Frank Thomas and Olllie Johnston - Website :12 Principles of Animation

In no particular order (yet) :-) These were taken from Frank Thomas' and Ollie Johnston's website. The site also features "War Stories" from working on classics such as Snow White (1936) and the 9 Old Men.

http://frankanollie.com/PhysicalAnimation.html

1. Exaggeration
2. Good Drawing
3. Ease in and Ease Out
4. Staging
5. Squash and Stretch
6. Follow Through and Overlapping Action
   
7. Secondary Motion
8. Straight Ahead Animation
9. Pose to Pose Animation
10. Anticipation
11. Arcs
12. Timing
    

Citation:
Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. The 12 Principles of Animation. 2002. FrankAndOllie.com. AWN. 03 June, 2007. <http://frankanollie.com/PhysicalAnimation.html>

The Illusion of Life by: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

Perhaps the most important book about the craft of animation from two of its originators. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were two of the Disney's 9 Old Men, animators who molded the early Disney empire through their animations, character designs and storytelling through the 1930's - 1960's. Below are notes from their text "The Illusion of Life" specifically related to the topic of emotion:

"Conveying a certain feeling is the essence of communicating in any art form. The response of the viewer is an emotional one, becaus art speaks to the heart. This gives animation an almost magical ability to reach inside any audience and communicates with all peoples everywhere, regardless of language barriers." (15)

"It is one of animation's greatest strengths and certainly one of the most important aspects of this art for the young animator to study and master." (16)


Citation:
Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation". New York. Hyperion. 1981.

Acting for Animators : by Ed Hooks

Ed Hooks' text "Acting for Animators", is by far the most informative source I have found on my subject. Most importantly, its causing me to rethink my use of the term "intersubjectivity" and change it to "empathy". I'm finding that intersubjectivity is too big a topic to wrap my head around, when empathy seems more direct and as Hooks demonstrates in his book, is also connected to emotion.

Below are notes from the most information chapters that will help to shape my thinking about the subject.

7 Essential Acting Concepts:

• Thinking leads to Movement & Emotion
• Acting is reacting, acting is doing
• The character needs to have an objectiv
• The character must play an action until something happens for him to play a different action.
• All action begins with movement.
• Empathy is key. Audiences empathize with emotion.
• A scene is a negotion

The Audience

• "Let's pretend together" is the agreed contract. (20)
• Performance varies depending on audience. (21)
• An animator must lead the audience, its not enough to make an character move, he must move for a purpose. (21)
• Confidence on stage manifests into centeredness. (22)
• "It is not enough to merely animate a character, to make him move believably. A character must be animated with theatrical intention, theatrical purpose".(22)

Theatre is more than real life. (22)
Reflect reality by being aware of it. (23)
We learn through imitation. (23)

Chapter 3 : Character
Personality:

• The key to personality is action. "Personality is inherent in action, and action is inherent in life". (25)
• "When you animate a character, you are expressing its thoughts and emotions through the illusion of movement, or action". (25)
• The driving force behind the action is mood, the perosnoality, attitute of the character or all three. - Walt Disney (25).
• "Movement is an effort to survive in the world" (25)

Character Analysis:
Audiences expect much more. Which town? East or West, uptown or downtown? Be specific. (28)

Things to consider for human characters:

• Male, female
• Age
• Physical Health
• Hygiene
• Intelligence
• Diet
• Culture
• History
• Religion
• Income
• Occupation
• Education
• Sex
• Family
• Friends
• Inner Rhyth? (Good One).
• Psychology (introver, extrovert)
• Goals
• Name

For nonhuman characters. Include all of the above plus the following;

• Defense Mechanism
• Diet
• Life Span
• Relatives
• Sense of Humor
• Goals
• Relationship to others in the story.

