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Research Element 7: Anticipation and Yuri Norstein

Anticipation:

Anticipation is a principle that doesn't include an actual main movement, but rather the preparation of a movement. In real life, people/animals tend not to be able to move expressively without some sort of build up. While jumping, for example, a person would bend their legs and prepare for the jump.

this can make the beginning and end of a pose more natural, making the energy of the movement more clearly built up and realistic. It is important to use in animation as without it, characters would move unnaturally easily, giving the appearance of floating instead of a jump. This works in other examples too, such as hand movement, turns, etc. Yuri Norstein:

Yuri Norstein is one of, if not the most renowed Russian Animator on earth, to the point that popular animation legends such as Hayao Miyazaki admires him and his work.

His work began as an animator in Moscow, working at the studio Soyuzmutfilm, where he animated in the 1960s for popular directors of the time. His first film was 'Living Numbers' by Roman Davydov. Despite the development and success of the studio, Norstein was still highly critical of his own work, even in his early years. in 1968, his first chance at something great came with '25th-The first day', a vision of the October Revolution in a unique, modernist style. The film was considered propaganda however, and was demanded to have cuts by the Russian government.

After a few more early films, Norstein made his most iconic work in the 1970s, allegedly due to influence from his wife. Norstein believed that his true calling was being a director, and that he needed another person to come in for the animation and puppet making, which his wife happened to fill, Francheska Yarbuvosa. The film that kickstarted their working relationship together was 'Kerzhenets' in 1971.

working together, Norstein's Reputation grew more and more over the years. He continued to direct animations, and is currently creating the most intricate cutout animation of his career, possibly ever, in the form of the developing 'The Overcoat'. Yuri Norstein's work is incredibly influential in eastern animation, and he continues to inspire people even in his current age. His drive and dedication towards his work despite being consistently displeased with it was partly reason for his success, as he perfected all of his animations, creating beautiful works of art. To animation fans worldwide, Yuri Norstein's work is an example of perfecting a craft and how experimentation can work beautifully.

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Research Element 6: Arcs and Richard Williams

Arcs:

Arcs are an animation principle which states that many movements are done in arcs naturally. Taking a head turn as an example, the head doesn't usually remain on the exact same level during movement, but rather dips down along an arc. Taking this into account can make movement seem less robotic.

Knowing about arcs can also help keep moving items consistent. if animating a falling tree, for example, the tree would not fall in a straight diagonal line, as the height of the tree would appear to change. making it fall in the motion of an arc can keep its proportions consistent. Finally, arcs allow for gravity to be conveyed better in animation. In a bouncing ball animation, for example, the ball bounces in several differently sized arcs. The height and width of the arc emphasizes how much energy the ball is moving with.

Richard Williams: Richard Williams is an inspiration to many animators worldwide, due to his innovations and development in the industry as well as his objective drive and passion for the art. Even from a very young age, Williams was reportedly fascinated by animation, taking particular interest in Walt Disney productions of the time.

Richard Williams then appeared to have lost interest in animation for some time, turning to fine art after seeing a show of Rembrandt paintings in Toronto. Only in his early 20s did he rediscover his love for animation, due to his paintings reportedly 'wanting to move.' By the 1950s he had moved on from Disney's animated works, and began establishing his own animation career. In 1958, his first short 'The little island' won him a BAFTA award. This success made him further his career and join TV cartoons in London, at which he reportedly had a big hand in early development of the studio. He then established his own studio, Richard Williams Animated Films, in the early 1960s. this studio saw great success for its high technical standards, and Williams spent the following years developing the studio. 1971 saw his first Oscar, for his adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. Chuck Jones, who was executive producer for the film, noted that while Richard Williams was a potential genius, he will never be so in his own eyes, establishing William's poor opinion of his work.

The studio would continue to work overseen by Williams, his last film being 'Prologue' in 2015 before his death at age 86.

Richard Williams is an inspiration to animators everywhere, both with his drive for his work as well as his desire to spread his knowledge to others. The opportunities he created with his studio has affected the animation scene forever, making him a worthy competitor against his more well-known counterparts, such as Walt Disney Animation Studios.

