Animation Technology Production MPPP 1393
Monday 31 December 2018
Visual Effects vs Special Effects
Visual Effects
This week was on Visual Effects. There are many visual effects and I was assigned to research and present on Motion Capture. This is the slide that I have prepared. Please click here: Motion Capture
Here are some of the slides that my friends have shared with me:
1. To learn more about Matte Painting, please click here
2. To learn more about CGI, please click here
3. To learn more about Compositing, please click here
I also found this website to be very useful: Visual Effects
Here are some of the slides that my friends have shared with me:
1. To learn more about Matte Painting, please click here
2. To learn more about CGI, please click here
3. To learn more about Compositing, please click here
I also found this website to be very useful: Visual Effects
Transition from Toon Boom Harmony to Flash
This week was spent by working on the animation project. During the pre-production stage, we did a lot of brainstorming to come up with a suitable story line. We finally agreed on the metamorphosis of a butterfly.
This was one of the pre-production document that we (as a group) have agreed on.
Here's the initial presentation of the project: Part 4
Although we have been introduced to Toon Boom Harmony, Dr. Shah mentioned that the cracked version might have lots of problems when we complete the project. Therefore, learning to animate using Adobe Flash CS6 was the proposed alternative. I have to admit that Flash was very challenging for me. Since I missed a class due to illness, I found it very difficult to catch up as I do not have any basic knowledge in animation. With the support of the lecturer and my friends, I managed to slowly improve.
Week 5
I devoted this week to brainstorm and complete the storyboard. Here's the initial draft of the storyboard for the final part:
Part 4-Animation Project I also looked up suitable images that would be useful for my animation project. I am happy to share a few here: |
This could be the stream where the butterfly looks at its own reflection |
This could be a background |
Another possible background |
Pupa hatching into a butterfly |
Butterfly sees its own reflection |
Possibly flying away? |
An angle where the butterfly sits |
Over the mountains |
A sample butterfly |
Butterfly (flight) |
Butterfly with shadow |
Butterfly on a leaf |
Week 4
In Animation, there are 12 principles that need to be mastered. They are described as follows:
1. SQUASH AND STRETCH
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This action gives the illusion of weight and volume
to a character as it moves. Also squash and stretch is useful in animating
dialogue and doing facial expressions. How extreme the use of squash and
stretch is, depends on what is required in animating the scene. Usually it's
broader in a short style of picture and subtler in a feature. It is used in all
forms of character animation from a bouncing ball to the body weight of a
person walking. This is the most important element you will be required to
master and will be used often.
2. ANTICIPATION
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This movement prepares the audience for a major
action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump or
change expression. A dancer does not just leap off the floor. A backwards
motion occurs before the forward action is executed. The backward motion is the
anticipation. A comic effect can be done by not using anticipation after a
series of gags that used anticipation. Almost all real action has major or
minor anticipation such as a pitcher's wind-up or a golfers' back swing.
Feature animation is often less broad than short animation unless a scene
requires it to develop a characters personality.
3. STAGING
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A pose or action should clearly communicate to the
audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character as it relates to
the story and continuity of the story line. The effective use of long, medium,
or close up shots, as well as camera angles also helps in telling the story.
There is a limited amount of time in a film, so each sequence, scene and frame
of film must relate to the overall story. Do not confuse the audience with too
many actions at once. Use one action clearly stated to get the idea across,
unless you are animating a scene that is to depict clutter and confusion.
Staging directs the audience's attention to the story or idea being told. Care
must be taken in background design so it isn't obscuring the animation or competing
with it due to excess detail behind the animation. Background and animation
should work together as a pictorial unit in a scene.
4. STRAIGHT AHEAD AND POSE TO POSE ANIMATION
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Straight ahead animation starts at the first
drawing and works drawing to drawing to the end of a scene. You can lose size,
volume, and proportions with this method, but it does have spontaneity and
freshness. Fast, wild action scenes are done this way. Pose to Pose is more
planned out and charted with key drawings done at intervals throughout the
scene. Size, volumes, and proportions are controlled better this way, as is the
action. The lead animator will turn charting and keys over to his assistant. An
assistant can be better used with this method so that the animator doesn't have
to draw every drawing in a scene. An animator can do more scenes this way and
concentrate on the planning of the animation. Many scenes use a bit of both
methods of animation.
5. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION
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When the main body of the character stops all other
parts continue to catch up to the main mass of the character, such as arms,
long hair, clothing, coat tails or a dress, floppy ears or a long tail (these
follow the path of action). Nothing stops all at once. This is follow through.
Overlapping action is when the character changes direction while his clothes or
hair continues forward. The character is going in a new direction, to be
followed, a number of frames later, by his clothes in the new direction.
"DRAG," in animation, for example, would be when Goofy starts to run,
but his head, ears, upper body, and clothes do not keep up with his legs. In
features, this type of action is done more subtly. Example: When Snow White
starts to dance, her dress does not begin to move with her immediately but
catches up a few frames later. Long hair and animal tail will also be handled
in the same manner. Timing becomes critical to the effectiveness of drag and
the overlapping action.
