VALs

My VALS score listed me as Primary: Strivers 

"Strivers are trendy and fun loving. Because they are motivated by achievement, Strivers are concerned about the opinions and approval of others. Money defines success for Strivers, who don't have enough of it to meet their desires. They favor stylish products that emulate the purchases of people with greater material wealth. Many Strivers see themselves as having a job rather than a career, and a lack of skills and focus often prevents them from moving ahead..." 

There are some aspects of this that I agree with, but it sort of makes me feel lame too. "Trendy and fun loving" seems cool, but then going in to money, and requiring it to meet my desires.  This is kind of true, I do like having nice things and often can't afford them but will make myself afford new shoes and forego something more important so I can purchase fancy new things.   I can see this being super helpful to anyone trying to sell me something. 

I am in transition, back in college after graduating in 2006, so maybe that's why my secondary score was: Achiever

"With many wants and needs, Achievers are active in the consumer marketplace. Image is important to Achievers; they favor established, prestige products and services that demonstrate success to their peers. Because of their busy lives, they are often interested in a variety of time-saving devices."

Now, I want to have a career, but I don't want to drive around in a Mercedes and have a personal chef...now, that does sound cool, and I wouldn't complain if I did have those things, but it's not a personal goal of mine.  I want to be comfortable and successful, but I don't need to be celebrity status successful. 

The Illusion of Life, Chapter 6: Appeal and Dynamics

“We seem to know when to ‘tap the heart.’  Others have hit the intellect.  We can hit them in an emotional way.  Those who appeal to the intellect only appeal to a very limited group.  The real thing behind this is: we are in the motion picture business, only we are drawing them instead of photographing them.” - Walt Disney

Appeal is similar to Mood (Chapter 5) and is a key factor in making a successful animation.  In Chapter 5, the mood of the character is touched on; the importance of the body language and the ability for the audience to forget that they are looking at a series of drawings, or a computer animation.  I believe that Appeal and Mood go hand in hand, and you can’t have one without the other.  Take Pixar’s “Up” for example, there’s not one character in that film that a person couldn’t relate to in some way.  I’ve seen tons of people with the tennis balls on the cane, then you’ve got the boy scout without a father figure who finds it in Carl (who doesn’t have children because he discovers that his wife cannot - this is in a sad and very heartstring tugging series of scenes in the beginning of the film.)  And while we are speaking of a tapping the heart, as Disney calls it, I will go back to “Up” and sing it’s praises on the plot and character development; this is what causes the audience to be sniffling and attempting to bravely hold back tears within 10 minutes of the film.  

I don’t think that Disney is the only company able to bring this to the table, however; other companies work hard to do this to gain a customer base.  Hallmark Greeting Cards, for example had a string of commercials in the 90’s that were quite touching and I’m more than certain they sold a heap of greeting cards from these 30 second commercials.  Kodak sold film, and coined “Kodak Moment” as a thing to say when people were looking particularly happy or festive and a photo was taken (this was in the film days, I think nowadays people upload to Facebook or Instagram, and their ad campaigns are less touching I believe.)  I guess both Disney, and other corporations who use the tactic of “appeal” to sell their goods are doing their jobs correctly.  People flock to the box office to watch Pixar and Disney films because of the feeling they get when they watch them, people buy cards, and cereal because of the feeling they get because there is some sort of nostalgia, or a cute commercial, or money will be donated to a cute kid or animal (that was shown in a commercial).  

The Illusion of Life, Chapter 5: Mood

Walt Disney said: “In most instances, the driving force behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character - or else all three.  Therefore the mind is the pilot.  We think of things before the body does them."

This is very true, and animator, Ham Luske adds to this: “ Our actors are drawings.  We cannot work on the inspiration of the moment as an actor does, but must present our characterizations through a combination of art, technique, and mechanics that takes months from the conception to the finished product.  And we have to make the audience forget that these are drawings.  We cannot risk ruining a sequence or a good characterization with some mechanical imperfection or jitter that reminds the audience that we are dealing with drawings instead of real beings…” (113-114.)

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. "Cartoon Comes of Age." Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. New York: Abbeville, 1981. 113-114. Print.

When I think about what both Disney and Luske say about this, I can relate it to the principles of animation, and what works and is necessary to make a good animation.  I think about films such as Finding Nemo and Toy Story; what makes these great is the character’s body language, often, because the principles are followed in both films, I forget that I’m looking at a fish, or at a toy; the way they move and emote is so lifelike and human that I empathize with them, and feel what they are feeling. Woody walking slowly and sadly (body language is important here: shoulders hunched, slow steps, heaving sighs.)  Body language and character movement is how we get people crying their eyes out in the first few minutes of Finding Nemo when (spoiler alert) Marlin loses his wife and all but one egg (Nemo) to a violent fish attack; he holds that little egg in his fins and names him the name his wife wanted to name it and next thing you know, tears are flowing and you realize you are crying for a fictional talking fish and there’s still an hour to go in the film.  That’s good animation, and that is what Disney and Luske stress as so important in the process of animation, film making, and character development.

The Illusion of Life, Chapter 4: Realism

Walt Disney stated: “I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real."

This is very important to understand, and well stated.  Walt Disney sought to improve the level of his animators by hiring instructors, and some animators took this process into their own hands; one got a camera and was better able to study motion frame by frame.  This is very important and rings true to the above quote, the animators could not create fantastic things based on their minds alone, they first needed to study models, photographs, and things from life and develop a firm understanding to create believable animations and characters for audiences to relate to and to understand.  Walt Disney understood this, and it applies to the principles of animation in every way.

