It Took Me Three Hours to Write This

        The article this week was called Facial Animation 101. Dana Boadway-Mason talks about how to approach facial expressions in animation. Facial animation is used to show what is being processed in the mind of your character. This is important as it gives realism to a piece. It can be achieved with rudimentary and simple rigs, it does not necessarily have to be complicated.

        The brain works with a system of input and output, just like a computer or machine. The input is anything that affects a character's senses, like the five senses and more. Those will then lead to affecting the character emotionally and physically. Facial expressions reflect the reaction to inputs, ultimately making them the output.
        The rule of thumb for deciding the facial expressions is the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Silly! Basically, you see what is happening in the shot and then decide how your character feels about it. You also decide if something occurs that changes the emotion. Most times there is not a lot that happens to emotion in a single shot of animation so you would only have to cycle through one or two emotions. A start emotion and then the possibility of a change in emotion. Then you pose out those expressions. Create the first pose and key the positions as you go along. Facial and body pose must be treated as separate beings. If the body and face move at the same time, the audience will end up missing the facial expression that takes place. Facial expressions are key to an audience understanding a character's thought process.
        To figure out an expression you must internalize what a character feeling. Get into their head and process their emotion, even act it out yourself. Line of action helps to build a facial pose, and you can also break from this to create asymmetry and a more human feel. To work with dialogue you should use jaw blocking first, and work with the timing of open and closed mouth timing. You also must remember to keep the eyes focused, and the irises in proper places. You also need to be careful to not overdue eye darts, which you can easily mess up.
        Always think of facial expressions as the order of operations. Follow a chain to get to your facial expression. What is the input? Where are they looking? What are they feeling? The this and that and etc. of emotions. Getting started with a facial rig can be difficult, but with time you can learn to understand it.

        I said multiple times that I wanted to learn about animating a face and now I'm kind of intimidated. There is a lot that goes into facial expressions apparently, and I never really thought about it. I wish that there was more with how to specifically adjust a face as needed, and how to work with not meshing body and face language but also keeping your flow.
        I hope I can learn to use what I was taught in this article to my advantage. I might even come back to look at it several times in the future. I feel my facial animation will be shaky for a while, but maybe as I process KISS and the such more and more I will create a solid facial movement.

O Animation, Animation...Wherefore art thou Animation?

       Did you know "Wherefore art thou..." doesn't mean where it means why? So the quote is actually "Romeo, Romeo....why are you Romeo?", because Juliet is questioning what's really in a name (star-crossed lovers and all that you know). Anyways weird facts you don't care for aside, let's talk about a week.
        Learning. Things we learned. What did we learn? Lip syncing! (I'm so tired I almost typed Lyp Sincing. That could be a stage name.) We learned how to lip sync, and about mouth charts, and how to mess with sound. It all seems complicated but I'm sure with time I can get a grip on it. Or I can just cry over it. Or cry over it while I get a grip on it. I also taught myself something about sound. I got home and went to work on my animation only to discover a flat line in place of the sound waves that needed to be there for my sound layer. I suffered for an hour trying to figure out if my file was messed up or my harmony was messed up or if my computer was messed up, and after looking at probably 10 articles I finally found the issue. I have a windows computer, so I don't automatically have Quicktime. Harmony functions its sound files through Quicktime. So in order for sound to work on a Windows computer, you need to download Quicktime (which also means I can convert animations into videos now too). The more you know. I'm not entirely sure I learned anything new in other class this week, I've been too tired.
        In the future, I want to learn more about how sound works in Harmony. I figure it will be a difficult uphill climb but I know there's a lot more to learn that could advance me in my animation path. I also want to learn what our musical is this year. We all have our suspicions that it is going to be Peter Pan but we won't fully know until Wednesday night. There have been big hints, though, that have led us to our conclusion of Peter Pan. Hints such as: the use of wires, a bit with a dog, an equally split amount of male and female speaking a singing parts, our fight director coming back, our co-director fake coughing out 'Peter Pan'. Honestly, it is probably Peter Pan. If it isn't, drama kids are apparently really bad at deciphering hints.
        What frustrated me this week was my lack of sleep. I have had no focus all week, and forget about things constantly. Like my flash drive, which I almost left in the computer twice this week. I almost started forgetting lines and choreography and cues as well, but I'm thankful I didn't. I think people also frustrated me this week. There are people in my classes that make life hard because they don't understand how to just listen to the teacher. We would be a lot farther in statistics right now if people didn't purposely make the teacher's life hard. Which in correlation makes my life hard. School is hard as it is don't make it harder.
         I am worn out. I am getting sick. A faded blue heart remains on my cheek and only one eye has eyeliner. I am covered in bruises and I am sick of standing. Soliloquies and monologues are on repeat in my head, and my fight choreography lingers. It all sounds bad but what made me happy this week was finally performing Romeo and Juliet. We had six weeks to put on a rather difficult play and we put it together beautifully. I want to go back on stage and do it all again, even if it was mentally and emotionally taxing at points. Theatre is my passion, and it always makes me happy. I'm also happy that I can finally get some normal sleep. For at least two months.
        I say it is time that I give you another Hamilton animatic. Because I'm still fighting with myself to not just give you the link to the documentary. The Laurens Interlude is basically the only speaking scene in Hamilton, and I love it. This is by far one of my favorite animatics for it, so bippity boppity boo: You know you want to watch it ;)))

