Taking the previous week’s ball bounce a step further and creating an obstacle course for the ball to navigate proved a challenge that helped push my understanding of 3D space to a better level. Initially setting up the intended path in 3D space and creating a layout that would test me but not prove intensely difficult, I decided to add a ‘diving board’. The ball would add the principle of appeal and show character. Bouncing off the board falling downwards to help further my understanding of the effect on gravity. My intention was to create the feel of an ‘Olympic acrobat’ navigating these different objects fluently and confidently.
Drawing a plan for these, I used 2D drawing software to get the rough keyframes down and get an idea of the general performance across when going forward to animate, so I had a clear picture of where to begin. Retrospectively looking at my plan, I feel that while it blocks out the key concepts, the drawings themselves do not accurately reflect the intended motion, especially in retaining volume and timing and spacing. Going forward, I plan to improve my 2D drawing abilities alongside my 3D planning in order to create compelling planning thumbnails for characters and apply the elements of 2D animation (perhaps in TV Paint) to practise good time efficient workflows and get a good understanding of the industry workflows.
Looking at the finished version, while I think some areas were successful for a first attempt, such as aspects of the timing, spacing, squash and stretch, there are certain elements to reflect upon. At the start, I feel more weight could have been conveyed in the amount of pressure applied to the diving board initially, especially as it did not match the amount of squash and stretch applied to the ball. Also, considering Kenny Roys techniques and applying techniques from class, I improved the arc at the end to appear less dramatic and drop, as it seems to slightly change the course of direction like it is being pulled down by a magnet. The motion trail directly affects the curves in the graph editor and is editable directly in the viewport, indicating issues around any access keyframes and unordinary shapes of movement (Roy, 2014).
Researching rendering techniques, I looked into using the Arnold renderer, which required changing the materials of the obstacle course objects from lamberts to Ai standard surfaces, so they could show reflective surfaces and indicate the shade of the directional light. I add two directional lights, making one a shade of purple to match the objects’ colour scheme. After this, I added additional motion blur to heighten the feel of realism to the ball’s movements, but not so extensively. It took away from the prominent effect of the bounces.
References
Roy, K., 2014. How to cheat in Maya 2014. Abingdon: Focal Press, pp.104-105
Applying the principle ‘Solid Drawing’ from the 12 Principles of animation into 3-dimensional space requires an understanding of solid posing that conveys story and character without any movement. The following poses are referenced using images of real people.
Action Pose (Kicking Stance)
Taking the positioning and elements of weight from the reference image, I focused on the positioning of the feet. I tried to replicate the simplistic rig to the best of my ability. Manipulating camera angles, I angled it as a lower medium shot to try and convey the wait and action to engage with the audience.
With the reference image showing a jump in the absence of a solid force of gravity, I tried to emulate the gesture’s ‘lightness’ of the gesture, making the posting display more effeminate features to add a further sense of character.
In attempts to push the boundaries of standard action positions, I used a reference image of a psychically complex figure skating move and tried to gain a sense of the complexity of the sense of weight while keeping a strong ‘C’ line of action in the figures back.
cooperating an object into dynamic action posing, and looking at the key lines of action in the reference pictures, like the “C” line shape created in the form of the back. Also, taking into consideration the signs of weight in the feet, knees and hips to create a stance that has visible kinetic power behind them.
Emotional Pose (Sadness)
Trying to convey emotional expression through a character rig without a facial rig provides an exciting challenge and requires powerful body positions to convey the emotion intended. Creating the negative space in the arms makes clear posing in the emotional expression.
This pose is more subtle in its line of action. However, I tried to reduce the ‘stiffness’ by keeping the back in a ‘C’ line of action. I also tried to reduce the symmetry of the pose but standing the feet in the opposite directions to add a level of naturalism that does not make the weight distribution seem perfect in stance.
I tried to push the exaggeration on this one more extensively than the previous, giving its a slightly unrealistic sense of gravity. However, I think this adds clarity to the emotional expression of the body.
