Gift of life
27/04/07 Filed in: movement
To open the discussion about animation and movement, I asked the students What is animation? What does animation mean to you? and wrote our responses on the whiteboard:
the creation of synthesis of movement
real life from a comic perspective
bringing things to life
bringing our fantasies to life
the ability to create moving art
the unconventional creation of movement
being able to use your imagination etc
freedom of expression
bringing things to life that can't move themselves
giving individual identity to the animated object
FUN!
Pinocchio
Then we looked at the opening 20 minutes of Disney's 1940 classic narrative animation based on Carlo Collodi's story, to study the different types of animated movement onscreen.
The movement of the 'inanimate' objects - the clocks, the wind-up toys and Pinocchio as a wooden puppet, gives a very different impression to that of the 'living' characters - Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Figaro, Cleo, The Blue Fairy and Pinocchio when he has been given 'the gift of life'.
Jiminy Cricket the narrator is like a performer on the stage. He uses body-acting/mime and creates meaning through movement. His postures tell the emotional tone of the story, and the shadows reinforce meaning.
The 'living' characters are rendered in squashy, strectchy lines with motion blurs. Even when still, the figures remain alive because some part of them is moving - for example, their outline 'breathes' and there are small eye movements, like blinking, to remind us of their living qualities.
The characters have more human characteristics to make them distinctly individual with a unique identity. They respond to their environment and the situation they're in. They don't say that they're tired, they act it through expressive movement and facial expressions.
All the characters are funny and cartoon-like except for The Blue Fairy, the filmstar - a realistically-styled superhuman female, sent by the Wishing Star to answer Geppetto's prayer and give life to the marionette Pinocchio.
Paper Cuts liked the way Figaro was picked up by Geppetto just as you would pick up a real kitten. You could see gravity acting on the mass of the body and stretching its furry skin, a bit like when you pick up a beanbag he said. Paper Cuts was also impressed by the animators' rendering of sleeping Cleo because she breathed out a stream of bubbles, and then sucked the bubbles back into her fishy mouth with her next intake of breath.
In contrast, the illusion of movement exhibited by the mechanical devices is unvarying, the rigid edges of the wooden objects and automata don't deform. We see them move but we don't think they are alive. The devices are wound up and set in motion according to the design and making of Geppetto. The dancing automata don't react when Jiminy Cricket tries to cut in between them, their facial features do not change. They are not made of living wood like Pinocchio.
Watching the wooden clockwork objects, I did see an elephant's trunk sway to and fro - almost crossing the perceptive line that separates inanimate object from animated subject.
wiggzy noticed that the bright, squidgy living characters seemed to become more alive because they stood out against their background. The different style used to render their animated images contrasted with the European fairytale-illustrated interior of Geppetto's workshop.
As soon as Pinocchio becomes alive, his face becomes - literally, animated. He can move himself - instead of being manipulated by his creator Geppetto. Although his wooden arms and legs remain straight-edged, his gestures are expressive - there are some 'cheats' in his movements when the animators bend his limbs (hiding the curve) as this makes him more alive.
the creation of synthesis of movement
real life from a comic perspective
bringing things to life
bringing our fantasies to life
the ability to create moving art
the unconventional creation of movement
being able to use your imagination etc
freedom of expression
bringing things to life that can't move themselves
giving individual identity to the animated object
FUN!
Pinocchio
Then we looked at the opening 20 minutes of Disney's 1940 classic narrative animation based on Carlo Collodi's story, to study the different types of animated movement onscreen.
The movement of the 'inanimate' objects - the clocks, the wind-up toys and Pinocchio as a wooden puppet, gives a very different impression to that of the 'living' characters - Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Figaro, Cleo, The Blue Fairy and Pinocchio when he has been given 'the gift of life'.
Jiminy Cricket the narrator is like a performer on the stage. He uses body-acting/mime and creates meaning through movement. His postures tell the emotional tone of the story, and the shadows reinforce meaning.
The 'living' characters are rendered in squashy, strectchy lines with motion blurs. Even when still, the figures remain alive because some part of them is moving - for example, their outline 'breathes' and there are small eye movements, like blinking, to remind us of their living qualities.
The characters have more human characteristics to make them distinctly individual with a unique identity. They respond to their environment and the situation they're in. They don't say that they're tired, they act it through expressive movement and facial expressions.
All the characters are funny and cartoon-like except for The Blue Fairy, the filmstar - a realistically-styled superhuman female, sent by the Wishing Star to answer Geppetto's prayer and give life to the marionette Pinocchio.
Paper Cuts liked the way Figaro was picked up by Geppetto just as you would pick up a real kitten. You could see gravity acting on the mass of the body and stretching its furry skin, a bit like when you pick up a beanbag he said. Paper Cuts was also impressed by the animators' rendering of sleeping Cleo because she breathed out a stream of bubbles, and then sucked the bubbles back into her fishy mouth with her next intake of breath.
In contrast, the illusion of movement exhibited by the mechanical devices is unvarying, the rigid edges of the wooden objects and automata don't deform. We see them move but we don't think they are alive. The devices are wound up and set in motion according to the design and making of Geppetto. The dancing automata don't react when Jiminy Cricket tries to cut in between them, their facial features do not change. They are not made of living wood like Pinocchio.
Watching the wooden clockwork objects, I did see an elephant's trunk sway to and fro - almost crossing the perceptive line that separates inanimate object from animated subject.
wiggzy noticed that the bright, squidgy living characters seemed to become more alive because they stood out against their background. The different style used to render their animated images contrasted with the European fairytale-illustrated interior of Geppetto's workshop.
As soon as Pinocchio becomes alive, his face becomes - literally, animated. He can move himself - instead of being manipulated by his creator Geppetto. Although his wooden arms and legs remain straight-edged, his gestures are expressive - there are some 'cheats' in his movements when the animators bend his limbs (hiding the curve) as this makes him more alive.