Creating the "Illusion of Life" - The Most Important Phenomenon in Animation

Going back to the first day of class with Luxo Jr., the most important phenomenon in animation is first, bringing to life something that was not previously alive (or giving it the “illusion of life” so to speak), and second, making the audience feel emotion for or about that animation.  The most recent and strongest example of this working successfully for me, is Pixar’s UP, which had most of the people I was in the theater with crying about 10 minutes into the film.  Pixar also did this with Finding Nemo.  To me, this is an incredible feat, and it doesn’t go without recognition; Pixar wins Oscars by the bundle almost every year, for successfully achieving this phenomenon.  To do this, one must consider all that has been taught by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston; one must remember all the rules and the steps to make successful animation, because if one watches both UP and Finding Nemo, and makes a checklist of all the rules followed, I can guarantee Pixar’s animators did not skip a single step; this is why they are successful.

Detheux Part 2

"If all that we see in Art is a form of entertainment that provides a respite from the harshness of life, we will increasingly demand more and more of the same (the "Prozac" in Part #1). If, on the other hand, we see that Art is not a respite from "the real," but a privileged way of deepening our experiencing and understanding of it, we will want to lower the level of "entertainment noise" we are constantly being bombarded with, something akin to saying, "Shut up please, I can't hear myself think!"

In Part 2, Detheux describes the differences between the U.S. and the French Trailers for the movie, Amelie.  I watched each one and was astounded by how right Detheux was about how dumbed down the American trailer was with the deep “In a world…” traditional trailer voice; this trailer contrasted terribly with the well thought out, well spoken trailer done for Europeans.  I never saw the trailer when the movie came out, I was in a “Foreign Film Phase” in high school, and saw it in Blockbuster and thought, “cool I’ll rent this.”  Had I seen the American trailer for Amelie, you bet your bottom dollar I would not have rented it; the American trailer makes it seem like a chick flick about a girl with dark hair who “saves herself.”  This is quite disappointing, and I can agree with what Detheux is saying 100%, and I’m sort of ashamed that firstly America put out that trailer, and secondly, Amelie didn’t win an Oscar!  Being a huge fan of the film is what got me fired up about this article, and really got me thinking about what films are made and what audiences are looking for in film; particularly American audiences.   

Perhaps I am lucky with my taste in film, and while I have a huge liking of Pixar and Disney films (for the most part), I also have a passion for foreign films (I believe inspired by my mother, who is also an artist.)  One of my favorite directors is Michel Gondry; he has directed movies in both English and in France; although I shudder to imagine the differences in the trailers.  Not only does Gondry raise the bar in writing, but he incorporates the most integrated and beautiful animation in his films.  The first film of his I saw that did this was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film in English, starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey.  While he told a love story, it was far from traditional, and it indeed showed me how film can prove that, as Detheux says: Art is not a respite from "the real," but a privileged way of deepening our experiencing and understanding of it.”  

To get away from all of this sameness of film, do we need to venture abroad?  The two films I listed as inspiring in my “Detheux Part 1” blog weren’t American made, so maybe that’s the problem.  Maybe Disney does have a profound influence on film in America.  While in my previous blog, I stated that it is good to be inspired, (a statement I still stand by), I think that we should take our inspiration and use it to make ourselves grow.  How can we take that which inspires us and change it to fit the present day?  How can we take that same story which inspired us and make it not so cookie cutter and predictable?  Artists need to be challenged, and Detheux called out artists, imploring them to open their minds to create new things, dynamic things, and in so doing, inspired me to look outside of the box.  Let’s say one day I want to tell a romantic story, while I could go for cookie cutter, “lady in distress, guy gets the girl,” why not test limits and push boundaries as Gondry did?  I was once told by a college professor, “Don’t make friends with artists who you’re better than; you’ll never grow as an artist.”  This is some of the best advice I’ve ever been given, and I feel like it can apply to the world of film and animation.  When studios work in a sort of sameness, and continue to hire story writers, directors, and animators who are willing to stay within the confines of societal pressure to make a film that “sells” but doesn’t test limits, then they will never grow as artists; their work will remain the same, and while it may sell, it won’t be remembered.  A perfect example of this is the work of Wes Anderson; his films are very rarely distributed in all theaters, like The Notebook, for example, would be.  His films push boundaries, and cause the audience to step outside of their comfortable realm of reality, into a surreal experience, and while the limited release doesn’t make billions at the box office, I find his films to be extremely memorable, and inspiring.  I wonder if Wes Anderson’s friends are better at directing than he is?

