a linear fashion. Pose to pose is different in that you first map out the key poses in the animation, later adding in the in-between frames. They have different strengths and weaknesses, with straight-ahead action often looking more fluid whilst pose to pose gives the animator more control over how the result will look.
The 5th principle is follow-through and overlapping action. This principle to me seems the opposite of anticipation, with importance on what happens at the end of the animation instead of the beginning. Most motion does not end instantly (as an example to stop running you usually cannot just go from fully sprinting to not moving at all). You need some animation after the main movement has finished, for example, the hair continuing to move after a character has jumped and stopped.
Slow in and slow out is another principle of animation, meaning that you need to ease in and out in terms of speed. Generally, things accelerate to their fastest speed over time, then when they stop they decelerate until they fully stop completely. This can be seen in cars, people running, bikes, etc. To do this an animator can choose how many frames they use – for example, they could initially have a start and end frame, and if they wanted the object to slow in the middle they could assign more frames to the time when the object is in the middle.
The 7th principle is Arc. This means that many objects follow the rules of gravity – they do not travel in straight lines through the air and generally move in an arc through the air as they are pulled down by gravity. This can be a useful way of showing the weight of an object, or weather conditions as they can affect the arc of movement that an object would take. You can go against this intentionally to create erratic, unnatural movements in some cases.
Principle 8 is secondary actions. This means that to add realism to movements, there are often subtle minor actions that also take place though are not as noticeable. These minor actions contribute overall to how fluid the animation will look. As an example, when people walk they don’t just move their arms and legs, they use most parts of their body even if only slightly swaying their hips, bobbing their heads, flicking their heels, etc.
The next principle is timing. This can be used by choosing an appropriate speed for each object, and objects cannot travel faster than they would in real life if you want your animation to look realistic. This can be exaggerated to an extent and remain somewhat realistic but should generally be followed. Timing is useful to help the animator convey how a character is feeling.
The 10th principle is exaggeration. If your animation is too focused on realism this can be boring and lacking in motion. To add some flair to it you can push how far you take the movement, beyond what is completely realistic to make the animation far more entertaining. Most children’s cartoons heavily used exaggeration to add character and personality to objects and characters, for example, if a cartoon character is surprised about something you can animate the eyes to literally pop out from the head.
Solid drawing is another principle that can be used to ensure that you understand perspective, lighting, anatomy etc. This is useful to maintain consistency throughout your animation, as it can be confusing to audiences if you are not keeping objects consistent in size or position unintentionally. Characters should however not be completely mirrored, as very few humans are perfectly symmetrical and so some minor changes from left to right can help characters look more normal.
The last principle is appeal. Characters, objects and settings need to appeal to audiences or no one will be interested in watching your animation. Adding personality and interest to these can be a good way to interest audiences. This takes a lot of skill to understand as you must understand not only your own tastes but those of your target audience as well. This also does not just mean only in making characters likeable – villainous characters can be appealing whilst not being meant to be likeable to the audience. It is more about being interesting than “good”.
Films, VFX and animation have evolved over the years as technology and wider access to be able to create media has progressed. The first film was “The Horse in Motion” from 1878. However, even though this film was preceded by other animation, it is debatable what can count as “film”. Animation existed long before cinematography and used different invented modes of viewing to create the illusion of movement. For example, the Thaumotrope, Phenakistiscope, and Zoetrope were created in the era from 1820-1840, using different methods of moving the area where images were painted or drawn to make it seem like they were moving when really it is a visual illusion where the viewers eye keeps a “persistence of vision”, still seeing the original image as well as the new one that is being shown to merge the two. Later, the invention of the flipbook would make animation far more accessible, as technically anyone could make an animation at this point if they had access to a drawing implement and a book they could flip through. These flipbook animations were more likely to be inspirational to later film animators than the other devices, as they were so accessible and didn’t require a complex device. The other devices would also later be tweaked and improved using mirrors and glass discs. At this point in history though, animation was not used much for storytelling and was often just used as a novelty, though for its time it was very impressive.
One of the Lumiere brothers with their Cinematographe.