-enter my usual clever title here-

        I am eternally screaming. That's right folks; it has gone from internal to external to eternal. But that doesn't matter, leave my eternal screams behind to look at this week.

        Did we learn anything this week? I'm not sure. Time is an illusion. I know we took a quiz on animation principles, which was interrupted by a fire alarm. So I mean in a sense we had to refresh ourselves on animation principles. That's like....teaching yourself. But I really don't think anything new was learned. Someone, please inform if there was something new that we learned. In English, I was just frustrated. I struggled with an assignment we were given, and then just gave up and wrote something that might be good. In chemistry, I removed hydration from something and simultaneously ruined my grade all in one go. Chemical formulas and names are too difficult and I vote we sue them. Gym is never mentioned but it was actually fun this week because I climbed things, and rock wall climbing is like one of my favorite past time. Stats is not worthy of our time. In history, we did nothing but review for a test and then I know I aced that test. Thank you extensive knowledge of the American Revolution.

        In the future, I want to learn how to lip sync. I know it is coming up. I am scared, to say the least, but maybe it will be something I can grasp pretty easily. And hey with lip syncing you know what comes up? Animating faces! I think I've mentioned my desire to animate them like two times before. I hope it will be more fun than it is painful because I want to animate emotions. Our non-animation related 'What I Want To Learn' of the week is: my lines. "But Heather, isn't your first show on Thursday?", one may ask. I will answer yes, and then continue my eternal screaming because I have all my lines but three that I have no idea how to memorize. Wish me luck, because hell (I mean tech) week is knocking on my door.

        The flour sack kind of frustrated me this week, but not really. I know I have to work on my takes and anticipation for sure. Chemistry also frustrated me this week. See: chemical formulas and names. I have no idea how to take a formula and turn it into a name or take a name and turn it into a formula. It is difficult and unnecessary for my everyday life. I want to fight the entire subject of them. Perhaps I'll understand them by the end of the year, or perhaps I will finally figure out how to sue a concept. Whichever comes first you know.

        Once again we encounter the single subject that has taken my life over: Hamilton. Why do I bring this up once again in text form? Well, because the thing that made me happy this week was the release of Hamilton's America. Also known as the documentary for my favorite musical. I cried, I laughed, I screamed, and I've already watched it more than six times. No obsession here. Not only did the documentary make me happy, but so did Lin-Manuel Miranda. He is the human embodiment of a cinnamon roll and I love him with all my being. He may be significantly older than me but I am increasingly proud of him. He has gotten me through a lot in recent months, so I can't help but be proud of everything he does.

        If I could, I would make my link of interest this week Hamilton's America. I mean, there is some forms of animation in it here and there so it could be justified. But I won't do that. (I debated with myself for 30 minutes over it okay, you're lucky.) Instead, I'm going to give you a little Pixar mini documentary on storyboarding. That's right folks, you can't escape documentaries as long as I'm here. Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKPVAIcDXY.

Are You Meant to be a Game Animator? (probably not)

       This week's article is about what it takes to be a game animator. While some people may think that all animators work in the same way, this article points out how that isn't true. Now that video games are becoming more prominent in this day and age people are learning more what goes into one, and since every video game is animated there is a ton that goes into them.
        Mostly this article talks about the differences in animation. For video games, the exaggeration has to be altered because gamers expect a character to have a certain responsiveness to their input. The exaggerations have to be subtle and not so much that it feels as if the gamer is not controlling the character. Feature animation exaggeration is more cartoony and stylistic but VFX is subtle and realistic.
        Audience holds a lot of weight for both film and VFX. Animated films are viewed passively, and animators can cheat angles and camera views because viewers are not actively interacting with them. Video games are a different story because the audience member is always actively interacting with the animation. Animations have to constantly read from every and all angles because audience members are always looking around and interacting with their surrounded environment.
        With game animation, you create animation cycles and such in programs like Maya and then export them to a game program. Unlike film animation, where artists have to work to put a little personal flair into the design; game animation gives you full control of one character. An animator is assigned to create and see their character to the end of production so that the character is completely theirs and theirs alone.
        The article ends by telling you that it is important to look into all animation careers before settling on one. Exploring multiple animation careers gives you a well-rounded list of skills that you can use in the future.

