Nonverbal communication

    Other than through our words, our emotions can be conveyed in a variety of ways, from body language to facial expressions to the way we move, dress and act.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9YTxff3pHU

     Communication is not just about our words, the simple motions of our bodies can have affects on the understanding of our emotions by others. An eye roll or a pouting of the lips can do as much for frustration and sadness as saying it can. Folding one's arms can be taken as a sign of wanting a person to keep away from you. Other body language like this can also help us to analyse what a character is thinking. Tapping fingers can signify impatience, a downturned brow in animation can be seen as anger, even your posture can tell someone a lot about your mood, (slouching for example can signify a lack of enthusiasm or tiredness). The distance in which people stand away from each other could also be a sign of how much they like/want to be around the person. Even silence is nonverbal communication that makes a point about the mind of a person. Hand gestures can say a lot about a character too. Open hands with a lot of movement could indicate enthusiasm where as a clenched fist is representative of anger. Overall, looking at the various forms of non verbal communication, it is clear to see that all manner of movement can send a message to others about what they are thinking and feeling. This works the same way in animation too, a character can tell a story without having any sound involved and where sound is involved, then it can enhance the realism and understanding of the emotions of the character.  







References: video, Mitchell Rose Films, Learn to speak body: tape 5,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9YTxff3pHU, June 13,2006


 in slideshare, Nonverbal communication, http://www.slideshare.net/waqasdilasa/nonverbal-communication-8696831, published July 26 2011, Accessed 29 October 2016.


UK Essays. November 2013. Study Of Body Language Thesis Psychology Essay. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/study-of-body-language-thesis-psychology-essay.php?cref=1 [Accessed 29 October 2016].

Storyboard for Rocket Animation

 

This is my storyboard idea for the rocket animation. The character will be expressing anger/frustration, similarly to that of the character in my final semester animation. On the post before this, you can see the thought process and the research that went into this animation. The character is getting ready to take off but can't due to the irritation of the fly that is hanging around the launching area. After trying to kill the fly a few times, the character lets his anger get the better of him, causing him to take off and launch unexpectedly out of the scene. I feel that this is relevent to the brief, a character with emotion, taking off and I feel that i have thought about how to not make it a generic take off. I tried to incorporate a few different camera angles without it becoming too complicated. The overall animation is not meant to be very long so too many camera movements would make the animation choppy, dissjointed and wrong for the setting. Simplistic cameras but with a lot of emotion and character to the rocket fused with good use of the 12 principles of animation will be the things that make this a good animation. I used a lot of directional arrows and movement lines to try and further get across the gestures of the head and the movement of the rocket. I also added some words that explained the images further and I feel that this will help me when it comes to the animation process. Finally, the flag wasn't necessary for my story and so chose not to use it. 

    

 I DO NOT OWN THE STORYBOARD TEMPLATE HENCE WHY I DID NOT INSERT MY NAME AT THE BOTTOM.

Research process for the rocket animation

I started out by looking at various images of cartoon rockets, (the rocket being the character that appealed to me the most) and the facial expression that they portrayed. This allowed me to get a better understanding for possible character emotions. I then looked at the various possible emotions that I could portray and how a rocket moves before looking at anger as that is the emotion that I will be doing for my final animation. I worked out a pinterest board for the ideas and looked at various aspects of anger. I thought about how the character could be angry and why before finally settling on the idea of a fly in the take off zone. This provides a good basis for possible comedy. I wrote out some notes on the situation and possible camera angles and facial expressions. Following this, i followed step 3 of the incubation period and took a break. Whilst at badminton, I noticed someone getting angry and frustrated when losing a match so I looked more at his body language. It was a good bbasis for my animation as I could see the rocket in that situation and I began to think about the movement of the character within the space. I moved on to look at the possibility of animating other problems such as the flag not popping up or a countdown timer breaking before finally deciding that the fly was the best option. Following the creation of my storyboard, I will be seeking feedback on the idea and look at changing anything that may not work in the overall animation.

