Animation is Finished

With literal moments to spare, my friend has come through for me with the music for my animation, which fits so well, even with sound effects and all. I love the way that it has come together and is synced with the animation itself.

History of Animation 2

Godzilla 1954 

Going from the last blog of King Kong 1933, now going onto the eastern equivalent. I feel as though it is important to talk about this movie, as it took what Kong did, and went about it in a similar fashion. Although this was not as revolutionary in it's effects, and it provided a different way of having miniatures integrate with live action. This time using large suits with miniature cities. The special effects were revolutionary in the East. Originally they wanted the film to be stop motion like King Kong was, but the budget simply was not there, so the decision was made to use rubber suits instead. These special effects were done by Eiji Tsuburaya, arguably the Japanese equivalent of Ray Harryhausen, specialising in giant monster battles and movies. The sense of scale was done using the cinematography however, filming from low angles to make something seem much larger than it actually was.

Shin Godzilla 2016 

Just showing how Japanese special effects have updated. A reboot of Godzilla was made in Japan last year titled "Shin Godzilla". And instead of using rubber suits, it was completely computer generated. This shows how 60 years can completely the cinema industry. Something that is notable for me, is that before, one man was responsible for the special effects, such as O'Brien, and Tsuburaya, whereas now, a huge team are responsible. I feel like this says something about the production time of a movie these days, trying to get the entire production done in a year, where as before movies were made as passion projects, and really took the time to gain the desire effects before it was released, rather than sticking to the deadline of releasing. 

History of Animation

King Kong (1933)

I could start writing about the history of animation anywhere, and be vague and brief about how it came to be, however I wanted to take a different approach and start with a feature film which I think revolutionised cinema and inspired a lot of movie creators to use stop motion and special effects in cinema. This film being King Kong (1933) directed by Merian Cooper. 

King Kong was a movie which really set the standard for what special effects could do and how they could be utilised in cinema, and how stop motion could be integrated into live action. The animation in this film, was made by Willis O'Brien, the master of animation who taught Ray Harryhausen how to animate. For this, 4 separate Kong armatures were made, each having different desired effects, for example one controlled the facial expression, one was for full body movement etc. As well as miniatures, there were also large articulated models built which were life size to the 30ft tall ape. this was because Willis O'Brien wanted to actually have something in front of the screen for his desired effect, rather than editing something over the top later. There were many things in this movie which were ahead of it's time, the stop motion was better than anyone had seen before, and the sense of realism which was gained from the miniature backgrounds and sets were something which made the movie so believable, even in 1933. 

The most ground breaking effect in King Kong, were integrating the actors into the scene with stop motion creatures. And this was achieved in 2 ways, as there was no such thing as video editing, and green screens in 1933. The first way this was achieved, was exposing part of the frame, then running the same strip of film through the camera again whilst exposing the other part of the frame. The 2nd method was done by using small projections of the actors in the actual scene itself, and filming the entire scene with the projection in the background. 

King Kong really set the precedent for cinema, and revolutionised the world of special effects and stop motion animation. King Kong used invented some of these techniques which inspired many film makers to get into the movie industry, and without it, we would not have today's standard of special effects. 

The Final Animation

This is how my final animation turned out, most notably, the sound is missing apart from the title sequence, unfortunately the music did not get finished in time, so for hand in I will use some stick sound effects and music to complete my animation with for now until it can get it's proper sound effects. I am unhappy with this however it is all I can do given the time. I am moderately happy with this animation, it serve's it's purpose, and it is definitely funny, using the camera shots well and with the right timing, however the animation feels unfinished to me in some places, and that could be due to the fact that I changed how I was animating too late or what not, but it feels very off to me in some places, I feel like a few more in be tween's would help it greatly, so that the motion is more clear, and it feels more natural and not as static, which was also the problem with my last animation, I am however happy with some elements, like the BBQ shadow, the head turn, and the backgrounds I enjoy greatly. going forward I will look at improving my time management and making sure I give myself plenty of time to add more things after finishing next time as I always want to improve it and keep learning more.

