Production, the next stage in the 3D animation pipeline, is where all of the aspects already envisioned take shape, and includes the 3D layout, modelling, texturing, rigging, lighting, animating and rendering processes.
Layout:
Finding visuals help inspire my creative process, and hoping it might assist in the idea generation and story creation phase of the project, using the Shader Editor, I’d created the space background and nebula effect below, and shared this with the team.
However, following the move to a rubber hose theme where parts of the models would simply vanish against this backdrop and the decision made to render the final animation in black and white; a new background environment was needed that both enabled the characters to be clear and readable, yet provided contrast in the final render. Therefore, after experimenting with which colours would be most suitable, and finding that an orange bloom which reduced the harshness of the emission against a complementary blue background worked best when rendered in black and white, I created and shared the background asset below which was used in our final submission.
At this stage, in addition to the assets previously created for the previs, using snippets taken from online tutorials, I also modelled the background elements shown below for use in the final animation, and shared these with the team (YouTube, 2020a; 2021a).
While watching animations such as Max Fleischer’s 1931 creations, ‘By the Light of the Silvery Moon,’ and ‘By the Beautiful Sea’ (YouTube, 2016; 2020b) I also noticed that establishing shots where the sun or moon appeared, typically included scenery which although rudimentary, added interest and helped the audience gain a better understanding of the setting. However, by transitioning directly from the stage into the sky, this was missing in the opening scene of our animation
‘By the Light of the Silvery Moon’ (1935)
‘By the Beautiful Sea’ (1931)
Therefore, inspired by a cartoon, flat panorama I’d seen online, by cutting 10 planes into various shapes and adding perspective by using slightly different tones as it receded into the distance, I created a simple, multi-layered landscape in keeping with the space background and Hannah’s clouds, which was then used in the opening scene of our final submission (YouTube, 2021b).
Character Creation:
With the physical shape of a star, and the simplicity of the model required somewhat limiting design opportunities, alongside the potential for the inherent triangular shape language, usually absent in this genre, to subconsciously relay the personality of a devious or villainous character, as opposed to a friendly and supportive facilitator whose actions bring the sun and moon together, I knew creating the star would need additional thought and planning.
I therefore began by considering the attributes and character traits my final model would need to incorporate including: a feminine appearance, the softer, more rounded outline and expressive characteristics reflective of the rubber hose style, and the ability to relay both a friendly, empathetic and helpful nature, alongside a sense of playfulness, which would illicit an emotional response from the audience.
Having complied this list, I instantly realised that one character, who had first appeared as an anthropomorphic rubber hose poodle in the 1930 Fleisher Studios’ animation ‘Dizzy Dishes,’ would easily fulfil this brief – Betty Boop!
Source: ‘Becoming Betty Boop’ Fleischer Studios, 2023a
However, as soon as I’d begun modelling, and had created the five-pointed body for my star, I encountered the issue that even if the profile of the shape was flattened by pushing the central vertex inwards, that its geometry, and the limited number of faces available, would curtail my ability to extrude facial features such as the 3D mouth and lips from the base, and mean that these would need to be sculpted separately.
Needing to flatten the front profile also meant that much of the model’s detail had been lost, so to compensate for this and to add another dimension, I decided to in effect, create a ‘head’ and a ‘body,’ by superimposing another, but smaller star shape with this flattened profile on top, to which feminine facial features reminiscent of Betty Boop were then added, including eyelashes created by using a particle system (YouTube, 2022). However, once completed and although created quickly, to my disappointment, my initial attempt appeared a little disinteresting and lacklustre.
While contemplating the best solution, I thought to myself ‘Well, what do stars do?’ and the simple answer was: They shine! I therefore searched online for resources which would allow me to create an outline with which I could differentiate the different parts of my model (YouTube, 2023b), and then add a ‘bloom’ effect to achieve the neon lighting result below.
