Journal

For my school project, I had to create a brief animated sequence of more than fifteen seconds. I made a short film, but not in the way I expected. This blog is about how I got there and what I learned from this experience.

            My class was introduced to two animation programs, DAZ Studio and Anime Studio 9. DAZ was given more focus than Anime Studio, with the former becoming our default animation software for the class. I found myself not liking DAZ. I couldn’t wrap my head over animating in three dimensions, trying to move the character in an organic way that came off as doll-like instead, and accidently turning my character’s ankle into a conch shell after a failed attempt at restoring it. The software came with preset animation, but I wasn’t sure if it was allowed for the purpose of the assignment. The class were later reassured that my instructor, Dr. Williams, wasn’t looking for professionalism just understanding of the medium but I didn’t listen, too wrapped up trying to be a good animator.

            After a few weeks of looking at DAZ, I approached my instructor and asked if I could try animating with different software. At first my instructor welcomed the idea, until I proposed to try animating with Adobe After Effects. Dr. Williams' cheerfulness diminished, and looked completely unsure at the feasibility of this task, both from his inexperience with the software and my own. I assured him that I hoped to learn how and accomplish it, and he agreed to let me try, albeit with hesitation.

            In class I watched and researched tutorials on how to create an animated feature through After Effects. The web show How It Should Have Ended was initially influenced my decision to try the software as it looked like I could animate my own terms, 2D and simple character structure design. Also the school had After Effects and other Adobe software as well as I; I thought it would be easier to complete at home without relying on the school. I had an idea for a simple skit involving the boy finding a red ball and juggling it. When the boy flies out of frame, in reappears, still in straight trajectory. The rest of the skit would have feature gags ala Portal where he throws the ball forward and comes back hitting him in the back of the head. Then the floor loses its integrity and he starts falling only to grab onto a ledge and prevent his infinite fall.

             However, even when I made my decision in late March, I didn’t get started on my character rig once I became bombarded with more assignments, projects and obligations. Weekends were usually the time I spent to make my comic strips for the school newspaper and sometimes other assignments I could make up. My spare was spent reading material for my lit class or the Illusion of Life: Disney Animation to fuel my blogs for this class. I didn’t start designing my character until two weeks later, and even that took a while because the large file size caused it save slowly when I finished coloring it in class, causing me to give up and do it later after it was making me late for another class.

            It was the last week of the semester, I had just finished my major assignments and I was a day away from having to present my sequence in class. I was stressed, but I wasn’t scared. One animator said on her tutorial that she got a basic walk style for a giraffe in two hours. I import my file on After Effects and I was scared. What I got looked nothing like my original rig; It was huge, the color files were exposed and the line art disappeared. What I got was a bunch of Photoshop layer gobbledygook.

             In desperation, I downloaded DAZ studios, the software being free after all. I was nervous but finding out that when I input the key frames to my rig, the character transitions to that frame smoothly like it was animated, as opposed to original idea that it would appear stilted like 2D. When I tried to render it, hopefully in time to submit it for the presentation, everything went downhill. Rendering took hours, the process was faster when my computer was on but doesn’t do anything when it’s in sleep mode, and I didn’t get the chance to turn my sequence in and present it. After twelve hours, render was completed but the program said it couldn’t save it. After having no sleep that night, I was rightly irate, I screamed at the monitor.

            I tried rendering again at different settings, because I unknowingly picked four, the highest quality render and that factor into the delay, the program, however, would not respond when I tried the different settings, just a constant hourglass symbol. I had to reboot my computer several times when I came to the realization that only four will work and it did. Rendering was shorter, took over three hours while I kept my computer on and hot. I then edited the short through iMovie and added ominous sound effects. I wanted to add crunching sounds to make it appear my character’s bones are breaking and that he’s possessed but iMovie didn’t have it. Oh well.

            On my thoughts of the whole experience: I’ve come to the conclusion that I despise DAZ. After having a terrible experience with the software and that my computer became glitch-y once I downloaded it. The glitches went away when I deleted all traces of the software, and that’s saying something. Another lesson I could take is not biting more than I could chew. I attempted to do something that I had no training or experience and it backfired. However, my classmates experienced technical issues on their projects. “Animation has the potential to blow up in your face,” said Dr. Williams. I agree with him, but I also think it should be rephrased, “It’s less about the animation, and more about the technology that’s supposed to help you, not working.”