        This article showed me that film animation and game animation are highly different. They have the same kind of concept but different ways to go at it, like with exaggeration and understanding of how to use the angles. The way games are animated does hold interest to me, but I don't think I would ever want to pursue it because there is so much extra and personal thought that has to go into the production. I do not that have that kind of focus.

What the heck I gotta ~do~ to pass school?

        What time is it? Week review time! How exciting! (I'm groaning internally at myself I'm sorry.)

        This week we learned about keyframes and peg layers. And storyboards and probably something else I'm not remembering. Keyframes and peg layers honestly make me nervous because I feel I'll end up messing my animation up when I use them. Storyboards excite me, though, because even though I'm worried about making full-blown animations I am excited about planning them out. If there's one thing that I can do write it is write down a plan of action. Other than that nothing else was really learned in school. English was wordy, chemistry was chemically, stats was graphy, and history was just me zoning out because I know an unhealthy amount about the American Revolution. (Example: Did you know that once during the American Revolution, Alexander Hamilton and Charles Lee and some other troops were across the Hudson river destroying a flour warehouse before the advancing British troops got there, right? And troops saw the British coming and were like "we gotta bounce lol bye" and left, but Hamilton and a couple other men were left by the side of the river while a ton of Redcoats were coming. But lucky them, they had a boat, so they retreated across the Hudson river (under British gunfire), but that boat was useless cause one man died and another was wounded. So they were like "dudes, time to swim" and abandoned ship and just started swimming. And they made it out okay! But Lee assumed Alexander had died so he got back to camp and was like "Washington, listen, we saw British coming and booked it and accidentally left Hamilton and he's dead now haha sorry bro." And Washington was like "woah, that's sad", so he and his aides started mourning Alexander and drinking in his memory, when A dot Ham busted into his own death party, soaking wet.)

        In the future, I want to learn how to apply audio to animations. I feel it will be another painful and tedious process, but what is animation if it isn't tedious and painful? I also want to learn how to animate faces, or how to draw things the same over and over because I struggle with that. Something not related to animation that I want to learn is how to properly front fall for stage fighting. Believe me, I need it.

        Here's the big bomb: What frustrated me this week? Me. I frustrated me this week. Everything I did made me want to rip my own hair out. I sabotaged myself on the ball and tail(hello bad grade my old friend), I cried for 30 minutes over not being able to grasp the fight scene choreographing I missed, and some other things. I just made life hard for myself this week, full of anxiety and depression. It is hard to admit that sometimes, but because of it I am sometimes Gaius and Brutus and crew stabbing Caeser in the back while at the same time I am also Caeser. But as of right now I'm better, and feelings have settled. The knives are out of my back and I'm not on the verge of screaming at someone.

        So since I frustrated myself all week there really wasn't much there to make me happy. But today was a pretty happy day. We went out to Red Lobster, and for the second time this year I took a bad picture with crab claws as my claws and gave it a bad Wolverine related caption. Then we went to Barnes and Noble, and I got a book and a tote. And then twenty minutes later got another book and a very confused cashier because she could have sworn I'd left. There is also a thing I'm writing that's picked up recently and that has made me happy too, especially the comments left on it.

        The link this week is a video called Overcomer. This is an animation made by a student for a class, and I relate heavily to it this week. So, enjoy! Overcomer - Animated Short.

Geometry Can Do A Lot

        In the article "How Cinematographers Use Geometric Shapes to Tell Stories with Visuals" and it's accompanying video the importance of geometry in animation is explained. I dislike geometry to a huge extent, but seeing it in this light interests me. Not many people realize just how important shapes can be.
        For example, triangles can be used for villainous characters. Maleficent is all over sharp and built on triangles or the sharpness of "kiki". Triangles are an anger shape and are used for teeth and facial shapes and the likes. It is all because a sharp edge can cause a feeling of fear or suspicion or something. Although in animation when you see a triangle being a normal triangle for a mountain range it causes no emotion but "Oh cool a mountain range" and when the triangle is inverted it causes unease. Inverted triangles are often used for caves and the likes, to make a more fearful setting.
        Squares can be used to represent stability. Like Carl in Up. But they can also be used to represent isolation or the idea of being caged. Carl's square shape also radiates isolation and a desire to be left alone. Squares are often used in The Incredibles to cage Bob in his office and car and the likes.
        Circles, of course, are used as soft and inviting shapes. Like Mickey Mouse and Baloo and Ponyo and pretty much every innocent and exciting character in an animated movie. Circles' rounded edges don't instill fear or worry, but more a sense of youth and the natural state of the world. Circles relate most to real world objects, which make the movie viewers more comfortable. The round shapes of good guys and kids and the likes always subconsciously please viewers because they represent happiness and innocence.
        This article was targeted towards both animated films and real life films, but the idea of geometry in films is more prominent in animation. This is because you can just draw it in, if you want a character to be a circle all you have to do is sketch out a vaguely person-shaped circled and then work off of that. In real films, it is harder because you can't just shape human flesh to your pleasure. In a way, that makes animation the easier filed to analyze geometry in. And with this concept in mind, you can also make more appealing characters as you go along in animation.