With the Easter break following, to speed up production and ensure our final animation was the best it could possibly be, everyone in the group was tasked to model eyes, arms and hands so that on our return, the most aesthetically pleasing and functional assets could be incorporated into our models. Understanding that to emulate the rubber hose style, the arm needed to be extremely flexible, and the hand both expressive and capable of performing a wide range of gestures, I spent time during the holidays remodelling, rigging and weight painting my arm and hand to ensure it was capable of this, and with such a simple design, that it didn’t deform.
In the end, while not everyone chose to use this asset, I was delighted to see that Gillian had incorporated it into the sun model in her final animation, and that it featured in all three of the models in Kirsten’s final segment.
With this complete, I then refined the remainder of my model including recreating the eyes to have a 2D appearance more in keeping with my vision for the character, and strengthening features such as the eyebrows, which using shape keys, would later be used to create expression.
Understanding that topology issues can cause distortion when rigging is added, I’d been careful to ensure that my model had been created with clean topology throughout.
At this stage I also considered texturing my model, but given the simplicity of the design, decided that this together with the neon outline would detract for the rubber hose aesthetic, and by texturing I also risked losing the rounded edge detail my model required. Also, making contrast and the delineation of the component parts of the model more important, a decision had been made to render our final animation in black and white to reflect the style of both the genre and time period. Therefore, to differentiate between the two sections, I instead altered the material data properties for the rear ‘body’ section by raising the metallic, specular, and roughness values, while reducing the red and green RGB values.
Before starting the rigging process, I first considered what movement I would like my character to be capable of in the final animation, which included the ability to slump forwards to convey emotion, show speed and anticipation by bending forwards and backwards, and showcase her playful character by having her wiggle in celebration as she spins, before flying off to fetch the sun. However, to be able to achieve this, each pointed section of the star would need to move individually, and so I rigged and weight painted my model appropriately. Knowing, to add realism, I would need my star character to be able to look another in the eye, I also rigged the pupils, adding object constraints to restrict their movement to within the eye area.
Finally, the addition of shape keys allowed me to transform the shape of my model’s mouth, which combined with the amination of other facial features, enabled my character to express emotions such as shock, sadness, joy, and determination in the final animation.
Animation:
‘If viewers sense not just movement but intention – or, put another way, emotion—then the animator has done his or her job’ (Catmull and Wallace, 2014)
‘Personality is the platform for emotion’ (Walter, 2020)
‘Emotion drives the actions and reactions of a character’ and ‘audiences are entertained when they are emotionally engaged’ (Sullivan et al., 2013)
From reading the learning materials for this module, I’d learned that, above all, an animator’s goal should be to elicit emotion in their audience, so when animating, aimed to communicate what my characters were thinking, and how they were feeling, through their movements, poses, posture, facial expressions, and gestures. After all, how could the audience be expected to feel emotion, if my characters didn’t relay it?
Also, bearing in mind that ‘just because something moves, doesn’t mean that it’s alive‘ (Glebas, 2014), attempting to make the characters appear more believable, I often used my own body as a reference to help me better understand and replicate the pose, movement or gesture I wanted to achieve, and then used the principles of anticipation, overlapping and follow-through to help portray these more convincingly, but in a much bolder and exaggerated way. Adding life to the characters, scaling the eyes and/or pupils also allowed my characters to blink, while the addition of eyelids to the star model, controlled using shape keys, enhanced its capacity to convey the emotions required by the narrative, such as curiosity, despondency and determination. Paying attention to small details, such as having my characters look first, and then move, make eye contact with one another, and interact with props, also helped add a sense of realism and comedy.
Guidance was also taken from Richard E. Williams’ ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit,’ on how best to change expression, such as when the star character raises an eyebrow in surprise, and how to better animate hand gestures, by increasing the number of in-between shots and having the movement ease in and ease out. His advice to ‘look for the contrast,’ by starting a movement important to the narrative ‘from something that’s a lot different from where we’re going to change to’ was also implemented, by having the star intentionally lean forward to better hear what was being whispered, to then contrast this with the subsequent action of her jumping backwards in shock.