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Research Element 5: Ease in/Ease out and Len Lye

Ease in/Ease out:

Ease in/Ease out is a principle in animation that states that almost every natural movement will begin more slowly and end more slowly than the main movement. For example, if an arm was moving side to side, it would begin to accelerate as it moved and slow down as it came to a stop. Knowing this and applying it when animating (spending more frames on the beginning and end of a movement) can accurately convey more natural, human movement, making a character/subject feel less robotic and rigid in movement. This principle, when combined with timing can help an animator convey different types of movement and the energy behind that movement. Len Lye: Len Lye is beloved in the art community as one of the most original artists of the 20th century. He began his art journey in 1918, after he switched to art from taking commercial subjects at Wellington Technical College. He moved to Sydney 4 years later, working briefly as an animator and experimenting and developing his art via kinetic sculpture. By 1928 his work had started to become widespread from his new home in London, where his sculptures and abstract art had caught the eye of the public.

Lye began film-making in 1929, taking clear inspiration from Samoan and aboriginal art in his creations.

His innovation came partly from his lack of funds. Unable to afford a camera, Lye painted directly onto film, such as his film Colour Box (1935) for which he won a medal of honour at the Brussels international cinema festival. His art only grew as he continued to move, and his abstract paintings, films and kinetic sculptures became widely known worldwide. In short, it can be argued that Len Lye's work was massively inspired by his surroundings. The places he travelled to and lived in, even if for a short time, often times had a clear imprint on his work.

I believe that Len Lye was definitely incredibly original and innovative for the time his art was being created, his experimentation with colour and emotion/expression in his art is revolutionary, which is made clear in the fact that those interested in art worldwide still look up to his work.

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Research Element 4: Follow Through and Lotte Reiniger

Our research task this week was to look into the animation principle Follow Through, which links heavily to the concept of overlapping action. We were also tasked with researching a brief history on the work of animator and film director Lotte Reiniger.

Follow through:

Follow through is the principle that parts of an object or body will continue to move even after the the main body has stopped. This heavily links with overlapping action, which suggests that different parts of the body move at different rates. Follow through, like overlapping action, can make the movement in an animation seem more lively and even realistic at times, as appendages springing forward or dragging behind imply that the subject is at least somewhat flexible. Flexibility, of course, makes action more impactful, and can make the character/object seem more alive. When follow through and overlapping action are used together, parts of the body furthest from the centre of mass will both drag behind when the main body moves and spring forward Infront of the main body when movement pauses, creating a more dynamic movement. Lotte Reiniger: Lotte Reiniger's name is essentially synonymous with silhouette animation. She was reportedly creating exceptional free-handed paper silhouettes from a young age, and used her skills to attract the attention of director Paul Wegener, in order to move into the industry with hopes of being an actress. Wegener used her craft skills to create silhouettes for intertitles in two of his films, and soon introduced her to an experimental animation studio, the Berliner Institut  für Kulturforschung. 1919 saw her first film made for the studio, this being 'Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens' (The Ornament of a Loving Heart.) In 1923, She got an opportunity to create an animated film from the investor Louis Hagen, which she took to create 'The adventures of prince Achmed', her most widely known film. Her silhouette technique allowed her to create expression and narrative that wasn't yet possible with technology at the time. During this time, she developed the technique of conveying depth in animation, by placing her cutouts on different planes before photographing them, giving a more realistic and dynamic composition to her shots. This is also arguably a technique Walt Disney himself took inspiration from.

Sadly, the political climate of the time didn't allow her work to reach the reputation it truly deserved, due to gender bias in the animation industry. People argued that, while pretty to look at, her work didn't have the same emotional impact as more politically driven works made by her male counterparts. Although, it does seem that her work is being spread and recognized more globally, as the public can start to appreciate the work and talent put into her work.

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Animation Skills week 5-6: The Head Turn

For these two weeks, we've been assigned to create a head turn of a character, which is apparently an extremely important practice to improve/perfect in order to work in the animation industry. We could choose a pre-made character or a pre-existing one to use. I chose the character Kyoko Mogami from the manga Skip Beat! in in my head turn, as she's a character I've drawn many times and would have less trouble keeping consistent throughout the head turn. animation principles I learned about during this time to help with my head turn were mainly slow in and slow out, as well as arcs. Slow in and slow out was helpful in portraying the speed of the head turn more accurately, as a normal head turn would include someone starting and stopping the turn more gradually, instead of snapping from pose to pose. Arcs are important in practically any motion, as almost everything that moves organically will move in some form of an arc. Heads don't usually remain on the exact same level when they turn, they slightly dip mid-motion and come back up at the end of the pose.

