Reference Footage

Some reference footage taken of my dog, Finlay, while on a walk. Shows a walk and run cycle as well as a sitting down and excited jumping motion. Though Finlay is 10 years old, the basic principles of his movement will still apply to Jake the puppy, but will be slightly different due to difference in age. I have looked at many reference videos for puppys specifically on youtube and other online video archives in order to combat this.
Basically i'm gathering as much evidence as possible in order to strengthen my quadruped animation, as it is not something i have spent a deal of time looking at until now.

Puppy videos

Status Transactions

Looking at status transactions between characters.

Disney's Incredibles.



Bob comes home.

When Bob comes home late from what he told his wife was an evening of bowling with his friend, he is met with a dark house. Thinking he's gotten away with his night of vigilante heroism, he calmly creeps around the house, helping himself to a large slice of cake. Suddenly the light turns on and he gets a fright as he realises his wife has been sitting in the chair waiting for him.
Composition-wise, Bob is the larger character that takes up much more space than his wife Helen. But it is clear that the character that holds the power is Helen. She is angry with Bob, stern in her body language but quiet in voice. Bob's relaxed posture and submissive pose adds to this.




Helen tells him off.

 Helen is clearly annoyed. Her movements are rapid and straightforward, and she uses gestures to strengthen her emotions of anger and dominance. Bob tries to reason with her, his features are relaxed and soft as he finishes eating the cake, and his gestures are slower and calmer.

Bob reasons with her.

Bob now takes control as he begins to get angry and defensive. He raises his shoulders and his expressions are stern and commanding. He reacts and takes charge of the argument, reminding Helen that he's not that submissive. Helen relaxes with her hands on her hips and let's Bob take the spotlight.


Helen gets angrier.

 As Helen comes in with her rebuttal to Bob's defense, she stretches herself so that she is much taller than him, raising her voice in a peak of the argument. She is now not only bigger than him but also leaning over him at an angle, looking down on him, showing her dominance.

Realisation that the kids are watching causes them to stop.

The argument is quickly forgotten when both parents realise that their kids have been listening and are scared. No matter how angry they were at each other, they care for their kids far too much to continue to prove their point in front of them.



This whole scene features a game of status negotiation that passes between the two characters evenly. Status shows emotions of the characters as well as dominance and submission. Interaction between two characters in the form of status negotiation has a direct effect on portraying their personality and emotions to an audience.

The Cat Came Back

The Cat Came Back is a 1988 animated film by Canadian director Cordell Barker, produced by fellow award-winning Winnipeg animatorRichard Condie.

Inspiration for the conflict between the puppy and William, although perhaps a lot less dramatic and disastrous.  The concept of the cat always managing to get back inside the house, against all odds, without the man noticing, is hilarious.

Mood boards and sketches

Meet The Robinsons

Disney DVD, 2007. 'Meet the Robinsons'

Took a look at this disney film for inspiration, mainly on character development. There are so many wonderful and wacky character designs in this film that it was difficult not to be inspired. A lot of the characters personalities are shown through their relationships with each other. The villain of the story, Bowler-Hat-Guy is made the way he is through his distain towards the main character, Lewis. He himself has a strange relationship with his own hat, who controls him through superior intelligence.

Inspiration

(Find a more appropriate way to lay out images)


Wade, D. 2007.'Exposé 5 : finest digital art in the known universe'
Mylor: Ballistic Publishing, Australia.

Sword of Angels
Marek Okon

The Commodore
Marta Dahlig

My Little Arsonist
Charli Siebert

Princess Predator
Denise Mrackova

War of Angels
Todd Lockwood

Grace of the Snow
Soa Lee

Balthazar
Kekai Kotaki

Euphrates Disaster
Thitipon Dicruen

Can't Stand the Light
Natascha Roeoesli

Sky of Kaloulo
Jian Guo

Grenth
Kekai Kotaki

Phoegasus
Daniel Dociu

Red, White and Blue Corn
Holli Alvarado

In My Other Life
Madalina Iordache-Levay

Wounded Machinery
Marcela Bolivar

Insane Asylum Surgery II
Cyril Van Der Haegan

Big Bad Bunny Eater
Bobby Chiu

Selfillumination 2
Andre Kutscherauer

Cortina, Francisco, A. 2007. 'd'artiste : digital artists master class : character modelling'
Mylor : Ballistic Publishing, Australia.