Animated Acting

I don’t know where I’ve heard it from, but the animator is the one acting through the animated character, not the voice or reference actor: “After we have given all the suggestions we can that have to do with expressing ideas through the body, then we can come down to the value of the facial expression – the use of the eyes, eyebrows, the mouth – their relation to one another – how the eyes and the mouth have to work together (sometimes) for expression – how they work independently for expression at other times. In other words, then we would go into the combined use of expressive features and expressive actions of the body” (Walt Disney as cited in Johnston and Thomas, 1891, p. 441). But a drawing is a drawing; a drawing cannot act. Johnston and Thomas (1981) disagree, a drawing can act when it displays a change of expression; the thought process is shown (p. 442).

Link

            These are some tips in staging expression:

1.     Resist temptation to tell too much in one drawing. The drawing must be quickly and simply read, no matter beautiful it may be drawn, it should not be forced into a scene if it does not animate properly. Also do not be afraid to discard a drawing if it does not fit the action.

2.     Do not let the expression conflict with the dialogue. This could be distracting if one does this. Also it would be equally disturbing to have a character make an expression that does not fit the personality.

3.     The expression must be captured throughout the whole body as well as in the face. If the character is defiant, his eyes, mouth, brows, cheeks and head altitude will be defiant. Same goes for the rest of his body that is in view.

It’s said the eyes are the windows to the soul, in animation the eyes are allowed greater expressiveness thanks to the squash and stretch techniques. This allows numerous possibilities in character expression:

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For Disney cartoon characters, the basic shape chosen for the eye was the early formula of a circle. This is not the only way to draw an eye, but this shape has given us maximum expression. Walt would keep prodding us to come up with more realism, but we always came back to the circle. We have refined it but never found a better shape. (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 447)

When it comes to animating blinks, 2 seconds is about as long as a character can go without blinking, other wise he or she would appear mechanical and not alive.

Link

            In another blog I discussed animators hiring actors to film key reference scenes and expressions. To understand facial expression, an animator must have an intimate understanding of the face’s parts: “The human face shows a strong relationship between the eyes and the shapes of the cheeks and the mouth in any expression” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 451). Sometimes applying them onto an animal, say an anteater, would be challenging because an anteater’s face lacks that relationship.

            Intertwining dialogue with the expressions proved an interesting challenge when animating. What does a character do when they’re speaking? In the early cartoons, the animators admitted to their tendency of having their characters speak in verse with a clenched fist and their index finger extended. As they evolved, they started utilizing more subtle nuances. Take Stromboli by Bill Tytla: “The mouth and cheek cause the eye cause eye to squint, and even the nose is affected too, either flattening out or pushing up, depending on the action of the face. Underneath all this, the shape of the head changes to fit the design created by the expression” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 454).

            There are twelve ways to help synch dialogue with expression:

1.     Anticipate dialogue with head, body, or gestures three to four frames ahead of the heavy modulation, but mouth sync should be right on the modulation. If it is a closed mouth, it will be on the consonant, and, if possible, remain closed for two more frames in mouth action falls a frame ahead, that is okay.

2.     You need interesting mouth shapes that reflect the personality of the voice. Look for shapes that give you an extra touch of character.

3.     Try to show enough time on the important shapes so that the viewer will be aware he seen a picture of the word.

4.     On holds at the end of a phrase or a line of dialogue, try to retain a mouth expression that reflects the character of the last word. Do not change the mouth shape just because you are through with the word or phrase. Retain the character of the shape in the hold or pause retain the character of the shape in hold or pause with a softening of the action to keep it alive.

5.     There are not too many straight inbetweens in dialogue. You may want to retain one mouth a little longer and then you move quickly into the next one, or vice versa.

6.     If you have a word that has been stretched out fairly long, treat it like a moving hold. Make an extreme which shows the shape you want, then make a second one that is even stronger an “ slow into” it. If the sound is diminishing rather than growing, then your second extreme will not be as strong. Either way, you will keep the feeling of flesh and life in the mouth.

7.     When using the eyes only for synch in an extreme closeup, move the eyes in synch to an accent.

8.     When using a blink to help get a synch, the eyes should close ahead of the accent by three to four frames.

9.     If you are going to start your dialogue on a drifting or slow move without anticipation, it helps to start by moving anywhere from three to eight frames ahead of the accent.