Title Card's and Finished Shots

One of the other criticisms of my animation, was that it has no title card so there is no context clues as to where everything is positioned, so I decided to add a title card and an end credit slate so that the audience would know where about everything is in comparison to what.

This is the final throwing the BBQ shot which I am quite happy with, if I were to change one thing it would be his legs, however they work in the context of the animation and with the time constraints that are starting to creep up on me.

2nd Animatic

I'm not sure if you can really call this an animatic, it is my semi complete animation which includes some of my animatic where there is incomplete sections due to needing to show at the 2nd feedback session. I am happy with how the animation is going so far, I have had an update form my music friend and he has assured me the music is being worked on, so I am hoping it is finished before hand in, because without audio, the animation is lacking something severe.

As it stands, this is where my animation is, there is no shots fully complete yet, a lot of it needs polishing and colouring, to make the animation more clear. The stock balls also need replacing with their actual counterparts to make them look like actual balls and not just shapes as well.

Feedback

In this feedback session, I was told I need to work on the timing again, and also need to make him a bit more expressionate with his body language, as his face moves a lot, but he doesn't move his body as well, which is fair, and I will consider as I continue to work on the animation. The animation got some laughs again showing that it has retained it's humour from the original concept.

Changing the Animation technique

I have now started animating with assets, and drawing each individual asset, has somehow been more time consuming than if I was animating frame by frame, and therefore I have decided to draw straight into animate instead and make the animation that way, also because I don't like how static the character's are in animate, it makes them too robotic, and I would like the motion to be clear. Therefore I have decided to do some more frame by frame elements to keep the animation going. I currently have a shot done which is the lifting of the BBQ however it is not coloured. I am also working hard on the first show trying to get the character to move with the balls hitting him is proving difficult to time.

This is the shot I have currently, which shows the man lifting the BBQ, it needs to go slower as he currently lifts the BBQ a bit too easily, and he should strain a lot more as though lifting a heavy object.

Re worked Shots

As per the feedback, I decided it would be a good idea to quickly storyboard the reworked shots which I was going to change around. This is what I came up with for the final shots quickly as concept art rather than actual storyboard, with the final colours shown as well. as shown here it makes it a bit more dynamic, and the shots are changed up a lot due to the nature of what is happening on screen this time around. I am happy with how these reworked shots came out and I am happy that they add to the comedic effect of the animation.

Animating with Assets

For this animation, I am going to try and use adobe animate and use asses converted to symbols, rather than doing frame by frame animation. I think this will save me time overall and make it a lot easier to animate, therefore I will start by drawing out some of the assets and putting them into animate for an animation test to see if the visual style matches the animation. The assets are basically still drawings which can be put into animate, and then moved and switched between to make the character look like it is moving at all times. I still want to make a frame by frame element when the character jumps in the air and throws the BBQ however.


These are 2 of my main assets, the BBQ and Marvin in one of his in-between poses for being hit by one of the balls.

Animatic and Feedback

This was the animatic I used for the crit session where we gained feedback for our ideas so far and explained the process behind them. I am happy to say that  my animatic gained some laughs from my peers meaning that my idea was successful, and I appreciated the feedback a lot, as it will help me take my idea slightly further, and hopefully create a successful animation. I have already been in contact with a friend of mine from Australia who is willing to make the music for me, which I greatly appreciate.

Feedback

The feedback I got was positive and constructive, some of the notable thing were to work on the timing of my shots, and the addition of audio to my animatic so as to further my timing. As well as this, I was advised to have the final shot more exaggerated, so as instead of lifting and throwing over the fence, have the man jump in the air and forcibly throw the BBQ at the child in an anime like fashion. These are things I will consider going forward and I will make sure to note down this feedback to make sure that I take it into account later as well.