When animating the scenes, careful consideration was also given to composition, with the rule of thirds used to enhance the aesthetic appeal, and naturally guide the viewer’s eye towards the action, and the characters positioned to prevent poor staging.
Source: Poor Staging, Good Staging Pinterest, n.d.
Given the rubber hose theme, and the animation being set in space, the team brief was to keep the lighting and camera angles simple in each of our segments. Finding the traditional three-point lighting technique created unnecessary reflection off the models, key lighting for my part of the animation was instead provided by a ‘sun’ object acting as a spotlight directed downwards onto the models, with a ‘point’ fill light positioned in front of the star to allow her to shine, but at the same time remain readable. Camera shots, although varied, always maintained the 180° stage line, and incorporated a mid-shot which enabled focus to be placed on the characters’ actions and reactions, a close up transitioning into an extreme close up to relay the star’s determination to bring the sun and moon together, followed by a wide/long shot, which provided the space required for the scripted action. The use of Bezier interpolation throughout, and linear interpolation during the close up then helped the animation appear more fluid and smooth.
However, when playing my animation back, my thoughts were that I could better relay the sense of speed at which the star is travelling, and the momentum she would need to enable her to push the Earth out of the way. Therefore to help denote this speed, I panned the camera slightly on her entrance and exit in each scene, animated her overshooting as she comes to an abrupt stop, and added speed lines emanating behind the model in the close up shot, to create the illusion of rapid movement.
Finally, I completed my animation by adding the background assets I’d created to where I felt they could effectively enhance the shot, or fill negative space. However, on subsequently learning that my other team members had now collectively decided to not do this, concerned that their addition may distract the audience, I reached out to my tutors who both reassured me that this was not the case, and that my scenes could be still clearly read. Happy to then proceed, I rendered my segment with the outcome in both colour, and black and white shown below:
Individual Animation – Colour:
Individual Animation – Black and White:
References:
Catmull, E. and Wallace, A. (2014). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
Glebas, F. (2014). The Animator’s Eye: Adding Life to Animation with Timing, Layout, Design, Color, and Sound. New York: Routledge.
Pinterest. (n.d.). Poor Staging, Good Staging | Animation character drawings, 12 principles of animation, Animation: Aedin Quirke. [online]. [Accessed 26.3.24].
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/489485053226146344/
Sullivan, K., Alexander, K., Mintz, A. and Besen, E. (2013). Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories. 2nd ed. Focal Press
Williams, R.E. (2009). The Animator’s Survival Kit. USA: Faber And Faber
YouTube (2016). By the light of the Silvery Moon Watch Fleischer Cartoon: Vintage Cartoons Channel. [online]. [Accessed: 22.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1HuX6nQnQY
YouTube (2020a). How to Create the World in 1 Minute: CG Geek. [online]. [Accessed: 23.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4HNIbDn4K4
YouTube (2020b). Screen Songs I By the Beautiful Sea I 1931: Not an Animation Historian. [online]. [Accessed: 22.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccxVJ22KUg
YouTube (2021a). How to create a balloon in 1 Minute in Blender: 1 Minute Blender. [online]. [Accessed: 22.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BuNdItabAo
YouTube (2021b) How to make a Cartoon Landscape in Blender: Levi Magony. [online]. [Accessed: 22.3.24]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=D4Mk7ZRWEGY
YouTube (2022). How to Create Eyelashes, Clean and Fast in Blender in 4 Minutes: PixelicaCG. [online]. [Accessed: 16.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jw0HlvX–E
YouTube (2023a). Becoming Betty Boop: Fleischer Studios. [online]. [Accessed: 16.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NttZNBsXKk
YouTube (2023b). Blender outlines around your models tutorial! | 2023: GaskinDev. [online]. [Accessed: 17.3.24].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wu_SvCCX_U