This assignment was easier for me to grasp than the wave cycle for some reason, although it was probably because imagining the pose-to-pose sequence of a face turning is more simple than a wave, which can be slightly more organic and therefore complicated to draw. Consistency was definitely a struggle during this task, even with me being comfortable with drawing my character. unlike some other, simpler poses, a head turn requires a new drawing pretty much every frame, which can eventually throw off the anatomy of a drawing. I know I struggled with this myself, personally. Despite this, I still wanted to challenge myself, and not only did a turn from a side profile to a 3/4 view, I created more, smaller head turns to create a more dramatic final movement. This, overall I think was a success. To improve, I wish I had thought of including slow in and slow out beforehand, to make the start and stop of the movement less sudden.

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Animation skills week 3: The Wave Cycle

I actually was absent for this week's lesson (Got stranded in another city coming home, that was fun!) but from what I gathered from what my instructor, Rebecca sent me: We learned the wave cycle, an animation principle used to display more fluid motion. In essence, many things in our life move in arcs. When animating a wave cycle, (generally) an arc is manipulated to give the illusion of fluid movement. This arc can be applied to almost anything flexible that flows.

We were instructed, similarly to our previous assignment, to learn the basic wave cycle animation, then refine it into our own personal project. This could be a flower, a flowing piece of fabric or anything that can bend and move, really.

It took me a while to grasp the concept of the wave cycle. My animation attempts seemed choppy and didn't flow as a loop nicely at all. If anything, I had pretty much just made a reversing clip; a line moving forwards and then backward in the exact same motion, making it look really unnatural. I then actually realized that I should reverse the arc during backward movement, as if part of the line is being dragged back by the wind. This finally made me understand how the principle worked: The wave cycle shows how realistic objects move. They move in an arc because of drag itself. The tips of a line are further away from a center of gravity, so are dragged behind the most when an object moves. With this, I was finally able to start refining and creating an idea out of the wave cycle.

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Animation skills weeks 1-2: Bouncing Ball Animation (Refinement)

The second week of our animation skills module was spent refining the basic bouncing ball animation we had made the week prior. Our task was to decide on what we wanted our final product to look like and begin creating it. This includes creating a subject (e.g changing the bouncing ball into another object/figure, or adding colour/depth to the ball), as well as beginning in creating a background for our sequence. As mentioned in my post on week 1, I knew from the beginning that I wanted my sequence to reference Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, specifically the three green heads than can be seen bouncing throughout the movie. My initial sequence was complete, and it was now time to develop it. The three heads, I drew in my own personal style, which Is quite stylized. It is more exaggerated than the visual style of spirited away, and was used as I wanted my sequence to look more exaggerated than the movie. I wanted the heads to squash and stretch more than they do in the movie itself, similar to an actual rubber ball. I wanted my inspiration to be clear, but I also wanted to show off the techniques I had learned during week 1. This justified the style change in my opinion. Also, I feel that it's a better choice as it adds more of myself into this project, rather than trying to make a carbon copy of my inspiration. I also had to create a background for my project, which was one of my favourite parts of the project thus far. I love studying and drawing backgrounds, sometimes more than figures. As Spirited Away is a very detailed movie, I took the chance to fill my background with lots of detail as well, of course in my own visual style. An added challenge of my project was that I had a foreground, which I needed to either learn to clip over the animated figures, or cut out entirely. As of the time I write this, I am still deciding on what to do here. What I liked:

I obviously loved seeing my idea progress further and further as the project went on. As I got further with animating, it felt very rewarding seeing the work I was putting in creating an actual sequence, going from a simple ball to an actual, recognizable figure. (or, in this case, a recognizable head.) One part I didn't expect to enjoy so much was altering the features of the heads as they contorted due to squash and stretch. By far, my favourite frames to draw were ones where the heads were stretching from moving fast, or compressing due to impact with the ground. It was very fun trying to figure out where features should be placed when deformed so much and I feel that this part of my project has made my art in general more fluid and expressive. What I found hard:

By far, the most difficult aspect of the refinement process was having consistent scaling. In the initial bouncing ball sequence, it was quite easy to keep consistent scaling; the ball is a very simple subject, with no specific features. However, the heads I drew had many specific features. The heads weren't perfectly round, they had ears and cheek lines. The eyes, nose and mouth/moustache also had a specific size. Everything needed to be in proportion with everything else. This was difficult to upkeep for the hundreds of frames I used. Over time, of course, It became easier to remain consistent. However, I would still occasionally find myself making mistakes on sizing, making the heads too small or too big, or having other proportions vary in size.

