“I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real.” - Walt Disney
This sentence was used in Chapter 4 of The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, and I had to wonder, does this contradict anything that was discussed in Chapter 2 about caricatures in animation?
The short answer is no.
The long answer is that Walt Disney is absolutely right. Caricatures have a base in realism. You cannot create a caricature unless you have something to work off of. They can't normally be pulled out of thin air! Take for instance, a duck. We all know what a duck looks like, feathers, webbed feet, beaks, go "quack" etc. Now let us look at Donald Duck over here on the right, a character by Walt Disney.
He does have a lot of duck-like qualities, right? But these qualities are, as I previously mentioned, grounded on the existing real ducks we usually see in life and pictures. However, the real life duck isn't the only inspiration for this character. Human anatomy is also a big player in this character. Ducks don't normally have fingers, or flexible bills that allow to create a smile and audible english words. Ducks also don't wear sailor suits, unless you own a pretty tame duck that allows you to dress it up.
I wouldn't say there was much conflict between Chapters 2 and 4, mainly because both share the same base of following from real examples, and from their they strive down their own individual paths that can possibly contradict if principles from both chapters were mixed in one animation, but if an animator followed one path, they shouldn't find many roadblocks.
In chapter 3 of the book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animationby Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas, the authors discuss the 12 principles of animation that are essential to producing an illusion of characters adhering to the basic laws of physics. The 12 principles are as followed:
Squash and Stretch:
The purpose of this principle is to give an object or person a sense of weight and flexibility. For example, the ball drawn on the right becomes much more real when it stretches during its descent to the ground, then "squishes" down on impact.
Anticipation:
Normally used to prepare an audience for an action, as well as to make an action look much more realistic. An example would be a baseball player gripping his bat and adjusting his feet before swinging to hit a baseball.
Staging:
Staging has a simple purpose, which is to direct the audience's attention to what a scene is trying to demonstrate as most important.
Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose:
"Straight ahead" means drawing a scene frame by frame, manually, and with little to no shortcuts. "Pose to Pose" is the opposite, which is drawing a couple key frames, and then drawing the rest later.
A combination of the two techniques is used in most animations to this day.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action:
Both of these techniques help render movement more realistically, as well has help give the impression that drawn characters follow the laws of physics.
Slow In and Slow Out:
This principle involves drawing the acceleration and slow down of movements on a human body, as well as other objects. An example would be animation a character running, then slowing down to take a breath, then sitting down. Arc: The Arc principle involves the physics of trajectory, meaning that when something is flying through the air, unless it's going super faster, would not fly in a straight line. An example would be a basketball player shooting a basketball into a net, the ball would not just go diagonally into the net, it would have to do a near crescent arc to reach it's goal. Secondary Action:
Secondary Action is adding other motions to a body to make it look more realistic, such as having arms swinging back and forth when walking, or hair flowing when running, etc. Timing:
When it comes to timing in animation, the correct timing makes objects appear to obey the laws of physics, when a vase is thrown, it is more dramatic when everything else pauses as the vase smashes against a wall.
Exaggeration:
Exaggerating features and movements in animation help keep animated characters from being a little too real. However, there is a fine line of balance between creating a character that is too exaggerated, or not exaggerated enough, causing them to be dull. Here are examples of knights from the video game King's Quest. Notice how differently their bodies vary. Solid Drawing:
This one is tricky. Solid drawing means giving something volume and weight through understanding the forms of three-dimensional space. Skilled artists must be able to understand everything that must go into animation (weight, anatomy, light and shadow, etc) to successfully draw something in a three dimensional shape.
Appeal:
A very important part of creating a character. What's putting time into drawing a character if they have no aspects that people like? It doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be a good guy, because there are some villains out there we LOVE to HATE. A character has to have interesting qualities that can appeal to multiple people in either the same way, or in their own individual opinions.
Here is a video that includes the drawings of multiple animators collaborating together to create a music video for one of my favorite Youtubers, JonTron. Keep a look out for all 12 principles, some animators may miss some, but others may have included those that were missed.
I will continue my discussion of animation (Fred Moore's 14 Points of Animation) in part two of this blog post.
The term caricature (according to google) is a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect. This effect is usually used a lot of animation, be it tv shows, movies, or video games. To avoid delving into a realistic take on things, some characters have over-exaggerated body parts, such as their hands, nose, legs, etc. On the other end of this spectrum, we have realism, which is the movement or style of representing familiar things as they actually are. In today's post, I will provide some examples of both of these forms of animation style, starting with caricature.
One of my favorite animated movies that crosses both of my favorite things (Disney and video games) is Wreck-It Ralph. This movie does an excellent job at using the caricature style on the main protagonist (or antagonist? I mean, he is a villain). Ralph's hands are comically huge compared to all the other characters in the film, but they have a purpose! They're huge because, as the title says, he wrecks stuff. It wouldn't make sense if a normal man used his normal hands to break down breaks, and that's a good thing because this movie strived to reduced realism because it took place in a video game world where anything goes. As one can see, Ralph also has big feet, a barreled chest, and a pretty big lower jaw, emphasizing more and more that he isn't meant to be compared to the real world. Since I mentioned it, I'll start up an example of realism to show what the other side is like.
Going back to video games, Final Fantasy 13 has some pretty realistic (and fashionable) main characters. The one I'll be focusing on, however, will be the character Lightning. Lightning, as you can see from the picture provided, looks like a human woman. She has average sized body, with average hands, average feet, and etc. This is realism in animation. Lightning can be pretty relatable to real-world females, which makes her more likable. There's not much else I can add to this, but I would like to put in my opinion that the caricature style is much more fun to see in animation rather than the use of realism.
The reasoning behind my choice is that sometimes realistic looking animation can lead to making things look a little "too real" and make me uncomfortable. This phenomenon is called the Uncanny Valley, and if you have the time, you should read more about it. Anyways, caricatures allow more freedom in animation, where as realistic characters are set to the physics on humans. It's more fun that way, less restriction.
At Shepherd University, I am a 3rd year Communication and New Media major with a minor in Education, and have been a member of the Multicultural Leadership Team on campus for the past two years. As a member, I am an advocate for social justice for peers and the community, and I do 90 hours of volunteer work every school year, mainly at the Salvation Army and local soup kitchens. During my freshmen year at Shepherd, I was the president of the Hall Advisory Board in Kenamond Hall. I currently work two jobs to pay for college, one being a Photo Specialist at Walgreens, and the other being a Exceptions Associate at the Macy's Logistics and Operations warehouse. I am fluent in Spanish and have a decent knowledge of computers (I built my own).
Behind-the-scenes in Game of Thrones
During my free time, I usually play video games (PC, PS4, Wii U, 3DS, and PS3). I've played games every since I found my uncle's Nintendo Entertainment System in his old room at my grandparents house when I was 7 years old. Along with video games, I watch a lot of movies and television. I absolutely love breaking down movies and seeing how they were made in behind-the-scenes extras and youtube videos online. I do the same with some shows that are visually impressive (Game of Thrones). However, animation has always been my favorite subject to research.
Fantastic Mr. Fox, a movie I wholeheartedly recommend!
Animated cartoons and movies, especially stop-motion, have always been a part of my life growing up. Miyazaki's Spirited Away was the movie I watched way to many times as a child. As an adult, Fantastic Mr. Fox is the movie I put on as background noise while I do work/chores at home. I loved it so much, I got an iconic scene near the end of the movie tattooed on my right shoulder. I want to learn more about stop motion animation, as well as other forms during my time in my current animation class. I hope this is enough information about myself for you guys! I'll be posting more through the year about classes, movies, and life in general!