Detheux Part 1

“It seems to me as if most of the traditional narrative animation is endlessly repeating itself. With minor variations, the form seems to have been set a long time ago (Disney?) and is not ready to be changed, at least not for as long as the control of what is acceptable (and supported) remains in the usual hands.”

"most people seem to want to do exactly the same work the major studios are doing, only with less money."

(http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=1391)

Detheux is under the belief that Disney animation has set the bar, not only for animation, but for the narrative as well, and that since the dawn of Disney, everyone else is scrambling to catch up, by repeating what Disney has done, rather than come up with something unique and original of their own.  I can in some ways see how this opinion came to be born, in watching animated films released by studios other than Disney, shortly after the release of a Disney film, and at times have been guilty of the same sort of shaming that Detheux has done in his article.  Shark Tale, and Finding Nemo - here we are telling stories about fish; I saw Finding Nemo, and saw a picture of the Shark Tale film in the queue at Redbox, and thought, “hasn’t that already been done?” And while I’m sure the plots were completely different, I didn’t give the Disney alternative the time of day.  However, there have also been films with animation that completely blew me out of the water, and I wouldn’t say that they reminded me of Disney in narrative or aesthetic.  The example I’d use here is, The Triplets of Belleville.  That move completely amazed me, both in narrative (the movie is mostly silent, and relies on character’s expression, sound effects, lighting, staging, scene, camera angles, etc to set the mood and draw in the audience, and in animation style - it looked like an old traditional animation circa 1950.  It closely follows all the steps that The Illusion of Life references, to draw in an audience, and to animate in a visually dynamic way.  There have also been films with astounding stop motion animation that have left me speechless, Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, for example is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland; this was done by Disney in quite a beautiful way, but Svankmajer also took a well known story and made it completely his own.  While there have been some takes on Alice in Wonderland by other studios (Tim Burton, for example did his own version,) I have yet to watch one of them and think, “this writer/ director/ etc has copied scene for scene, script for script, and dialogue for dialogue Disney.  While I somewhat agree with Detheux, I’m mostly inclined to say the glass is half full in the world of animation; I think that Pixar certainly inspired studios to get serious about 3D Animation for telling a story and not simply visual effects in live action films, however, I don’t believe that people copy Disney to the point of unoriginality.  Imagine how art would progress in anyway, if there wasn’t someone who inspired the greats before us; we watch and learn from others, we take what we learn and make it our own; we in turn can inspire change.  

The Illusion of Life: Story

"Most people think the word 'animation' means movement...but it doesn't. It comes from 'animus' which means 'life or to live.' Making move is not animation, but just the mechanics of it." (146.) 

The above quote sends shivers down my bones in the best of ways. When I began sculpting figures in college, I always thought to myself, wouldn't it be great to make them come to life? And I shortly after graduation, found myself at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida studying Computer Animation.  Blame it on science, nature, or just fate, but I got super sick and found myself moving back home (Maryland) with no degree and a lot of debt.  After working several years at a Residential Treatment Center with adolescent boys, I've found myself making art with the boys and that urge to study animation again came creeping back.  Reading about the "gags" pulled on coworkers at Walt Disney Studios reminds me of some of the things I've pulled off at work with my coworkers and like Walt Disney, I've thought, what a funny story this would make, and I envision the people as characters. When the animators talk about how particular gags would be with Donald Duck, for example, I understand that, because we would gag people at my work differently, depending on who they were, and would base the level of severity of the gag on the person's personality. "Will this person get really offended or will they think this is hilarious?" Would often be the question asked.  To this day, I will talk to one particular coworker who I frequently gagged (as his reactions were the best) and we laugh, and tell the stories to other coworkers, sometimes as a cautionary tale, "watch out for Johanna; she'll get you!" 

