Sunday, October 12, 2014
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Screen Space vs. Physics
It's always interesting when something works in animation that doesn't abide by the laws physics. Here's an example from Chuck Jones' "Dover Boys of Pimento University".
The boys are tiptoeing over from one place to another.
First Frame
Second Frame
Third
Fourth
The strange thing is that between drawings 2 and 3 the character actually moves up in screen space. But that shouldn't happen. His feet aren't touching the ground yet. There's nothing to propel his body upward, and gravity should still be pushing it down. But if his body kept moving down there would be too much of a spacing difference between drawing 3 and 4. So the animator decided he needed to defy the laws of gravity to make the walk work smoothly. And it does. Watching the cartoon, the walk is funny, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
The boys are tiptoeing over from one place to another.
First Frame
The strange thing is that between drawings 2 and 3 the character actually moves up in screen space. But that shouldn't happen. His feet aren't touching the ground yet. There's nothing to propel his body upward, and gravity should still be pushing it down. But if his body kept moving down there would be too much of a spacing difference between drawing 3 and 4. So the animator decided he needed to defy the laws of gravity to make the walk work smoothly. And it does. Watching the cartoon, the walk is funny, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
Dean Cornwell Study
Value study of a painting by Dean Cornwell. The artists back in the Golden Age of Illustration were on another level.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Animation History
There's a lot of good blogs out there for animation history.
Jerry Beck has "Cartoon Research" :
http://cartoonresearch.com/
Michael Barrier has a lot of great articles on his site, as well as a number of long books:
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/
And the recently departed Michael Sporn kept a great blog with lots of animation knowledge over here:
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/
Reading animation history is useful to deal with frustration of how time consuming and difficult doing animation is. People in the past were struggling with the same issues of how to plan their shots, properly pose their characters, time out actions, make lipsynch work, deal with administrative demands, and figure out how to hit deadlines. Many CG animators get frustrated when looking at the graph editor and realizing how analytical animation can be. But take one look at a traditional animation exposure sheet or the effort Chuck Jones spent timing actions to music, and you'll see that animation has always been about careful, meticulous planning with heavy doses of logical thinking. It has to be. The process is too labor intensive and expensive not to carefully plan out. The trick, I think, is finding out how to internalize the planning so it becomes an organic part of the creative process. But knowing this on a theoretical level isn't the same as putting it into practice. This is something I'll only gain over time.
All of the above listed blogs mostly deal with American and European animation, with a bit of attention paid to Miyazaki. For a much more in-depth look at contemporary and historical Japanese animation, Ben Ettinger has a great blog called Anipages:
http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php
Anipages is probably my favorite animation site because of how few sources exist in English on anime production. There's so many movies Ben talks about that I wish I could track down and watch, though most don't exist in digital form. And the forums are a great place to get feedback. Every so often someone like Peter Chung or Bahi JD will stop by with some amazing knowledge about a production or how to make better animation. Highly recommended.
Jerry Beck has "Cartoon Research" :
http://cartoonresearch.com/
Michael Barrier has a lot of great articles on his site, as well as a number of long books:
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/
And the recently departed Michael Sporn kept a great blog with lots of animation knowledge over here:
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/
Reading animation history is useful to deal with frustration of how time consuming and difficult doing animation is. People in the past were struggling with the same issues of how to plan their shots, properly pose their characters, time out actions, make lipsynch work, deal with administrative demands, and figure out how to hit deadlines. Many CG animators get frustrated when looking at the graph editor and realizing how analytical animation can be. But take one look at a traditional animation exposure sheet or the effort Chuck Jones spent timing actions to music, and you'll see that animation has always been about careful, meticulous planning with heavy doses of logical thinking. It has to be. The process is too labor intensive and expensive not to carefully plan out. The trick, I think, is finding out how to internalize the planning so it becomes an organic part of the creative process. But knowing this on a theoretical level isn't the same as putting it into practice. This is something I'll only gain over time.
All of the above listed blogs mostly deal with American and European animation, with a bit of attention paid to Miyazaki. For a much more in-depth look at contemporary and historical Japanese animation, Ben Ettinger has a great blog called Anipages:
http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php
Anipages is probably my favorite animation site because of how few sources exist in English on anime production. There's so many movies Ben talks about that I wish I could track down and watch, though most don't exist in digital form. And the forums are a great place to get feedback. Every so often someone like Peter Chung or Bahi JD will stop by with some amazing knowledge about a production or how to make better animation. Highly recommended.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Koike Studies
Studies of major poses in the running animation from "World Record" by Takeshi Koike. One of my favorite animated shorts from Japan, though all the Animatrix shorts are pretty excellent. They make that whole franchise worth it.
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