Tuesday 28 February 2012

activity_17 Interactive Animation

The starry night
Petros Vrellis has created an interactive animation of Vincent Van Gogh's painting'The starry night'. Left alone, the visualization sends the paint daubs of the saint-rémy night sky into swirling patterns of motion, governed by the mathematics of particle dynamics. A touch interface allows viewers to deform the image, altering both the particle flow and the sound. When not touched, the visualization will return to its natural state.

Interactive Childhood Ghost Animation
Childhood Ghosts is an interactive animation created by Eric John Olson using Open Frameworks with a series of hand drawn frames of a child. The installation allows visitors to engage digital character via a set of predefined tracked movements, a sort of discovery to make the character react and come alive.

Interactive Rock Cycle Animation



Tuesday 21 February 2012

activity15_The 12 Principles Adapted to the Computer


Luxo Jr. – Pixar



12 Principles used in the animation Luxor Junior, (1986).

Timing
The ball rolls up and bounces off the Mother lamp.
Junior lamp enters the scene and jumps faster at first, before slowing down and then stopping.

Squash and stretch
Junior lamp jumps on the ball.

Slow In and Slow Out
Ball rolling slowly and then gets faster to hit the bigger lamp.
Junior came and rolled the ball back and forth.

Arcs of Motion
Lamps swing heads in an arc.
They turn their body as an arc shape.
Junior lamp balances on its base as it moves off the burst ball.

Anticipation
Mother lamp looks at the ball then rolls it off-screen only for it to come back again.
Junior lamp jumps on the ball before bending down, and shakes to prepare him for the next jump.

Exaggeration
Junior lamp jumps on the letter.
Junior also jumps on the ball and tries to keeps his balance.
Junior lamp’s wire moves like its waving in an exaggerated manner.

Secondary Action
The junior lamps jump is his first action, and then he shakes, tilts and moves his head creating another action.
The Mother lamp and junior lamp are moving while their cables move too.

Follow Through and Overlapping Action
A good example of Follow Through and Overlapping action is the motion of the junior lamp’s cable as he hops and the motions of the squashed ball when the junior lamp flips it over.
When the junior lamp hops he creates a follow through ‘wave’ effect in the cable attached to him. When he flips over the squashed ball there is a similar action, but also an overlapping action.

Straight Ahead & Pose-to-Pose
The ball rolled forward and backwards in the frame. ( The Mother ball is rolled in and out of frame non-stop)
The ball rolls into the frame again, stays motionless and rolled back out.

Staging
The dark simple background and spotlight keeps the audience attention and helps to focus on the lamps.

Appeal
The characters in this animation have plenty of appeal. Their colours, shape and form are realistic, but also simply illustrated. The junior lamp has characteristics which are cute and appealing, for example the way he hops and ‘wiggles’ and his energy and determination. This helps to develop a pleasing and likeable personality to the audience. The mother lamp has realistic characteristics of a mother. She seems patient and gentle and more responsible than the junior lamp. Her ‘loving’ nature is her appeal.
Both lamps are drawn very clearly and look realistic. Their characteristics and appearance are very likeable.
Mother lamp looks wiser and mature, the smaller junior lamp, more cuddly and exciting like a kitten.
Solid Drawing
Both Characters shape and weight are illustrated very well, and you can feel their form and motion when you watch the clip.


activity14_Storyboarding


Storyboard visually tells the story of an animation panel by panel, kind of like a comic book. Creating a storyboard will help you plan your animation out shot by shot. You can make changes to your storyboard before you start animating, instead of changing your mind later. You will also be able to talk about your animation and show your storyboard to other people to get feedback on your ideas.

Storyboard Examples


A storyboard for a TV Western


'The Darkness"

Some more examples










activity13_Walt Disney’s 12 Principles of Animation


The twelve principles of animation were created in the early 1930s by animators at the Walt Disney Studios. These principles were used to guide production and creative discussions as well to train young animators better and faster. These twelve principles became one of the foundations of hand-drawn cartoon character animation. The twelve principles, as they are commonly referred to, also helped to transform animation from a novelty into an art form. By applying these principles to their work these pioneering animators produced many of the earliest animated feature films that became classics: Snow White (1937), Pinocchio and Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942).

1.    Timing

Timing is the precise moment and the amount of time that a character spends on an action. Timing adds emotion and intention to the characters performance. Timing can also be controlled and adjusted by placing each character on a separate track, and using sub-tracks for parts of the character such as head, torso, arms and legs.