Etaine
Eun-hee Choi

Jealousy
Steven Stahlberg

One Last Time
Steven Stahlberg

Mermaid
Pascal Blanché

Meet Meline Study

'Meet Meline' by Virginie Goyons and Sebastien Laban (2009)

“Meline is a little girl who spends most of her time in her grand-parents barn, drawing. One day, a scared furry little creature gets lost in the barn. All excited about this mysterious creature, Meline will now try as hard as she can to approach it and discover it.”

Because of Meline's age, her personality is naturally very curious, and also easily pleased and easily scared. She is clumsy, but innocent, which is shown through her disregard of knocking things over, and interested in the things around her. She sniffs the air as she begins to look around for the mysterious creature. There is no hesitation of following it, only pure curiosity. She gasps loudly, her whole body freezing, at a slightest little noise. Yet when it comes to facing a dark section of the barn, she relies on a half-working torch before she will consider slowly advancing. She looks around herself, head darting here and there, and makes small whimpers. Easily you can notice the change of her mood. The contrast between childish curiosity and terrified uncertainty. Really like the motion of her furiously trying to get the torch to turn itself back on and her facial animation as she first sees the creature close up. The morphing of her emotions is beautiful. She looks almost disappinted, confused as to what she is seeing, and this changes to shocked and pleased as she notices the creature's babies. The childish innocence is really well captured, as well as stunningly represented in 3D.

Gentlemen's Duel Study

Wow, just wow.

'Gentemen's Duel' by Blur Studio (2006)

Very high quality short animation with a simple story. Two aristocrats are competing for the affection of the same lady. The situation escalates and eventually gets blown completley out of proportion, to hilarious measures.
Firstly, the character designs are fantastic. Stereotypical English lord versus Pompus French lord fighting over unrealistically beautiful lady with enormous breasts. The costumes of the two men reflect directly aspects of their personality. The englishman is wearing a smart brown outfit composed of lapels and a tie. His hair is combed neatly and his moustache is long and thin. There is a huge amount of expression from his eyebrows, which are large and extruded, which shows a lot of how he is feeling through their exaggerated movements. The frenchman is dressed much more outrageously, in much brighter colours and style, with bright gold buttons. In contrast to the Englishman we can see that he spends his wealth differently, is perhaps a lot more excentric. His hair is long, tied back in a low ponytail, adding to the typical fairytale hero look. Facial wise, his nose is very large compared to the other characters', as well as his entire chin and jawline. Although this makes him look more tough, i'm sensing more that it adds to the pompus attribute. So although the two main characters are very different, in many ways they are the same. They both want the same thing, after all. Even the robots that they use to battle with are reflective of their personality. The englishman has a steampunk style industrial design whereas the frenchman has a medieval, knight-in-shining-armor look to it, with cushions.
Moving away from design and looking at character animation, we see the two sides to the men first start to show as they begin to argue over the lady. Both begin with very smart, regal auras, straightening ties, holding hand behind back as he walks. The englishman's movements quickly become very rushed and jerky as he begins to get jealous and try to fight back against the frenchman's superior charm. The frenchman never quite matches his level of speed, always staying the more calm of the two, with slower movements with larger arcs. Little things like the frenchman being able to realign his own moustache without touching it add to the humor of the story as well as the character depth.
What seems to interest me most about this animation is the differences and similarities in the two main characters. They are both lords of some wealth and power, and both desire the affection of the breasty lady, yet their designs and personalities are different enough for them to stand alone.