Creating a strong silhouette is an essential part of keyframing animation and is reminiscent of the initial thumbnailing process used in the early process of animation to convey strong performances. This helps gain a sense of strong lines of action without getting distracted by elements of character design such as hair and clothing and colour design to make sure the position is as strong as possible. Reflectively, some of these could have been pushed and exaggerated further, especially in the emotional poses, as the emotion needs to be very clear in the body without facial expression. It lacks in the ‘angry’ feeling and appears more like ‘relaxed’ pointing.
Commencing the first week of animation tasks was the bouncing ball, which is the quintessential exercise for an animator learning and adapting their skillset. In my first attempt (as seen below), the ball is bouncing onto a stationary spot, and I have tried to make it appear ‘realistic’ with elements of slight exaggeration in the squash and stretch. “The animator’s job is to synthesise movements and apply just the right amount of creative exaggeration to make the movement look natural within the cartoon medium” (Whitaker and Halas, 2009, p.27). Reflecting on improvement, however, the slight roll at the end seems slightly unnatural in movement, and the frames should be extended to produce a more natural roll in timing.
The Second ball bounce included a sideways movement that was tricky to stop convincingly and realistically. To achieve the smooth and circular ball arcs, I used a motion train to easily manipulate the height and distance of each bounce. To deepen a further understanding of this, I would work on perfecting the timing by studying real-life references of balls rolling to a natural stop in the future.
References
.WHITAKER, R and HAROLD, J. 2009. Timing for Animation. Amsterdam, Focal Publishing. Page 27.
The moving picture in its adolescence can be accredited to inventions such as the ‘Magic lantern’ created in 1609 which is, in essence, a machine that projects images on sheets of glass (or ‘Slides’) which light is then directed into through a concave mirror (Magic lantern – Wikipedia, 2021). However, the initial creation of the projected image could be traced back at least 2,000 years ago, around the time fire was discovered and humans would entertain in the form of shadow puppetry (fig.2) (A history of the Magic Lantern – The Magic Lantern Society, 2021).There are also ancient pieces of pottery which depict understanding of the succession of movement in image form, from as early as the bronze age (fig. 1) (history of animation, 2021).
Fig. 1
While inventions such as the ‘magic lantern’ could create a succession of images that could replicate the illusion of movement, an invention called the ‘Thaumatrope’ was invented in 1825 by John Ayrton Paris, and was one of the initial devices that created the illusion of consistent movement to the eye, technically making it one of the first forms of animation and moving image (Thaumatropes – Museum of the History of Science, 2021). This was essentially a disk with two images on either side attached to string, then twirled around rapidly giving the illusion that the two images are combining and producing movement. However, the earliest inventions that show more fluidity in the succession of images are the phenakistoscope and the Zoetrope. The phenakistoscope, invented in 1832, was a ‘slitted disk with sequential images mounted on a handle’ which once it was spun, would create the illusion of movement (The phenakistoscope Optical Toy Pre-Cinema Animation, 2018). In 1834, the ‘Zoetrope’ (fig.2) was first introduced, which is a spinning cylinder with a ring of sequential images on the interior that, once spun gave the illusion of movement.
Fig.2
Moving into 1872, Eadweard Muybridge was enticed to settle a bet- at any point in the horse’s gallop, do all 4 legs leave the ground simultaneously? This bet was eventually settled in 1877 when Muybridge set up ‘a system of 12 separate cameras spaced 21 inches apart, and each camera was triggered by a tripwire which was triggered when the horse stepped on it’ (BBC Paul Merton’s Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema, 2015). The fast succession of these images, much like the zoetrope, created the appearance of movement, however the main difference being the inclusion of cameras. This can be said to be the basis of film.
In 1891 the famous American inventor Thomas Edison finalised his ‘kinetoscope’, which was one of the first devices that were designed to show moving image. This invention had a short commercial life that only spanned from 1894 to 1900, and could only shoot 30-36 frames per second, which lasted less than 20 seconds (Abel, 2005). In the year 1872, the ’praxinoscope’ was created by Charles Emile Raynaud which, much like its predecessor of the Zoetrope, displays sequential images on the interior of a cylinder. The defining difference being the placement of a mirror so the onlooker can perceive the movement with ease (Praxinoscope – Museum of the History of Science, 2021). In 1892, Raynaud projected what can be claimed as the first publicly displayed animated film on his praxinoscope (BBC Paul Merton’s Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema, 2015).
