Animation Development Assignment

When we were first told about this assignment my mind went wild trying to find something to work from; I knew from the outset that I would rather work with 2D hand drawn animation as it’s what I most enjoy and want to improve in, but even with that settled there were so many questions to ask myself.

By way of the audio I considered a lot of clips from shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Frasier, some sketches from The Dean Martin Show, and clips from Belfast comedian James Young’s program in the late 1960s/ early 1970s. I would have been keen to work from those, however I thought that whatever I animated couldn’t be as funny as the original.

The YouTube playlist where I compiled possible sources, if you’re interested.

 

I then moved onto music for a while, and became quite set on using an extract from The Four Aces’ recording of ‘Love is a Many-Splendored Thing’. The idea I had here would open on a picturesque fairy tale forest floor, with vines parting like theatre curtains as the camera moved in to reveal four woodland creatures singing as a quartet. This was an admittedly ambitious plan, but if you listen to the song I’m sure you can understand why I’d want to bring so much atmosphere and build up to it.

All of that consideration didn’t end up getting me anywhere, however, as in a flash of inspiration I remembered the film ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950) and one clip in particular came to mind- see 01:04 – 01:16 in the below video.

As a fan of this film and of Gloria Swanson’s performance in it, I was more than comfortable now to start developing my animation.

I started said development in my sketchbook with studies from the clip and consideration by way of character design

Having just watched a video from former Disney animator Aaron Blaise on drawing expressive eyes I was trying to play with expression and stylisation as much as I could here. I landed on a design reminiscent of the character in her few forms- from the film and the stage musical adaptation in especial- with makeup that references her past as a silent film starlet.

Initially I had planned on using the clip the audio is from as reference for my animated performance, but on seeking Alec’s opinion he suggested I film my own reference to further the impact, and so I did.

I had taken photo reference of myself for artworks and drawings before but this was my first time recording myself like this. To get into the spirit of the thing I lit myself to a point where I was pleased and afterwards desaturated the footage and edited the contrast &c to get the right effect. I also wore a horizontally striped t-shirt to give myself a clearer idea of the direction of my torso as I moved. It is a little embarrassing but I’m glad it was suggested to me as it became a great help later on.

My first pass mostly consisted of direct studies from my reference, with an added eyebrow raise and look up and down at the start in an attempt to add some character and build up to the more dramatic change in expression.

Before I started stylising my animation I wanted to have something more final as reference. By way of style I looked to classic Disney villains like The Evil Queen from ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, and Cruella De Vil from ‘101 Dalmatians’. For this audio and this character those designs and performances seemed most appropriate to serve as my reference.

Here’s my next pass and my initial attempt at animating my design over my reference. It’s obviously very rough, but I was decently happy with the expressions, even if it wasn’t all on model. I was contented with how I’d corrected the up and down glance, with the eyelid moving instead of the pupils on its own.

Here I had added more inbetweens and gotten rid of the turn away at the end as I felt it unnatural and odd, though I was still trying to figure out the timing.

I got some helpful feedback from Alec to add an action at the start to give her more personality and to make the beginning of the animation less static. I completely agreed with this and thought initally that she would adjust her robe, but feeling that it made less sense for the start of the clip- I figured she is still comfortable enough there, and an action like pulling her robe more tightly over herself would suggest something I wasn’t trying to at that point- I ended up giving her sunglasses to tear away in disbelief (inspired by the character’s glasses in the source and on stage).

Before I started this portion I filmed myself again using some round-framed glasses from a past Halloween as a prop.

Again I found this very helpful to get the action and timing right in my next pass:

You can also see here that I had re-drawn the shoulders and neck to be more consistent, and that I had added the robe adjustment at the end to emphasise her cold shoulder.

Now I was on to cleaning everything up and trying to keep the drawing more consistent, which started with the re-construction of her head in an attempt to better capture the changes in form as she tilts her head up- this was something I had been really struggling and was consistently unhappy with.

 

I was also trying my best to refine the lipsync, which I think is more successful here than it had been in earlier stages.

I had given the character a head wrap as she has in the clip, but had been finding it difficult to keep the forms correct as they receded with her head. In an attempt to solve this I tried using screenshots from Maya, wherein I had constructed a simple mesh with the correct lines on it by using the multicut tool on a plane and extruding the faces, that I would then trace to get the results I wanted. I think this helped at the start to get my lines more precise, but once I had the initial drawing I realised I could achieve the same effect by using Krita’s transform tool. The results are flat but it was the best out of all my attempts.

Now my final pass consisted of more cleanup and giving her clothes, earrings, arms and makeup. I decided to try and better justify her pulling her robe up at the end by having it fall from her shoulder when she raises her head. I believe this was my first time animating fabric like this, so the results are mixed, but I found it quite satisfying to do.

I’m pleased with my final outcome. I know that animating at 24fps would have brought more elegance and may have suited the character more, but I think I achieved what I wanted regardless. I know more could be done to better it, however I find that skill level is yet to catch up to my critical eye. What’s more I could see more life and expression in the rougher passes than I can in the final product- that’s something I should like to focus on when animating in future.