As an excercise, here is a list of unique traits that belong to each character:
Sir Dingleberry
Skinny - design, pointy
Fumbles - says the wrong words, corrects himself
Polite - kisses hand
Smart - attire, straightens tie, Dull - colours
Childish - insults nationality and mother
Jumpy - moves quickly, hardly any inbetweens
Weak - fails to remove his glove first time, is surprised
Irritated - Has a growl to himself
Language - simple, to the point, posh
Unable to come up with comebacks
Neat - wipes mouth after tea
Marquee de Manstrumpet
Built - design, rounded
Charismatic - spins chair, invites
Flashy - colours of attire
Smooth - moves in arcs, slowly, carefully
Persuasive - continues to woo lady ignoring insults for a while, eyes on her
Calm - watches as the glove is removed, barely winces at the slap
Proud - only begins to care when he notices that his moustache is affected
Language - suave, illustrated words, talks to his dog

Animated Shorts

Les Dangereux - A Ninja Love Story

The character animation in this is what really excited me. Visually, the models, although sleek, are very simple, and the style is not hugely complicated, and so, i believe, achiveable. Because the characters' mouths are covered, all their facial animation comes from their eyes and you can tell even more about what they are thinking through their body language. Black Ninja is clearly very relaxed, perhaps even bored as he sips his drink in the chair. Only when he turns and sees Red Ninja do we see his eyes widen hugely and his posture shift forwards. Red Ninja is very well trained and her movements are very strong as she beats up Black Ninja. As she is holding his gaze and sees that he is merely offering her a flower, her eyebrows relax and she lets her arms fall down slightly. The shot of the two hands, one trembling with the rose, the other slowly taking it, hesitating in the middle is very sweet. As Black Ninja is accidentily catapulted into the distance, Red Ninja stares after him lovingly and shocked, only to relax herself and slouch into a sigh. Her eyes glance down to the side in disappointment. They then perk up as she sees the note falling from the sky. Not only does this film hold huge appeal but it is also a perfect example of really great character animation.

Animated by Daniel Klug in Maya 2009, Mental Ray and After Effects.

Bridge - 4 animals trying to cross a bridge

The comedic value of the story to this short is priceless. 'The moral behind this story revolves around how there are often disagreements on competing paths in life, and the possible results of pride, abstinance, and compromise.' The differences between the characters is easily distinguished not only by character design but also by their reactions to the conflicts involved in the story. What i really liked about this animation was how all the different characters are shown through their animation. The big moose is very lazy, he yawns and scratches his backside. The bear is very proud, he walks with bouncing strides and a smile on his face. Bear is initially angry at meeting Moose in the middle of the bridge, and is the first to try and squeeze past. He rolls his eyes and growls, showing his impatience. Moose cannot get past him and gradually becomes angered also. Both refuse to turn around and go back the way they came, Moose by folding his arms defiantly and fearlessly and Bear by shaking his head and preparing a huge roar. This is interrupted, of course, by the raccoon, who is politely tapping on the back of Bear. Raccoon waves hello, friendly as he is, and seems to ask nicely if he can get past. Bear, the big meanie, picks up Raccoon roughly, bonks him on the head twice and throws him away, adding salt to the wounds. Bear resorts to trying to push Moose backwards forcingly, which knocks him into the rabbit. Rabbit seems impatient and wants past, grumbling about them being in the way, but is quickly put in his place as Moose kicks him off the bridge. Moose and Bear have in common that they won't move, and Rabbit and Raccoon have in common that they are able to come to compromises.

Animated by Ting Chain Tey in Photoshop, Maya, Corel Painter, After Effects, Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Flash.

'Despicable Me' Study

On watching the directors commentary (Chris Renaud & Pierre Coffin) of the animated production Despicable Me (Universal Pictures), I felt there were more than a few things mentioned that would apply to my project and help me through my development of it.

The character designs were done by Carter Goodrich, who worked on some of the Pixar films, namely Ratatouillie, he has a very distinct approach to human characters which broke away from the regular CG style. The character of Gru was designed to be appealing but also to look like a villain. One thing they concentrated on was his scarf. His character is established at the start of the film as someone who is not very nice to children, when he pops the little boy's balloon, and this is set up to change at the end of the film. The design has a sort of John Cleese, Mr Bean, Peter Sellers essence to it. His movements show that he has joy in his villainy, he loves being evil. His little dances and smiles as he uses his freeze-ray are examples of this.