1.    Squash and Stretch

One of the important principles from the original twelve is used to exaggerate the amount of non-rigid body deformations usually with the purpose of achieving a more comedic effect. Many real world objects have little flexibility, such as furniture, however most organic objects have some level of flexibility in their shape.
Take for example a bouncing ball.


BODY BEAUTIFUL an Animated Film by Joanna Quinn



1.    Slow In and Slow Out

Slow-in and slow-out consist of slowing down the beginning and the end of an action, while speeding up the middle of it. A snappy effect is achieved when motion is accelerated and retarded in this way.




1.    Arcs of Motion

Using arcs to animate the movements of characters helps achieve a natural look because most living creatures move in curved paths, never in perfectly straight lines. Non-arc motion comes across as sinister, restricted or robotic.


5. Anticipation

Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic. A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club.





1.    Exaggeration

Exaggeration usually helps cartoon characters to deliver the essence of an action. A lot of exaggeration can be achieved with squash and stretch.



Secondary Action

Adding secondary actions to the main action gives a scene more life, and can help to support the main action. A person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets, he can speak or whistle or he can express emotions through facial expressions.


Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Follow-through and overlapping action are two techniques that help make the action richer and fuller with detail and subtlety. Follow-through action consists of the reactions of the character after an action, and it usually lets audiences know how he or she feels about what has just happened or is about to happen.


Straight Ahead & Pose-to-Pose

Straight-ahead action and pose-to-pose are two different animation techniques that yield fairly different results.  In straight-ahead action the character moves spontaneously through the action one step at a time until the action is finished.
Pose-to-pose action became the standard animation technique because it breaks down structured motion into a series of clearly defined key poses.  The extremes of the actual movement are defined first with the in between scenes being installed afterwards.







Staging

Staging the animation means setting the scene – attracting the viewer’s attention and focusing it on a particular subject or area of the screen before the action takes place. You must remember that the viewers don’t have the luxury of knowing what is about to happen in your animation, so if something moves very quickly, they may not have time enough to realize what is going on.



Appeal

Character personality, or appeal as it was originally called, facilitates the emotional connection between character and audience. Characters must be well developed, have an interesting personality, and have a clear set of desires or needs that drive their behaviour and actions.

Traditional Disney went for an aesthetically pleasing look with their Princesses and creatures such as Bambi and Thumper.



Modern day Disney Pixar characters such as Carl and Russell



 Solid Drawing

Solid drawing as it was called in the 1930s emphasizes the clear delineation of shape necessary to bring animated characters to life. Solid and precise drawings helps to convey the weight, depth and balance of the character, and it also simplifies potential production complications due to poorly drawn characters.

 Here is more solid drawing and direct animation by Bob McKimson


How all the wrinkles wrap around the characters' forms and in perspective when they tilt their heads.




activity12_The Loop


Animation loop essentially uses the same bit of animation over and over again; it is easily detected and can in fact become distracting to an audience.



I choose two animations which are used in a loop technique. 












activity11_ Believability


Disney brought “believability" to animation that wasn't there to begin with. ... Goofy, and Donald Duck, are made to cope with the overwhelming impersonality of a ... drawings, and hence enhance cartoons with a new "believability principle.

I choose this amazing animation which has lots of believability principle .I like this black and white Animation, Successful relationship between music and scene.

silly symphony - the skeleton dance 1929 Disney short 




My all-time favourite Donald Duck 


If a cartoon is too realistic the reader will instinctively relate it into his own world and become uncanny about the mismatches that there eventually are. Any good cartoon, or fiction for that matter, builds up its own universe and makes it clear to the reader what genre this is. One would never hear a critic say that Donald Duck is an unrealistic character.

Donald Duck Put Put Troubles 








activity10_ Synecdoche


Synecdoche is closely related to metonymy (the figure of speech in which a term denoting one thing is used to refer to a related thing); indeed, synecdoche is sometimes considered a subclass of metonymy. It is more distantly related to other figures of speech, such as metaphor. (Wikipedia)

Erica Russell "Triangle"

Beautiful Animation maybe even better than "Feet of Song" I keep looking at it over and over and over again. I love the line, quality and rhythm is particularly moving.




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The association is with the triangle shape, in a human context involving the introduction of a second woman into the mix. This triggers a dynamic of jealousy and rage, though it seems reconciled at the end.

The perspective should be that of a dancer to appreciate the elastic movements of the dancers, the give and take of their relationship, and the sexually charged chemistry as two young lovers embrace before the arrival of another woman to the triangle of love. A painter too would appreciate the lush use of colour. There is passion here that unifies the arts