"80% of what is happening to a character is under the surface, tied up in context, character background and given circumstances". (32)

Primal Analysis
"A primal analysis will help you tap into a a commonly shared stream of human values, leading you more toward empathetic acting choices."(32)
The reasons for actions must be specific. Cruella De Ville and the Wicked Witch in Snow White are compelled to do what they do. They cannot help themselves. Find the primal motivation and you find the emotion and driving force behind all human behavior. This technique has worked for Ed Hooks, the author of this text. Doing this creates nice starting points to create empathy with the character.

"All humans act to survive". (36)

"When you feel empathy, you identify with him." (37)

Emotion and Empathy:
"Our goal...is to make the audience feel the emotions of the characters, rather than appreciate them intellectually. We want our viewers not merely to enjoy the situation with a murmered "isn't he cute?". but really to feel something of what the characater is feeling. If we succed in this, the audience will now care about the character and about the what happens to him, and that is audience involvement. Without it, a cartoon feature will never hold that attention of its his viewers.

- Frank Thomas ad Ollie Johnston, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

The Six Basic Emotions:

• Happiness
• Surprise
• Fear
• Anger
• Disgust
• Sadness

Emotion affects the way you move, and how you move affects the way you feel. (46)

"When Wile E. Coyote is chasing Road Runner, he is driven by emotion. If he stopped to think about it, he'd probably give up the chase because it surely must be clear by now thathe is not ever going to catch that bird. We in the audience empathasize with his campaign, however, because we have all, at one time or another, been obsessed with something or someone." (47)

- Ed Hooks, Acting for Animators

Examples of "Empathy" (47)

• King Kong in a cage - fear and sadness
• A winner at the Academy Awards - happiness and elation
• "I feel your pain" - Bill Clinton

Charlie Chaplin and Empathy
"All of acting rests on the search for the positive motivation, the survival mechanism, in the characters". (51)

Bugs Bunny was an optimist like Chaplin. A strong character trait that is carried on scene after scene.

A Process of Exposing Not Hiding
I am not you and you are not me, but we know of vengeance, therefore you or I could play Hamlet (52).

Not creating a character, but releasing a character. Shows our understanding of the character.


Adrenaline Moments
Times that a character would remember 50 years later. (55).
Adrenaline is what marks our brains. It forced us to remember bad things in order for us to survive.

MOVEMENT and BODY LANGUAGE

Movement
"Animation is movement. Movement is animation." (61)
"Movement is a result of thinking and emotion. An animator really should have profound understanding of the connections between thoughts and movement, emotion and movement, how movement impacts on the audience and how it impacts on other actors in the scene." (63).

Body Language
There is no generic universal way to do anything. This is done through the artist's interpretation of details, this "has everything to do with the artist's perceptions of and attitudes about the world around him, coupled with the understanding of his character's value structure, physical attributes, and situational context". (64)

Movement and body language precedes words. (64)

"The purpose of movement is destination....In general, sometimes you pause, sometimes you don't. Depends on the moment and your objectives and, most often, an actor is as surprised as everybody else when he pauses on stage." ( 65)

Disney discovered that character animation involves the whole body and not just the face.

Body language is more important than facial expressions, half of the time. Get the body first and then animate the face later (65).

• Body Movement Generalities
• Arms folded = closed
• Hands behind back = I won't defend myself
• Confidence = weight centeredness
• Cerebrals lead with the forehead
• Throat exposed = vulnerablity (Gomer)
• A beer belly man is off balance and therefore will use his hands to brace himself.
• In an interrupted conversation, a person turns towards the disruption before his head.
• Embarrassment = low status. Shrivelling.
• Anxiety = Energy above the chest and seen in the head.
• Movements above the waist = lightness.
• Below the waist = heaviness
• Elderly people take little steps for comfort. Their head and spine is usually connected as the spine experiences pressure. There mouths are open more to get more oxygen in.

Power Centers
The power center of Woody Allen is in his head. He leads with it. It is shaky and not stable. Bogart's in Casablanca is low and therefore more stable.