The girls were originally designed to be very realisting but the design did not translate welll into CG at all, and so they made them much more stylised. The inspiration came from the Peanuts characters, the Simpsons, they are very graphic designs.

The minions started off like typical stormtrooper characters, but then became more like drones, little cloned mole people. There are literally countless numbers of them. There are 3 different body shapes, 6 different haircuts and 2 different eyes, with all the different combinations. Their voices are high, very stereotypical, but very effective.

Gru's very unique voice adds character to him beyond physical design.
Miss Hattie was designed as a nice person who says terrible things.

One thing the directors looked at was contrasts. Contrasts between Gru and his mother during his flashbacks and encountersn with her, between Gru and his minions, between Gru and Vector, it all adds to the comedy of the story. Gru's childhood is shown as why the character perhaps made the choices in life to follow the path of evil.

Vector was designed originally as a rival hero, but they decided a rival villain would be much more interesting. It's amazing how much of the original pitch is still present in the final film, the various milestones and the core of the story remained much the same.

The banker was designed as a Larry Flynt character, a quintessential heavy.

The scene where the foreign scientists test the shrink ray was one of the earliest scenes to be produced as it featured no main characters. The scene which follows highlights the differences between Gru and Vector's technology.

The minons speak french :O They gradually became a bigger and bigger part of the movie.

The scene where Gru is trying to break into Vector's house is portrayed as a Warner Brothers Wyle E Coyote style, with sharks eating him and missiles exploding at him yet he is alright in the end, keeps it humorous and not as threatening.

The girls were once all the same kind of character, mostly like Agnes' cute innocent type, but it was decided to split them into 3 elements, the cute innocent, the boyish rebel and the informed sensible one, which really informed the design. Edith has a kind of husky distinct voice, with a curious element to her. She has these little physical movements and you have to make effort to understand how she feels.

The timing and the pacing of the film were a huge issue. How do you know when it feels just right?

Great animation is trying to do something unexpected but identifiable.

Character arcs include also the small minon, the floating minion, and kyle the dog. As the characters progress through the story and chance, the environments gradually change with them too, such as the girls' bedroom.

In the end, Gru has completley changed how he feels about these girls, and this is shown by him kissing each of them goodnight. The reactions of the girls show their surprise and happiness of this through simple smiles and the warm lighting. This is immediatley given comedic value as the minions then each ask for a kiss goodnight.


I think this was definately a worthwhile excercise. The character of Gru alone is worth studying for his progression in personality and performance throughout the story and i plan to go into more depth about him during my research. I have also learned a few things regarding pacing and composition that i never really considered difficult until hearing professionals detailing their struggles.

Animation in Process, by Andrew Selby

With 'Animation in Process', by Andrew Selby, i was able to look at a few artists work and how they went from character design to character animation in their productions.

Pages 46-51
Motomichi Nakamura created a 3 minute animation in 2006 for a music video called 'We Share Our Mother's Health'. The song is performed by the band The Knife.

What is your own personal definition of animation?
It's one more way for visual artists to communicate ideas.

Motomichi created this animation with influences from the meanings within the song. He felt anger and pain from it, so he used these emotions in his concepts. For this project, he took on the roles of character designer, animator and director, because of his huge interest in being a part of the different stages and roles in the process. He started by imagining the key frames of the animation, before developing characters. He was involved in every part of the animation, which was created in flash 8.

What inspired me about reading this interview was his inspiration to be a part of both the design and the animation process, which i myself feel torn between.


Pages 60-67
Jerome Dernoncourt, Corentin Laplatte and Samuel Deroubaix created 'an animated triumph' in 2006 called 'Once Upon a Time'. The animation features steam-powered transportation and unlikely heroes in a largely black and white western setting.

What is your own personal definition of animation?
For me, animation like every other form of art, must convey emotions. Animation is no different to live-action movies in many respects, although we have far more creative license! We can create universes that can be either singular or complex with fewer means.