In terms of what these films were actually like at this point in history, they were generally fairly short and often just showed everyday life. They were also mainly black and white, as methods to add colour to film had not been fully explored yet, though there were some such as Kinemacolor, which used red and green gelatine to add these colours to film (this wasn’t accurate to how the real-life footage would’ve looked but still added colour). By 1914 though, films began to be more focused on storytelling, with actual plots to follow. The American film industry would lag behind the European, Russian and Scandinavian film industries, though due to World War 1 slowing a lot of the film producers in these areas, the American film industry had time to catch up. In terms of animation at this point, films such as “Gertie the Dinosaur” (Winsor McCay) were being created by individuals drawing each frame. However, these individuals quickly became overshadowed by large scale studios that were forming such as Fleischer, Barre, and Edison studios, creating works like “Koko the Clown”. Walt Disney would begin working with Ub Iwerks and Fred Harman, eventually creating “Steamboat Willie” (1928) featuring Mickey Mouse. Later, films like “Snow White” would be released to massive acclaim as well as other series like “Looney Tunes”. Other studios like Fleischer would continue to compete with films like “Gullivers Travels” (1939). In the 1930s, colour films would be developed using the Technicolor process (which began development in 1915) which used dye-transfer techniques to make colour prints. This process had been improved a lot with a new three-colour system, and using this new system the famous films “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” were created in 1939. During this period the usage of sound in cinema would be explored, with different films using sound differently; until 1927 most films would just be sound effects with a soundtrack behind them. With the release of Don Juan in 1927, “talkies” would take off. This involved recording all of the audio from the film onto one phonographic record, and then playing it at the same time as the film to match it up. During this period, experimentations with VFX would be taking place as well, such as in “The Invisible Man” where mechanical systems and hidden wires would move items as if moved by an invisible man. “The Wizard of Oz” would also use a large bag, a fan and some dust to create the effect of a cyclone. Other films like “King Kong” would use puppets and stop motion (taking a sequence of photographs and playing them in quick succession) to show the titular character.
“King Kong” (1933).
In the 1950s, the war ended and so a lot more films were made. This lead to the “Golden Age” of Asian cinema, with works such as “Seven Samurai” by Akira Kurosawa being created, as well as “The Apu Trilogy” by Satyajit Ray. This trilogy would later be inspirational for several notable directors including Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese. India, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines all making progress in producing more well-acclaimed films. During this time and the following years, a lot of progress would be made not just in the technology, but in the creation of new film techniques such as different types of camera shot, different editing techniques, use of sound, etc. In the 1960s, “Jason and The Argonauts would be released with a CGI scene where a character fights against skeletons. This usage of stop motion was more advanced and smoother than previous attempts, as well as using several figures to pose and animate, sometimes meaning only 13 or so frames would be completed each day. The late 1960s would produce films like “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Planet of the Apes” and “Midnight Cowboy”. Later, in the 1970s, film would begin the decade at a low point, with little innovation and little money. Standards would become looser, and a lot of films would become more violent and sexually explicit, like “The Godfather”. A type of film also emerged that would be more of an “event”, with advertising building up to a film franchise that would span over several films, including the likes of “Jaws” and “Star Wars”. At this time animation shifted more onto a focus on animated kids TV series, with several studios dedicated to creating them. The mindset was also now more on creating media quickly and cheaply – before, it was all about creating the best thing you possibly could but as animation became more commercially viable, innovation was less important than profit to some companies. Series like “Loopy de Loop”, “Colonel Bleep” and “Tom Terrific” were released in the late 1950s. William Hanna and Joseph Barbara would begin to create iconic shows such as “The Flintstones”, “Yogi Bear” and “Scooby-Doo” into the ’60s and ’70s. Disney would also release films like “101 Dalmations” and “The Jungle Book” in this time too. During the ’60s, Japanese animation (anime) would become very popular, though very different to Western animation as there was less focus on dynamic movement and more focus on aesthetics. Overall this would mostly only have domestic success in Japan, and would only become popular internationally over time.
“The Jungle Book” (1967).