Here is a link to the pinterest board on this research. The storyboard will soon follow.

    https://uk.pinterest.com/josephlearoyd/rocket-animation/

Reflecting on the 12 principles of animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0GgaPBTfQ


   Reflecting on the 12 principles of animation, i tend to see them at play a lot more. Things such as the subtle movements, the follow through and overlapping action and the secondary actions are now far more noticeable than they were this time last year. I have started noticing the principles at play in the real world. Anticipation, follow throgh and obviously appeal (due to various people's character traits) are all at play in the world around us. When it comes to my animation, although timing is still my weakest aspect, i feel that i have managed to get much better at noticing the differences between good and bad timing. When watching 2D and 3D animated films, the inspirations that are drawn from real life can be identified and things such as anticipation and exaggeration are more noticeable. Squash and Stretch is one such example of how exaggeration can play out. The more exaggeration in the squash and stretch, the more effect one will have on the overall realism or cartoonish style of the animation.  I have been thinking more about how the 12 principles can be incorporated into a story in order to make a more realistic, identifyable or netter understandable piece of animation. Slow in and slow out is one principle that I practice with in order to perfect timing, (using the graph editor) this is good as it helps with my technical ability as well as buid a better understanding of how various animation principles compliment each other.

     In conclusion, I believe that my animation ability has gotten better over the past year and my animation principle understanding has developed further also.    



Video: Indianeers,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0GgaPBTfQ,  
published 25 October 2015

Critique of Gorrillaz animatics

Storyboard:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z7YWIshHtE&feature=youtu.be

animatic layout:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcV52OfJMOg&feature=youtu.be

Finished animation:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq7Ovshz1UI&feature=youtu.be


   These three videos look at the Gorillaz music video, "19-2000" and the development of it's animation. The storyboard firstly is well drawn with the framing clearly showing the actions and expressions of the characters. The characters, although still can clearly be understood from these drawings. Shots and camera angles have been taken into account and look at carefully in order to get the best affect from the overall animation. The annotations on the storyboard clearly depict what is going on in the story with sound effects being placed into the animatic to allow for a further understanding.

 

Something that this video also does nicely is adding dotted motion paths lines in order to convey the speed and directions in which characters are moving. Emotions can even be expressed through the subtleties of the half closed eyes.

    Moving on to the second video, we can clearly see the development into an animation. Although some aspects of this animatic layout are quite blocky and primitive, almost like an early 3D video game, the camera angles and directions of movement are clear with more depth given to the characters and an overall better quality in the visual effects such as the explosion at 2:20. The movement isn't as fluid as in the final video but the development and the process in which the two transition is clear.

   The finished animation has a polished look and feel and manages to combine 3D and 2D effects that work together and allow for an interesting flow to the story. Although the music has very little to do with the video, the story of both still comes across as a coherent narrative. The movement seems slowed down in places though but still well timed. The subtle movements of the hair due to wind also adds a sense of realism to an otherwise cartoony atmosphere. More of the animation principles can be seen at work here too. Anticipation is a big one here as a character seems to move slightly before an action in order to identify the motion that they are about to carry out. This is clear with the character moving his fingers before pressing the button to release the rocket at 3:17. Overall, I see this as a successful animation that has its own look and style that makes it stand out as being quite unique. It is a well timed and well animated piece that draws you in and creates an interesting narrative.  

Blink eye emotions

Quick animations that deal with animating emotions. First of all i animated tiredness or exhaustion. It was a difficult process as i had to find a way to make the character emotive just from it's head and eyes. I then animated it again but with a more suspicious, darting eye motion to the character. The timing has gotten much better here but there is still a slight issue on the timing if the head falling to the floor in the tired animation. I do feel that the animations do accurately manage to portray emotion though and it is easy to tell what the character is thinking in each animation. From a technical aspect, it was a nice rig to work with and fairly simplistic and even though the character has such basics, the subtle movements of the eyelids and the head makes it clear that little movements and body language all add majorly to animation and overall understanding of what a character is feeling. The graph editor helped me a lot here when it came to animating subtleties such as the slight bounce when the tired head bounces off the ground and the short sharp darting of the eyes in the suspicion animation. Overall though, this has been an animation that has helped me with a study into animation emotion and how it is portrayed. Hopefully, I can replicate this in my snake charmer animation.   

Favourite Characters

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7n8vJWzDq8ORFhKNzhaYXpTZlE



Word Document writing about my favourite animated films and characters, the animation and everything that makes them good.

Characters owned by Disney, Image: http://cdn.wallpapersafari.com/69/77/3B4p9J.jpg

What makes a good model?

    When it comes to modelling, i believe that a character should be modeled in a way that it has good topology. It is important for getting a finished model that is structurally sound for when it comes to the rigging and skinning stages. A model should be checked for any issues like holes or triangular problems that could cause complications later in the process. If you are creating a character that is meant to have a lot of movement or facial expression then it is important to add extra edge loops in the model in order to allow for this movement during the later processes. This is also good practice for joints such as elbows and knees to allow for more flexibility in the deformations. Good deformation and good topology work together. Models should be checked and issues fixed before moving on in the animation process. It is good practice to do this as it can be a complicated process without this. A clean model is a good one. A good model takes note of a character as well and conveys that character. A good model must be also appealing visually, almost being able to tell a story from its look and style.



