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.
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