Beatriz Antunes | CSM MA Character Animation Research Journal
I’ve been vey absent on this blog and thought I’d start using it again to jot down ideas for my final university film.
In the meantime, I’m so glad to share that the short-film I created for the London International Animation Festival, at CSM, has been nominated for its first festival!
And here it is as well:
As of yesterday’s lecture, I am extremely excited to begin working on my pitch for LIAF 2021. It’s a great opportunity for my colleagues and I to expose our work!That being said, I’ve started a mood board for the pitch and I’ll be adding pictures, videos, articles and a bunch of research on there.
I’ll be using the platform Are.na as suggested by the second-year I have been working with on the work placement, Daisy.
I love voice acting and I wanted to finally give it a shot. Last night I tried recording a voice over for the following facial acting exercise. It was a complete failure but I laughed for a good hour. In the process of it, I thought it would be funny to record myself recording the voice over.
If this video ever goes viral I’m going to have to find a way to hack Youtube and delete it of the face of the earth. Enjoy! (I apologise for the sound quality!!!)
I find it hilarious that you can see my facial expression changing as I get into character.
It was just not the right setting and didn’t work out but I kept all the audios. I did do a voice over for another exercise, that one just felt right.
As a quick experiment, Im not mad at the result but I’d be very interested to learn more about voice acting, go into a recording studio and properly record the audio for these exercises. For the meantime, it was just good fun.
Today we had the honour to hear Shelley Page on pitching for animation. She was so lovely and provided us with so many useful tips for our upcoming Unit 2 LIAF group project.
During the talk, I noted down some idents I really enjoyed watching. Unconsciously, I picked two films produced by Gobelin’s students.
As a Brazilian-Portuguese, this particular one really resonated with me. The playing outside with rolled up socks for a ball, the playing barefoot outside, the Brazilian funk soundtrack, the vibrant colours of Rio de Janeiro. This one made me smile!
Gorgeous film! Amazing colours, stupendous representation of the São João holiday celebrated in Brazil. Find it incredible how they portrayed so much in 45 seconds, without it being overwhelming. Also love the ancestral motives represented by this sort of parallel universe. The film above reminds me of this other two amazing films I’ve watched a few months ago, also made at Gobelin’s. Stunning films.
For week 2 of working with Daisy Higgins for her graduate film Bellybutton , we Skyped again to talk about my role in this project.
After briefly going over the plot of the film, Daisy suggested I could in-between the Phill Mitchell’s Rampage sequence. It’s a very roughly and loosely drawn scene, focusing on the basic structure and features of the characters. Daisy enforced that during this stage, it’s essential that the general movement looks right before anything else.
During these 3 scenes:
1 – Phil is smacking a character on the head, they faint and he growls.
2 – Phil sneaks up on someone waiting at a bus stop, he smashes them to the ground and he leans into the camera roaring.
3 – Phil picks up a character by the ears and bites their head.
Before I started, I adjusted the TV Paint brush as defined by Daisy’s settings, made sure I was animating on 2’s and 25 fps, and included as much springiness and squishiness as possible, like Daisy required.
As this was still a line test, I animated in blue for Daisy to be able to distinguish my animation and give me some intinal feedback on it.
As of now, I have completed the first scene (first 8 seconds) and I’m currently waiting on her to get back to me.
I’m really enjoying working in this project. It’s pushing me to explore the extremes of the characters’ movements and really loosen my fist.
I’m a bit of a music addict, I can’t go a day without listening to music. More than music, I’m obsessed with music videos. I enjoy sitting and watching music videos like you’d watch a film. I believe people underrate the effort that goes into producing a music video and even more if this an animated music video we’re talking about.
Two of my favourite things to observe when watching music videos are storytelling and cinematography. Being that the narrative is usually sound-based, I find the format of music videos very appealing as an animator. Because it is a video illustrating a song, it’s never much longer than 3-5 minutes, which is also the usual duration of an animated short-film.
There’s always that oomph to the way the director chooses to have the shots coordinated to the sound (or not) and how these relate to the story told by the song.
As an example, the video below directed and performed by FKA Twigs, one of my all time favourite artists, tells this story between these three characters through the dance style of Krumping. It seems as if they’re fighting, however so elegantly! The way the shots flow and pour into each other conducting the viewer through the narrative is flawless.
Tyler, the Creator, where to begin. A musical genius, one of the best visual artists my generation in my humble opinion. Directed by Wolf Hayley alongside Tyler, the music video for ´SEE YOU AGAIN’ is just a visual delight.
Such yummy colours, gorgeous compositions, a constant use of the rule of thirds in them. The patterns in their clothes, in Tyler’s hair, in the way the characters are placed in different shots. Stunning!! If I ever have the opportunity to direct an animated music video (which is a goal of mine, for sure), I already know Tyler will be one of my main inspirations for it.
