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.

Memoir Writing and Ethics - Essex County

In the NPR interview, Frank Stasio talks of the news that the memoir, "A Million Little Pieces" by James Fry, was not 100% fact, and that much of it was fabricated, borrowed and expanded upon.  After interviewing a few folks, the prime argument is that when reading a book that claims to be a memoir, the reader believes it (as well they should) to be true, whereas, when a book is labeled as Non Fiction, the reader just takes it for what it is, and rolls with it.  I can get behind this, and perhaps if I were reading a memoir which I had close emotional attachment to (like some may with "A Million Little Pieces") I may feel more strongly about finding what that what I believed was true, was in fact, a lie, or someone else's story to tell.  If anything, I would no longer trust the author of the book, and if the writing was good, I'd probably still read his or her work, but wouldn't believe that things were true even if the author said so.

Jeff Lemire's, Essex County, is a fantastic story with characters who weave together to create a whole "family tree" so to speak.  Often, I found myself sort of saying, "Ahhhh..." as one character's life made way for another character's life, and I was intrigued by all of it; the story telling was phenomenal and kept my attention.  I felt sad for many of the characters, and those who I felt okay about, I had moments where I felt sad for them too.  This isn't a bad thing at all, the characters were just relatable and easy to empathize with.  Would I be super bummed out if I learned that Lemire borrowed this story and made things up?  Not at all, the writing and the illustrations are so good that I'd just think, "well, that guy makes up some fascinating stuff."

Again, if I was reading a memoir about an adopted kid from Central America, and learned that the author made it all up, maybe I'd be a hint upset, but it would only be fleeting and then I'd be okay with it.  I guess I don't feel like I know published authors well enough to get offended by their mistakes, and lies.  When I open a book, I read it for the story, if it's true, great; if not, that's great too.

Black Friday, A Child's Perspective

As an American, I have only thought of Black Friday as the day after Thanksgiving, when people stand in lines for HOURS to spend bucket loads of money on things that they may not necessarily need.  After reading Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, my idea of "Black Friday" has markedly changed.  In Iran, "Black Friday" refers to the events that occurred on September 8, 1978 in Jaleh Square in Tehran, Iran.  On this day, thousands of people showed up to protest the Shah's regime, and on this day, the military opened fire against the protesters, killing and wounding several people.  This day is marked as extremely important in the Iranian Revolution as it marks the "point of no return," and in this moment, the people realized that there was no "hope for compromise" between the people and the Shah's regime.

In Persepolis, this event is told from a child's perspective.  This is important because it is honest and yet innocent.  Satrapi attends this protest with her maid, unbeknownst to her parents.  (They leave to protest when Satrapi's parents leave the house.)  Both Satrapi and her maid are yelled at and punished by Satrapi's mother, and it is mentioned that this was indeed a bad day to protest because it was "Black Friday."  The BBC paints a different, more journalistic picture of this day; photos are shown which are unforgettably gruesome, and it's enough to incite the viewer to protest the Shah.  As it happens, the shooting not only came from the military, but from inside the crowd as well.  Satriapi illustrates this day, and the BBC provides the viewer with photographs and news coverage (the number of dead reported varies from one media outlet to the next.)

Sources: 

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003. 39. Print.

"Black Friday (1978)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(1978)>.

Copyright / Copyleft

As an artist, I believe that copyright laws, which protect the property of the artist, are very important and I believe that they should be respected.  I think that artists who create work that they are proud of and post on the Internet as their own work, should get full credit for the art and it's not right that they may run the risk of someone taking something they did and creating a mediocre version of an original.  This isn't to say that all reproductions and reworkings of original art is mediocre; artists such as Andy Warhol, and Shepard Fairey have run into legal troubles for utilizing imagery that was not originally their own. Perhaps it's not fair to say, only good artists may reproduce work, but I guess this is the only way I can imagine agreeing with breaking copyright laws - if the work is as good as or better than the original.   

This being said, I am a fan of communities where the artists AGREE to share their work for reproduction, and to be altered in any way.  Actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt hit the nail on the head with his website, hitrecord.org.  Hit Record allows artists, illustrators, writers, animators, basically creators from all walks of life, to take art, music, video, etc and work together to create.  This is the right way to approach sharing original works; and what's also great about this network of creators, is that if a creation of any sorts leads to monetary compensation, all the artists are paid for their contribution. 

In short, I believe that copyright laws should be followed, and that art may only be reproduced with the permission of the original artist. Copyleft is cool for programs and software, and I can get behind that; but sometimes I'm more inclined to get behind software that costs money, that came from a trusted source.