Research from 'The Fundamentals of Animation' by Paul Wells Pt 2

Basic Details:
Wells P 2006, The Fundamentals of Animation, AVA Publishing SA UK.

Extracted from Pg 104-105 of  "Sound and Stop-motion Animation"

104.

• Master animator, Barry Purves, sees a strong relationship between sound and the sense of performance in stop-motion animation, preferring nuanced vocal performances, specific and suggestive sound effects, and above all, an inspiring musical score to create a distinctive soundtrack for animation.
• '... I favour a more movement-based form of storytelling, seeing the whole body of the character as much as possible- using the body language to tell the drama and emotion. I guess I find a body more interesting than a generally over-animated mouth flapping away.' ~ Barry Purves
• 'The voice in Babe strike me as some of the most beautiful voice acting I have heard for ages. They manage to suggest the animal as well as the human qualities, without ever having to resort to cheap tricks.'

105.

• 'I think I would probably concentrate on the eye acting than over-synched mouth shapes. It is the eyes we watch in conversation and too often than not, we do not have the necessary anatomy on an animated character (such as teeth, or a tongue) to do accurate lip-synch... The rhythm and vocal effect are probably more important than accuracy.
• Express as much narrative information as possible through looks, gesture and physical movement that has a particular purpose or objective.

Extracted from Pg 124 of  "Digital Animation"

• For the most part the animation in games has been in the service of crude movement and action functions, but as narrative and character plays more important roles in games, approaches in design and the specificity of the choreography are drawing upon traditional animation.

Extracted from Pg 125 of  "Computer-generated Animation"

• Computer-generated animation has changed the nature of animation as a form and become the dominant approach in TV and feature work. It has prompted a necessary shift in the definition of animation as a model of film-making made frame by frame, or by more synaesthetic means, to incorporate the idea of the conscious manipulation or profilmically constructed synthetic forms in a digital environment. Where there is still a fundamental relationship to traditional animation skills and techniques, the software for computer-generated work has changed the nature of the approach.
• The computer is just a tool.
• You cannot tell what it looks like until it is done.
• You get nothing for free.
• You don't get multiple 'takes'.

Extracted from Pg 130 of  "A Superior Example of CGI"

• Ryan, directed by Chris Landreth, is one of computer animation's most celebrated short films in that it displays extraordinary technique in telling a story that is close to the heart of the animation community. Part documentary, part traditional animation, part nightmare, the film is about Ryan Larkin, a Canadian animator.
• Landretch adopts an approach called 'psychological realism', which uses the fluid language of animation to embrace the concept defined by writer, Anais Nin.
• Ryan sometimes appears as if it is modified 'live action', but everything was conceived and executed in the computer and all character movement was created by hand and did not use motion capture. The film used Alias's Maya animation software (V 4.0) for modelling, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering of the 3D environment, and Discreet Combustion V2.1 for all compositing and 2D effects. Adobe Photoshop V7.0 was employed for painting and texturing, and Adobe Premiere for creative development and editing.

Extracted from Pg 134-135 of  "Rotoscope and Motion Capture"

134.

• Rotoscoping and motion capture may be viewed as helpful tools in the development of animated movement, but it still remains the case that all 'movement', however ultimately constructed or presented, must be motivated, and that movement is still informed by overlapping action, distortion, forced perspective, motion blur, and any number of performance 'takes' and 'gestures' to signal particular meanings.
• Mark Langer defines the rotoscope as: A device that allowed the rear projection of a live-action film frame-by-frame on to a translucent surface set into a drawing board.
• 'We saw that film gave us every single movement and tracing it meant that the human body became kind of stiff, and didn't move like a person at all. Film gave us too much information, so we had to emphasise what was too important to the animator- the squash 'n' stretch movement of a figure, the anticipation, the overlapping action- and act through the movement, so that you choose what you want to exaggerate to get the right action for the scene and no more.
• ... Johnston stresses the limits of live action. The animator must be selective in the choice of what the animated figure needs to do in relation to the requirements of the scene. The movement is not about capturing the physical wholeness of the body, but the specific imperatives that create an action. This is further related to the weight of the figure, the kind of movement through space and time, the sense of rhythm, adaptation to the environment, effort needed and gestural specificity. This is clearly related to aspects of the 'performance' of the animated character as it is determined by the animator as 'actor'. This sense of 'performance' has become intrinsically related to the use of 'motion capture' in more recent work.

135.

• Motion capture has progressed considerably in recent years, and allied to sophisticated CGI, and the more self-conscious imperatives of actors working through motion capture equipment, this has created work of a progressive nature, most notably in the case of Andy Serkis' truly immersed performance as Gollum in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).
• A combination of processes was used in the construction of Gollum's action: traditional rotoscoping, where fight sequences conducted by Serkis were recorded and his movement drawn over frame by frame to ensure Gollum fought with the high degree of energy and aggression required; key frame animation; on impossible action for humans; and most particularly, the face, and motion capture, where much of Serkis' performance dictated Gollum's onscreen activity.
• ... the persuasiveness of Gollum as a character in his own right, where the animation facilitates the character and in this instance, necessarily has to efface the performance of the actor, but must not draw attention to itself as animation, or as an effect. A key point to emerge from all of this is that animation almost intrinsically hides its process, and the 'art' that characterises that process, but it is the final outcome that justifies this necessity.

Extracted from Pg 136-139 of  "Combining Live Action and Animation Using Motion Capture for CGI"

136.

• Working with motion capture can be helpful for facilitating a particular kind of motion in computer-generated figures, sometimes in a spirit more closely echoing the dynamics of live-action characters that may be in the same environment. Compositing- literally bringing together layers of pictorial elements to create an image- can seamlessly enable live-action characters and environments to co-exist with animated characters and objects in a visual space, informed by the same movement and characteristics.
• 'The challenge was the motion capture for CGI because we hadn't done that before. A professional dancer and I mimed the dance of the monster, which was quite an experience and later on I was cleaning up the MoCap-data and doing additional animation with a program I had to learn within two weeks, while Max was modelling lighting, texturing, rendering and compositing the scenes.' - Anja Perl
• Real world objects were used to give the monster's skin a realistic surface. Images of these objects were scanned and texture-mapped on the three-dimensionally rendered character using a computer. Layers of texture were carefully built up for a convicting appearance.

137.

• The motion capture process involves attaching sensors to human performers as they play out the physical sequences that make up the animation.
• Using the Maya 5.0, the data captured from the performance is then transferred from the human form on to the fictional monster's form.

139.

• There are a variety of reasons for making sure that the process of a project is recorded:
• To preserve its hidden and often invisible 'art'.
• To capture the development of the work in relation to all its changes- preferred, enforced, accidental, etc.
• To recognise each aspect of the work as the embodiment of particular specialist and transferable skills and knowledge.
• To observe what is ultimately 'selected' from the developmental process in relation to the final and intended outcomes.
• To collate materials that represent the work in its absence and represent the skills and knowledge that created them.
• To preserve the 'memory' of the work for future consideration, consultation and enjoyment.