Patrick Yates - MA Animation

I have finally finished my film! It took a lot of perseverance and a lot of rejigging my ideas and time management throughout, but it’s complete to an acceptable standard. I learned a lot of things through the process, about timings, strategy and discipline, what to prioritise and what should take a back seat. The rough animation took by far the longest of any aspect. This reassures me that cleanup and colour as concepts are not as daunting as I first thought (though they require their own forms of strategising), but also made me consider why this might be. In the first place, I think a spirit of perfectionism has to seep into roughs, as when they are complete you already have a strong sense of how things are going to look in motion; while I am tempted to simply note something like, ‘rough animation takes this amount of time’, what I really think happens is that rough animation might always take a little longer than I want it to - just because I want to make it as good as possible. Aside from learning my technical limits, I will have to keep my mindset in check when going into the next project - just how much time can I allow myself, and will the overall piece benefit or suffer from how I decide that? Having said that, I am totally pleased with how the finished piece looks. Devoting enough time to colour and compositing was essential from the start to give it a polished look - it was only after I added overlays, particle effects and backgrounds that the piece really started to come together. I would like to spend more time thinking about how to maximise the potential of these assets - how could I work backgrounds in more effectively, or efficiently? I am also interested in experimenting more with the 3D effects available in After Effects, as I have great faith in the potential of 2D/3D hybrid animation; traditional is good for certain stories (and budgets) but there is a whole untapped world of ideas available to those who can be bothered to unlock it.

The dialogue, music and sound design came out great. I am delighted to have been able to insert as much of that sound world as possible - in fact, the sound was perhaps the one thing which felt the leats compromise from planning to development stages. I had a blast working with others, getting their feedback on their parts, and building around their constraints. If I were to make this film again I would probably have tried to get the important sounds sorted a little earlier than I did, but it didn’t cause any big problems in the long run that I didn’t.

Studio Laika has built something of a reputation recently for pulling off daring animation. The techniques they used in the making of their stop-motion/CGI hybrid film Kubo & The Two Strings (2016) were a big part of their marketing (see articles 1, 2 & 3), and they are indeed quite a spectacle in themselves:

Their most recent effort, Missing Link, is no different. Laika have positioned themselves at the forefront of newfangled animation tech, and are adept at hybridising previously distinct forms of animation. They have a succession of films nominated for Best Animated Picture at the Oscars - however, Missing Link is not one of them. Further to this, despite having the largest budget of any Laika film to date, it has bombed dramatically, losing around $75 million [4].

This surprise flop raises several questions. The first I might wonder is, how popular/likely to succeed is stop motion animation in 2019, even with the added assistance of hybrid techniques? Another is, considering the lengths to which they pushed themselves as technological pioneers for their last film, whether the climate and public opinion surrounding production techniques has kept up with the eminent evolution of those techniques, ie. does anyone care after a certain point? Lastly - despite Laika’s commitment to pushing forward animation, does any of it matter if their stories and marketing strategies are not up to scratch? In my opinion, I think this studio’s work is a good example of artists who use these techniques mainly as spectacle. This is not to slam them necessarily, because spectacle is one of the wonderful things of which animation is capable. But I also think their production methods are not always aligned with ‘the best way to tell the story’. They did very well in the past with films like The Corpse Bride and Coraline, which use stop motion very well for their horror-tinted purposes. I hope they are able to align their technological and their narrative interests in the future, if mostly because they have the ability to set some wonderful examples with the technology they are using.

References

1. https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/18/12500814/laika-studios-behind-the-scenes-kubo-and-the-two-strings-video

Amongst certain communities, this is perhaps one of the most controversial animated films of the past decade. But only so because no-one even considers it animation.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/jon-favreau-made-an-animated-lion-king-but-he-still-doesnt-want-you-to-call-it-an-animated-film-175028.html

There is a lot to be said of Disney’s current model of remaking their classic animated movies in ‘live-action’ from the perspective of the animation industry. Many have been confused that Disney thought they could replicate or update the magic and charm of their gorgeous and often groundbreaking 2D animation, to something photorealistic - this would be to disavow and discard the properties of 2D animation that make it so well suited to telling fantastical stories, in favour of an apparent market proclivity towards visual realism (notably, not narrative realism, because... lions can’t talk). Something particularly interesting, however, and singularly frustrating, is that, despite the fact the ENTIRE FILM is animated - every shot, every light, every character, every background, something that, for the sheer strength and quality of the animation, can be difficult to detect - Disney still market it as ‘live action’. It is a disturbing precedent that Disney have set for the crossover between VFX and animation, that when animation gets ‘good’ enough it ceases to be animated. There are a number of reasons why they have decided to do this, partly for branding and demographic purposes, but the message it reinforces to its audience is that animation is a genre, rather than a method. The entrenchment of this belief is damaging to the art and industry as a whole, as it denies animation and animators the possibility of constructing mainstream audiences around animation which does not appeal to the specific tropes of animation as it exists - things like outlandish proportion and movement, cartoon humour, and, as I have touched on a few times in previous posts, the presumption of a younger audience. Where Disney’s treatment of VFX leaves us, essentially, is having to justify our animation’s right to exist without capitulating to those tropes that The Lion King has deliberately avoided association with.