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Animation skills weeks 1-2: Bouncing Ball Animation (The basics)

during the first two weeks of our animation skills module, we have been learning the basic principles of animation via creating a bouncing ball sequence. The purpose of this project, in my eyes, was to get a grasp on how to portray the illusion of fluid movement, and to be able to simulate a form, in this case the bouncing ball itself. During these two weeks, I've began to learn several skills needed in making a seamless, fluid piece of animation. Squash and stretch: This is a technique used to portray the solidity of an object. In real life, objects made of softer, more flexible materials are more malleable, and will deform more in movement. A bowling ball, for example, will barely (if at all) change shape during movement. During both impact and aerial movement, it's shape will not change due to how rigid it is. An air-filled rubber ball, however, would stretch in fast upwards/downwards movement, and would squash on impact with a surface. Knowing this can add more realism to the objects in a piece of animation. Speed:

To save time, animators need to prioritize when to add a larger number of drawn frames in a sequence. In real life when witnessing movement, a subject is seen more clearly when it moves slowly. Because of this, when animating a sequence, we were instructed to add the most frames during points of slower movement. namely, when the ball had reached its highest point and began to descend. This, along with being a more efficient use of time, provides a more fluid piece of animation. If the density of frames was the same throughout, the ball would look like it was moving very slowly/at the same pace, as we would be able to focus on the ball at all times. By using frames more sparsely in times of fast movement, the ball seems more flexible and bouncy. Additionally, making the frames more sparse when the ball is going down compared to going up, there is an illusion of gravity affecting the ball. After I grasped these two ideas, I started thinking vaguely about what I wanted my final product to be, and decided on a reference to the Studio Ghibli movie Spirited Away, and wanted to make a sequence involving the three green heads seen in the movie. For this, of course, I decided that I had to include 3 balls. My plan was to show the 3 heads (currently balls) bouncing into the scene, then bounding on top of each other to form a tower, before bouncing to off-screen in different directions. This can be seen in the first sequence I completed. What I liked:

I loved the entirety of getting to understand how movement is simulated in animation. My favourite, however, was learning about squash and stretch. It was fun being able to experiment with how flexible I wanted my ball to be, and understanding when I should deform the ball most, to add the most visual impact. For example, In my personal bouncing ball sequence, I have 3 balls who bounce on top of each other. as the 3rd ball landed, I made the bottom ball squash less than the one that was above it, to show that the shock would be stronger on the ball that was just landed on. It's very subtle, but adds a stronger sense of realism, as it also gives indication to the material of the balls. They are relatively firm, but can also be flexible. What I found hard: Keeping up with all of the different frames and subjects of my sequence could be confusing at times. This of course, is my own fault as I chose to include 3 balls instead of the instructed 1. Still, it was difficult managing 3 objects at the same time, especially during an interaction. during one point in the sequence when a ball had bounced on another ball, I accidentally 'squashed' one of the balls before the actual impact. While this isn't a massive issue and was easily fixed, it's worth pointing out that throughout the sequence I had trouble lining up actions, especially ones happening between two bouncing balls.

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Research Element 1: Squash and Stretch and Caroline Leaf (Week 1)

Our research task for week 1 was to research one of the core principles of animation, the squash and stretch, as well as research Caroline leaf, an innovator in the field of animation, known for the techniques she invented and her graphical style.