Storyboard

This was the final idea I had for my storyboard, and I am very happy with how it turned up, I like the visual style and I think the addition of the BBQ erupting into flames was a great addition as it really drives home the punchline. I still need to go over the top and add in the stage direction and camera movement for my animatic, and I will most likely add in extra frames here and there to better adjust to the timing. I think the way I have worked the shots has worked in my favour, and I am currently ahead of schedule with my project. I am glad I added in the shading to my storyboard, because this means I do not have to worry about lighting direction later. I will work this storyboard into an animatic so that I can take it to the crit session and gain some feedback on what people think of my idea so far, I for one and happy with it.

Character Design

Designing my character

Before I started my storyboard for this animation, I wanted to have a character sheet for my main character, who I have dubbed as "Marvin". My middle aged "average joe" type character who is having the BBQ with the annoying neighbour kid throwing balls at him. I have also been considering whether or not this kid should be purposefully throwing the balls or not, and how I would portray this,

This was the character sheet I came up with for Marvin my character. I did a couple of different designs for him with a few expressions and colour palette's. At first I started with basic shaping, using circles and rectangles, then following that up with a design for each of these. However, the design I made at the end for the colours, was a sort of mix between the 2, in which he is slightly fatter around the waist but altogether holds his shape as a rectangle as was his guideline. I thought of the few general expressions I would need before animating and came up with the 4 at the bottom. I liked the amount of expression he has in the bottom right hand drawing. I also chose the blue vest as his final colour scheme as the pale white skin and faded blue add to his middle aged average joe character.

Forming an Idea

I know at this point that I want to play off of the idea of Neighbours, so my first task I set for myself, was writing a believable plot with a twist at the end which is both slapstick and yet unexpected by the audience. I decided that this skit will be based on the demographic of PG to 12A as it is cartoon violence which is viewed as more lenient than live action.

The Plot

The Plot I want is going to revolve around a middle aged, "average joe" type character who will be having a BBQ on a warm day, when a series of balls fly over the fence and hit him in the back of the head as he becomes increasingly angered. Originally I wanted to have one of the balls burn his face on the BBQ, however I decided this wouldn't add anything to the animation, and would therefore be superfluous as it wouldn't be a funny addition. Therefore I wanted the twist to be a cut to a small kid over the other side of the fence, who is playing in his back garden, when the BBQ comes flying over the fence and continues to crush the child. Clearly, a morbid/slapstick ending to the animation. I want to play with some ideas including whether or not the BBQ should set on fire after hitting the kid, adding an extra punchline over the top of the twist. My concerns are that this would only be funny to me, and not to other people, so I will continue with this idea for now and see what the reaction is form my peers after I have produced a sufficient storyboard and animatic.

My Humour

In my research into comedy, I figured the next step was to look into what I find funny, and the cartoons that have me consistently laughing. Consistency in humour I think is the most important thing, if you are only funny with a comedy show 50% of the time I don't think it can be considered a success, as it is missing it's own points.

The Simpsons

I think "The Simpsons" is the perfect representation of a humorous series that has people consistently laughing in different ways all the time. Through a mixture of techniques it shows that an animation can be funny in many different ways. I was watching an episode of The Simpsons last week which gave me an idea which I wanted to work off of in my own funny animation. One of the words we got given to give us a starter to the animation, was "Neighbours" and there is no funnier neighbour duo than Ned and Homer from "The Simpsons". In this particular skit Homer and Bart are not seen but we can hear them throwing balls over the garden fence at an increasingly angered Ned who then proclaims "will you stop chucking balls over my fence" at which point it is Bart himself who is thrown over the fence. I found this skit really funny because it really went against what the audience was expecting to happen and obviously could not happen in a real life situation. After fruitless searching, I cannot find the clip I am talking about, however it gave me an idea revolving around neighbours and balls being thrown over the fence which could be spun in a different manner with a significant twist at the end.

Humour and Comedy

Make em Laugh

I thought the next thing to do in making a funny animation, was to research types of comedy, and what makes stuff funny.

When looking into humour and comedy, I first found the comedy as in the original type of comedy, not meaning funny in particular but types of story telling and the types of things you would find in an original comedy. This led me to look into what comedians need to know when learning about being a comic and learning about what makes a successful comedian and the genre of humour that people have. Whilst doing this a few caught my eye and started to show some idea development in my head.