                                     

good topology images.   https://uk.pinterest.com/betopra/character-topology/
image used here:   https://tomparkersartdump.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/topology_breakdown.jpg

A study of "Sadness"

Looking at research on emotions. Originally i had intended to look at anger as the emotion as this is the emotion that the snake charmer will be doing in my animation but changed my mind as this had already been done in the lecturer's presentation so for the purpose of this exercise, I will look at sadness as an emotion and try to relate it to animation.

First of all, sadness can affect us all for many reasons, it is an emotion that can stem from pain, loss, homesickness, rejection, displeasure and undesire towards something. Many use the term "Blue" as a colour to refer to sadness. It is a calm, cool and often dark colour. This was used for the colour of the character of "Sadness" in the film, "Inside Out".

Sadness is typically associated with down turned mouths, tears and slumped postures. Frowning can express it. Emotions like this can be exaggerated in a character, which becomes useful in animation.

Here are some examples of characters who experience sadness in animation.

 

According to microexpressions website, these are expression signs of sadness:  

 -Inner corners of the eyebrows are drawn in and then up

                                          -Skin below eyebrow triangulated, with inner corner up

                                          -Corner of the lips are drawn down

                                           -Jaw comes up

                                           -Lower lip pouts out

    

A form of excessive sadness, is depression which affects people all around the world daily. This is something that can be treated but overall it can be a lonely and painful experience. Animators need to be able to replicate and tackle these emotions in a realistic but respectful fashion in their work. By studying an emotion such as sadness, an animator can exaggerate it to fit a scene, create an impact with an audience or add characterisation to a character. Emotion is important in animation and it can make an animation identifiable and more powerful to an audience.    

Websites used for research:  http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/sadness.htm
                                              https://www.quora.com/Why-is-blue-identified-with-sadness
                                              http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2013/09/guide-reading-microexpressions/
                                           


Images:   Inside Out, Pixar:  http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/pixar/images/0/06/Io_Sadness_standard2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150425021239

Disney, Mickey Mouse, http://cliparts.co/cliparts/kTK/nB4/kTKnB4GEc.jpg

A. A. Milne, Eeyore: http://cliparts.co/cliparts/riL/go8/riLgo844T.jpg

Pixar, Monster's Inc,  http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5864/97/16x9/960.jpg

Posing a character to convey emotions

Model downloaded from here:   http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-obj-mode-dummy/662719

Rigged by me using human IK auto rig in maya

The first image is of the character. Followed by poses of anger, "someone looking down on someone in an authoritative fashion", sadness and joy. I find these three emotions to be very expressive with the first one being a little vaguer but still clear to anyone who was to see them. The emotions can be made out without the need for facial expressions. This has helped with creating emotion without facial expressions and goes to show that body language does in fact make up a large part of a character's traits. I left the rig visible in most of these in order to highlight the basic shape of the skeleton and how this further breaks down the character's movements. The idea behind this exercise was to try and convey the emotions in a way that could work later for the semester project. In the next post i will look at an emotion in depth and learn more about it so it can be used later for my snake charmer animation.   

Model of the USS Enterprise

Render of a model i made in my spare time of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. Rendered with Mental Ray. BACKGROUND:  Night sky, Star trek stars, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dlGOyxvrx2A/maxresdefault.jpg

    This worked out much better than I thought it would so i'm glad. I like the illumination that i added to the light rim. Tee back sections look slightly gummy though but it is all part of a learning experience and i aim to get better. 

My pinterest board and visual research for my project

https://uk.pinterest.com/josephlearoyd/visual-and-animated-research-for-module/



   Project Brief and my character and animation idea.


   My idea for the brief is to use the idea of performing a circus trick and the emotion of anger to tell a story. I took a fairly obscure circus trick, snake charming as the trick and main with an anthropomorphic lion as the snake charmer. This character is inspired by a variety of things. I like the overall interaction between Prince John (The Lion) and Sir Hiss (The Snake) in the animated Robin Hood from 1973.