Squash and stretch:

I spoke on this briefly in my blog on week 1 of Animation Skills, but squash and stretch is a principle in animation that aims to hyperbolize movement. When squash and stretch is applied to an object/figure in animation, this means the shape of the figure changes to imply heavy movement. When an object is in motion quickly, it stretches in the direction it moves. When an object comes to a stop, it squashes against the obstacle to convey an interaction. Objects in real life have different solidity, many things will be flexible to some extent, so it is important to know how the application of squash and stretch varies depending on the material of a subject in animation. A solid piece of iron like a cannonball for example, keeps its shape well no matter how it is moved, so squash and stretch barely applies when animating one. On the other hand, a rubber ball is extremely flexible and therefore would manipulate in shape from movement heavily, making squash and stretch important.

This principle can be adhered to a little bit or lots, depending on if an animator wants to stay realistic or exaggerate their movement. Regardless, squash and stretch applies to both styles heavily, making it vital for smoother animation.

Caroline Leaf:

Caroline Leaf first started studying animation at Harvard in 1968, though recounts that the medium was more so taught as a 'form of artistic self-expression' more than as a means of a professional career. In this class she experimented with different ways to convey movement, including pixilation, stop motion and even creating animation with sand. Some other notable techniques she used in her animations include gouache and watercolour finger-painting on glass, as well as scratching on film.

Her movie 'The Two Sisters' is actually completely made using the film scratching technique, giving the animation very sharp contrasts.

It is worth noting that Leaf is also known for her excellence in transitions. Instead of simple cutaways, many of her films show a direct transition between scenes, such as showing the gradual erasing of a scene, as seen in her movie 'The Street' or simple movements to a different part of a scene, seen several times in 'The Two Sisters'.

Her films, impressively, are all individually made. Leaf quotes that ' I was director and animator for all my films, as well as designer, story adaptor and/or scriptwriter, and I worked closely on the sound tracks and editing my films. ' She claims there is no room for a team on her projects, meaning almost every part of the creative process was her own.

in 1972, The National Film Board of Canada invited Caroline Leaf to Montreal to have considerable creative freedom and create animated films, including the two previously mentioned as well as others such as 'The Owl Who Married a Goose' and 'Interview'. She worked as a director/animator until 1991, at which point she became a naturalized Canadian citizen. Her films were distributed around Canada as education for upcoming animators, but has spread globally since, serving Leaf as an inspiration for those interested in animation worldwide.

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Research Element 2: Straight ahead and pose to pose + Emile Cohl. (Week 2)

our research element this week was to look into the principle of animation that is straight ahead and pose to pose, which outline two different methods of animating drawings. We were also tasked with doing background research on Emile Cohl, who is known as 'The Father of Animation' due to his innovation and invention during the earliest era of animation.

Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose:

These are merely two different methods of animating movement, both with their own positives and negatives.

Straight ahead is essentially the practice of 'animate as you go', with drawings in an action being made one after another, animating the entire sequence from start to finish. Pose to Pose includes drawing the keyframes of a sequence (at least the starting and finishing poses) and drawing the in-betweens later.

One benefit of pose to pose over straight ahead is that it can aid with consistency. The action is already planned out, and therefore there is little guesswork on how poses should be manipulated between keyframes. This leads to less inconsistency with both size and level of a subject. Another disadvantage to straight ahead that correlates with this is that issues are not standalone. If one frame in a sequence is off without being noticed, this can alter several frames after it, which would lead to more work having to be redone, unlike with pose to pose which can catch problems early on.

However, the downfall of straight ahead animation is also a great strength of it; it is a perfect technique for unpredictable movement, like a fire or with water particles. most natural movements (such as that in nature) can be unpredictable with their physics, making the inconsistency of straight ahead useful, as pose to pose may seem too uniform.

In pose to pose, the sequence can be broken down into 3 elements:

keys are the main start and finish of a pose. these are the most important frames to nail down accurately when animating.

extremes are the secondary poses, between the keys.

Breakdowns are secondary poses further broken down, to enhance the smoothness of an animation.

Both methods are important for animating different things, meaning one is not more vital than the other.

Emile Cohl:

One of the most well known names when looking into the history of animation, Emile Cohl was a French caricaturist in his time but is now known as one of, if not the first person to make a complete animated cartoon, this being his film 'Fantasmagorie' in 1908. To create the sequence, Cohl would place each drawing on a lit up glass plate and trace the next drawing, creating his cartoon after roughly 700 drawings.

It is said that the reason Emile Cohl began to animate was that after confronting the Gaumont film company that he accused of plagiarizing his works, was hired immediately as a scenarist and began creating his invention. The legitimacy and timeline of the story itself is unknown, but the reputation Cohl began to build for himself after was not.