10.  There are times when all your dialogue will have to be on “ones.”

11.  The vowel sounds, A-E-I-O-U always will require some opening.

12.  Consonant sound M, P, B, are all closed are all closed mouths. Keep in mind, however, that the mood of the character may influence the shape.

13.  Be sure teeth are not painted white or they will flash. This can be especially annoying if the mouth is overarticulated.

             However, aside from expression and dialogue, an animator must attain mastery over body language. Some even took acting classes to gain better understanding:

I began to sense why certain people, good actors, communicate and make a character believable. I’ve sat and watched young student actors…and they’re saying the lines the way they were written, and they’re trying to be angry, or trying to be sad, or trying to be humiliated, trying to be aggressive, and they’re doing all these things…and it’s lousy!....And then right out of nowhere, somebody will be doing a scene, and for a brief, maybe, 30 seconds that damn thing comes to life! Suddenly that woman is a woman in trouble, and this guy is being mean and you’re reacting, and your whole being is suddenly focused on that, and then suddenly it dissipates. I mean, one wrong word, one wrong emphasis, and this thing is gone! I think, “What made that work? Why did that happen at that moment?” (Leo Salkin as cited in Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 474)

Johnston and Thomas (1981) cite Katherine Ommanney when listed the techniques to acting:

1.     Are the characters interesting, lifelike, and vivid?

2.     Do you become emotionally involved with them?

3.     Do the gestures and movements seem sincere, convincing, clear and properly motivated?

4.     Does all of the action help to delineate the characters and their situation for you?

5.     Is the action clear cut, realistic, prolonged sufficiently, and exaggerated enough to be seen by the whole audience? (475)

To the animators, acting and to create a believable character is through changes in expression that would reveal the character’s thought process. However, there are other techniques to emphasize emotion:

1.     Rear view: you do not show the character’s expression, but if you add certain elements in the background, the audience would be willing to imagine it for themselves.

2.     Shadows: Shadows are usually associated with suspense and drama.

3.     Shadows over character: adds excitement.

4.     Overlays: If a character is trapped in a restrictive area, if adds desperation.

5.     Dramatic layout: Overpowering shapes and a path of action going down the hill both add to the feeling of depression.

6.     Pictorial shot: a background with a strong view can save difficult animation.

7.     Effects animation: Animation in the forms of nature can establish a mood either by symbolism or showing what the character sees.

8.     Head drawings with camera moves: Some expressions cannot be strengthened by movement. Instead of moving the character, a simulated feeling of activity was achieved by slowly moving the camera into the character’s eyes.

9.     Offstage sounds: No animation is needed on a comprehensive shot of the locale if appropriate sounds can build images in the imagination.

Some expressions are difficult to portray, like love: “It is possibly the most elusive emotion to portray. Like the sensation of warmth, love is built almost solely through the animator’s personal feelings about the drawings he is making” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 494). An animator has to rely on their imagination to portray emotions, like Bill Tytla, who was given the assignment of animating Dumbo with his mother, with the vague instruction, “Get a tender, poignant series of scenes that show how much Dumbo and his mother miss each other, and how much even this limited contact with her means to him” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 497). From this we get the “Baby of Mine” sequence.

             In my first blog, I stated, “Animation is not a genre, animation is a medium.” It is a medium designed and crafted by hundreds of artists to translate stories and fantastic locales through believable characters they’ve brought to life. Yes the market maybe saturated with kiddie fare, but the idea of taking this still image and having walk, talk, and clearly sentient. That’s the art of animation.

Works Cited

Johnston, O., & Thomas F. (1981). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.  

Live Animation

          Speaking from my experience in high school art class, my instructor advised the whole class to never try drawing from memory as without some kind of reference, your subject will not be consistent or fully formed. The same techniques goes for animators. Before any animated film goes into production, studios would hire actors to play out and film scenes in the film’s narrative. This process offers many benefits to an animated production, “As resource material, it gave an overall idea of a character, with gestures and attitudes, an idea that could be caricatured. As a model for the figure in movement, it could be studied frame by frame to reveal the intricacies of a living form’s actions” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 320-321).