Modern Alternative Hip-Hop is my favourite music genre. There’s this alternative/ indie hint to it and the music videos certainly follow this.
The wacky psychedelic motifs, the grunge/ vintage feel really have my heart. Hip-Hop is a soulful genre with so much story to it, it almost forces to visual of their music videos to triplicate the power the songs have.
Following the indie theme, the Indie genre, I personally believe it also holds the title for best music videos. Naturally, the music videos have an independent ‘amateur’ look that feels personal and reachable. It’s as if the director didn’t really care and said ‘let’s film random shots on some sort of hallucinogenic drug’, but there is a lot of planning that goes into it.
It’s wonderful to see what a camera can do these days. I particularly like the shots in the music video ‘Locket’ for the band Crumb, where they’ve used the 360 camera, and it’s something I’ve always thought it could only be reached by a lot of editing.
The reason why this post only has live-action music videos and not animated ones is because I like looking at what has been done with real cameras, real people, real scenarios and think about how could animation elevate it and take it one step further. Animation allows everything. If all these music videos are already this good, imagine if they had animation in them!
Creative/ art director for music videos is one of my strongest career prospects. I love music, I love movement and I love visuals. Bringing what I learn watching music videos into my work is something I’d like to do more. I want to integrate the cinematography and the storytelling of sound-based films I like watching in my animated work, in the future.
For our work experience module, I have been paired with second year’s Daisy Higgins and I couldn’t be more excited, I adore her work!
After receiving the brief, I contacted Daisy immediately and we hopped on a Skype call to discuss how would I be useful help for her final film.
After mutually crying over how hard lockdown life as a university student is at the moment, we started looking at her film and the material she has so far. Daisy explained the idea behind the film to me, sent me the film synopsis and a few character sheets she had made.
I might just stick it on here for future reference:
Two friends (Billy and Maurice) sit and watch TV (Phil Mitchell Rampage, they are geezers) – they are enjoying their evening. Billy, however, cannot resist picking his belly button and smelling his finger – much to the annoyance of Maurice. He slaps his friends hand away and looks disappointed – this is obviously something which happens often. Maurice goes to bed, upset. Billy remains on the sofa – he looks at bit sad but then happily gets right back to it – more furiously than ever. It is eventually so furious we see up close that he has torn a hole in his belly button. The hole has strange smoke coming out of it.A face/ghosty thing comes out of his belly button – he grabs Billy by the head and pulls him inside his own stomach (after a struggle) – leaving nothing but a small bottom on the sofa. Billy is very small and is falling inside a void – he lands on the floor. A giant man approaches on a horse and asks him if hes lost. They make friends. He is called Mr Beautiful.In the morning in the real world Maurice comes downstairs to find the remains of Billy on the sofa and he is devastated. In the bellybutton world there is a montage of Billy, Mr Beautiful and his horse on many adventures. Maurice is very sad in the real world – there is a montage cut between Billys which shows this (showing the bottom to a police officer.. trying to feed him… cradling him etc. etc)Eventually something happens – maybe something reminds Billy of Maurice – or Mr Beautiful turns sinister – and he realises he has to go home. He does something which causes him to have to strain really hard (lifting a heavy weight… or something) and he explodes out of his own bottom (like silly string) into the real world. Maurice is delighted and they hug
I truly enjoy the storyline she came up with and it made me even more excited to help out on her film.
Afterwards, Daisy also sent me some character sheets of Mr. Beautiful, Phill Mitchell and the Friendly. I find her loose, sort of quirky drawing style incredibly heartwarming. I also enjoy the quality of the line and different line weights.
In terms of techniques, she explained that she’s been experimenting with Blender and TVPaint, but she’s leaning onto animating on TVPaint and cleaning and/or painting on Photoshop. For Photoshop, she indicated I’d look into Animation ToolbarPro which is a plug-in for 2D animation.
Later on, I asked Daisy to send me some her inspirations for her film because I was genuinely interested in understanding what drove her to such visual language. I was surprised to see she has the most random taste in Art and Music, but it totally makes sense. She kindly sent me a link for her Are.na, where she posts photos and videos of whatever catches her eye.
https://www.are.na/share/edBkoEq
I also looked into Are.na, which seems to be a cool platform for mood boards!
In order to better understand Daisy’s style, I did some more research on her work and found the ident she directed for LIAF 2020 with some other CSM colleagues. I commented this ident with her and asked her a bunch of questions regarding the production of it.
Daisy described her experience directing both LIAF and her final graduate film as very independent, in the sense that she continuously stuck to her original ideas. It was so interesting to hear about the process from coming up with this ‘silly’ idea to making into whole short film. During our conversation, Daisy also advised me to firstly come up with a rough idea that involves no more than a few words. Secondly, design the characters/ develop the style I’d like to work in, and finally research, research, research. Do a bunch of research, from going out to museums (when restrictions are lifted) with a sketchbook and take notes to going outside and do some observational drawing.