      

   This similar interaction was used in "The Jungle Book" with Sher Khan and Kaa. I looked at snake charmer images and some old animated episodes of Sandokan: The tiger of Malaysia as well as characters from the film Aladdin to come up with a character idea that i like. This visual research board also allowed me to look at lots of 3D character designs of hands and lion/feline faces which can be found via the pinterest link above. I will continue to look at further design elements and build on this snake charmer character. I like how there is simplicity and complexity in the character's here and I aim to do something cartoonish like this. I don't think that there should be an awful lot of detail on my character though as it could prove difficult to animate. I will still work on it and see where the process takes me. My rough character design can be seen as part of my storyboard on the post prior to this one.

       I chose anger as it is a very expressive emotion that could lead to some powerful poses, breaking things etc. I look forward to this project.




Image references

       Disney, Robin Hood, https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/2f/93/0a/2f930af7385cff154cba75a27bd85586.jpg, 1973

BRB International, Sandokan, https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/28/1f/6c/281f6cc6027d7d50798df56ec2ee48ab.gif, 1992

Storyboard for this semester's animation using "performing a circus trick" and "Anger."

 

Testing out pose to pose with reference to a tutorial and using a pre created model and rig

I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTER, MODEL OR RIG USED IN THIS ANIMATION
Animating pose to pose using a character created by someone else.

original Character created by Marvel 1963
Model and rig credit to ashwin_thegreat, Turbosquid, http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-ma-mode-cyclops-rig/1002988, Published February 5th 2016

     As promised, i used a rig, in this case one that i didn't create myself in order to practice pose to pose animation based on what i learned in the tutorial video here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPuU18wEf7s  by MegaBcoyle, published 2/2/16.

       This video used the idea of blocking and explained pose to pose animation and its uses. Having this in mind i used this model of cyclops from the X Men to create a fairly basic study into this method, a dance routine. This clip was five seconds long but has been slightly extended using premiere pro for the purpose of slowing the video down so the poses are clearer. There were a few slight issues in this animation which forced me to use step by step on a couple of frames to fix a deformation problem on the feet and there are some slight issues with movement on the feet due to this. Other than this though, i stuck to the routine of putting the poses on every 8th frame in order to time the poses better. The process seemed to work well as the poses can be clearly made out but work as a flowing movement as well. I found this to be an enjoyable experience and it was nice to look at all of the possibilities of movement thanks to the use of this rig. It was easy to see how pose to pose animation is less time consuming than step by step and the various technical reasons as to why many industry proffessionals use this animation method. I just used a playblast rather than a full render as well but i think that the animation is still clear. This study into the blocking process was helped by the tutorial video that I watched and it was a nice refresher on the topic. This has only been a quick animation as i am currently working on a storyboard for a larger project but i hope to revisit pose to pose in my animations in the future.

screenshots of the animation process.

       

Pose to pose animation tutorial I found interesting and the technical workflow of pose to pose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPuU18wEf7s


       In this post I will write about the pros and cons of of this pose to pose animation tutorial. I think it worked very well at highlighting how animation can be created through pose to pose and its uses. Near the start of the video it mentions that it sets up a basis for building complexity in the characters. Splining is mentioned with posing highlighted as the main basis for the animation. Emotion is expressed through every pose. The pose tells us about the character.  It mentions blocking as a way of getting actions done. It goes through the process step by step. The man talks about basic keyframing and how poses help to highlight that. He times the frames nicely and takes time to zero out attributes. as he goes. It is fairly easy to follow. It is definitely a helpful tutorial for practicing pose to pose and goes on to talk about linear clamping and how to fix the keyframe timing through manipulation of the graph editor.
      If i was to criticise the tutorial though, i would say that the video seems rushed. Yes, the character has been animated and it explains blocking quite well but because of the tutor rushing, the animation is nowhere near as good as it could be. This can be overlooked though as the principles are there in a way that you can take his basics and use them as a base for further pose to pose animation.

    The technical workflow of pose to pose animation helps to create smoother flowing animations through elements such as blocking. They help animators to focus on key poses that affect the overall story and try to establish moods and emotions on the character without worrying about very subtle movements. It helps with timing and any issues when it comes to linking an animation to an audio track. Poses can be remade easily and the "extremes" can lead to an animator having a better understanding of when a pose it needed. Framing and expression can both be created in this method. Most 2D and 3D animations use this method in order to break down workflow for other members in the production team to follow more easily.    

In an upcoming post, i will use a rigged character to practice pose to pose animation using screenshots to practice the ideas presented in this tutorial.


video: MegaBcoyle, published 2/2/16

What makes a good storyboard?