Physcological Gesture
"My heart is broken" is not as effective as a saying it with a hand gesture, such as that of breaking a stick. (69)

More on psychological gesture:
On the Technique of Acting by Michael Checkhov (1991).

Speech
"Since the audience expects to hear dialogue once the impulse t speak is evident, there is comedy to be found in putting a delay between the impulse and the actual audible sound. The audience will hang on with great expectency...Try it yourself. You can hold an audience on the tip of your fingers for a very long time this way. If you they feel youar eabout to say something, they'l hang in thee iwth you. 've never seen aan animator use thise lesson, but thes is not reason why it would not work there too." ( 80)

The Look of Memory
Understand how memory works. If I'm asked to remember something distant, my eyes will shift.

Active Listenting = Reflective Listening
Character 2 knods to let character 1 know that he is listening. He doesn't have to knod, he can do any movement.

CLASSROOM EXERCISES (106 - 109)
Each was designed and kitchen tested by Hooks to teach something to animators. More on the topic can be found in a book by Viola Spolin "Improvisation for theatre".

• Animal Exercises
• What is my profession, what is my age?
• Given Circumstances Game
• Gibberish
• Opera
• Status Transaction Game
• Boss and Workers Game

Citation:
Hooks, Ed. "Acting for Animators". Portsmouth, NH. Heinemann. 2000.

New Animation Technology :: Image Metrics

The New York Time's Sharon Waxman presented a video clip showcasing new animation MOCAP technology from Imagemetrics. The clip shows the ability to map video footage to already created 3D maps.

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=650ff1e00d0677c95caaad8c9938664384ba9652

We had a discussion in my animation portfolio class about the impact this technology makes. The question of the day: Why do we need animators if this technology now makes it easy to animate facial features and movement? With this technology, there is little need for rigging.

The short answer to this, is that an artist must still provide cleanup and subtle refinements to either the mesh or movement in order for it to be effective. As an animator, it may not be a bad idea to stay abreast of this technology as we see it more and more.

The imagemetrics sight can be found here:
http://www.image-metrics.com/

Sage Journal Site

http://online.sagepub.com/

Thanks Ron!

Animator Sites and Blogs

Mark Mayerson
Mark Mayerson, a professional animator presented his MFA thesis about "Acting and Animation" to an audience in New York. His presentation is presented on his blog here.
The blog was interesting, and because of the format, people are allowed to share anonymous thoughts and comments about his topic. From the replies, you get the feeling that these are other animation professionals working in the field. I learned a lot by reading the repies.

The blog discusses the role of the animator within a character. It mentions different processes to get ideas across, examples from animation history and how character animation is compared to traditional stage acting. In his blog, Mayerson discusses the notion of typecasting in animation. In traditional stage or film acting, this works well and he uses the Marlon Brando example to illustrate that it was Brando's brain that created the character of Vito Corleone.

http://mayersononanimation.blogspot.com/2006/11/collaborative-nature-of-animated.html


Tim Kallock
Is a talented animator whose strength is in is posing and emotions. His blog can be see here.
http://www.timkallok.blogspot.com/

IDEA BOX

1) History Lesson with the Animation:
Since a component of the thesis revolves around developing a curriculum, why not focus on making the assignments, which will be geared towards students, more of a well rounded experience. Incorporate some lessons where in the student researches and emulates the movement of a character from animated by a famous animator pre Limited Animation Era. For example, take the existing CG character and animate a Chuck Jones or Tex Avery monologue.