His first film was followed by two others within the same year, ' Le Cauchemar du fantoche' and ' Un Drame chez les fantoches', which unite with 'Fantasmagorie' in having the chalk-line style his early animation is known for.

in November of 1910, Cohl left Gaumont, only going on to create two more animated films before being forced into exclusively live action work. While Cohl's work may not seem impressive at a glance, the importance of his work and how it inspired later animators (e.g. Winsor Mccay's 'Little Nemo' is widely thought to be made as a response to Cohl's work) is not to be understated. Emil Cohl was one of the first people to develop a technique in animating beyond basic rotoscoping, making it an undeniable fact that animation would likely not be where it is today if not for his pioneering in the medium.

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Research Element 3: Overlapping Action and Norman McLaren (Week 3)

The research element this week was to look into the Overlapping action principle of animation, which is often spoken about in conjunction with follow through. We were also tasked with researching Norman McLaren, an important name when looking at animation during the inter-war era of the world.

Overlapping action:

Follow through and overlapping action are both used simultaneously to add a sense of realism to animation. Overlapping action itself refers to the difference in timing between when the main body and the attached parts move. The reason this is important is because, similar to squash and stretch, it can realistically convey how different materials/figures move. Organic figures like humans, animals and plants have appendages that can seem to 'drag' behind the main body in movement, meaning overlapping action can be heavily applied. To more solid and rigid objects, like a thick wire or a piece of solid metal, there is less flexibility, meaning the principle would apply less when animating.

Poses are not completely static. Different parts of the body move at different times. the tips of the body (head, hands and clothing) will drag behind as they are less tightly attached to the body as legs are.

overlapping action, therefore, can be used to indicate the mass of an object and how it flows. Overlapping action will be more important in conveying motion in more flexible/detached appendages than in solid, close ones. It can also give an idea of the mass of the appendages themselves. If there is a larger delay between the movement of the main body and the movement of the tip of the figure, the tip is likely to have a greater mass.

Norman McLaren:

Considered one of the most important abstract filmmakers in the inter-war period in Britain, Norman McLaren was a Scottish animator who began his art career journey in 1932 at the Glasgow school of fine arts. Here, he began experimenting with different filmmaking styles and techniques, soon creating 'Seven Till Five' released in 1933. He continued to create more films over the coming years, displaying a strong, formalist attitude in his work. in 1936, McLaren became more involved in political issues, an interest of which led to the creation of 'Hell Untld.' made in 1936 in collaboration with Helen Biggar. As a mixture of found footage, graphics and animation, it is considered one of the most remarkable films of the wartime era.

In 1941 McLaren teamed up with Grierson at the National Film Board of Canada to direct a number of educational short films. This is where he stayed even in his post-war career, enjoying a degree of creative freedom, which allowed him to create films with messages he wanted to spread.

Arguably his most popular film would not be released until 1952, however, entitled 'Neighbours'. The film itself is a very strong anti-war/anti-military message, inspired by his temporary stay in the People's Republic of China. The film is an excellent example of pixilation, a technique used to replicate the appearance of stop-motion animation with the use of live action models. It is also an excellent piece in regards to using animation and art to convey a message. While the film was relatively forgotten by audiences some years after release, It has arguably come back into circulation in recent years due to its strong statement fitting with aspects of our political climate today.

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Research Element 10: Timing, Walt Disney and the Fleischer Brothers

Our research element for this week was to research the animation principle of timing, used to adjust the personality and overall attitude of an animation, as well as the animators Walt Disney and the Fleischer brothers, arguably some of the most influential animators in existence.