The "Nine Old Men"

The development of "Character Relationship " is a very important development in animation; by doing this, a single animator works on a character and can better understand the animation from the first frame to the last. It blows my mind that this was something that wasn't done from the start; it reminds me of an "exquisite corpse," when a peice of paper is folded multiple times and passed along from one person to the next, only allowing the next person drawing to see about a centimeter of lines from the previous drawing.  This process is great teamwork however, when the full picture is shown when the paper is unfolded, while there is one complete image, it is evident that each separated section is a different style, and it often does not flow; it just makes for interesting abstract art. 

"This new way of working with character relationships encompassed the whole range of relations between two or more characters - from the broadest to the most delicate.  It involved expression scenes that often registered the most secret thoughts and inner emotions of the characters" (164.)

The above quote makes me think of an interview I saw with a Pixar animator, who was responsible for the scene in Finding Nemo, when Dory, the forgetful fish, is crying after being asked to leave, by her only friend, Marlon, the clownfish who was in search of his son, Nemo.  The relationship the animator has with Dory, is what makes her come to life. 

This is described 16 minutes into the "Behind the Scenes" of Finding Nemo. 

Seven Steps in Animating a Scene: 

1. Think

2. Thumbnails

     A: The Staging

     B: The cutting and continuity

3. Mechanics of Presentation

     A: Perspective

     B: Scale

4. Solve Special Drawing Problems

5. Double Check Your Ideas

6. Blow Up Drawings Full Size

7. Put the “Juice” in it.

It’s incredible to me that seven steps are thought of to complete one scene; but in the same thought, the scene would not be dynamic if even one step was missing.  These steps are important for any animator to remember; of course one must know why the scene is in the picture, and how it relates to the work as a whole - this is step one.  The thumbnails are the storyboards; small pictures, and a general layout, camera angles, etc.  Mechanics are important in regards to perspective and scale; if one is animating King Kong for example, the buildings, and King Kong himself need to be laid out in a way that the audience can look at it and say, “that is an enormous gorilla.”  Problem solving is something that can’t be forgotten; if one is having difficulty with a shot, one simply can’t move on and assume it will work itself out.  This is something that needs to be ironed out, and one misstep can affect the work as a whole.  Double checking work is just a good habit for anyone to get into no matter what field of work they are in.  Step six is probably super fun, as this is when your storyboards begin to come to life, and step seven is the magic; adding the details to bring it all together.

STORY

“A good story cannot be ruined by poor animation, but neither can a poor story be saved by the very best animation” (367.)

The idea of a good story is a very important one, and the concept can be brought back to the Seven Steps.  This doesn’t just apply to animation, but to film as a whole; there are movies that hold up after years and years.  The animation and graphics, and sometimes even the acting may be subpar, but since the story is so great, it is something worth re-watching. 

SEQUENCES

“Never…more than 15 nor fewer than 10 sequences” (368.)

This is like a timeline of the story from start to finish.  I can imagine it would be a good idea when writing the story to take a page and number from 1 to 15 and lay out your story, so that you can be sure that it remains captivating and doesn’t wander off, leaving the viewer bored beyond belief.  

“Storymen” are in charge of writing characters who a”achieve maximum identity with the audience” (376.)  For example, in 101 Dalmations, the puppies watch television with their mom and dad, like a “normal family.”  The great thing about this is the idea of taking animals or in the case of a movie like, Toy Story, inanimate objects such as toys; and making them more humanlike, by giving them human characteristics.  This type of creativity is something that I greatly admire; when a person can feel empathy for a toy, or a fish, I’d say that animation and filmmaking as a whole has achieved a great thing.

RULES OF DIALOGUE

1. DO NOT WRITE A DIALOGUE THAT DESCRIBES WHAT YOU ARE SEEING.

2. THE WORDS AND THE THOUGHT BEHIND THEM SHOULD BE SPECIAL TO THIS ONE CHARACTER. 

3. DIALOGUE MUST BE WRITTEN SO THERE IS SOMETHING TO ANIMATE.

4. DIALOGUE MUST BE WRITTEN SO THE ACTOR DOING THE VOICE CAN CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING.

All of this makes sense and it is important for a person writing to understand these rules.  I was told time and time again as a sculpture student that even with work that is stationary, I do not need to beat the idea into the audience’s head.  This describes rule 1.  If one is animating a mouse eating cheese, this can be done rather simply, and no words need to even be used; the viewer sees mouse with cheese, there doesn’t need to be dialogue such as, “Mouse: I am eating cheese!”  Because it is what they are viewing.  