Automating Autonomous Pedestrians

By Wei Shao, PhD

Shao's abstract and introduction explains how difficult it is to replicate realistic human walk cycles to give structure life. His thesis touches on a subject that I have been thinking about and that is the idea of the connection between viewer and animation. He is studying and exploring ways, in which the animation can be more believable. The beginning of his abstract sets a nice premise for his course of study. A sample of his abstract is below:

" State-of-the-art computer graphics modeling and rendering techniques can be used to create photorealistic imagery of static objects, but they do not yet enable the automated animation of human beings with anywhere near as much fidelity. This thesis addresses the challenge. Our focus is the emulation of real pedestrians in urban environments. To this end, we develop an entirely autonomous pedestrian model that requires no centralized, global control whatsoever and is capable of performing a variety of activities in synthetic urban spaces, such as a virtual train station."

Shao, Wei PhD. "Automating Autonomous Pedestrians". New York Universtiy Press. 2006.
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3205679

Artificial Intelligence :: Expressive Emotion

By Alyssa Lees

This thesis explores alternatives and tools for making MOCAP work. In it, she explores expressive movement, deformable rigs, motion data and the ability of the computer to adjust and fill in the blanks of recorded movement. Her introduction not only sets her claim, but also describes the industry and breaks down what to expect chapter by chapter throughout the thesis. A snippet of her abstract is below:

" The key aspect is the creation of a deformable skeleton representation of the human body using a unique machine learning approach. The deformable skeleton is modeled by replicating the actual movements of the human spine. The second step relies on exploiting the subtle aspects of motion, such as hand movement to create an emotional effect visually. Both of these approaches involve exaggerating the movements in the same vein as traditional 2-D animation technique of 'squash and stretch'. Finally, a novel technique for the application of style on a baseline motion capture sequence is developed. All of these approaches are rooted in machine learning techniques. Linear discriminate analysis was initially applied to a single phrase of motion demonstrating various style characteristics in LABAN notation. A variety of methods including nonlinear PCA, and LLE were used to learn the underlying manifold of spine movements. Nonlinear dynamic models were learned in attempts to describe motion segments versus single phrases. In addition, the dissertation focuses on the variety of obstacles in learning with motion data. This includes the correct parameterization of angles, applying statistical analysis to quaternions, and appropriate distance measures between postures. "

Lees, Alyssa. "Expressive Emotion". New York University, 2006.
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3234154

Pratt Institute MFA & BFA Animations

http://dda.pratt.edu/gallery.php

Ways to Integrate Sources

Paraphrasing:
As a rule of thumb, no more than 3 words per sentence can match the original, otherwise you will be accused of plagerism.

Quotations:
Use quotations marks and be sure to offer an evaluation of the quote.

Summary:
A shortened version of the text, that usually lists the main topics and points for discussion.

Introduction Example

Designing and Implementing Kiwi: A Secure Distrubuted File System for HTTPS:
by Austin Che

http://austinche.name/docs/kiwi.pdf

In his introduction, Austin describes his motivation

1. Motivation : Brief history and describe terms.
2. Current Status and how this improves industry.
3. How the thesis document is broken down and organized.

Introduction Example

Designing and Implementing Kiwi: A Secure Distrubuted File System for HTTPS:
by Austin Che

http://austinche.name/docs/kiwi.pdf

In his introduction, Austin describes his motivation

1. Motivation : Brief history and describe terms.
2. Current Status and how this improves industry.
3. How the thesis document is broken down and organized.

Intersubjectivity Article

I Know That You Know That I Know. Butte, George. ohistateuniversitypress.com. 5/07/07.
http://www.ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?/books/book%20pages/butte%20i.html

Thanks Carol!

Painter Notes : Things to Try

"Pick Up Underlying Color" setting, lets you pick up colors in layers underneath as you blend.



"Watercolor Layers" act like watercolors. Colors blend into each other.

Perspective in Art. Abstract painting. Use perspective grid

Cartoony loooks.
Felt Pen Brush > Thin Marker 10 to ink a scanned drawing. Colors are used by paint bucket. Paint the background.


Drawing faces: Use proportion lines and layout features.

Thesis Intent & Significance

What is the intent of your study? What significance does your study have for a particular audience?