 


      I think there are a few things that make a good storyboard. A storyboard should be a clear representation of the story as a whole with the visuals clearly highlighting the shots, angles and major plotpoints of the overall story. They should be simplistic and at the same time detailed enough to understand. It is a way of exploring ideas, knowing what works and what doesn't. It should get your ideas onto paper and help to create an idea with a few smaller notes that explain the scenes in a bit more detail. I think that it should solve any problems that you have and have a beginning, middle and end. The creator of a storyboard should effectively think of the best possible ideas for visual understanding and presentation of a shot on screen. It should experiment with close ups and various other shot possibilities. If they vary, it looks more interesting. I think that the best storyboards are created when the animator or artist looks at the storyboard idea carefully before committing to it.

     If someone that has never met you before sees the storyboard then a good storyboard should be understandable by them. Emotions should be present on a character's face so an audience knows what they are thinking. Maybe one should also add how much time has passed between the individual images in relation to the film. If there is audio or music then it should be mentioned in the notes. It can help to highlight what a director/animator needs in terms of props and poses and should be detailed with clever ideas.  

That is what I believe to be a good storyboard.




storyboard image reference:  , Ferzoco, Amy, storyboards: A close up, http://catmedia.com/storyboards-close-up/ ,   December 10, 2015

GOOGLE CALENDAR

Session 2 group task

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n8vJWzDq8OajZRNnJER0FJZEk/view?usp=sharing



  This group project in class ran quite smoothly. We were forced to think about pose to pose animation within a short part of an animation.

We chose the picnic basket scene from "Mickey and the Seal" (1948) and looked at the various movements and emotions depicted in the scene. Overall the scene was fairly easy to evaluate with screenshots used to further explain our points The six questions were as follows


  1.          Which key poses show the character thinking

2.          Which poses present the best staging

3.          Which poses can be removed but still maintain the story?

4.          Does the animation work from a different angel?

5.          What are the character emotional beats?

6.          Comment on the style of timing

As a group work activity, it helped us once more to build teamwork and cooperation. From the point of view of animation, it developed our skills in critical evaluation.  

Above is the link to the word documents with the answers.

Animate a pet using primitives

              I found this to be a very difficult exercise at first. Due to the fact that I had never rigged a ball before, i struggled with this animation and so only created a fairly basic animation based on the fact that i was learning. My original story took inspiration from the fence animation in the demo folder with the character meant to be a cat. It is following the way that a cat moves across the top of a fence but as it is a ball, it is bouncing from post to post. It comes to a gap in the fence, the obstacle, and is hesitant to cross it before finally committing to the jump.

     The rigging process was a learning experience and i found that i am so much better at rigging a bipedial character than a ball (which should be simple). The skin on the tail decided to stop working half way through the animation too and so the tail appears rigid rather than the curve that had been there following the modelling and rigging.

    I feel that the parts of this that worked are fairly minimal. The timing needed to be much better and even after manipulating the graph editor for some time, it looked like a mess.

    It was from here that I decided to entirely change my idea to that of a fish swimming through obstacles in an aquarium. I watched some videos of how fish move and learned that the smaller fish have short graceful movements. The character isn't meant to be thinking much as it swims and the clip could be played on loop as the character probably would forget the experience almost immediately. It's motivation is as simple as that it intends to pass through these obstacles but treats without emotion, like a fish would.
     
     The animation worked well in the area of movement and look. The fish moves well and i believe that the camera angles that i used added to the overall fluidity of the animation with the fish tail moving nicely in different directions, almost as if the viewer was following the fish. I ended up doing more than just primitives as i extended the basic shape in order to form the tail. The eyes are primitive though. If i was to improve anything in this animation then it would be the jittery nature in some areas as it can be vaguely hard to follow due to my camera angle not always focusing on the fish. I had intended to enhance the belief of the environment thanks to the visor underwater lighting tools but an issue with the batch render eliminated this possibility, something that I intend to try and rectify in any future projects.


I used this video to look at the movements of various fish, I also looked at various images on pinterest which can be found on my "Visual and animated research for module" board. I found this to be very interesting and helpful as I was able to study the movement of the fish.

 https://uk.pinterest.com/josephlearoyd/visual-and-animated-research-for-module/


Villarreal, Oscar, Virtual aquarium, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fish+moving+in+an+aquarium&&view=detail&mid=70682C58A87D62A24EC770682C58A87D62A24EC7&FORM=VRDGAR,
12 September 2012
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fish+moving+in+an+aquarium&&view=detail&mid=70682C58A87D62A24EC770682C58A87D62A24EC7&FORM=VRDGAR