I have posted before about the show Tuca & Bertie, which was made available to stream on Netflix earlier this year, about how great a show it is, and about how it may set a precedent for adult cartoons which can cater to female audiences and earnestly address mature issues, something which cartoons seldom try to do. Unfortunately, it seems this assessment was not on the money, as news has come that Netflix has decided to drop the show. Below is a link to showrunner Lisa Hanawalt’s Twitter thread about it.

https://twitter.com/lisadraws/status/1154150458266570755

While speaking graciously, Hanawalt seems concerned, as do the show’s fans, that the show was a total creative success, and that Netflix’s disregard for this kind of achievement may reflect very poorly on future attempts to propagate this genre of programming. Ultimately, if shows do not get enough viewers, they cannot draw revenue, and are effectively industrially obsolete, regardless of subjective quality. While I am hopeful that the show may yet be picked up elsewhere, and that the seed it has planted in the minds of creatives may bloom into wonderful new things, I am very wary of this precedent. The idea that the kinds of creativity, novelty and sincerity that I appreciate in adult cartoons are not as popular with the public is a sad idea, but one I will have to factor into any future interactions with this industry. In any case, i will be keeping a close eye on this case and others like it.

This article expresses some ideas about what makes this news so frustrating:

We are in the endgame now.

The next few weeks will be decisive. I have achieved most of what I wanted to by this stage; I will run down what I have left to do, and the time in which I have to do it. At time of writing I have 20 days until the deadline.

COLOUR - adding colour to the cleaned up animation

35 shots still to do - avg. 11-12 days if colouring 3 per day

BACKGROUNDS - drawing backgrounds

9 still to do - avg. 3 days if drawing 3 per day

COMPOSITING - adding lighting and camera movement, titles + credits

16 shots still to do inc. titles and credits (3 days approx)

MUSIC RECORDING - the final music piece

1 piece to record (1 afternoon)

SOUND DESIGN - what sounds appear when, background and foreground noises

Approx 14 noises to find/record (2 days approx)

I also have to find time to finish up my presentation and promotional material. I have been recording footage of myself animating throughout and finding material to include in my pitch involving industry norms and practices, including some recent news which I intend to include in a forefront post here. The final stages of this planning should also take a few days.

There are a few blog posts I am still planning to write. My timing with these has taken a hit as I have been focusing on the artwork, but I will fill my quota as instructed. I intend to make 8 more forefront posts, which I have already selected, and at least 3 more posts about my learning processes and self-reflections, which I have also found good material for.

It is week 7 and I have completed a rough working version of my film, including FINAL recorded dialogue and stand-in music. The next phase visually will be the linework, which, as I covered in another post, I do not anticipate taking too long; then I will be colouring, and finally compositing (which will also be a minimal activity, only comprising some minor lighting and camera movements). Sound-wise, my next step is to record the soundtrack - this includes 1. solo guitar backing for the intro scene, 2. ensemble piece for the final scene, and 3. some affective sound design for Mother’s entrance. After this I will get to additional sound design, things like ambient sounds and sound effects (swamp noises, boat engines, creaking, clanking etc). I have also started work on backgrounds, which are a good way for me to start establishing the final visual tone of the film as it develops in colour, both daytime and nighttime colour pallettes. These are two I have made so far (happily, they did not take too long, and as there are only 10 or so more to do, I foresee them being finished by the time I complete linework).

I haven’t posted about Steven Universe on one of these yet, because it first aired a little while ago now. But with the new movie being released in less than a month now, it feels time to talk about this show, what it means today, and the impact I feel it may have. Steven Universe is a kids show unlike any other. I use this descriptor based on its target demographic and age rating - the show has enough depth and range to be enjoyed by people of any age - but also because I think there is a latent conservatism in most Western children’s TV that Steven Universe shrugs off effortlessly. Children’s programming often exalts themes such as friendship and self-love, yet is almost never keen to explore romantic storylines in any depth greater than a classic, trite boy-meets-girl; Steven Universe, however, approaches relationships in radically different ways, conflating the possibilities of love and not limiting them to how they are understood on this level. It can already be said to be progressive programming because it depicts homosexual-coded romantic relationships, yet it is RADICAL programming in that it reconfigures the language and boundaries of love that we often take for granted. Given the considerable educational potential of children’s programming, I believe solely on this level that it is a very important show with a lot to offer. It helps that it is also incredibly well crafted, meaningful and fun. LGBT+ themes in Western children’s shows are becoming more normalised now, with Adventure Time, The Legend of Korra and the new She Ra all presenting them to varying degrees, but I think Steven Universe’s approach to the politics of love has the potential to be the most holistically powerful of all.