The creation of Cinema began in 1895, and on the 28th of December that very year, the Lumiere brothers demonstrated their invention the ‘Cinematograph’ (figure 3). Taking inspiration from Edison’s ‘Kinetoscope’ however improving upon this they implemented projection as a key element of their invention, enabling more than one person to view the image sequence at once (Karwatka, 2007). This can be viewed upon as the very start of cinema as we know it now.
Fig.3
Similar, notable work in the early years of the projected film can also be accredited to pioneers such as Robert W Paul and Birt Acres, who invented the first British 35 mm camera in 1895. In Germany, Max and Emile Skladowsky invented the ‘bioscope’ and publicly displayed it 2 months prior to the Lumiere screening; However, this ultimately did not technically uphold in comparison (BBC Paul Merton’s Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema, 2015). An important figure that arose from the public demonstrations of the ‘Cinematograph’ was stage magician George Melies. His great understanding of magic served well in his creativity in camera manipulation, allowing to produce early instances of ‘double exposure’ (fig.4) to appear in multiple places as once (BBC Paul Merton’s Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema, 2015). Melies talents ran parallel with those of George Albert Smith who, in similar fashion was a stage hypnotist and manipulated the camera in ways that pioneered the practises we have today. Smith created a camera that allowed lenses to be put in place and could easily reverse motion, and this later became and essential building block of editing (BBC Paul Merton’s Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema, 2015). Pioneer James Williamson in 1901 created a film called ‘The Big Swallow’ which displays some well-crafted early signs of editing and shot transition.
Fig.4 (The Man with the Rubber Head. 1901. Meilies)
With rapid development of the early camera, animation started to progress in revolutionary directions too. The 1906 film “Humours phases of funny faces” can be classes as the first official animated picture recorded on standard picture film (BBC Paul Mertons Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema, 2015). This featured hand drawn animation on a blackboard (Fig.5) . In similar fashion Emil Cohl’s ‘Fantasmagoire’ in 1908, one of the earliest animated films drawn black lines on paper and inverted to give the ‘blackboard’ aesthetic to the film. In 1911, comic artist and animation ‘Windsor Mccay’ created his first animation ‘Little nemo’ which stood out for this time period due to the expressive motions displayed by the characters based on his comic strips (Winsor McCay: Little Nemo (1911), 2020). Natheless, it was not until ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ (1914) that the portrayal of true character really started to come across, and can be seen as a defining moment in the development of character animation (History Of Animation Documentary, 2014).
Fig. 5 (Humours Phases of Funny Faces. 1906. James Staurt Blackton)
The 1920’s are a pivotal moment in the history of animation, and rapidly increases to the ‘Golden Age’ of animation, which spanned from 1928 to the 1960’s. It is essential to initially note the pioneering efforts of the Fleischer brothers, notability the invention of the ‘Rotoscope’ in 1919 which drastically improved the fluidity of animation created during this time (Cement, 1998). There was a major rivalry between east coast ‘out of Inkwell films Inc’ and west coast studio ‘Disney’; both the studios having distinct opposing styles which clearly reflect the kind of environments they were situated. Disney’s shorts at this time had a much more’ sunny’ and optimistic feel to them, reflecting the livelihood of the west, whereas the Fleischer cartoons had a roughness that reflected the 1920’s New York (Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story, 2020). While it is often mentioned that ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928) was the first animation to include sound, it can be traced to the 1926 Fleischer production of ‘KOKO Song Car Tunes’ (Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes | Pack Up Your Troubles | 1926, 2020). The 1929 Wall Street Crash proved to only boost the consumption of animation in theatres, giving people a sense of escapism. This then lead onto the significant impact of the 1937 Disney production of ‘Snow White’, which is considered to be the first fully coloured feature animation and did astronomically well at the box office, changing the course of animation (History Of Animation Documentary, 2014). In technicalities, it is vital to mention that Fleischer produced “Popeye meets Sinbad” in 1936 before Snow white, which was fully coloured and sold as a ‘feature animation’ to theatres; this however was only around 18 minutes long (Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story, 2020). The 1930’s are also notable for the inclusion of stop motion characters such as ‘King Kong’, and also the inclusion of Claymation monsters with live action film which further develops the animated character (A History of CGI Characters, 2016). Spanning from the 1930’s to 1969, ‘The Looney Tunes’ created by Warner bros, rose to popularity also, and by 1970 animation started to branch out into advertising as well an animated shorts and films.
