Introduction to Animation

Final production; A Cat’s Coffee, my 1st year 30 second animation.

All of this animation was hand drawn, lined, and painted with inks and watercolour, and was produced in Dragonframe and edited in Adobe After Effects. 

I largely like the end product of this animation, although have noted a few things I would change in future, such as to lay out more precise ideas for the shots, as I feel certain scenes were cramped or could have been shot in a more sophisticated manner; as well as using lighter/more defined tones for my background, while this issue was largely down to inexperience in animation and with inks, I feel like certain scenes would have been difficult to view without the defined lines my animation achieved due to the effects placed upon it. However, I am incredibly pleased with the style I chose for this animation, which has created a wonderful effect, as well as the animations, specifically the animated transitional shot of the door opening and the bell ringing; which caused me some issues in trying to plan out but the finished product is what I had hoped to achieve.

One of the inspirations for my animation's style, was the 2012 French comedy-drama (Ernest et Célestine) Ernest and Celestine, and was the first animated film to win the Magritte Film Award for Best Film.

The narrative follows the tale of a mouse and a bear who’s society demands they act as enemies as they slowly learn to appreciate each other’s artistic talents and change from unruly outcasts to heroes. 

Alongside following the film’s production blog, which gave fantastic insight into how the film was made and the process involved in making an animated film, but also had insight into their methodology.

As apart of my character and animation research, which involved looking at cat’s in both the animated sense and in a real life sense, I was able to go to a local Cat Cafe in order to draw for the cats as they interacted with other patrons, myself and the staff. This was a wonderful opportunity which helped me with my understanding of cat anatomy greatly.

The cat cafe I arranged to go to was Mog on The Tyne, a smaller cat cafe hidden away in Newcastle’s alleyways. Upon entering the cafe and finding a nice little corner to draw without disturbing the cats, I set to work.

The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful, as were the other patrons and the feline-stars of the cafe, whom all posed wonderfully and would come closer every time I wrinkled the pack of crisps (ironically a Salty Dog brand) I had bought at the cafe. This allowed me to view the cats both from various angles, due to the fact I was sat under a set of cat stairs up the wall of the cafe, and next to an extravagant scratching post, which the cats would perch upon at various levels as I sketched them.

Several cats in particular were incredibly helpful in allowing me to capture concepts for movement and character, particularly two tabbies known as Sybil and Rum, whom both sat near me and allowed me to sketch their faces as they faced me for several minutes each; Rum also posed for several minutes in the exact pose I plan to have Toffee in which greatly helped. Sybil especially was my inspiration for Toffee’s cat face, as she had a unique slope to her nose and more rounded eyes. 

A quick test on regular A4 paper to try out the colouration of some inks I bought for my animation. As this was my first time using inks, the main focus was to experiment to see how they could be blended, what colour they could create, how to dilute the colours, and how they worked with watercolours. 

A small test using the previous animation test. This was to experiment with effects in Adobe After Effects. The above effect was created using the stylize option ‘Cartoon’ and that ‘Edges and Fill’ option within that option. Unlike the previous test with Edge and Fill, where I went for the default options, I experimented with the option as so:

Stylize: Cartoon

Detail Threshold: 0.0

Width 1.2

Softness: 0.0

A test animation. This animation is only 5 frames long and was mainly a test to see how sepia ink would appear in dragonframe and how the frames themselves would appear in dragonfrome. 

While the shading does jump around a bit, something I will remedy in the final product, I am pleased with the overall style and movement.

An animatic to test the timing and which frames to use from my storyboard, this includes basic pans and my edited music to fully test if the music fits with the planned animation, how long to have each section/sequence.

Upon reviewing this animatic, I may change a few frames in order to stop my animation being over-ambitious. The frames I will most likely change are below:

My second draft of music editing for my 30-second animation, A Cat’s Coffee.

Here I changed the most glaringly obviously cut music for a section which both had the feel I wanted for that section of the animation and that also fit into the second clip more fluidly.

This piece was edited in Audacity to be softer in transitions.

A first draft of the music I will be using in my 30-second animation, A Cat’s Coffee.

As you can hear the files sound a bit ‘jump’ and evidently cut despite editing.

Due to the fact my animation, A Cat’s Coffee, has a cat in the animation, studying cats both animated and real was an important part of the research.

The primary animation I studied for this would be Disney’s Aristocats, which gave me a look into how tot create a character that would be both a realistic representation of a cat and yet retain enough human-like features to distinguish itself.

I particularly took inspiration for my main feline from the movie’ two adult protagonist’s Duchess, a white Persian cat (voiced by Eva Gabor), and Thomas O’Malley, an orange alley cat (voiced by Phil Harris) - from whom I also took inspiration in naming my own male protagonist, Tom. 

For Duchess, I mainly looked at the facial expressions, fur length and general appearance; due to both cat’s being female and having long hair. In comparison to the other cats in the film, Duchess has more feline-like, larger eyes, small nose, and a more oval-shaped face; as well as always being animated to move more fluidly and gracefully in comparison to the more animated O’Malley. Both female cats also possess a thick collar around the neck, which offered fantastic reference for positioning the collar on my own feline.

For O’Malley, I took looked more towards body movement, due to the fact he is animated very realistically in comparison to a real cat, despite being animated through various human activities (a quality I would prefer for my own feline to possess), and also on facial expressions - due to the fact he is more animated and expressive compared to the elegant Duchess. 

For the overall bodies, the cat’s tended to have a reverse triangle to their shape, with broader bodies that filled out more towards the hind quarters, coupled with short hind legs; this pattern was furthered in my studies of cats at a local Cat Cafe.

A second draft, rough storyboard used to test timing and shots. This version has changes in comparison to the thumbnail draft, mainly focusing on how to make the animation a decent size and to not be over ambitious