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By filming actors, their performance gives the animators rich insight in body language, the intricacies of the face when it expresses emotions, or how costumes would behave if the character did this particular action. Sometime the actors would make a big impact in the little things put in their performance, “Helene Stanley…portrays the gentle Anita in 101 Dalmatians while Mary Wickes is her overbearing flamboyant friend Cruella de Vil. Each actress contributed her own ideas on personality and mannerisms within the framework of the action devised for this particular scene” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 320). Or sometimes out spontaneity, the actor provides their behavioral tics and idiosyncrasies. For example, actress Sherri Stoner would serve as reference actress for both Princess Ariel and Belle, and between takes she would bite her lip in nervousness like Ariel or sometimes brush away a lock of hair from her face like Belle.

When shooting reference material, the following questions are considered. Is the material ready for animation? Does it fit in the story, the character, the mood, tempo, or overall idea? Is it entertaining? Is it just exposition or character building? If we get some entertaining material, can it be used effectively? Am I helping the animator? And in the words of Stanley Kubrick, “Is anything happening worth putting on film?”

A rotoscope image of Gandalf. Ralph Bakshi was infamous for this. Link

Also when filming for animation, care is needed when using it. Animation is a caricature or parody of real life, and it is important to never trace over the material to produce an animated performance. That would be rotoscoping and it’s not animation. Rotoscoping is an animation technique, however, it’s a technique exclusively for inanimate objects like vehicles, to help the animator save the trouble in drawing a rigid, three-dimensional object in motion. The most famous example being Cruella de Vill’s car, which was a white model with black outlines that would photograph as it was animated via stop-motion, to appear it was in motion. The photographs would be Xeroxed and the animators had an inked car cel that need to be colored.

Animating the car chase. Link

When dealing with animal characters, studios would introduce the animators with real animals in order to associate its movement and behavior. An animator would study how an animal would display emotion through its ears or the state of its tail. Mythical creatures on the other hand, an artist was forced to use their imagination. Johnston and Thomas (1981) reported this was an experience Woolie Reitherman had when animating the dinosaurs in Fantasia’s “Rite of Spring” sequence: “It was a disarming request since there was little research possible on what a real dinosaur might have been like, but Woolie was not bothered. He dipped into his imagination, combined that with a few raw animal things he had seen, and, working closely with Bill Roberts, who was directing that sequence, came up with scenes dinosaurs that seemed to be just the way people always imagined these giants should be, if ever they had thought about it before!” (pp. 345).

Works Cited

Johnston, O., & Thomas F. (1981). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.  

Character Development

I think whenever looking behind the scenes of any animated film, my favorite part is seeing and admiring the character designs. Watching how they developed over the course of several ideas until the creators gave their approval over one particular design that became the basis for the character we know and love. Here is a link to blog that has an archive of production art and character designs for various animated films. For example, Johnston and Thomas (1981) discussed the development of The Rescuers using Orville the albatross. Orville’s function in the story is to serve as a vehicle for the two mice protagonists Bernard and Bianca by flying them from New York to a bayou somewhere in Louisiana. Ideas were considered that Orville be a common pigeon:

His most distinguishing business was that he would be catapulted off the ground instead of taking off under his own power. This was a novel idea, but it seems to inhibit the development of the character. Things were happening to him rather than having him make anything happen. (pp. 398-399)

Then the animators had leaned other bird species and took particular interest in the albatross. A bird beautifully coordinate and graceful in flight, clumsy and like a bowling ball on the ground and when they take off. They found the perfect basis for their character.

Link Maleficent, on the other hand, looked the same. Only more dour.

            Another example of developing a character is when Johnston and Thomas recalled the process in trying to pin the personalities of the three good fairies. They had always known Flora would be the self-appointed leader and thought to exemplify it by making her bossy, but the team considered whether this would make the relationship she has with the other two not a very good one as well as make her unlikable. To rectify this, the animators made Flora naturally aggressive; she would dominate without realizing she’s doing it and constantly full of ideas and plans of action.

            They knew Merryweather would serve as a natural foil to Flora, being the most impulsive of the three, the doer to Flora’s thinker. Whenever Flora comes up with a plan, Merryweather would point out the error. This is best represented in the dress and cake scenes in which the fairies plan to surprise Princess Aurora with fancy and a beautiful new dress for her birthday, which also marks the end of their guardianship of her. While Merryweather suggests that they use magic to create the gifts, she is more incredulous at the idea of making them by hand. It would look like a plot hole to most viewers trying to wrap their heads at how these three women survived and took care of their charge when their attempts at housework are disasterous. However, when you listen to her dialogue and understand her role as the foil and straight man imply the disaster was brought about by simply changing jobs. Merryweather said she never “baked a fancy cake,” pointed out that Fauna “never cooks,” and Flora’s never sewed. She knew trying to mix things up spelled recipe for disaster.