The 1980’s paved way for the introduction of computer generated animation, starting in 1985 when the first computer generated character was brought to the screen titled the “Stain glass knight” who features in ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’ (A History of CGI Characters, 2016).By 1986, Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter form one of the biggest companies known in the animation world ‘Pixar’. This company fully start to form the CGI animated film and are pioneers in the area. After a series of shorts such as ‘Luxo Jr’ in 1986, the company go on to make the first ever fully computer animated film ‘Toy story’ in 1995 which won the ‘special achievement award’ in 1996 as before this there was not an animated feature film category (Toy Story – IMDb, 2021). The late 1980’s to the 1990’s was a big moment for the development of visual effects. In 1989, industrial light an magic completed a 75 second clip of a computer animated ‘water tentacle’ features in ‘The Abyss’ (1989) , taking 6 months to complete (A History of CGI Characters, 2016). This went on to win an academy award for best visual effects later on, and using techniques went on to improve this effect in ‘Terminator Two; Judgment day’ (1991) for the ‘liquid metal cyborg’ (A History of CGI Characters, 2016). Jurassic park (1993) revolutionised computer graphics, creating ‘photoreal’ dinosaurs which has skeletal systems, muscles and skin textures in place (A History of CGI Characters, 2016).1996-1999 demonstrate a well-crafted integration of CGI animated creatures into live action film, such as ‘Dragon heart’ (1996) and ‘Star wars’ the phantom menace’ (1999) A key technological aspect of visual effects that was developing at this time was the use of motion capture. During this period, Robert Zemeckis’s company “Image movers digital” were making technical advancements to the motion capture technology and its relationship to animated film, in productions such as ‘The Polar Express’ (2004) and ‘Beowulf’ (2007). Nonetheless, it was the 2002 Production of ‘The Lord of the Rings; the Two Towers’ that initially presented the true potential of this form of animation with the CGI character ‘Golem’ (Digital presentation of Andy Serkis’s movement), and truly show the capabilities of early facial motion capture (Tinwell, 2014) (figure 6).
Fig.6
Notable films, progressing into the early 2000’s include that of ‘Final Fantasy’(2001), the first hyperreal fully computer generated animation (which was unsuccessful potentially due to its relationship to the uncanny valley). The 2003 ‘Matrix reloaded’ sequel who implemented a process called ‘universal capture’ (A History of CGI Characters, 2016). The 2006 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ which illustrated immense advancements in computer generated imagery with the character ‘Davy Jones’. ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ‘(2008), which administered fantastic digital aging techniques that allowed Brad Pitt’s face to be aged, de-aged and places onto various actors. And the most notable of all these is the 2009 ‘Avatar’ which is one of the highest grossing films of all time, and displayed some of the most important technological advancements in motion capture, rendering, visual effects and the computer generated industry as a whole that still appear impressive in the present day (Avatar-IMDB , 2021).
This brings us to the 2010’s, where ground-breaking technological advancements have occurred, and Computer-generated imagery has become the industry dominant for animation and Visual effects. A few notable films span from Tangled (2010) (Tangled-IMDB, 2021) , which after a 6-year development cost $260 million (the most expensive film at the time), to ‘Alita Battle Angel’(2019) which showcases excellent integration of CGI Characters and live action footage. Now into the early 2020’s, The development of film, animation and visual effects can only progress technologically and aesthetically to further and more advanced ideals that will bring entertainment to a new level.