The first being slapstick. This humour is driven from someone being physically hurt or violence is staged for comedic effect. This was especially apparent in silent film comedy sketches where they had to rely on body language to drive the joke home, so slapstick was often used as the joke as there was no other way of communicating what the joke was unless doing physical stand up.

The next type of humour which caught my eye is satire. This is comedy which mocks a person's weakness or some form of society. I thought that this could be incorporated into my animation somehow as it is especially apparent in this day and age thanks to shows such as "the IT crowd" and "The Big Bang Theory".

Morbid humour is humour which is especially dark and self aware of this fact, I thought that maybe I could incorporate this into some form of slapstick, which is an increasing theme nowadays, with internet cartoons especially where morbid humour meets slapstick to create some form of vulgar animation where someone is viciously maimed for the sake of comedic effect.

Pixilation

Pixilation 

This was the final pixelation I came up with, it shows a an inanimate object, which is something I wanted to explore from the start. However it turned out slightly different then I had anticipated. Originally I had wanted to use a hoodie rather than a blanket like coat, however I think it still worked out ok, if anything I think it maybe made the object a bit too flat when it was on the floor, if it had been a thick hoodie it would have been a bigger mound on the floor. This may have added more depth to the pixilation. I also imagined it at first being a serious "anime" esk jump scene where the person teleports using the hoodie, however it ended up being a more comedic effect where the clown type character comedically jumps and poses from place to place. 

The struggles I had during this pixilation came from the position I had the camera in, and where it was placed to gain my desired shot. I was positioned on the stairs and in front of a door so I had to keep moving the camera to let people past, which leads to some jumpy shots during the pixilation. During this, With the shot of the coat falling and going downstairs, we had to keep dropping and throwing the coat down the stairs, which could not be replicated one throw after another, so it took a long while to be able to get the desired effect using a single shot camera. 

Make em Laugh

New Brief

For our new brief, we have been asked to make a 25 second "humorous" animation. Immediately after hearing this, you have to start from the bottom, so I thought the best thing to do was find out what makes something humorous, what is comedy, what makes it up, and how can I make an animation funny. Just from my own thoughts, I would say the things that make up comedy, and humour, is how the joke is formatted, who it is intended for, this includes both age, and general demographic. For example I could not make an animation for the age range of 5 - 10 with vulgar language and a lot of violence, because it just wouldn't be appropriate. In my opinion, it is best off deciding who I want my animation to be intended for, before I actually start formulating an idea, so I need to look into age demographics and decide what I can show and joke about in my chosen age range.

In the UK, for cinema and TV we have age ratings. These age ratings are U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 and 18. These mean particular things, and guide what can be in a Film, trailer, or TV show.

The first is U: U means Universal, so it is suitable for everyone, this is especially apparent in kids movies. There can be no reference to Discrimination, Drugs, Violence or Sex in a film which is classed as U, due to needing to be suitable for all and younger viewers may find any of these things disturbing or imitate what they see on screen.

The next class is PG: This means Parental Guidance, PG is usually suitable for the age of 8 or older, and it is advised that children are accompanied to see something of this nature, the classification is more lenient, with some references to drugs so long as there is a clear anti drug message, and only minor violence.

12 and 12A: These are more or less the same, with 12A being the more tame of the 2, both allow moderate violence and references to things such as drugs and sex but not too infrequently and it cannot promote indecent behaviour. 12A means that people under 12 can view the movie but only if accompanied by someone over the age of 18.

15: 15 is a steady between 12 and 18 movies. A 15 allows pretty much everything as long as it is not too graphic about what it shows and as long as there is minimal gore and injury. There is no bar for drug use and sexual behaviour, as long as it is not too graphic.

18: an 18 is the final age rating, and allows all references to drugs, sex and violence, because it requires you be an adult to see the movie in the first place, these films are for more mature viewers.


From early thinking, I believe I want my animation to be in the age rating of PG and 12.