The animation features modern 3D CGI as well as primitive cut paper animation, as well as elements of live-action. 'Our characters are swept along by the action more than they create it.' In preparation for creating this film, the team immersed themselves in the genre, with a supply of visual references in the form of film shots, backgrounds, soundtracks. They experimented with the blending of animation techniques , using a hands-on approach to their development. They created a 3D animatic in order to correctly work out the pacing of the animation.

The juxtaposition of so many different elements in one animation is what makes this project interesting. They are apart, yet they fit together so well.


Pages 106-109
Also in 2006, Smith & Foulkes created a feelgood film for 'Coca-Cola Videogame', a game showcasing the brand. The game seems like your typical Grand Theft Auto style, until the tough exterior of the main character is changed by the magic of coke. Oh yes.

What is your own personal definition of animation?
We started off editing together bits of live-action footage with graphic elements along with more traditional drawn animation. To us it's about how to get the idea across, no matter what the technique. Animation is more the composite of all these, used to tell a story. When we write a script, for example, we focus on the ideas first, then when that works we might say 'Why don't we make the main character a puppet?' or 'Can we reduce the environment down to a single sketchy line?' That's why each of our jobs tends to be different from each other.

The main idea behind the animation was visualising the difference between good and bad by the difference between a restricted colour palette and full colour, with the product acting as the trigger. To help with the choreography, they hired a professional, to help with the big dancing scene in the animation. Timing was crucial.

What i find inspiring is their attitude towards their work. "We are as much influenced by trash TV as by High Art. As far as the animation industry goes, there are lots of great people making reat work, more so now because the easier access to technology has democratized the industry. You just have to make sure that you are doing the work the way you want to do it, rather than be distracted by others... You also just need to do stuff over and over again until it looks just right - if you're directing then your main skill is knowing when it looks just right." As well as the visual awesomeness of their game they produced, of course.


Pages 126-131
Also in 2006, Bafta award-winning Suzie Templeton created a half-hour long animation adaption of Peter and the Wolf. The film has a strong visual ambience, as well as a strong orchestral soundtrack. Because the film was an adaptation of an original story, she was cautious at first about the project, but was quickly filled with creative desire. The film was made as a stop motion animation, with sculpture models yet the animatic was created in autodesk maya. This project was much larger than the others i have looked at, with a crew of almost 200 people, all speaking various different languages.

What i take away from studying how this animation was made is the visual style, the production design, and how everything fits into place. The characters and the environments match the dark, gritty style of the story perfectly.


Suggested Reading:

Beck, J. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing Co. 2004.
Beckerman, H. Animation; The Whole Story. New York: Allworth Press. 2004.
Brophy, P. (ed). Kaboom!: Explosive Animation from Japan and America. Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art. 1994.
Bryman, A. Disney and His Worlds. London and New York: Routledge. 1995.
Byrne, E. & McQuillan, M. Deconstructing Disney. London and Sterling: Pluto Press. 1999.
Canemaker, J. (ed). Storytelling in Animation. Los Angeles: AFI. 1988.
Hoffer, T. Animation: A Reference Guide. Westport, Conn: Greenwood. 1981.
Roberts, S. Character Animation in 3D. Boston & Oxford: Focal Press. 2004.
Segar, L. Creating Unforgettable Characters. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1990.

Web Links:

www.animationarchive.org
www.animateonline.org
www.pelleas.net/aniTOP
www.aec.at/en/index.asp
asfarastheeyecansee.blogspot.com
asita.net/
www.awn.com
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/animation
www.cartoonbrew.com
www.centerforvisualmusic.org/index.html
coldhardflash.com
www.dataisnature.com
www.directorsnotes.com
drawn.ca
www.experimenta.org
feed.stashmedia.tv
www.fousdanim.org
www.fpsmagazine.com/blog/index.php
hydrocephalicbunny.blogspot.com
infosthetics.com
www.iotacenter.org
www.isea-web.org/eng/index.html
www.iewub.com
www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/M/mesh
motionographer.com
www.neyral.it
www.neurastenia.blogger.com.br
www.nfb.ca/splash/splash.php
dekku.blogspot.com
www.sat.qc.ca
gertie.animationstudies.org
www.stopmotionanimation.com
animationpodcast.com
www.year01.com