The film is expected to tie up loose ends from a slightly rushed season finale, and, like the show, is animated by a studio in Korea, albeit with a slightly higher budget resulting in very strong visuals by the look of the trailer. I keenly anticipate it.

The Star Wars franchise has, in one way or another, been motoring along ever since its inception. Now, with its rights owned solely by Disney, it has more iterations and more outward-facing properties than ever. The Clone wars is one such property, in the cartoon TV series format. But just what has made Star Wars into such an all-consuming media empire in its own right?

Media theorist Henry Jenkins coined a useful phrase that describes a certain cultural/industrial phenomenon which applies heavily to Star Wars: 'transmedia storytelling' (1). This is the approach to media that involves using a number of avenues and specific cultural modes to communicate a story or world which ostensibly has many faces; in our example, the live action Star Wars films may be considered the prime source, but we also have video games, comics, books and TV shows, even non-flagship movies, telling different sides of the story in different ways.

The Clone Wars is a show that continues to air, which frames the interstice between the 3rd and 4th movies (prequel and original arcs) as a cartoonish action-comedy adventure. The tone is not overrall dissimilar from the films, however through its cartoonishness it is apparent the show appeals to a younger viewership, to be broadcast on Saturday mornings and have its own line of toys and promotional material.

The Swallows of Kabul is an independent animated film from France, based on a book of the same name, which tells the story of two couples living under the Taliban regime in Kabul. It follows another animated film from last year, The Breadwinner, in covering personal/political drama in the Middle East, an often unrepresented demographic in the West; another film from 2007, Persepolis, adapted from a graphic novel, does similar. I find it interesting that these stories find their way into film through Western animation - what is it about the animated form that lends itself to such interpretation? Apparently this film is a collaboration between live action filmmaker Zabou Breitman and animator Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec - many of the shots were first cut on film, then rotoscoped over. Clearly the two wanted something that acceded to realist principles, yet allowed for more fluid art direction and unassuming style. A review from Screendaily.com says this:

‘But to a degree, the delicate animation anaesthetises the viewer, allowing us to appreciate the artistry on display rather than focusing on the Taliban’s barbarism, which is often shown off screen. Admittedly, that storytelling remove is a relief, even if one occasionally longs for a more visceral take on this anguished material.’ (Grierson)

Please find below my progress on the rough animation so far. I have almost filled in the entire film, which comes to around 2 minutes and 20 seconds at the moment, though will likely require some canny stretching and fixing.

The version below is just the first scene, complete with a voiceover dub done by yours truly. I’ve sent this to my voice actors for reference.

Hot Tea is a short film from Dutch director Michael Tigchelaar about, somewhat surprisingly, male sensuality. He had this to say to CartoonBrew (1): If you’ve seen the film this may come as a surprise (or maybe not), but originally, Hot Tea started as a joke. I was fooling around during breakfast, swirling my tea bag around my cup in an exaggerated, sensual way. I thought it could be fun to animate a character acting this way. Since it was really just a concept and not a story, we figured it would fit nicely in the yearly [Dutch Film Fund] “Ultrashort” project, which funds films of no longer than 2 minutes.

As I developed the film, the project took on a bit more of a serious tone. While still presented in a playful way, a theme emerged: to explore the more sensual side of men, rather than treating it as a joke. Several different iterations were explored, like introducing a female character at some point, or keeping the fact that the character was a man a secret until the end of the film. Ultimately, we made the decision to go for the direct approach. Just a man, right up front, on his own, really (really, REALLY) enjoying a cup of tea.

https://qz.com/africa/1598854/netflix-picks-mama-ks-team-4-as-first-african-childrens-animation/ Mama K’s Team 4 is a new animated show that has been picked up by Netflix. It is the first animated show they have commissioned from Africa, is aimed at children and is written entirely by women. The studio is still hiring to work on the series, and there is no official launch date as yet.

The studio which produces Mama K is Triggerfish, from South Africa, who have been developing animation and children’s entertainment for years; they proclaim themselves ‘Africa’s leading animation studio’ (fig 1). It is interesting to note the relative lack of African representation on this stage, but perhaps unsurprising, as the majority of Netflix’s original animated content comes from US and Canadian studios anyway (successes such as Bojack Horseman, Big Mouth, and Disenchanted, and even the anime-mimicking Neo Yokio and Castlevania series, are all US-born).

