Apply - Lateness

Choosing this theme was not very difficult. Lateness is a flaw I identify within myself and wish to correct and what better way to embrace and improve than by creating an Animation of it? So I began to brainstorm the concept of 'Lateness'.

Brainstorming:

 

I set about designing a character first. I wanted something with the characteristics that so often go along with Lateness: disorganized, weak, panicked, frantic.

I went through a few character designs until I settled on the right one. Initially, I wanted a lanky creature with a long and wobbly neck but I realized that with so many moving appendages, my time constraint as well as the limitations of my animation skills, I had to settle for the smarter choice and create a character that is round and compact so that the animation will not be too complicated.

In addition to the character, I decided to have him carry a few objects that constantly fall out from under his arms. I was hoping this would help emphasize the characters lack of organization as well as reinforce the idea that he may be failing to uphold a certain responsibility, for instance, delivering a bunch of balls to a very important meeting. 

Planning:

 

I made sure to plan out my key poses. I had 12 frames per second and I wanted my character to switch feet at least twice per second. Initially, I planned to have 6 poses to one running cycle: the first contact point, the transition point, the 'Mid-Air' point (what I called it), then the next transition point, contact point, and finally the Squash point. I very soon realized that I didn't want my character to be leaping, rather jogging quickly which means he would remain relatively close to the floor. So I cut out the 'transition' poses and was left with Squash, Contact, Mid-Air, Contact, Squash which equaled to 4 frames per cycle making the character run 3 times per second.

Testing:

 

Using pose to pose Animation on transparent sheets of paper, I marked out my key poses. I wanted my character to be running quickly so I didn't create many in between frames. I also wanted to see if the nose was flopping in harmony with the rest of the body and motion. Overall, I created 8 frames and duplicated them in Photoshop to create an infinite loop to get a good idea of what the little guy looks like while running.

 

After I was satisfied with the running cycle, I went back and added in the balls. Because I wanted the animation to loop, I made sure that the balls looped back to the very first frame. I am not very satisfied with the addition as it proved to be difficult to control the falling balls because of the rate at which the character was moving away.

The next step will be to implement more into the story such as the character looking at his watch as well as nervously looking behind him at the objects he is losing. I would like to ultimately keep this animation as a loop.

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Here is a refined storyboard:

After running a few more tests, I was ready to render my animation. I simply outlined it with black fine liner and added a little bit of colour to my character’s nose to make him look a bit more pathetic. 

I realized (a little too late) that the ball that ultimately trips the character appears to be a lot heavier and stiffer than the rest of the balls. This is because as it makes contact with the floor, it does not squash a lot and it stays completely still as the character trips over it. Something to keep in mind for the next time!

Explore - 12 Principles of Animation

I have taken a short cartoon episode of 'A Mickey Mouse Cartoon' entitled 'No Service' to illustrate the 12 principles of Animation. I have chosen this particular short because of it's wealth of demonstration of the 12 principles.

Principle 1 -  Squash and Stretch

There are tons of examples of squash and stretch in this cartoon. Every facial expression goes through a squash and stretch process of it's own to showcase anticipation. In this case, we have one of the many examples of squash and stretch in the body. Mickey is falling from the sky at high acceleration. As he lands, his entire body squashes to the floor, then stretched back up before it neutralises.

Principle 2 - Anticipation

Here we see an example of Anticipation. Examples of this are thrown around all over the cartoon, it is almost distinctly a style of animation. Every action, no matter how small or big has a very obvious wind up to show anticipation. In this case, Mickey Mouse has an idea. He shrinks his body to show anticipation and stretches it up and out, pointing his finger into the air.

Principle 3 - Staging

Here we see a long hand pointing at the sign on the door while Donald and Mickey are at either side looking at said sign. Everything about the staging leads your eye to the sign as well until the next shot zooms right into it. The question marks are a bit of an overkill but they do demonstrate Donald and Mickeys surprise as well as shock as the question marks are in red.

Principle 4 - Straight ahead and Pose to Pose

This looks like straight ahead animation; Mickey begins on one end of the gate and as he walks behind it his body parts swirl around and through the iron design. Because the motion is so fluid and unpredictable, we can assume that the animators used straight ahead animation.

For something like this 'waddle' sequence, we can assume that the animator used pose to pose animation illustrating the extreme key poses first and then going through and animating the in-between transitions. 

Principle 5 - Follow-Through and Overlapping Action

Here is one example of follow-through and overlapping action. As goofy moves around, his years trail after him a bit delayed. 

Here is another example of this. Notice Donald Ducks hat accessory drag as he moves his head back in surprise, then follow through and settle down on it's own after Donald has stopped his head motion.

Principle 6 - Slow-In, Slow-Out

This is a very good example of the slow in and slow out effect. Mickey Mouse is swirling round with a gust of wind in loops. As he approaches the top of the loop of motion, his body slows down before he very swiftly drops into the circular motion again. 

Principle 7 - Arcs

Again, there is a plethora of these principles in this one single short but I picked out my favourite demonstration of Arcs. Here, Donald Duck is pointing his tail feathers at Mickey. He Anticipates the motion to the left and then follows a very clear arc over to the right. After which, is rear end follows it's own arc (more like a circle) and settles at the top with his tail feathers. This was a very quick motion that slowed down at the settling of the tail. 

Principle 8 - Secondary Action

In this shot, Goofy delivers the line 'I'm trying to run a classy establishment here' in his sloppy southern accent. To maximise on this quote, we see the secondary action of his squashing a bug with his spatula and then using that same spatula to flip a patty. This reinforces and exaggerated the irony of the reality of the situation juxtaposed with Goofy's remark. 

Another example: Here Mickey is speaking with the girls as he catches a falling bag of food with his left hand while his right hand straightens his bow tie. What we notice first is his catching of the food followed by the straightening of the bow tie. The secondary action is the action involving the bow tie. 

Principle 9 - Timing

Timing here: Donald Duck is laughing, Mickey Mouse pops in his head, he is clearly angry. He calls for Donald's attention and Donald responds with his head. Then we zoom into Mickeys face as he takes notice of their girlfriends rapidly approaching from the distance. Everything is spaced out in a way that carries our eye very smoothly through the events occurring. We see Donald laughing, then Mickey then we notice Donald's reaction. There are many examples 'call and response' timing in this short.

Principle 10 - Exaggeration 

Mickey is being being impacted by a leaf blower. His face stretches out to unrealistic proportions and his limbs flop around as if they are made of string.

In this shot, we see Daffy go through a series of extreme poses and exaggerations. First he sees Mickey, follows him as he crashes into a building, anticipates his laugh by exaggerating and scrunching his body into a ball and then throwing his head back in an exaggerated laugh.

Principle 11 - Drawing

In this short, the characters all go through different weights and volumes as their bodies are put through different experiences. In the shot where Mickey is being blown around in a gust of wind, it seems he is as light as a feather as opposed to the scene just before in which he is blown by at leaf blower where he manages to hold his ground. 

As Mickey lands elegantly in front of the girls fully clothed, his body squashes and stretches showing that his body may be made up of rubbery material. 

Principle 12 - Character Appeal

All of the characters in this short are based on Disney characters how ever they do carry their own flair. The design is a lot sharper and exaggerated. Their heads are a lot bigger and their bodies much smaller than the originals. Their facial expressions as well as body movements are pushed to the limit as opposed to the original characters which are a bit 'safer' in design.

Here are two videos for comparison: