tbdigitalanimation

[tbdigitalanimation]

Discussion 2

Introduction

Animation can be defined as the illusion of movements, which is shown in a series of still images in rapid succession. Over the years many people try to capture movement through imagery, inventing different forms, and methods. From its earliest days, animation has developed multiple iterations and created myriad dynamic styles, innovative techniques, iconic characters, memorable stories, and technological advancement. Highlighting some of the techniques used throughout the years, you can see the rapid growth of animation.

History

From as far back as Stone Age, Paleolithic artists structured an arrangement of graphic narrative that delineated various events befalling the same animals, or groups of animals, so transmitting an allegorical or educational message. In addition, they invented the principle of continuous animation, based on the properties of retinal persistence. This was accomplished by indicating a series of juxtaposed or superimposed images of the same animal.

The Zoetrope method was then imagined in 1834 by Williams George Horner, and it was a significant movement in the advancement of animation. This method consisted of an empty drum comprised of ting splits, images were set within, and as the drum turns the viewers were able to see a fast progression of images, delivering the perception of movement.

The flipbook (or kineograph) was then designed in 1868 by John Barnes. This method utilized a progression of illustrations of an animated scene bound together in succession as you quickly flip through an illusion of movement was displayed. This has been another extraordinary case of how straightforward animation could be so compelling.

A couple of years later "1889" Zoetrope was improved by Charles-Emile Reynaud by a technique called Praxinoscope. This technique overthrew the slits with an inner circle mirror that attempted to create consistent moving images, offering viewers a brighter, clearer, and less twisted picture than the Zoetrope. The animation was then proficient enough where viewers had the opportunity to see hand-drawn animated images to extend onto a screen.

Traditional animation innovation (1914-1967). In Traditional animation history, hand-drawn animation was made utilizing Cel. This procedure utilized various hand-drawn figures which comprised of sketches, drawings, works of art, fundamentally any high-quality visual piece made with physical common materials. Cel was a transparent sheet comprising of cellulose nitrate and camphor, which utilized hand drawings to make objects. Characters were drawn on Cels and superimposed on common background images which diminished the number of frames and creation times. The first animated scene made utilizing this technique was Colonel Heeza Liar in (1914), and Gertie, The Dinosaur made by Winsor McCay

In 1928 Walt Disney tagged along, releasing the first animated film to incorporate sound "Steamer Willie". Mickey Mouse, following the arrival of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 showed up, which turns into a well-known type of diversion that still can be recalled by many people. Stop-motion animation was another method regularly utilized in this period. Stop-motion animation is a filmmaking technique in which objects are physically moved in small increments and captured one frame at a time so when played back, it will give the illusion of movement. This technique is a lot like a flipbook, but rather than utilizing drawings, it utilizes physical objects.

With the revolution of computer- motion graphic (1967-1984) has changed how animation was created. The frame by frame animation of 2d characters was now done totally on computers. The first computer-generated animation film featured was the Hummingbird (1967). Sword in the Stone was also one of the first animated films in the history of 2d animation. Animation has gotten less exhausting for visual craftsmen giving them more control, just as they would now be able to create content without the characters, props, and costly set pieces. A portion of the mainstream Disney films develop in this time was Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, and Aristocrats.

"CGI" Computer-generated images created within the period (1984-2018). Incorporates both 2d and 3d animated graphics, which was then placed into motion utilizing either frame-by-frame or rigging technique. This method guaranteed that movement wasn't just going to be utilized to create film and television arrangement yet besides for narrating and web arrangement. It additionally guaranteed that the film was made and rendered quicker. Computers pushed the advancement of 3d animation, as these 3d models/characters were developed on a computer utilizing basic geometrical shapes in a 3d space. When the eyes, limbs, and clothes of these characters were finished it was moved onto the frames and the animation was rendered. The Adventures of Andre and Wally B made by Pixar were the first movies created utilizing 3d Animation Computer Graphic. Pixar introduced Toy Story in 1995, utilizing a perplexing arrangement of model enunciation and movement control coding, where he was able to create characters with depth, charm, and personality.  

At this period a lot of well-known movies was created evolving from 5-6 second to fill on hour plus. Some of these films were “Avatar” by James Cameron, Tarzan (1999), Finding Nemo (2003), The Princess and the frog (2009), Moana (2016), and many others that use these techniques within a 3d space.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional and Digital Animation.

An ongoing question people debate is whether traditional animation or digital animation is better. However, both methods have pros and cons when completing a task.

Some positive aspects of retaining both methods:

Advantage of Traditional Animation 

Easier to navigate with little training compared to Digital Animation where complex software programs are involved.

It is a cheaper method with a low cost of production compared to Digital animation.

Animators have more control over their designs, anything you want can be achieved.

Advantage of Digital Animation 

It has a great superior ability to portray natural  movement and realistic qualities.

Has the ability to copy, paste, undo, or delete frames easily, without having to redraw.

It can show off your product using many more details (shadows, texture, depth) compared to Traditional Animation.

Both methods can be used for educational and business purposes.

Some negative effects of both method

Disadvantage of Traditional Animation 

With the growth of 3d animation, most people prefer to     watch 3d movies.

3d animation can be completed in less time due to     modern technology

Time-consuming while each frame must be hand-drawn in     Traditional Animation, Digital Animation you only need to key and frame     the important poses and the computer generates all the frames between.

Disadvantage of Digital Animation

Software program issues can delete work unexpectedly.

You need an updated computer device and intermediate     skills to use animation software such as “Maya”.

Since this is created on a software program it can     sometimes limit the imagination of the animator.

Animation producing content to the audiences of today.

With an appealing visual style and specific added value, animation can both entertain and educate the audiences. While some may think animation only appeals to kids, the truth is animation doesn’t have an age group or gender attraction. It is also enjoyed by an older audience as it reminds them of their childhood days. Back then there wasn’t as fortunate as today audiences, as animation now uses a wide range of colour, soundtrack, voice-overs, lighting effects, and camera animation which can be done within a three-dimensional space. With these elements incorporated there have become more attached as it seeks their interest visually. 

The content displayed and how it is delivered is what is important as some animation in both methods educates you about overcoming obstacles and forming friendships which often teaches valuable life lessons to all audiences regardless of age or experience. The only difference with the audience sometimes the adults may take away a whole different message from a film than the younger viewers.

The difference between 2d and 3d animation is, some animators/viewers still enjoy the cartoonish nature of 2d as 2d animation doesn't try to imitate real life. However many people are more altered to 3d animation as it looks more attractive, you can create a realistic environment and it gives the scenes a more dynamic effect which makes it more interesting and engaging for the viewers.

Animation in the Industry

Apart from animating the film, in the 20th-century animation is used in different media. Some of the most widely acknowledged areas where animation is already utilized: Education uses animated videos to effectively improve the quality of reception of learners, as humans tend to remember video more than textual content. Advertisements use animation to make effective commercials that can capture the imagination of the audience luring them to buy the product. Medical animation allows medical professionals and students to visualize the details of human anatomy with clarity before conducting surgeries. The Architecture uses animation to show customers what the building will look like after completion, as this allows them to view the building from different angles.

The evolution of Technology even goes as far as 3d printing, this also made rapid growth in the number of companies adopting the technology. A few examples where 3d printing is used are consumer products (footwear, furniture), industrial products (manufacturing tools, prototypes), dental products, movie props, and architectural scale models & Marquette.

Conclusion

From my point of view, people don't take the time to learn the importance of both types of animation as each has its unique style and it all depends on what works better for your project. An example of what I believe works best for both methods will be working in the medical industry where it contains more detailed and realistic requirement “surgery” will benefit more so from 3d animation. While in the educational sector that utilizes storytelling may receive a better learning outcome through the use of 2d animated videos. 

I enjoy 3d animation compared to 2d, however, I believe the history of Traditional animation should always be respected, appreciated, and will always be the starting point for all types of animation. With the development of both methods, it is difficult to determine which is better than the other. I also believe animation isn’t going to stop there, as new and improve methods maybe develop in the future. 

What animators need to consider is how they are going to capture the attention of your potential segment of target audiences and delivery the content.

[tbdigitalanimation]

Discussion 1

Evaluation of Feedback

While we face a pandemic it was hard to get countless feedback from my intended target audiences 2-12 years of age. However, I utilized social media to send my finished animation to some people, as this was a critical part of the process. The general remarks received from the target audience 2-12 years of age were astonished, great job, love the characters design, I enjoyed it and I was eager to know what happened next. However being viewed by older audiences they were able to point out some of the key elements of the animation, from the utilization of colours, camera movement, lighting, sound, and portrayal. I took notice of all feedback as it opens doors for improvement and betterment in the future. Another point brought forward by the parents of these kids was that these kids were locked in, enjoying the few seconds of the animation. This point was extremely essential to me as it makes me understand that I effectively accomplished my goal. While 95% of the feedback received was positive, one of the negative issues was the voice-over/sound, as the voice-over didn’t connect as much with the characters and while the sound created excitement it was a little too abrupt.

Evaluation of my process

Given the option to choose which method you will like to complete your final outcome whether it be 2d or 3d animation, I have chosen 3d animation.  Before making this decision I did some research on both methods and it was shown while kids enjoy both methods, most prefer watching 3d animation as you get a more realistic feel of the environment working within a three dimensional space.

Every decision I made throughout the process I kept in mind who was my target audience and what worked best for them. From time to time I gathered feedback from my niece and nephew who fell within the age group 2-12 years, and made appropriate changes.

Upon choosing a passage from Alice in wonderland: The Queen croquet-ground, where the gardeners were painting the rose trees I believed that this scene would appeal to the interest of my target audiences. Opening the scene with a welcoming genre of sound to draw their attention and ending it with suspenseful music making them uncertain about what may happen. With this being done it can change the mood of the audiences while viewing the film. Originally, I was only going to add subtitles, but after viewing the film without a voice-over or sound, I found that the younger audiences would not be able to understand the message I was trying to deliver as it might be difficult to read the text.

Critique and plan for further development.

I will begin by saying it wasn’t easy! I faced quite a few difficulties in the process of achieving my outcome. From program issues “Maya” breaks down quite a few times to modeling, rigging, rendering, and adding final touches in After Effect CS6. Without having knowledge of both programs, from the use of tools and how to navigate through the program took me a while. However, using YouTube tutorials, class recording, and requesting zoom meetings to my advantage I was able to learn the fundamental elements of both programs which enabled me to achieve my final animation.  

Emphasizing on the feedback received I agree with the viewers, where the voice-over/sound is concerned. In the future, I will try to select a much better voice over/sound to achieve to better follow within the scenes. What I will also like to achieve is a more dynamic movement of characters, where the characters can do more natural movement and not look like robots.

Despite the fact it there are areas where improvement is required, I am extremely satisfied with my outcome. And while the animation was well receive through feedback I am proud that I was able to meet the expectation of my audiences. In any case, having done this again, I will focus on these areas to obtain a better outcome.

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With just a few time left i went back in after effect and make a few changes. My aim was to change the voice-over, as it was requested by the audiences. However i was still unable to find a voice-over to connect with the characters.

 I was able to improve the quantity of the video which made it clearer, add in sound as Alice speak, remove the footsteps, and change the information at end of the film. While the voice-over is still and issue, I believe with the few changes made the overall film was improved. 

I was unable to resend video due to the time left for submission.

[tbdigitalanimation]

Alice Curious Adventure; This was my first attempt working in Adobe After Effect CS6 to edit my film. I was able to add a background colour “light blue”, which help me deliverer the early morning feel of the scene, sound and subtitles. This program was quite challenging at first, however within the crunch of time i was able to understand the basics. 