BLACKTON, James Stuart. 1906.Humours Phases of Funny Faces
CAMERON, James. 2009. Avatar
CAMERON, James. 1989. The Abyss
CAMERON, James. 1991. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
COHEN, Robert. 1998. DragonHeart
COHL, Emile. 1908. A Fantasy (Fantasmagoire)
COOPER, Merian C and Ernest B, Schoedsack. 1933. King Kong
DISNEY, Walt and Ub IWERKS. 1928. Steamboat Willie
FINCHER, David. 2008. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
FLEISCHER, David and William BOWSKY. 1936. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor
FLEISCHER. 1926. Pack Up Your Troubles
GRENO, Nathan and Byron HOWARD. 2010. Tangled
HAND, David, COTTREL David and Wilfred JACKSON. 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
JACKSON, Peter. 2002. The Lord Of the Rings: the Two Towers
LASSETER, John. 1995. Toy Story
LASSETER, John. 1986. Luxo Jr
LEVINSON, Barry. 1985. The Young Sherlock Holmes
LUCAS, Geroge. 1999. Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace
MACCAY, Windsor. 1911.Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics (including Little Nemo)
MACCAY, Windsor. 1914. Gertie the Dinosaur
MELIES, George. 1901. The Man with the Rubber Head
RODRIGUEZ, Robert. 2019. Alita Battle Angel
SAKAGUCHI. Hironobu. 2001. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
VERBINSKI, Gore. 2006. Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Mans Chest
WACHOWSKI, Lana and Lilly. 2003. The Matrix Reloaded
ZEMECKIS, Robert. 2004. The Polar Express
ZEMECKIS, Robert. 2007. Beowulf
References-
(not all references are from academic papers)
Youtube.com. 2016. A History of CGI Characters. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqSAYE5Mrw> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
org.uk. 2021. A history of the Magic Lantern – The Magic Lantern Society. [online] Available at: <https://www.magiclantern.org.uk/history/> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
ABEL, R., 2005. Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom,: Taylor & Francis Ltd, p.491.
2021. Avatar. [online] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/> [Accessed 12 October 2021].
Youtube. com. 2015. BBC Paul Mertons Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87km5sFrIQQ> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
CEMENT, G., 1998. Betty Boop Confidential: Betty, Bimbo and Koko out of the inkwell. Positive; Paris, pp.98-99.
History-of-animation.webflow.io. 2021. history of animation. [online] Available at: <https://history-of-animation.webflow.io/> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
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KARAWATKA, D., 2007. The Lumiere Brothers and Their Motion Picture Projection Equipment. Tech Directions, [online] 66(6), p.10. Available at: <https://web-a-ebscohost-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=8ab90446-b944-4034-b549-4cc9c678adc3%40sdc-v-sessmgr01> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Youtube.com. 2020. Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes | Pack Up Your Troubles | 1926. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUqq3TzhKLw> [Accessed 12 October 2021].
wikipedia.org. 2021. Magic lantern – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_lantern#:~:text=The%20magic%20lantern%20used%20a%20concave%20mirror%20in,a%20lens%20at%20the%20front%20of%20the%20apparatus.> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Youtube.com. 2020. Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xemq4sNfMf8> [Accessed 12 October 2021].
Museum of the History of Science. 2021. Praxinoscope – Museum of the History of Science. [online] Available at: <http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/fancy-names-and-fun-toys/praxinoscope/> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Museum of the History of Science. 2021. Thaumatropes – Museum of the History of Science. [online] Available at: <http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/fancy-names-and-fun-toys/thaumatropes/> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
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Youtube.com. 2018. The phenakistoscope Optical Toy Pre-Cinema Animation. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=BefB2qFB6Sc> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
2020. Winsor McCay: Little Nemo (1911). [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSFt27VF4qU> [Accessed 12 October 2021].
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TINWELL, A, Mark GRIMSHAW and Debbie ABDEL-NABI. 2014. The Uncanny Valley and Nonverbal Communication in Virtual Characters. [online] Available at: https://www.bolton.ac.uk/StaffBiographies/Angela-Tinwell/Tinwell-et-al-2014-NVC[1]Uncanny-Valley.pdf
