Mickey is Based on 12 Principles

When does an animator stop animating? How did they start? No this is not a blog about an animator’s life but it is about their thought process. There are 12 principles of animation that add life to a character and scene. These 12 principles are the fundamentals of animation. Chapter 3 of The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston explains these “rules of the trade”.

1. Squash and Stretch-When a fixed shape is squashed by being flattened out or pushed together and stretched in a very extended condition without losing its original volume.
    
2. Anticipation-When a character does a specific move that prepares the audience for what they are about to do and what is about to happen.
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3. Staging- Presentation of any idea, be it a action, personality, expression, or mood, so  that is it absolutely clear.
    
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose- Straight Ahead Action approach is when an animator draws a scene as he goes while in a pose to pose approach actions are planned out and key drawings are drawn first before the inbetweens.
    
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action- Follow Through is when a character’s movement has stopped but separate parts of its body or appendages continue to move while in overlapping action parts of the body continue to move as they were even when a movement stopped, overlapping movements.
    
6. Slow In and Out- Speed and closeness of inbetweens to key drawings to speed up action from key pose to key pose or slow it down.
    
7. Arcs- Keeping the line of action on an arc due to the fact that most movements in the real world happen in arcs.
    
8. Secondary Action- An action that is added to the primary action to give more personality and make the character more life like.
    
9. Timing- The number of key frames and inbetweens used in a move determines how long an action will be and the number of inbetweens gives new meaning to an action.
    
10. Exaggeration- To exaggerate an action or expression to bring it more to life, make it more convincing, and so it connects with the audience more.
     
11. Solid Drawing- Shape and outline of a character that must be more natural with no parts of a character doing the exact same thing and provides a shape that can be animated.
     
12. Appeal- Adding appeal to a character by a pleasing design, “fascinating quality” or “quality of charm” so that the audience likes to look at the character.
     

In the following clip from Pixar’s Presto, all 12 principles of animation can be seen. 

  

• Squash and stretch is seen when the magician drops the hat after being electrocuted. The hat stretch while it was getting closer to the stage, squash when it hit the stage, and then stretch make to its original shape after it bounced off the stage. 

• Anticipation can be seen within the first second of the clip when the magician bends down before he reacts to be electrocuted. It can also be seen with the musicians. Before they play they both raise their hands then play their instrument.  

• Staging is seen by the fact that the magician is on a stage in a theater, with a magician’s hat, looks like a magician from his outfit, the rabbit is a character with reference to the magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat trick. The setting and the characters make it clear that this is an magic show. Also by the fact that most of the scene is staged in a shot that keeps the magician’s body in the frame but nothing much else around him. The focus is on the action of the magician being electrocuted. 

• I believe Pose to Pose approach was used for this scene because it has clarity and happens as expected. The scene is set up rabbit electrocutes magician, magician reacts, magician falls down as a result of being electrocuted. I have never been electrocuted myself but I think that a person would fall after being electrocuted for more than a second. There is not so much spontaneity in the scene. 

• Overlapping action can be seen when the magician is being electrocuted and the top part of his body is still but his legs are moving in all types of different directions and each leg is moving a different way. Follow through can be seen when the magician’s body stops moving completely at the end of the clip but the smoke from his hair is still moving. 

• Slow in and out can be seen from the magician’s quick reaction to electrocution. The inbetweens were close to the key poses and sped up the action. 

• Arcs can be seen looking at the magician’s legs while he was being electrocuted. When they move out and away from his body they are moving in arcs. As well as when the magician falls his head follows an arc. 

• Secondary action is seen the people in the orchestra look at each other in shock and confusion as to what to do as the magician is being electrocuted. Instead of just beginning to play the secondary action of shrugging their shoulders is added to add to the confusion, “what is happening?”, “I don’t know” feeling. 

• Timing can be seen at the end of the scene when the magician falls down. It is not a fluid fall more of a hard fall. This is achieved by the use of less inbetweens that gives the fall a more harsh feeling.  

• Exaggeration is clearly seen by the magician’s reaction to electricity. His legs moves all over the place, his eyes are huge, his hair is straight up, and lighting is seen going through his hair. 

• Solid drawing can be seen looking at the rabbit. He clearly looks like a rabbit with exaggerated features and those features are “animatable” and not the same. One ear is longer than the other and one foot is bigger than the other. 

• Appeal can be seen also looking at the rabbit. The rabbit can be seen as cute but that is not what appeal is all about. The rabbit has an appealing personality for wanting to get back at the magician. Having the rabbit look at the audience while electrocuting the magician made the rabbit more appealing to me and adds more humor to the scene.   

Animation is not just about making a character jump. Many different principles went into how that character was going to jump. We are so caught up in the story that even if one knew what the principles were, blink and we would miss one. Yet that shows that the principles are working. They are not there to be noticed but to better the animation and the auidence’s experience watching the animation. The clip had all 12 principles in a 15 second time frame. 