SIX RULES OF EXPRESSION AND DIALOGUE (p.471): 

1. SHOW EXPRESSION CHANGE

2. AVOID LOOKING UP FOR A FROWN, UNLESS IT IS A SINISTER, DOMINEERING ONE.

3. DO NOT HIDE A SMILE WITH THE HEAD TILTED DOWN TOO FAR OR BEHIND A BIG NOSE OR MOUSTACHE.

4. BE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT STAGING TO SHOW ALL THE EXPRESSIONS IN YOUR SCENE TO THE BEST ADVANTAGE.

5. HAVE YOU THE RIGHT EXPRESSION FOR WHAT YOUR CHARACTER IS THINKING? ARE ALL THE PARTS OF THE HEAD AND FACE RELATED TO THIS ONE IDEA?

6. AS WE WERE TOLD SO MANY TIMES BEFORE WE LEARNED: IT IS THE CHANGE OF SHAPE THAT SHOWS THE CHARACTER IS THINKING.  IT IS THE THINKING THAT GIVES THE ILLUSION OF LIFE.  IT IS THE LIFE THAT GIVES MEANING TO THE EXPRESSION.

These rules are exceptionally important and some were things I’d not even considered.  While Rule 1 makes sense, Rule 2 makes me laugh.  I can imagine it happening, and the first thought that comes to mind when I imagine it is in the old animated (and in my opinion best) How the Grinch Stole Christmas, when the grinch looks into the camera (as it were) and smiles a huge, curling smile that can only be described as “sinister” and “domineering.”  Rule 6 is another one of those quotes from the book that makes me feel tingly inside, and in it the titular line, “It is the thinking that gives the illusion of life.”  That right there, is what makes animation so amazing to me.  The ILLUSION of life; taking something and making it alive, it’s kind of godlike, and it may sound weird to say that, but truly take a minute and think about the powers an animator hold in their hands.  The power to take a cowboy doll or a fish and make him a hero?  Amazing.

NINE ECONOMICAL WAYS THAT ANIMATION CAN BUILD EMOTIONS IN THE IMAGINATIONS OF THE AUDIENCE: (p. 484)

1.  REAR VIEW -  Used when viewing a scene from behind, allows the audience to dream along with the characters.

2. SHADOWS- Associated with suspense and drama.  Shadows are great because they are still effective, but less is required in the drawing of detail.

3. SHADOWS OVER THE CHARACTER- effective to help show emotion in a more dynamic way.

4. OVERLAYS - In the example in the book, a character is running through branches in the jungle; this adds dimension to the scene.

5. DRAMATIC LAYOUT - Putting a small character in a big dark wood, for example helps show scale, and additionally creates an emotion.  How is this character feeling? Are they lost?  Are they scared? 

6. PICTORIAL SHOT - Background is important in setting a mood, I like to think of those postcards people send and they cause you to really wish you were where they are.

7. EFFECTS ANIMATION - Use of color, and animation to express a mood is very important in captivating an audience. 

8. HELD DRAWING WITH CAMERA MOVES - emotion is shown by moving the camera and not the character; the animator can dramatically zoom in to the shocked expression on the face of the character in the shot.

9. OFFSTAGE SOUNDS - The book’s example is great; the shot is of the outside of a dog pound, and there is no animation required; just the sounds of the dogs crying and howling will evoke emotion.

POINTS TO REMEMBER WHEN ANIMATING EMOTIONS: (p. 507)

1. MAKE SURE THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF THE CHARACTER IS CLEARLY DEFINED.

2. THE THOUGHT PROCESS REVEALS THE FEELING.

3. BE ALERT TO USE OF CUTTING AND CAMERA IN HELPING TO ACCENTUATE THE EMOTION.

4. ASK YOURSELF CONSTANTLY: 

WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY HERE?

WHAT DO I REALLY WANT TO SHOW?

HOW DO I WANT THE AUDIENCE TO REACT?

5. USE THE ELEMENT OF TIME WISELY:

TO ESTABLISH THE EMOTION OF A CHARACTER, 

TO CONVEY IT TO THE VIEWERS, 

TO LET THEM SAVOR THE SITUATION.