I’m going to stick my neck out here…I’m a little nervous in sharing this, but I’m compelled to share my strongest feeling/reason for the intent of this study. Some of it will be included in my thesis, but I know that eventually it has to be presented in such a way that one will be able to see the greater good. It sounds selfish at first, but as I read this again, its not that bad. I’m considering this as a form of catharsis…let the healing begin.

I want to get better! I have been teaching classes in the Media Arts and Animation Department in our school for over a year since I requested that I switch groups from being a graphic designer to an animator. I thought it was better fit and it is. In teaching animation students however, I don’t have the experience of working in an animation studio or small animation production house to be able to instruct my students in the way I would like, but I do my best. Being in this program has made my classes better, and with the development of this thesis, I hope to make a greater impact.

I want this study to not only give me the experience and samples needed to be a better animation instructor, but to also enrich my understanding of how animation could be used to effectively convey character emotion and understanding (intersubjectivity). It creates connectedness between the character and the audience, which is key as it inevitably drives stories produced for feature film, video game and television.

As an instructor, I want to develop curriculum that would help students develop these marketable skills not only for the students’ benefit, but to improve the industry by providing a solid accessible foundation for animating characters’ emotion and understanding by the viewer.

The audience who would benefit from this would be intermediate to advanced level animators and instructors who want to improve their skills in animating emotion, animation students, independent animators and newly hired animators.

Thesis Questions:

Below is my tentative thesis title which served as my focal point from which I will base my objectives. I then broke down this title into different components which served as a starting point for generating questions. Some of the questions are accompanied by a few personal thoughts that I think would lead to more helpful questions, and so that I would not forget them.


Tentative Thesis Title:

“Animating Emotion and Intersubjectivity: How to run off a cliff with style”


1) Why is animation important and who benefits from it?

2) What are some of the trends in animation?

3) What are some of the problems with animation today?

4) How is “emotion” defined by animation?



EMOTION & INTERSUBJECTIVITY :

5) In what ways is “emotion” important? What’s a good example of this?

6) What is intersubjectivity? What’s a good example of this?

7) How does intersubjectivity relate to emotion? Are both possible to accomplish at the same time? What are good examples of this?

8) How is emotion expressed in characters?

8B) How are the “12 Principles of Animation” helpful in animating emotion?

9) How is facial structure, gesture, body language, hands and shapes used to express emotion?

10) What are some best practices used for stage plays and drama that help convey emotion? Are there any theses or studies about this?

11) How does timing affect emotion?

12) Who are some examples of animators (past and present) that are expert in animating emotion?

13) What are some of these animators doing today, and how is there knowledge of emotion help them with their work?

14) What are some of the components that make intersubjectivity possible?

Some examples include: Eye contact, sharing of common experiences, scene set up, character appearance, character and scene lighting, and timing.

15) Which is more important: emotion or intersubjectivity? Or is one part of the other?

I think successful emotive animation leads to intersubjectivity, but I’m investigating to see if it could go the other way around.

16) Where is this leading animation into the future?



WORKSHOP

17) What character models am I going to use? Where am I going to get these?
How much do these cost? And who do I got to treat?

18) Are these random exercises or do all of these excercises culminate towards a final animation?

19) How complex or simple should these exercises be?



TEACHING

20) How should these workshops be structured so that an intermediate student can learn these techniques? And in which order should they be presented.

21) How many workshops / exercises should I have? And how should each be designed and presented?


22) Should I include an evaluation process for teachers to use?

I probably should include some.

23) What are some common mistakes that students and instructors should watch out for in executing the exercises.




SHARING & DOCUMENTATION

19) What’s the best way to document my thoughts and progress?

21) How do I make it accessible to everyone interested so that it helps the larger community?

I thought about creating a website where all of this would be made available. It could then be accessed by all animation schools, and companies to be used for artistic creative renewal and improvement of animation skills for beginning entry level animators.

If the models are available for public use, then documentation for how to use them should also be created. What does this include?