Feedback receive from audiences:

Omgggg, its so goooood!!, woah i love it, from the colours, camera and definitely the characters i think will capture the attention of kids. Amazing good job.

Looks good

Love it, the voice a little katchi tho.

I like the placement of each object, the colours use and characters not so much the voice-over.

I enjoy the entire film.

The animation was well received.The backgound was well done... I like the choice of colours and the characters. Thesound created a lil excitement and caused me to look on formore. However the sound was too abrupt nd the voice over tone didnt really connect to the characters... the foot step of Alice wasn’t in sync... i was eager to know what happen next.

That was real bad, i enjoy. Love the ending as you was able to see the paint on the gardener clothes.

Love the characters, the use of colours, however i dont really like the voice-over.

[tbdigitalanimation]

My Thought Process.

Alice Curious Adventure: The Rose Garden. Sticking with the storyline from the original Alice in Wonderland, the gardeners worked for the Queen of Hearts. I have decided to include a castle to represent the Queen’s palace, as the gardeners work very hard to upkeep the beauty of her front yard. This scene took place in the morning period, as you will be able to see through the uses of lighting “Arnold Skydome light”.The gardeners busily painting the white roses red before the Queen decides to take her morning walk, and see the mess they have done. Although I try to include a lot of objects in the environment, I try to make the rose trees most prominent. Lying them out at the front, at the side of the walkway and in the middle of the scene. The large rose tree in the middle, I try to form the tree into a rose, as it was the main attraction. Within my scene, i use more so natural colours, (colours that are found in nature) such as brown soil, green leaf, cloudy sky, and red sun. Through my research with the use of these palettes, it can create a warm and nature-friendly atmosphere, which I believe can help me draw the attention of my target audiences. I will then animate characters/camera, add text and sound to try and deliver my message to my audiences, However, I will only be able to know how well it was executed after the feedback. This well gave me a better understanding of what my audiences like or dislike and know areas that I may need to improve on in the future.

[tbdigitalanimation]

Animating film

Currently, I’m in the process of animating my short film. That this point I'm trying my best to hold it together to complete this task. Understanding the different process animators go through to entertain, educate, or advertise to the viewer made me appreciate their work even more. I don’t think people understand what I will call the “groundwork” of animation and the level of hard work and time is required. I have decided to pause on animating a bit and take some time to look at some simple animations to get some inspiration. These are some of the animations I enjoy, as I pay close attention to the lighting, colours, sounds, camera shots, and environment of each scene as it has a different impact on the audiences.

This particular animation gave me encouragement and motivated me to try harder and remember with practice i will improve. 

World First Animated cartoon by Emile Reynaud.

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Final Model “Alice and Gardeners”

Back view of all three gardeners.

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Work_in_Process

Adding colours to my Alice character, and trying my best to make it attractive to my target audiences. 

Modelling gardener number “7″.

Adding pivot points to gardener and testing it out to ensure it was place correctly and making changes accordingly.

Trying to find the best colours for the gardeners, and making sure the colours isn’t blending in to background colours.

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Environment Development

While modeling my environment the Maya program did break down quite a few times. I will say this frustrated me, as I send a lot of time trying to model each part of my environment and having to start over. However, after doing it over a few time I was able to improve my skills and achieve a much better outcome.

Environment 3

Environment 2

Environment 1

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Alice Modelling Process

During the process of modeling Alice, I did encounter quite a few challenges. This step did take a while to achieve, as I tried my best to give her a human-like body structure. Starting with simple shapes, adding edge loops, and playing around with vertices, faces, and edges I was able to improve my model. I must say that the turnaround reference sheet did help me a lot, however, I was able to model parts of my character without following the outline. This was done because while working in the perspective panel I was able to view the character much better and make changes accordingly. Below I share some screenshots that I took during my modeling process.