            Defining Fauna was most troubling for the animators as they wanted a personality that stood out against leader Flora and hot tempered Merryweather. They took inspiration from an old woman they met whilst taking a trip to Colorado:

She could be described as wispy, constantly smiling, twinkling-eyed, and almost unaware of what was going on about her. She loved everybody, thought beautiful thoughts, could scarcely conceive of wrongdoing, and delighted in spreading what she considered to be sunshine….She was supposed to read an inspirational poem at each meeting of her women’s club, but when she arrived and could not find her prepared selection – instead of being flustered, upset, embarrassed, or confused – she blithely pulled out something else, like a letter from her cousin in Indianapolis, and read it to the assembled ladies. (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 403)

The creators had always intended Fauna to have a ditzy personality, but through this woman, they found a particular brand that made her distinct and endearing. Plus it offers many comedic possibilities, like classic gag of Fauna trying to bake a cake, stacking it before it’s baked and propping it to keep it standing, and futilely putting the candles back in their place all while happily going on how wonderful it will look once it is baked. 
Fauna became the ego to Merryweather’s Id and Flora’s Superego.

Historical Disney Princesses by Claire Hummel 

            Costume is just as instrumental in creating a personality: “In addition to the obvious eye appeal of the color and design, the specific articles that the character wears make him a specific individual. The animator can become excited by the possibilities for caricature and movement in the materials of a different kind of apparel, but, most of all, everyone is stimulated by the personality traits and cartoons business now that the character is becoming so definite” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 415).

Works Cited

Johnston, O., & Thomas F. (1981). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.  

Story

Before animation begins on any project, there must be a strong story. Studios usually begin by developing a premise, logline, or synopsis to start, and when they’re satisfied with the plot, they move onto sequences. Johnston and Thomas (1981) addressed what a sequence serves on an animated film:

Our feature films always seemed to end up with about 14 sequences. No matter how each started out, whether with high adventure or complicated stories, by the time we developed and balanced and streamlined and edited we ended with little more than a dozen. At least two sequences would have been cut out after we started production, and something else would have grown to sequence length and been inserted even later….The fact becomes quite important when a picture requiring many incidents in different locales is being considered. (pp. 368)

When writing a story for animation, it’s important that the narrative isn’t bombarded with constant action that eschew the quieter scenes could be essential for character development. “In our experience, a picture that attempted continuous excitement and dramatic tension never held the attention of their audience. It seemed to dull their senses” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 368).

To avoid this, a list of guidelines are used to help anyone judge the material before animation is started:

1.     Avoid scenes or activities that are only continuity. If there is a mood to be established or scenic atmosphere is needed, then the continuity can be secondary to the pictorial effect.

2.     Avoid expository scenes. If the scene’s purpose is to get a character to talk or explain the plot, avoid it. Instead use a narrator or title to do it.

3.     Make sure the story incident or situation is really interesting. This could be easily achieved by the actors simply letting their personality and decisions form the backbone of narrative, but make sure the situation is strong enough to invite audience investment.

4.     Be sure the characters have an opportunity to come to life, find the entertainment in the situation and character.

5.     Look for places to show the characters thinking. Show them changing attitude, and look for ways to show more facets of their personalities; they should grow through the film.

6.     Ask yourself, “Can the story be done in caricature?” In which can the story be believable, but not realistic?

7.     Tell your story through the broad cartoon characters rather than the “straight” ones, i.e., the side characters.

Regarding dialogue, there are four major ones when writing it:

1.     Do not write dialogue that describes what you are seeing. A character’s words should reflect his feelings about what is happening, and be written in a way that enriches the personality.

2.     The words and the thought behind them should be special to this one character. Have the characters speak in unique dialects, use phrases special to them.

3.     Dialogue must be written so there is something to animate. It has to reflect an attitude that can be drawn or an emotion that can be shown. Again, avoid exposition.