When completing these three stages, Daisy advised me to plan out my project very well to avoid any rushed results.
It was super helpful having Daisy’s input given that she’s been through this same journey. I was very appreciative of her feedback and we scheduled another meeting for when she has a role for me to start working on.
I had watched the trailer for this short film a few weeks ago and it finally came out.
I was so excited to see Pixar’s take on what unfortunately has been an issue, special since the pandemic began- Anti-Asian hate.
This is a particularly touchy subject for me. My partner is Filipino, and since the beginning of the pandemic he has suffered a few racial hate crimes he can’t do much about. He only sits and waits to not be attacked anytime soon.
It’s horrible how mean people can be based solely on a false stereotype. Or any stereotype for that matter.
Therefore, when I saw the trailer for this film I was very much looking forward to see how Pixar, having mainly children as their target audience, was going to portray this delicate subject.
‘Float is about the fear of not being able to protect someone you love and learning to let go’. (source: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20961354/disney-plus-float-pixar-short)
Written and directed by Filipino-American animator Bobby Rubio, this narrative describes an Asian father (possibly Filipino too) raising his child in an American society.
‘Depending on your own personal experiences, Float’s core story could be a story about assimilation and growing up as a minority (it’s the first time Pixar is featuring Filipino American characters, which hits close to home for this writer), or it could be about what it’s like to feel different from those around you.’ (source: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20961354/disney-plus-float-pixar-short)
Reading comments about this film, there have been speculations about how this film could also be about autism and how the child could be ‘floating’ in their own world, away from reality. Either way, I believe that the essence of this narrative is feeling alienated when the ones around you treat you and see you as different.
It also translates the message of how much your care and love for someone could suffocate them and how you have to let them go, let them fly, for them to be truly happy.
As mentioned above, I wondered how Pixar would resolve portraying xenophobia through this film. The appeal to human instinct and the almost absent dialogue are, to me, the most efficient methods to have been used to tell this father/son relationship story and how this is seen by other.
‘(…)the worry that the world out there won’t see them the way you do, and the hope that that big scary world will love this person as much as you do. That sounds like a lot of ground to cover in seven minutes, but Float doesn’t just drift by — it soars.’ (source: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20961354/disney-plus-float-pixar-short)
This film begins by showing the story of baby Alex and his father. You can tell they have a sweet and strong bond by their affection with each other.
Baby Alex leaves his fathers arms and begins floating, chasing the dandelion, while his father lovingly looks at him in awe. As a family walks by in the distance, the father pulls the baby back to him in a protective gesture. He nervously smiles at the family while baby Alex waves and they wave back. This is when trouble begins- baby Alex once again floats away from his father’s arms, scaring the family and getting them to leave. It’s interesting to see how unbothered the couple’s baby looks in that shot.
When this couple leaves, there is another child in the background who looks not scared, but curious. Their parent does not feed this curiosity, and instead becomes judgemental by gossiping with another adult that comes into scene posteriorly to the father locking himself at home with the baby.
Fast forward, you get to see baby Alex now a little older, floating inside the house and expressing his creative side on the ceiling. His father stops this by taking his crayon from him. Again- his father trying to protecting him by censoring him.
When the father shows him his coat, suggesting that they would be going outside, Alex does not want to. Possibly because the father has painted this idea of the outside world that made him scared of it. His father puts rocks inside his backpack to weigh him down. Once again- overprotection. Father knows how cruel society can be to his child.
As they are walking down the street and Alex blows on dandelions and explores, father sees the couple they had seen in the first moments of the story. He hides as he does not want to go through the same experience again.
Alex gets excited when he sees the playground. The father analyses the situation and as he is about to let Alex go play, he looks down and sees that Alex is gone. He finds him flying around other children and these run to their parents, in fear. Parents seem angry that Alex is ‘bothering’ their children.
When the father gets a hold of Alex, he becomes very frustrated and starts screaming at the top of his lungs, bringing attention to them. His father becomes so impatient that he shouts to Alex the only line of the film- ‘Why can’t you just be normal?’. This is the climax of the narrative.
Both the patience of the father and son reach a limit where they cannot deal with each other’s restrictions anymore. The dad wants him to be normal but Alex wants him to let him be a normal child, like the others at the park.
Alex hides in hoodie and becomes quiet as his father wanted him to. When he does so, father immediately regrets his words and hugs Alex. He becomes conflicted on if to abandon the park and hide once again, or face the crowd who he has been afraid of for so long.
He embraces Alex, sits on the swings with him, removes his coat (symbol of protection and censorship) and lets him fly freely! They both become at peace with their identities.
