Animated characters in live action films

Animated-characters-in-live-action-films

This might give you some pointers for Learning Outcome one.

Animation Timing

Animation Timing PDF
This PDF might be useful for some people thinking about their animations and how to time the action.

Music and Animation Timing

A few articles on timing animation to music, these are more to do with drawn animation and cartoons, however the theory should be useful.

http://www.animatorisland.com/animating-to-music/

This post discusses the bar sheets used to time the music for an old cartoon;

http://animationresources.org/?p=637

Another post on cartoon timing, this is also reference in the post above;

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2006/08/milt-gray-on-cartoon-timing-past-and.html


There is also a chapter 'Working with Sound' in The Animation Book by Kit Laybourne which has some interesting stuff in it. A copy is available on the 4th floor.  

Sound advice 

Animation Bar Sheet Template

Visiting Animators' Lesson Video

Lesson Video

Here is the link to the YouTube video of the lesson. Consider the need to plan you animation and ways you might need to rig your animation if you are producing stop frame. You can use the comment section on Blogger to direct each other to what you feel are the key parts of the video as well.

Josh Funk's Animation blog.

Josh Funk's blog has some useful information regarding his setup and approach to animation, plus some set building etc.

Here's Josh's last animation on youtube.

Neil Moodboard

Here is a link to a jpg of Neil's moodboard which references examples from last night. The lesson video will follow shortly.

Monty Python - Here is also a link to the Monty Python extract we discussed in the lesson.

Some links from tonights session.

A few links prompted by some of the things we discussed during tonight's session.

Conceptart.org has a 3d section covering both traditional modelling and scuplture, and digital 3D as well, well worth a look - the site also has various tutorials for paintovers and tonnes of inspiring content.

Gorillaz, Dirty Harry - For some reason Blogger wouldn't let me post the video here! Shows some interesting use of combining drawings with live footage.

2D Paintover of 3D render

Along similar lines, this site has a blender paintover as well as some blender animations and other bits.

And some model making stuff to finish off, Aardman props/sets here and here, and some good examples of just how far you can push things here.

Animate Create Booklet

Animate Create booklet

This booklet has some useful worksheets on a range of animation styles.

Treatment form

Storyboard template

Animation - Basic Rigging

A little Photoshop knowledge is assumed here, but if you need any help with this please ask and we can arrange to run through it with you.

Rigging can be useful to help you achieve shots that would otherwise be impossible to capture using stop motion, for example something leaping through the air, or tipping up at one end.

A lot of the time when rigging is used, it is edited out of the shot later using Photoshop or a similar package, this isn’t always necessary if you place your rigging carefully, but we’ll cover it here as even well placed rigging can cast shadows which will later need removing.

You also need to think about whether the rigging will obscure another element of the animation, which could cause you a lot of extra work.

Rigging can be made out of anything that does the job, for example when animating the shoes below, I used a selection of tins and jars, as well as an old classroom clamp from a science lab – I used the same clamp when working with the birdhouse that we’ll use in the walkthrough.

Shoe animation using simple rigging

Still from shoe animation showing tin as rigging

For this walkthrough, we’ll use this simple animation of a birdhouse lifting up from a table.

When you need to use rigging, the basic approach is quite simple; before you setup your shot for animation, take an image of the background with the same camera position and lighting you’ll be using in your shot.

So for example, this is a shot of the table which we’ll be using for our walkthrough animation.

Setup the shot with the rigging as necessary, and shoot as you would normally. You need to bear in mind that any changes of camera angle or lighting will require another shot of the basic setup, for use when editing out the rigging.

The position of the rigging is important here; because the birdhouse will be lifting high enough for us to see the bottom, and we can see the front and both sides of the birdhouse, the rigging had to be attached to the back. We will also be able to see the table behind the birdhouse when it lifts from the table, so the stand for the rigging was positioned to one side of the shot.

Here is the table with the birdhouse in place, attached to the rigging and ready to shoot.

For this example, the shots were very simple and we only need the one shot of the table to use for editing as the camera angle and lighting never change.

Once all the shots were taken, we can take our initial (blank table) shot into photoshop, and have it setup as a background layer.

From there, we can paste the shot of out birdhouse with the rigging over the top, and if we’ve done things properly, everything should line up nicely – check this by toggling the layer on and off, or adjusting the opacity.

Once we’re happy that our two layers line up, we can use photoshop to erase the rigging from the top layer, leaving the setup shot to show through.

Here’s our first frame with the rigging in place;

And with it edited out;

We continue this process for each frame that needs rigging removed, and then animate as normal.

During this process you might run into problems with shadows, hard edges, lighting changes etc – don’t be afraid to use other photoshop tools to make the images work, clone stamp, and airbrush tool (to fade erased lines and rework shadows) can all be useful during this process.

Animation - Making things interesting

There are a lot of things you can do to make your animation more intersting, here are a few simple things you can think about that will help add depth to your work.

Varying Speed

Not everything needs to move at the same pace, for example you might have a mouse running around at speed, and a snail, which will move slower. Making these elements work together will require some planning of shots to ensure that everything moves at the correct pace.

Moving the Camera

It’s easy to position the camera in one place for the duration of the animation and forget about it, however, varying the camera position allows you a lot more freedom, and really draws the viewer into your animation. It’s good to think of the camera as just another element in your animation, which can be repositioned with each shot.

Adding Realism

Depending on the feel you’re going for, realism may not be necessary in your animation, but even the simplest 2D animation can benefit from a little realism. If we take a bouncing ball as an example, simply animating the ball to move straight up and down at a constant speed doesn’t suggest any external forces (such as gravity) acting on the ball, and therefore it’s unconvincing. We know that a ball bouncing will slow as it reaches the top of the bounce, and accelerate towards the bottom, it will also bounce lower with each subsequent bounce.

Thinking about things like this can really help to add depth to your work.

This clip from Coraline sums up the above points nicely, the scene contains a lot of well observed moving elements, alongside a moving camera position to create a complex but believable scene.

Animation - Getting Started

There is an almost overwhelming array of possibilities when you start to look at animation, even if you have a rough idea of how you’d like to work, it’s a good idea to do some research first for examples of what can be achieved.

It’s also good to do some simple animations yourself, perhaps using objects from around your home, just to get a feel for the processes, and the things that need considering when approaching your work.

For example you might shoot some basic stop motion of items in your kitchen, or do some work using images collaged from magazines or newspapers. These quick and simple animations will quickly lead to more ideas, and throw up questions and technical issues, such as how to animate a specific element convincingly, or without having to edit out rigging, how to light something well etc.

It’s also good to look at animation you like, and try to focus on effects that you might like to try and achieve yourself.

Here are a few examples of different approaches to animation;

Gisele Kerozene

Live action animation, shot outdoors, in which the characters fly broomsticks

 

A Town Called Panic

French Animation using models

 

Tekkon Kinkreet

Drawn Animation - based on the graphic novel

 

Proteigon

A Mixture of Live action animation, interacting with Models/Props

The Killer Cars

By Monty Python legend Terry Gilliam, who worked heavily with collaged and drawn images

 

The Trapdoor

A mix of Claymation and Modelled/Drawn backgrounds

 

 

Her Morning Elegance

Stop motion music video with clever use of everyday items