Up's usage of animation principals

        Last Friday we watched and analyzed the movie "Up". It was kind of painful to do because the principles of animation were still a new concept to me and I couldn't figure out how to pick them out. By the end, however, I  had a solid kind of flow with my analysis. The principles were popping out to me more and more.
        One principle I saw a lot was the use of staging. Staging is the presentation of an idea so that it is clear. The usage of this principle set up a lot of good scenes. Before the balloons were revealed, we were shown helium canisters scattered all around the yard. One of the hospice workers noted it, and it made the viewer also wonder what was going to happen. Another act of staging was when the dogs were hunting for Kevin, and the one henchdog said that single line: "Right, Alpha?". The scene is staging because you expect to be on the receiving end of a deep commanding voice, and am instead met with the much more amusing high pitch of Alpha's collar. The use of staging does a lot for this movie because there's a lot you don't expect, and the unexpected adds to the thrill.
        Appeal is the design and such of a character, and how they pull you in. It was another animation principle I noticed. There was appeal in the way Ellie had an in-your-face-no-worries-here kind of attitude which leads to Carl and her's relationship. The construction boss had appeal in the way he was very neutral and sharp at the edges. Carl's appeal was his square shape and Russel's appeal was his egg shape. All the dogs were varied in breed and size, and the sharpness of their edges. Kevin was overall extremely unique. And Carl Muntz' had a key hole shaped face that made it hard to look away. The appeal of all these characters, big and small, makes the movie great. This way there is variation in what you see, no two characters are exactly alike, and they hold your attention more effectively if they were all uniform and neutral. Appeal is important to a movie, and Up really grasped that.
        A third principle was timing. Timing is the speeding of an object. It is an important principle because it gives meaning to movement. If you had watched Up and Muntz' blimp and Carl's house moved at the same speed you would say "Well, that's not right". But thanks to timing we can see the blimp moving at a blimp-esque slow speed as the house gains on it because the house is significantly smaller and propelled by balloons.
        Slow In and Slow Out, or Ease In/Ease Out is also big when used in movement. It is used to let an object realistically accelerate. The biggest object this was used for was, of course, the blimp. Muntz' blimp would not have looked real if it was zipping everywhere, so with the use of ease in/ease out it was able to move at a realistic looking speed. The use of ease in/ease out also helped to register the falling of the rock spires. If they fell at too fast of or too slow of a speed it would have been awkward, but since ease in/ease out was used on them they looked natural.
        Secondary actions are actions that result directly from another action. They are important to animations because they heighten interest and add realistic complexities. There in secondary action in the beginning when Carl is running. His main movement is the running. The secondary action resides in the movement of his arms, the one with the balloon and the airplane hand one. The dogs also possess a lot of secondary action, with their ears and tails and eyebrows. Their main action tends to be in walking or talking, but the secondary action adds a lot more depth and realism to them.
       The sixth principle I saw was straight ahead action and pose-to-pose action. Straight ahead action is drawing the animation one drawing at a time. It is used mostly for spontaneous or unpredictable action. Using it to try and animate big action can lead to loss of proportion or ending up in the wrong place. Straight ahead was used in Up with the fire that was set. Fire is a spontaneous action and never moves in a predictable way, so the straight ahead was perfect for that. Pose-to-pose action is used for big movements like jumping or just walking. You start at the beginning and draw the middle and end poses and continue on from there until you have a completed animation. This is used so that you avoid messing up the proportion or ending your animation where you didn't want it. Pose-to-pose was used whenever characters jumped from one place to another. Such as when they were escaping the blimp and had to jump to the house.
        If animators didn't follow the principles of animation there wouldn't be smooth easy to follow movies. But since they do, we have great movies like Up. It may be frustrating to try and pick out the principles, but I'm sure as time goes by this will be a breeze.