Moments such as when the father locks his son in the dark, obscure house and you see how ‘clueless’ the son is of the outside world as he grows up really allows you to perceive how far a loved one would go to protect you, without even realising how much they are hurting you.
Another moment that I found crucial was when we see baby Alex leaving the house with his father for the first time and this other kid starts waving at him. When Alex starts floating, the other kid and their family get scared.
It could be that the kid’s family have chosen to ‘respect’ cultural and ethnical differences as per today’s society ideologies, but their inherent racism and xenophobia makes them take a step back when ‘accepting’ a minority.
By this, I mean that my generation has generally grown up learning how to respect everyone. Older generations did not have the same opportunity and they had to adapt to how fast society is moving. Disrespecting minorities and POC is no longer acceptable. Even though older generations are making the effort to adapt, they grew up in times where racism was common and tolerated.
As stated by Pixar: ‘Pixar Animation Studios and the SparkShorts filmmakers of FLOAT are in solidarity with the Asian and Asian American communities against Anti-Asian hate in all its forms. We are proud of the onscreen representation in this short and have decided to make it widely available, in celebration of what stories that feature Asian characters can do to promote inclusion everywhere.’ (source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HAGuju_yKY)
I like that it’s not necessarily a film about xenophobia. It’s a film about differences.
And how those differences either make you unique or insecure. It’s about how you choose to embrace them. It’s about inclusivity and I think this is brilliant.
Although it targets the issue, it chooses to focus on the solution, not the problem.
I found this super cool scene breakdown whilst scrolling on facebook. It’s by the 2D traditional animator Alexander Savchenko.
For the last two exercises of the term, we were told to create 2 short lip sync animations- one with a sound recorded by us and another one from the list Steve gave us.
I chose to do Steve’s ‘He’s left me now’ audio alongside Steve and some of my class mates. For this, I began by studying my bit of the audio and testing out the li sync animation.
On TV Paint, I wrote the bit of the audio I was animating and divided it by its essential syllables. For example, the word ‘that’ would be mouthed as ‘the’ considering Steve’s accent+ the way he extends the ‘a’ when he sings it leaves it with no need for a ‘t’ at the end of ‘that’.
Following this logic, I began drawing mouth shapes for each individual letter.
I then put it all together to see how it would look like.
After some feedback from Ko and Christina, I tweaked t a bit more. When I was happy with it, I began doing some research on what kind of feel I wanted the animation to have.
Since it was a short 4 second audio, I knew I couldn’t do much with it but I did have a personal goal to make it dynamic and fun.
I feel like my last animation exercises felt too static and honestly boring, and I think I find my visual language in wacky, exaggerated things. I even wrote on the blog a few months ago how I wanted to let go of my perfectionism and just DO IT.
This is the perfect exercise to do so as the song is so ‘silly’ and so not serious.
I looked at some animations on Vimeo and found the following:
I’ve always been a fan of the music video above. I know for a fact I will NEVER get tired of it. It’s just so gorgeous, so fluid. Both visually and in the way the different narratives flow so seamlessly into each other. My favourite moment and the one I am using as reference is at 01:44, when the head goes into the character’s body and everything around it flourishes. God, it’s so beautiful.
I find it interesting how the squash and stretch principle is constantly used, specially in morphing scenes. The characters adapt impossible anatomical shapes to convey this.
I really like the line quality as well. I probably won’t be looking so much into this as I’ll be focusing more on quality of animation rather than having a polished clean finish look. But for future reference, this is something I’d like to experiment with.
I also particularly like the fisheye lense effect on some of the scenes where the characters are flying around.
The film above has such a cool childlike feel to it. It’s vibrant and easy to read. Also, the birds wear trousers and have jobs, which is always a plus.
The fact that it looks like it might have been made on Microsoft Paint is just amazing. Ironically, I like that there is not line art too. (I say ironically since I’m a big fan of a good line art’.).
What I enjoy about this film is the plasticity of it. Love the colour blocks and different shapes. Even in the end credits, where they use the shapes on the film to spell names. The melting effect as characters start to loose their cool is very interesting..
Yes, Laura Jayne again. This is one of her college exercises too and I found it brilliant for a lip-sync exercise. Again- shapes!!
Shapes to describe sound, such an efficient method. The way she makes these shapes bigger or smaller on the screen according to the volume of the sounds really makes it easy to distinguish all the different sounds.
Very much reminds me of this classic:
It’s not a lip sync exercise because there are no mouths singing or speaking, but there is definitely an exercise of sound and image coordination.
I also looked at different isync sheets to help me understand how to design different mouth shapes.
After researching, I began roughly sketching out the animation and this is what a few hours of planning and sketching resulted in:
I will continue to work on it until submissions, but I’m pretty happy with the overall flow of it! I think the lip-sync works well but I do have to draw some in-betweens, still feels a little rough.