Month: March 2024

During our discussion about the second-year project and what my interests are, Hannah suggested that I could assist with the character design process. I was responsible for creating an expression sheet and pose sheet for the two main characters – a little girl and a granny. Hannah gave me a detailed Excel chart that included the number of expressions and the severity (from 1 to 5) of each expression. Initially, I misunderstood the severity section to mean the quantity and not the quality. As a result, I designed three different levels of curiosity for the character instead of level 3 of curiosity. Although it was a lot of work, it turned out that the expanded chart I created was quite useful as they could choose between the emotions for those specific scenes.

I spent a lot of time researching each emotion reference because they were not typical emotions and the ones I was familiar with. It was the most challenging part of the project, and I couldn’t manage to have more time for the pose list. I suggested to the team that we work on the pose list after the 6th of March because it can be quite challenging and interesting for me to experience.

Another challenge I faced was that the characters were made of basic shapes, and they wanted to have as little alteration as possible. For example, when the character is happy, the jaw will open, and the shape of the head will slightly change. Initially, I drew them that way, but after chatting with the team about their preferences, I found out that to stick with the base form of the character’s face. After watching the recommended reference animations, I got the idea and I challenged myself to design to the best of my ability. It was a valuable experience as I learned how to design characters for animation from their character design, color, hand, body, face, turnaround, and other essential sheets, which will definitely help me in the future. 

Life drawing and showing body movement through expressive lines have always been my passion. I feel that I can express myself and my thoughts through these drawings. During these first few months of studying at UAL, I learned invaluable lessons. However, the most practical lesson came from Vanessa’s life drawing session. She taught us how to exaggerate poses, which was not only challenging but also engaging for me. while she scheduled 4-minute poses, The first 2 minutes were to draw the pose itself, and the remaining 2 minutes were to exaggerate the pose. I challenged myself to quickly balance the squashing and stretching of body parts while drawing them expressively and correctly. (Fig.1). This session made a lasting impression on me. When I was creating keyframes for my body acting animation, I tried to exaggerate the poses as much as possible to express the action more effectively. (Fig.2) I used to rely heavily on references, trying to replicate them perfectly (recording myself performing a scene). However, after that session, I started manipulating those poses and making them more expressive.

Another valuable lesson was the perspective session. We sat on the floor and tried to imagine and draw the model from a low-angle perspective. Although I struggled with drawing the human body in perspective, I was happy with my results that day (Fig.3). Vanessa praised my work but also gave me advice on improving certain parts. This session made me realize that I could change the perspective of the body in my lip-sync project to convey movement better. For example, I adjusted the perspective of the hands when they came closer to the camera or made the upper body and face larger when the character approached the camera to speak. I was satisfied with the outcome.

I discovered that this is my strength in this field, and I want to explore it further in upcoming projects.

Importance of Performance and (some of) its challenges and limitations in animation

Barry J C Purves suggests that all animators need to have the sensibilities of a performer, as that widens the field and brings in dance, mime, singing, and a million related skills. We are performers who happen to be telling big stories on a small scale.¹ 

Through my research, I learned that performers should go beyond the lived human experience into the realm of the extra-daily. This applies to theatre, film, and animation. Performance involves connecting the onstage world with the audience’s thoughts, creating an exchange between the actor and the viewer. To clarify, Extremes (or contrasts) of emotion and behavior engage our attention because they provoke instinctive responses. Our engagement is often further increased when these extremes are presented in a stylized and exaggerated way, as Disney highlighted. 

The impression of life according to Lasseter and Disney, is created by the rhythm of the character’s movement, rather than their appearance or pose. Rhythmic movement, and the emotional tone of rhythmic movement, were considered most significant for appealing characterization. The action, they now believed, needed to be translated into the language of cartoon animation to produce an emotionally engaging performance. They needed to add a touch of artifice and exaggeration through the use of techniques like ‘squash and stretch’ to make it more ‘realistic’.²

I will briefly mention some of the challenges and limitations of representing human movement in digital animation I learned from Annabel Lagasse, PhD Thesis³. Additionally, I need to conduct further research to gain a better understanding of these challenges.

• In observing body language, it is important to study a wide range of people and behaviors. Not only do occupation, age, class, ethnicity, and gender profoundly impact physicality, but also contrasts between people highlight individuality as well as commonality. 
• Animators who are now trained with software, and work within a techno-centric culture, need to know the true limits of body mechanics. They need to understand how particular emotions are revealed dynamically through body movement.
• Perception of emotion behind any movement is often more important than the movement itself. (The training site Animation Mentor advises animators to not be afraid of stillness to accent rhythm or communication.)
• Sensory experience and sensory learning are critical to the animation process. We receive emotional cues through our senses. Digital tools remove the sensory stimulus from the artist (e.g. the feel of the pencil or clay), making it harder for them to develop a feeling for their craft and intuit.  
• When animators work on character, they may have a type in mind, but this is usually based on someone living (personal ‘sense memories’). A friend, co-worker, movie star, a mix, or ultimately themselves, informs their work. Building emotional details into gestures creates the illusion of life. (matching of inner feeling to outer expression)

I am excited to further explore and challenge myself in my animation journey, specifically focusing on the creation of group emotions through expression and determining the mood of actions through the expressive qualities of movement. These concepts are part of Wells’s sixteen basic movement themes of Laban, which represent various aspects of movement construction.

1. Purves, Barry. (2008). Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance.
2. Thomas,Frank, Johnston,Ollie. (1981). Disney animation: the illusion of life, 323. 
3. Lagasse, Annabel. (2015). An Exploration Of The Creative Challenges In Representing Human Movement In Digital Animation. PhD Thesis, Nottingham Trent and Southampton Solent University.