To Speak Is Not To Open Your Mouth

When watching an animated movie do you ever stop to think that Mammoth doesn’t always speak so kindly to that sloth, but wait? Animals don’t talk to each other, talk period, and Mammoths don’t even exist anymore. So why do we enjoy animated films and relate to scenes that cannot happen in real life.

   
     In The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, they say “conveying a certain feeling is the essence of communication in any form.” After reading Chapter One of The Illusion of Life, it became apparent to me how animation does communicate to an audience. The text discussed actions are not only seen as actions but show emotions, feelings, or fears. “Audience Involvement” is how animation remains to be successful. Communication is not so much speech. To communicate is to relay feelings and emotions.

   

We watch animation because we can identify with the storyline and thus we become involved. When watching a film like Ice Age we identify with the animated animals’ feelings of fear, emotions of loneliness and the feeling for the need to belong with some type of “herd”. The viewer’s response to animation is emotional. “We sympathize, we empathize, and we enjoy” animation because it showed something that is familiar to all of us. This can be an emotional reaction we all share, aspect of one’s personality, or a combination of things.

     Looking at a clip from the Pixar short film Presto, the rabbit in the clip communicates with the audience due to his emotional reactions and the situation that he is in. The bunny is kept in a cage right next to a carrot he significantly wants. When the magician, his owner, lets him out of the cage he thinks he’ll finally get his carrot but this does not happen.

     We all have had a time when we really really wanted something that was right before our eyes, literally but someone else would not let us have it. It could be when we were kids and we saw a cookie on the counter but mom said no cookies before dinner or when we saw food just like the rabbit in the clip when we were really hungry but had no time to eat it. Communication is based on emotion and connection. This clip communicates with the audience because it reminds the audience of a familiar situation and feeling. We sympathize with the rabbit because we know how it feels to want something we cannot have. Even though real life rabbits do not move and act as the rabbit in Presto, the situation he is in is human enough for us to understand. We also identify with the rabbits reaching out of his arms for the carrot and the magician pulling him away. Everyone has reached out for something they have wanted or reaching out for something in general is a sign of wanting something.

     Although animation is not always based on realism we the audience make it real. A talking sloth or a rabbit that moves like kid is appealing for us to watch because they communicate to us. Animation plays upon a communication between the audience and the characters. We believe in a character because we relate to its feelings and emotions.
What's that I hear...or see? Bugs Bunny is speaking to you.

Caricature of Realism-What is real?

     Who seems more real Donald Duck or a real duck? Seems like a silly question to ask but Donald may seem real due to the fact that one can relate more to Donald Duck cartoons than watching a real duck at a park. Donald Duck can be seen as a caricature of a real duck. Donald Duck is real in the sense of his emotions but a real duck in real due to the fact that it exists in reality.  

     Caricature is an exaggeration. It can be an exaggeration of a character’s body parts, personality, as well as their movements and actions in animation. I believe that realism is truer than caricature in the sense that realism is more true to reality. Reality is truth but caricature is more of an expression and exaggeration of truth. I believe one cannot have caricature without looking at realism first. To exaggerate something one must have a basis to exaggerate. For realism just look at reality but for caricature it is more about exaggerating reality.

     Yet in animation caricature is greatly seen due to the fact that because of its amplification of reality characters better communicate to the audience. Feelings and emotions are better seen.

     In the clip from Pixar’s Presto, I believe it relies on both realism and caricature. As discussed in Chapter Two of The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Walt Disney wanted a catricature of realism. In order to capture the audience one must exaggerate but it must be believable at the same time. It has to feel real, be based on realism. 

     The clip is based on realism being that is involves a magician, a rabbit, and a hat. Pulling a rabbit out of a hat is a trick seen and heard about in reference to magicians. The magician looks like a human and the rabbit looks like a rabbit. The magician does not have unrealistic or too fluid of movements. The room that the characters are in, the setting, looks like what a real magician’s dressing room would look like. The cage that rabbit is in and the carrot he is longing for look like the real life things. 

     Caricature is seen in the clip through the rabbit’s movements and actions. Rabbits do stand on two feet at times but they do not move their legs in rotation as the rabbit was when the magician was holding him back. Yet that movement is needed to get the audience’s attention. The movement also evokes the emotion of the rabbit of desperately wanting the carrot and causes the emotion from the audience of sympathy. 

     Realism is more true than caricature if one references both with reality. Animation is not so much about being real but more about feelings that exist in the real world. One can draw or animate anything they want, anyway they want but that character is going to evoke real feelings that exist in the real world. Realism is already closer to reality. Emotion and feeling does not have to make it seem real. 
Then again is something real as long as you believe in it?