Timing:

Timing is used to affect the energy and nature of an animation, by altering the number of/spacing between frames. This isn't limited to animating humans alone, and can be applied to any subject that can move. A large number of close-together frames makes the animation slower and more calm, in turn conveying a slow and calm personality, whereas a smaller number of frames further apart can indicate the opposite. The same keyframes can convey a wildly different action depending on the number of in-betweens it has. generally, animators tend to 'draw on twos' meaning one drawing is made for every two frames. This tends to lend well to more slow actions, as the poses have a longer focus and can therefore look inconsistent from frame to frame when a pose must be constantly redrawn. It also works for fast actions, as the lesser amount of frames makes the movement more snappy and not overly smooth. This doesn't mean that drawing on ones is worse, as it can be important in a very fast action with lots of unclear movement, which may be difficult to observe with less frames. To have a more dynamic animation, it is best to have a mix of different timings. Walt Disney:

Walt Disney is objectively one of the most important animators in the history of the medium, responsible for countless milestones in the animation industry as well as creating the most well-known animation studio in the world. His animation career began soon after Disney entered McKinley High School in 1917, where he studied cartoons on the side for his dreams of becoming a newspaper cartoonist. After ww1 in 1919, Disney gained experience as an inker and draftsman in commercial art studios, where he met and began working with Ub Iwerks, another animator who would soon start his own studio with Walt. In their new studio, the two of them created a series of animated sketches called 'Laugh-O'-grams' as well as the beginning pilot of the 'Alice' series, 'Alice in Cartoonland'. After a brief meet with bankruptcy, Walt and his brother Roy resumed the Alice series after its initial success. Iwerks was persuaded to join the team again, and ideas began to be created. Recognizable characters like Oswald the Rabbit and of course, Mickey mouse, who was followed by the rest of the iconic gang soon after. Disney was not the first to bring sound to films, but he was the first to use it in an animation, releasing 'Steamboat Willie' in 1928, changing the future of animation forever. Disney was clearly incredibly ambitious, which continued to show in his work from 1934 to 1937, during which time Walt Disney Animation Studios began work on 'Snow White and The Seven Dwarves', the first feature length animated film. However, during the development of this movie, Disney's role had transitioned from animator and designer to decision making and coordination. The film was an immense success, and cemented Walt Disney's impeccable reputation in the animation industry at the time.

The studio would continue to grow and create more animated films and shorts, but would see a sharp setback in 1941 after a massive animator strike. The studio would continue to work through the second world war, efficiently mixing live-action with animation like in 'The Three Caballeros' (1945) or Song of the South (1946), as well as creating propaganda films to stay in business and encourage patriotism among the public. It would be years until the studio recovered in quality from their strike, arguably not until the renaissance era of animation in the 1980s, almost 2 decades after the death of Walt Disney. The studio however, continued to animate and create animated films, of which many modern audience consider timeless classics, despite their relatively poor reception at the time of release. Walt Disney did become less directly tied with the animation process over his lifetime, but the legacy he left behind is undeniable. The Fleischer Brothers: Dave and Max Fleischer are names synonymous with early animation. The pair were ambitious animators, who served as a contrast to the content produced by Walt Disney in the height of their popularity. Max Fleischer is to credit for creating the rotoscope, a device which saved time by allowing tracing of live-action footage to guide an animated action. With the invention, the two created the character Koko the Clown, starring him in the Out of The Inkwell series, which began to develop more after the duo opened their own animation studio in 1921. The studio's most iconic character, Betty Boop, would be created in 1930 in vague likeness to the singer Helen Kane, debuting in the cartoon 'Dizzy Dishes'. The animations produced by the Fleischer brothers in the span of the 1930s were far more mature, dealing with themes of sex and death, than their Disney competitor's, providing more choice to animation fans of the time. This caused some issues to the studio later on as their star character, Betty Boop, had to be heavily altered after the widespread introduction of the Hays Code, causing her popularity to dwindle and for her series to be discontinued entirely in 1939. During the decade, the studio also introduced the comic character Popeye into a Betty Boop cartoon, who soon became a mainstay of the company. Unfortunately, the implementation of the Hays Code may have played a bigger part than the death of a single character for the studio, as it eventually became indistinguishable in style from the work Disney had been creating. Fleischer Studios began producing box office flop after flop, eventually leading to the studio being bought by Paramount Pictures, leading to the brothers going their seperate ways. The rise and fall of the brothers and their animation studio is quite tragic to research, and I believe that a large reason for the downfall of the studio was the motion pictures production code and censorship towards the attractions of the studio. In a way, the brothers had no choice but to become more like their competitors, which led to them fading into the background in their later years. That said, the animations produced in their hay day are still incredibly influential to animators even today, and their legacy remains intact for what they created without future restrictions.