I remodel the main body of Alice quite a few times.

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3D production Pipeline

A 3D animation pipeline is a system where tasks are completed at pre-determined stages before moving to the next step. It’s much like an assembly line for animated film production. The pipeline is typically broken down into three major phases, Pre-production, Production, and Post-production. These phases incorporate tasks that need to be completed before moving on to the next one. Each step builds on the previous tasks that were completed. Following this production pipeline and looking at examples I am able to see how it gives you a well-defined system for successfully managing your animated short film production. 

At this point, I’m in the production stage where I’m modeling/texturing my character (Alice) preparing it for rigging.

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Garden Animation 2D-3D

These are two animations I look at (The Garden Dream 2D and The Rose Tree 3D). Seeing that my short film will be in a garden setting I felt like this will help me visualize how I want mines to look and also see how others have done there environment. Even though i have basic knowledge of both 2D and 3D animation, I personally prefer 3D, and after doing a small survey among my target audience their also prefer 3D animation. So I will give it a try for the first time to complete my short film.

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Character Rigging

This was my first attempt rigging a character using basic shapes in Maya. I have learned that 3D rigging is very much similar to 2D rigging, which is creating lifelike movement in articulated bodies. What you need to pay close attention to is how parts of the body are connected and how they move related to each other.

The bones and joints are arranged in a parent-child hierarchy, which I found very helpful in understanding how to connect the body parts. This basically means that the children inherit position and rotation from their parents. An example of a parent-child hierarchy will be the parent being the upper_right_leg and the child being the lower_right_leg. Through research, I saw another phase call inverse kinematics, which is how the position of a child can affect a parent. An example of inverse kinematics will be when raising the wrist joint it will cause the upper arm to rotate at the shoulder, along with the elbow would bend at a natural angle. 

I really enjoy this session, after seeing basic shapes form a character and doing human-like movements.

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Turnaround Sheet _ Final

Front, side and back view of my character. I changed a few details from the previous turnaround sheet, as i tried to use simple shapes so i can easily animate. 

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Turnaround Sheet _One

Work in process, starting off with a very simple outline I was trying to add more details to enhance my character “Alice”. However, I noticed that the side view together with the order in which each view was placed I will encounter difficulties lining in out within the program "Maya". This may seem simple but through an example shown in class, I understand why this plays a major role when trying to model a character.

#need to re-draw.

[tbdigitalanimation]

Character Design_Two

Model/ Production sheet. I have chosen my final character design and added a few more details to my characters. Alice's appearance being very more childish, yet adventurous and the three gardeners almost look identical. What made each gardener unique is the number placed in the middle area of their body. This was done on purpose to reflect back to my research on “cards representation” where each card has the same indistinguishable look from the back and the only where you can identify them in from the front. Another difference on the cards was they face expression which did reflect not only on their personality but their mood. Number 2- happy/friendly, number 5-tried, and number 7-angry.

I will be doing Alice for my turn around the sheet.

[tbdigitalanimation]

Character Design Info.

Upon developing my characters I paid close attention to the setting of the scenes. Throughout my short film, there will be four characters (Alice and the three gardeners) within a garden setting. I want to present all four characters simple, yet very attractive mainly to my target audiences.

Partially sticking with the traditional idea of the gardeners in Alice in Wonderland, I felt like keeping the gardeners as “shade cards”. However I see Alice as a very bold, brave, fearless, and wildly curious character in the story, but I felt like her visual appearance didn’t really best reflect her personality. 

For my short film “Alice curious Adventure”, Alice appearance will go against the traditional look presented by L.Carroll, to a six-year-old little brown skin dressed in a t-shirt, jumpsuit, and garden boots. Together with the gardeners whose body is in the shape of a card with a head, hands, and feet, which makes the characters look “surreal”. Seeing that the story as basic on Alice making a visit to an underworld adventure, I wanted Alice to be the only human character.