4.     Dialogue must be written so the actor doing the voice can contribute something. It gives more insight to the character in how they phrase their dialogue rather than the dialogue’s exact meaning.
A perfect example of a story sequence done right might be Disney's latest release Frozen, particularly the "Let It Go" sequence. Here is a link to NaClhv's wonderful analysis of thesequence. "Let It Go" is a wonderful example because it's suppose to be seen as a moment of triumph for Elsa as she's finally liberated from her self-imposed restraint of her powers. The lyrics, however, speak that she's only deluding herself  and trading one prison for another. That and her awesome display as an ice goddess create memorable visuals.

Works Cited
Johnston, O., & Thomas F. (1981). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.  

Production

One second of animation takes 24 drawings. The average animated feature is 80 minutes long. That would be 460, 800 total drawings to make a feature length film. To produce animated features, animators, artisits, and filmmakers must team together to work at creating a quality film. These are the jobs and tasks required to produce an animated feature:

Stylist/Backgrounds

Alice in Wonderland by Mary Blair

            A stylist is responsible for creating the look of the film. They would spend hours painting and drawing unique designs that would excite the audience or give the film a particular flavor. The most well known Disney stylist was Mary Blair, who produced concept art for Disney for most of the Silver Age of Animation.

            The concept art would become the basis of the film’s sets and background: “Pictorial scenes or establishing shots require the background to dominate the characters since the scenic picture is more important than the action. The animator must make his drawing fit the background. The preliminary sketch on the left established the color and treatment for the final painting right” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 248).

Storyman/Story Sketch

Aladdin Storyboard

            A storyman is another term for storyboard artist. Since animation as well as film is a visual medium, a storyman is responsible for translating the story ideas, characters, business, continuity and relationships visually. Storyboarding allows animators a rough idea of how they want scenes to play out by drawing them and presenting them in the form of a comic strip. Sometimes they approach the idea from many angles so they can get the best representation of the story’s action.

Director

            The most notable job in any film production, a director’s is to pick the pieces being offered many different people and finding how they can fit together into a cohesive product.

Recording

            Before animation production begins, the film’s roles are casted and recorded, considering animation takes at least three years to complete. To an animation studio, finding the right performer is essential:

We learned to be very careful about choosing voice of a fine performer if it did not sound entirely natural and casual. An outstanding stage voice, or even straight voice, gave the animator very little visual help. Similarly, the phony voice or fabricated voice of the imitator proved to be a problem because it never had sincerity. In a parody or a satire the “put-on” voice works well, but it fails to convince an audience where believability is required. The straight voice will keep the character dull, and the phony voice will lose the audience. (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 206)

In today’s people assume voice acting is the easiest job there is. However, professional voice actors, like Billy West, will contend to that assumption. It’s not easy, it’s not like simply reading the lines and you’re done. No, you have to give a convincing performance with only your voice and not your body to help aid in emoting. Sadly animation studios keep giving voice acting parts to celebrities instead of professionals.

Assistant Director and Cutter

             An assistant director is neither an assistant nor a director. His duties involve record-keeping and ensuring technology runs smoothly. Every frame of the cartoon is controlled and perfectly in-synch with the voice track, music, and sound effects. A cutter helps keeping and marking the sound and voice synchs.

Character Model Department/Handout

Link

            It takes 24 drawings to produce one second of animation, if a studio is to produce an 80-minute film on time, a studio must assign a team of animators for each character that appears on film. In order to this, the Character Model Department hands out model sheets or sculptures to help aid an animator to animate the character consistently. Model sheets entail the dimensions, size, shape, movement, idiosyncracies and other little details.

Story Reel

            Similar to storyboarding, a story artist combines the storyboards with the voice tracks, music, and sound effects into a movie. It’s sort of like watching the “rough draft” of the film. The director would look at story reel and pinpoint areas that could be refined.

Layout

Link

            The layout man is responsible for the appearance of the picture, scene by scene. Kind of like an architect for animated films: “He works with the director on the staging and dramatization, building on the ideas of the story sketch. He designs the backgrounds, suggests the pattern of action for the animator, indicates camera positions for the most effective shot and the cutting that will tell the story in the most interesting way” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p. 212). In live action films, editors have the luxury of editing a film a certain way once all the material has been filmed. Animated films don’t have that luxury and everything must be planned out beforehand. This is a list of things layout men consider when working:

1.     One quick look is all the audience gets – keep it simple, direct, like a poster; it must sell and idea.

2.     Fancy rendering at a later date cannot save a poor original conception.

3.     Always keep screen directions clear.

4.     Keep informed on: art is history, architecture, costumes, landscapes.

5.     Keep informed on: styles, mediums, textures, surfaces, composition, drawing.

6.     Keep informed on: technical information – effects given by different lenses, ground glass, filters, gels.

7.     Mood can be established by timing and movement. For example, sad or quiet – long scenes with slow moves on pan, trucks, and characters. Happy or excited – short scenes, fast cuts, quicker moves on camera and characters.