In the 1980s film developed even more, partially because people began using VCR’s, which the film industry tried to ban on the grounds of copyright infringement unsuccessfully, eventually settling to begin selling their films as a secondary form of revenue. A lot of blockbusters were being made such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Ghostbusters”, “E.T.”, “Back to the Future”, multiple “Star Wars” films, etc. These films would become incredibly famous and referenced in different media countless times in the future. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are probably the most famous directors of this time, innovating cinema with the usage of CGI in “Tron”. In the 90’s films like “Jurassic Park” and “Titanic” would be released to critical acclaim. During the ’90s films would start to grow in terms of how much money was invested – for actors salaries, special effects, advertising campaigns becoming larger, etc. This money was not necessarily spent in the correct places, and so many films of this era suffered from having money thrown at them without much thought to what money could be spent on to improve the film. However, this age of cinema is widely regarded as one of the best decades of film, with directors like Spike Jonze, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson all making their first films in this time. Films at this time were often made with an accessible feel to a general audience (as they needed to be profitable) but are still not dull, owing to clever writing and interesting themes such as “Starship Troopers” which is heavily satirical whilst still being accessible for people who don’t see the satire. As this is one of the decades of film that the majority of young to middle-aged people have as their furthest back content than they would watch, many people hold nostalgia for it. For VFX, the ’80s would continue to experiment with different techniques, like in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” which blended 2D animation characters with real-life actors and is impressively seamless. “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and “The Terminator” would also use innovative CGI techniques to impress audiences and give off more of a sci-fi feel to these films. The ’90s would also have new techniques, such as in “Forrest Gump” when the titular character is inserted into a pre-existing film with JFK. “The Matrix”, “Babe” and “The Mummy” would be released with impressive CGI. Sci-fi films would gain in popularity massively as directors could begin to use effects that would impress audiences whilst looking very realistic. Some of these effects in these films have not aged very well to what we see today, but it must be remembered that we have had a lot more developed CGI in films to compare it to. In animation, the ’80s were big for franchises of animation that could also be used to sell kids toys and figures, such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “My Little Pony” and “He-Man”. A lot of these shows were not high quality because they were often just seen as more expensive advertisements to kids for the toys. At the end of this decade, a lot more quality animation would be produced with what is known as the “Golden Age of Animation” beginning, with work like “The Little Mermaid”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “The Land Before Time” being produced as well as animated TV series such as “The Simpsons” created. Disney would lead this new era of animation with “Beauty and the Beast”, “Alladin” and “The Lion King”, films that feature very high-quality animation that is also accessible to children whilst still being entertaining for adults. This is a difficult feat to achieve, and one that Disney and later Pixar would consistently hit. Personally, I think that “The Lion King” remains the film I have watched the most times, as it was so entertaining as a child that I would watch it endlessly. Pixar would begin the history of popular 3D films with “Toy Story”, a film that would instantly generate interest in the medium of 3D animation and become the top-grossing film of the year, cementing Pixar as a high-quality studio. Because technology has progressed so quickly these films do not feel like they are ancient history, as they were released in many people’s lifetimes, unlike film history where many films that would shape the future of film were created long before many people were born.
“Toy Story” (1995).
In the 2000s the widespread introduction of several pieces of technology and sites such as high-performance laptops, iPods, smartphones, Youtube, Amazon, Google, allowing people to create, buy and share media whenever and wherever they are, created another hurdle similar to television and VCR before that would force cinema to innovate even further to remain relevant to the masses, with features like 3D films, improvements to venues, increased advertising campaigns, etc. After the 9/11 attack as well as the linked war in Iraq, the American film industry began to create a lot of “patriotism” war films. This also seemed to chain a reverse effect, with certain films that would not paint America in such a good light. 6 studios (Time Warner, Sony, Walt Disney, NBC, Viacom and 20th Century Fox) would begin to dominate the film industry, producing the majority of major English speaking films, and this would continue until the present (though 20th Century Fox got acquired by Disney). Technology in the film industry would continue to improve, with equipment like the “Red One” camera being created. The film industry continued its growth, with films having larger and larger budgets, casts, and more equipment, such as “The Lord of the Rings”, “Star Wars”, and “King Kong”. In terms of VFX, motion capture techniques began to take off, as well as the usage of CGI, with computer-generated characters beginning to seamlessly blend with the rest of the film in ways which the untrained eye would not notice. “Gollum” from “Lord of the Rings” is a large proponent in impressing the average moviegoer with CGI. Fully animated CGI films would be made using motion capture, such as “Beowulf” and “The Polar Express”, very impressive for the time but still having a slight uncanny valley feel. During this time 3D cinema was pushed heavily, with older popular films even being re-released in 3D such as “Toy Story” and “The Matrix”, though it never fully took off and seemed more like a gimmick. Over the 20 years from 2000 to today, VFX would improve at a rate far faster than before, with many films heavily relying on special effects such as the films “2012” “Avatar”, “Pirates of the Caribean” and “The Life of Pi” to entertain audiences. CGI would begin to become more commonplace in films, and more easily understood by audiences as information relating to it was made more accessibly to the general public. For animation, there was also a huge boom as Disney would continue to have great success with films like “Toy Story”, as well as studios like Dreamworks producing films like “Shrek” which helped cement 3D animation as a valuable medium for storytelling. As the 3D industry developed, lighting, texturing, poly count of models, render speed improving, etc would help 3D animation become better and better as well as more efficient with more and more potential for creating different things. 2D animation would slowly be overtaken by 3D in film, with Disney, who relied massively on 2D animation for their previous films, beginning to make all their animated films in 3D. 2D animation would continue to have heavy usage from independent artists, with the processes of 2D animation focusing more on the technical skill of drawing than 3D focusing a lot more on the skill of knowledge of how to use multiple pieces of software together. In the 2000’s adult animation would begin taking off in popularity; previously most animation was created with children in mind. Shows like “Family Guy”, “South Park” “Beavis and Butthead” would show that there was an audience for adult animation, with more recent shows like “BoJack Horseman” “Rick and Morty”, “Castlevania” “Invincible” showing that the usage of animation in entertaining adults is growing.