6. SLOW-OUT AND SLOW-IN
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As action starts, we have more drawings near the
starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose.
Fewer drawings make the action faster and more drawings make the action slower.
Slow-ins and slow-outs soften the action, making it more life-like. For a gag
action, we may omit some slow-out or slow-ins for shock appeal or the surprise
element. This will give more snap to the scene.
7. ARCS
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All actions, with few exceptions (such as the
animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or slightly circular path. This
is especially true of the human figure and the action of animals. Arcs give
animation a more natural action and better flow. Think of natural movements in
the terms of a pendulum swinging. All arm movement, head turns and even eye
movements are executed on an arcs.
8. SECONDARY ACTION
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This action adds to and enriches the main action
and adds more dimension to the character animation, supplementing and/or
re-enforcing the main action. Example: A character is angrily walking toward
another character. The walk is forceful, aggressive, and forward leaning. The
leg action is just short of a stomping walk. The secondary action is a few
strong gestures of the arms working with the walk. Also, the possibility of
dialogue being delivered at the same time with tilts and turns of the head to
accentuate the walk and dialogue, but not so much as to distract from the walk
action. All of these actions should work together in support of one another.
Think of the walk as the primary action and arm swings, head bounce and all
other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action.
9. TIMING
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Expertise in timing comes best with experience and
personal experimentation, using the trial and error method in refining
technique. The basics are: more drawings between poses slow and smooth the
action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow
and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Most
animation is done on twos (one drawing photographed on two frames of film) or on
ones (one drawing photographed on each frame of film). Twos are used most of
the time, and ones are used during camera moves such as trucks, pans and
occasionally for subtle and quick dialogue animation. Also, there is timing in
the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion, and reaction to another
character or to a situation. Studying movement of actors and performers on
stage and in films is useful when animating human or animal characters. This
frame by frame examination of film footage will aid you in understanding timing
for animation. This is a great way to learn from the others.
10. EXAGGERATION
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Exaggeration is not extreme distortion of a drawing
or extremely broad, violent action all the time. Its like a caricature of
facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from
live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical. In feature
animation, a character must move more broadly to look natural. The same is true
of facial expressions, but the action should not be as broad as in a short
cartoon style. Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head turn
will give your film more appeal. Use good taste and common sense to keep from
becoming too theatrical and excessively animated.
11. SOLID DRAWING
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The basic principles of drawing form, weight,
volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it
does to academic drawing. The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the classical
sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life. You
transform these into color and movement giving the characters the illusion of
three-and four-dimensional life. Three dimensional is movement in space. The
fourth dimension is movement in time.
12. APPEAL
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A live performer has charisma. An animated
character has appeal. Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and
cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous,
comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design,
clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the
audience's interest. Early cartoons were basically a series of gags strung
together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have learned that to
produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development
and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all
forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the
eye.
Week 3
This week was important as I learnt what needs to be done before working on an animation project. An interesting script, well-thought storyboard and realistic animatic are essential prior to producing an animation.
Script
In any movie or game, the script is of utmost importance
as a good storyline will leave a lasting impact on the audience. Therefore, as
animators, it is important to come up with a good script to attract the target
viewers. When drafting the script, the characters should be developed in a way
that will be appealing to the audience. Emotions should be delivered
accordingly. For example, Dr. J spoke about Thai-based advertisements that can
evoke strong emotions with a good message. These stories will stick to our mind
and therefore deemed as good animations.
Storyboard
After developing a good script or storyline, it is
important to complete the storyboard. A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images
displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture,
animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. Well, Dr. J
mentioned that it is very important to complete the storyboard before thinking
about animation. The storyboard will be the main structure with all the information
before attempting to create animation. Length of a frame, motion, direction,
time taken and expression to be delivered will be annotated in the storyboard. Every
little detail will help the animator to produce a good final product.
Animatic
Animatic is essential before producing
an animation. It can be very simple but must contain necessary information that
will be featured in the animation later on. It does not need to be coloured fully
because this will give a brief idea on how the final project might look like. In its simplest form, an animatic is essentially a
rough draft of a film or sequence, consisting of simple storyboarded panels
(sketchily drawn images of each shot in a sequence) that are timed out with a
temporary soundtrack (voices, music and some sound effects). This then creates
a crude draft of a film allowing the filmmaker to test timings and see if the
intended meaning of the sequence is conveyed and if, visually, it flows.
By
creating this draft, you can identify any issues within a sequence before the
time consuming process of animation takes place. If a sequence of shots doesn’t
work you can draw some new storyboards and tweak it very quickly. You may find
that an entire sequence may be unnecessary, or, that to increase the emotional
impact of a scene, altering the framing makes a greater impact. Within the
animatic you can refine quickly and effectively the structure and content
before the commencement of the animation itself.
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