[audrelileikaite]

Animation Skills Week 7-12: Narrative poem animation (part 1)

Our final animation task over these 5 weeks was to create a 30-40 second long animated video of our intepretation of the poem 'provisions' by Margaret Atwood. We are expected to add some sort of sound and transitions to the animation itself, as well as create a storyboard of our idea in the next couple of weeks. I knew immediately that I wanted to have voice acting as the sound in my animation, and that I wanted to create as outlandish and goofy of an animation idea as I could. My interpretation of the story included someone falling for a scam letter inviting them to a ski resort in toronto, then going and finding out they wouldn't be able to get in, being stuck in a place they don't know. I asked my brother and one of my friends to voice-act as soon as this task was assigned, and immediately began refining my story and creating characters for it, so I'd be able to have a script to give for my voice actors as soon as possible. I decided to have two characters, so that I'd be able to create more silly/interesting dialogue to bounce off eachother, which I can therefore use to exaggerate my animation more.

The dynamic I decided on was a young woman and her older brother. (Amara and Beckett) She would be spontaneous and energetic, while her brother would be cynical and calmer. Having contrasting personalities allowed me to experiment with animating different body language for the two characters, allowing me to improve on several different types of animation, such as using smear frames and more intense overlapping action and follow through for Amara, who would move more quickly and be more lively. Beckett, on the other hand, would generally move more calmly, which would allow me to practise more subtle frame-by-frame movement. After delivering my script and waiting for the sound files, I decided to get started on the general storyboard for my story.

[audrelileikaite]

Animation skills week 7-12: Narrative poem animation (part 2)

Even before making my storyboard, I knew my animation would go considerably over the 30-40 second threshold, due to the amount of dialogue I planned to include. I tried to cut out any scenes that weren't either completely necessary to the story or were linked to the poem I had to interpret. I ended up making the creation process slightly quicker for me by combining the storyboard and animatic. I drew out the basic scenes first, then added a few more keyframes in to indicate the general movement that the characters will have. I chose not to refine the art in the storyboard at all, and instead put focus on the exaggeration and body language of the characters instead. I had received some of the voice lines I needed early on in the storyboard/animatic process, and so was able to alter how I drew the movement and poses in some of the scenes to fit better with the voice inflections of the lines. I tried to keep my story as simple as possible while retaining the humour I wanted to include in it, and ended up with a decent middleground for my final storyboard. However, if I had more time for this project, I would've spent significantly more time on the storyboard, specifically the backgrounds. I have no background in any of my storyboards, even simple ones, which would make the animation process itself more difficult, as I'd have to create backgrounds on the spot while trying to simultaneously animate my characters. It is far easier to imagine and convey accurate movement when the characters actually feel like they're in a space with constrictions/boundaries. Although, for what it was, the animatic was good enough for me to use and reference to be able to actually begin animating my story.

[audrelileikaite]

Animation Skills week 7-12: Narrative poem animation (part 3)

Now that my animatic was complete, I could finally begin the animation process of my video. From now until the end of the project, I aim to animate roughly 1 scene per day, to spread out the workload I have in the short amount of time I have and avoid burnout. Immediately, I want to express my outlandish process of animating which, while not overly affecting my final project, did make the process itself more complicated than it had to be. I decided to animate the movement in scenes first, and THEN add the recorded voice clips to them and time them accordingly. I'm not entirely sure why I did this, but it would have saved me more time had I just created the keyframes along to the sound in the first place. Having said that, I do think there was some good in this process. Due to time constraints, some of the voice lines I received weren't as expressive as I wanted them to be and I couldn't ask them to be rerecorded. Animating first allowed me to get around this issue by including the exaggeration I planned first, instead of creating movement more fitting with the sound clips, which would have made the animation more calm and simple than I wanted. However, I doubt I'll be repeating this method in the future, in order to save unnecessary time and effort used in adding the voice lines after the animation. I didn't work chronologically either, I started from the shortest scenes in the video and moved forward to longer scenes as I went on, so that I could animate a larger portion of my animation in case I wasn't able to finish on time. From how the process is seeming at the time of writing, however, I don't think this will be a problem and that I'll be able to finish at least the base animation by the deadline. Despite my flawed process, I think it worked for what I was trying to achieve in the amount of time I had, and the actual animation process went more or less smoothly, minus some changes in art style and animation style.