Here are also four ways to plan and make layouts:

1.     Thumbnails. Gather whatever ideas being offered from the storyboards, later on they might become the basis for final layouts, cutting, and staging.

2.     Traditional. Devote time and thought into visualizing the actual layout so that there is consistent planning. Little changes are expected like extending the drawing so a slight pan move can be used, or moving furniture to make room for another character.

3.     Multiple choice. Visualize the scene from every angle to give the director and animators opportunities to pick the staging and layout they liked best.

4.     Long shot or establishing shot. Works similarly to backing shots in live-action film.

Experimental Animation

            When voices are recorded and the story sequences are approved, it’s then time to start experimental animation. Experimental animation is the period in which the supervising animator tests how the character will look, behave and what personality may manifest in rough animation. A perfect example of this would be the video I posted earlier featuring the experimental stages Disney took in creating Tarzan (see Technology and Techniques).

 Supervising Animator

            The supervising animator is the lead animator, responsible for the work done by the animators under him: “The supervising animator would talk to them about the character they were doing, exchange ideas on how to keep him consistent in appearance, suggest business that might fit into their section of the picture, or discuss further ways they all might develop the character. He might also commiserate when things went wrong or try to defend his animators if they were unjustly criticized” (Johnston and Thomas, 1981, p 224). The supervising animator also does the key poses in a sequence, then they are handed to his or her team to complete the motion. 

Assistant Animator

            Animators also known as inbetweeners. Their job is to clean up the animator’s rough key poses, details are consistent, the animation is always on model.

The Work Reel

            Like the story reel, where it’s storyboards compiled into movie format, the work reel is a compilation of rough animation. A popular term for this is “sweatbox,” in which the director, layout men, etc. review an animators work in a small heated theater.            

Effects Department

            When an animated film calls for a special effect, it goes to a branch of animators who specialize in them. If the film required things like fire, water, wave splashes, lighting and moving shadows, the effects animators would study the elements’ movement and behavior for inspiration. Then they would animate and caricature the effect needed for the film in layers. Fun fact: The Little Mermaid beat out Fantasia for most special effects used, attributed to the number of bubbles the film used.

Color

            Color is the most difficult aspect in an animated film. Johnston and Thomas (1981) reported: “Every color system on film has its own strengths and weaknesses that somehow must be mastered by the craftsman who wants to put his color theories on the screen. It is often an annoying and frustrating gamble but it is worth the effort if one is at all concerned with the appearance of the product” (pp. 268). Color is selected to add realism to the film, however, some choices may conflict with the background. For example, Johnston and Thomas (1981) noted that Captain Hook’s black hair blended in the shadows of the background, making him look like he was bald. In fact, Princess Ariel’s iconic color scheme of red, green and purple was chosen to avoid these issues. Ariel was originally imagined as blonde, the animators changed her hair for two reasons: 1. To avoid comparisons from the movie Splash, which featured a blonde mermaid. 2. Red hair was less taxing to shade or find alternate colors for different lights, especially since Ariel goes from underwater to the surface.

Ink and Paint

Link

            When animation is complete, the drawings go to the Ink and Paint department where they will be traced over with pens on one side, then the insides are colored in. The result is a complete animation cel. Overtime the process, especially the ink one, was really time consuming. The ink technique was done away with new Xerox technology, which allowed animators to ink their drawings with efficiency and retain the graphical designs that was usually overshadowed by the old technique. It was beneficial by the time Disney was making 101 Dalmatians which allowed the animators to efficiently create 99 Dalmatian puppies, especially because spots were hard to animate. Unfortunately, pencil marks and scratches were notoriously picked up by the Xerox process, which gave the resulting animation a very scratchy quality that was persistent throughout the 60s and 70s. This was done away when Disney began digitally inking and painting their animated features with the coloring CAPS system in the 90s, which allowed the graphic and efficient quality of the Xerox, but retained the beauty and elegancy of the old techniques.  

Works Cited

Johnston, O., & Thomas F. (1981). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.