The Illusion of Life, Chapter 3: Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch - This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves.  This is useful in animating dialogue and facial expressions.

2. Anticipation - This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to do, such as running, jumping or changing expressions.  An example would be the backwards motion that takes place before a forward motion takes place.  

3. Staging_ - A pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the mood, attitude, reaction, or idea of the character as it relates to the story and the continuity of the story line.  The effective use of long, medium, or close up shots, as well as camera angles also helps in telling the story.

4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose - Starts at the first frame and works frame to frame to the end of the scene.  You can lose size, volume, and proportions with this method, but it does have spontaneity and freshness. 

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action - When the main body of the character stops all other parts continue to catch up to the main mass of the character, such as arms, long hair, clothing, coat tails, or a dress.  Nothing stops all at once; there is a follow through.

6. Slow In and Slow Out - As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose.  Fewer poses/ frames make the action faster and more drawings make the action slower.

7. Arcs - All actions, with few exceptions (such as the animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or slightly circular path.  This is especially true of the human figure.

8. Secondary Action - All action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation, supplementing and / or re-enforcing the main action.

9. Timing - Expertise in timing comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the trial and error method in refining technique.  The basics are: more frames between poses slow and smooth the action.

10. Exaggeration - Exaggeration is not extreme distortion of a pose or extremely broad, violent action all the time.  It’s like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions.

11. Solid Drawing - The basic principles of form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it does to the academic art.  The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the classical sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life.

12. Appeal - A live performer has charisma.  An animated character has appeal.  Appealing animation does not mean being cute and cuddly.  All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute.

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. "The Principles of Animation." Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. New York: Abbeville, 1981. 47-69. Print.

List of components in good animation: 

1. Inner feelings and emotion

2. Acting with a clear and definite action

3. Character and personality

4. Thought process through expression changes

5. Ability to analyze

6. Clear staging

7. Good composition

8. Timing

9. Solidity in Drawing

10. Power in drawing

11. Strength in movement

12. Imagination

Each one of these components relates in every way to the 12 Principles, and to Walt Disney’s original desire to make the animations and characters relatable, and able to convey feelings.  2. relates to “squash and stretch” as well as “arcs.”  3. relates to appeal, 4 relates to “squash and stretch.”  All of these can be looked at and related to the above principles of animation; this list is a great tool to use for any animator.

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. "Appeal and Dynamics." Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. New York: Abbeville, 1981. 137. Print.

The Illusion of Life, Chapter 2: Caricature v. Realism

caricaturenouna caricature of the famous brothers: cartoon, parody, satire, lampoon, burlesque; informal sendup, takeoff.

realismnoun1 optimism tinged with realism: pragmatism, practicality, common sense, levelheadedness.2 a degree of realism: authenticity, fidelity, verisimilitude, truthfulness, faithfulness.

Above are the dictionary definitions of “caricature” and “realism.”  Both of these were important to Walt Disney in his approach to animation.  It was stated that, “Walt wanted his drawings that were animated to seem to be real things that had feelings and emotions and thoughts, and the main thing was that the audience would believe them and that they would care what happened to them…” (35.)

While it is quite obvious that Mickey Mouse is a caricature, there is also a hint of realism to all that he does.  At first, animators would exaggerate features, such as arms or legs to accommodate for animations, and gestures, but some of the cruder animations gave way to realism, and this in turn made Mickey (and all other animated characters to come) more believable…as believable as a talking mouse in pants can be...

Animations are caricatures, they evoke emotions and feelings from the audience, and are often based upon real people or everyday relatable situations.  There are ways to tackle animation to make it more realistic, but it will always be an animation, this is not to say it is to be looked down upon; one of my favorite animations is a caricature of a man in his quest to get the girl, but it does what it’s supposed to do to be a successful animation.  It pulls in the audience, is relatable, and memorable.  

The animation I refer to is Paperman.  Found here: https://youtu.be/1QAI4B_2Mfc

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. "The Early Days 1923-1933." Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. New York: Abbeville, 1981. 35. Print.

The Illusion of Life, Chapter 1: Communication

In class, we discussed Pixar’s “Luxo Jr.” animation; an animation in which a parent lamp watching a young lamp play with a ball.  This animation is short, but it communicates to the audience.  The characters are relatable, and the story is one that while short, is memorable and conveys an emotion.  This is something that is introduced in the first chapter of “The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation.”  What is so important about animation, and what strikes me so much with Luxo Jr. is outlined in the text: 

“Conveying a certain feeling is the essence of communication in any art form.  The response of the viewer is an emotional one, because art speaks to the heart.  This gives animation an almost magical ability to reach inside any audience and communicate with all peoples everywhere, regardless of language barriers.  It is one of animation’s greatest strengths…” (15)

It is important to understand the importance of communication in studying animation; this is what makes great animations so memorable.  A story must be told, and it must communicate a feeling for the audience.  Even something so simple as lamps hopping around can do this, when done right.

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. "An Art Form Is Born." Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. New York: Abbeville, 1981. 15. Print.

Memoir Blog Idea

It's quite interesting being a person who is adopted.  I can quickly have people gathered around me to hear all about my experience and how it has had an impact on my life and the life of my family.  Questions flow, and all that jazz.  I think it would be fun to do a memoir about my adoption story; I would interview my mom and perhaps other family members to get an account of what was happening with the Anderson family in 1985 (a year before my adoption).  I have sweet family photos, legal documents, and other fun things that should make this interesting for myself, my family, and others to look at.