On one hand this is an exciting prospect - the all-female writing crew especially, as I have said before, children’s animation could certainly use the positive representation. But the headline association of Netflix never having commissioned a show from Africa before may be somewhat indicative of how the platform largely fails to meet those kinds of representation. As streaming splinters off into other companies (Disney being perhaps the biggest competitor), one wonders whether companies will continue to seek out fresh and diverse content, or whether they will sink into their ways and carve a niche for their profits. I can only hope this show lights the way for others like it.

Some things that have come up so far in my process: 1) my original plan, which was to animate all my scenes sequentially, is taking a long time, which leads me to believe I may have to cut corners; 2) while shots are the units I have chosen to break my workflow into, some shots obviously take longer than others, and some are more important to the overall effect than others.

Eg. these shots took about the same amount of time to animate effectively, but it is my intention to prioritise shots like shot 2 where the animation is required to be of a high standard to communicate effectively - it needs dedicated ‘performance’

Shot 1

Shot 2

The obvious takeaway from this is that, rather than animating shots sequentially, I should prioritise them such that I am able to spend longer doing the ones which are more visually important. To this end, I have begun noting down the relative difficulty of shots, and their relative importance in terms of their capacity for visual storytelling. I have’t gone as far as to create an objective coefficient ranking system, but this colour coding effectively shows me what shots I should be working on first (see right hand side - near right is difficulty, far right is importance).

This is a progress report on how my film’s dialogue is developing. So far, I have drafted the script a few times to suit the film’s length, the relevant story points and some concerns my tutor had expressed about how well I am expressing those points. I have also updated it in accordance with the new shot dynamics I mentioned in the previous post. Now, moving into the phase where I ought to be recording very soon, here is the final draft.

As an animator, a nostalgic fan of Saturday morning kids TV and a feminist, She-Ra’s appearance on my Netflix feed was a pleasant surprise; when I started watching it, however, I was not too impressed. I think in part my expectations for the bar of modern adaptations were too high - or, rather, my own personal standards and hopes for the next wave of kids TV, having grown up in the time of shows like Teen Titans and Avatar: The Last Airbender, which still hold up today. I was also held back by what I now realise is a slightly outmoded contradiction: I expected She-Ra to be forward-facing in its depiction of women by not acceding to extremely ‘feminine’ stereotypes, and was let down when it was still overtly pink and fluffy, yet having now watched a great deal (the show has entered its 2nd season and continues to gain pace) I’m happy to admit that I was wrong. The show delivers excellent world-building and light-hearted entertainment backed by strong character-based storytelling, and that the feminine energy I had been anxious would pigeonhole the characters and storyworld is actually worked wonderfully into a wider whole which actively empowers women and others who present feminine characteristics (there is another post to be written in another blog on the implications of my initial reaction, but for now I will just focus on what She-Ra actually does well as a show).

fig 1. the title card

The show is another Netflix property, based on the She-Ra cartoons from the 80s. The animation style has been updated, and seems to take a lot of cues from Eastern animation.

The thing I find most interesting about this show is its apparently burgeoning commitment to deep and complex character relationships. Without delving into spoilers, tehre are several relationships in the show which would seem to bely its ‘for children’ status, and the choices many of the characters make seem to reflect heavier psychological material than anything the parent show would have attempted. I wonder whether this is indicative of a greater change in how characters in children’s TV are written - personally, as I have discussed in earlier entries, I am particularly in favour of mature interpersonal themes being explored in animation. I imagine the team behind this new iteration were confident that not only would their show quality benefit from greater attention to those dynamics, but that their target demographic would also increase. I have been unable to track down information on this show’s viewing statistics and demographic, but the Critics’ Consensus review of the show’s RottenTomatoes page has this to say, which reflects the logic quite well: ‘By the grace of Grayskull, She-Ra and the Princess of Power packs a powerful visual punch that hits even harder thanks to layered writing and multidimensional characters -- the perfect show for seasoned fans and little ones alike.’ (fig. 2)

References

1. LuisTheEtherian, 2018, ‘Warriors’, She-Ra & The Princesses of Power Wikia, accessed 4/6/2019, https://she-raandtheprincessesofpower.fandom.com/wiki/Warriors

A clip of what I have so far. All roughed for now, in chronological order - for the next phase I will be focusing on important shots, allocating more time to ensure they are up to scratch.

In this segment I would like to talk about how my approach to planning has developed since I started, and about some of the choices I have been implementing and why. My main points are on:

- note-keeping - background selection and implementation - storyboard trimming + shot choices

1. Note-keeping This aspect of my process is relatively uninformed by industry practice or analysis, however it is something which I have definitely improved and adopted more since I have started. I mentioned in another post my accession to constant, fluid planning processes, and have begun implementing this by adopting the applications Google Docs and Google Sheets as my prime note-taking device. Using cloud storage, these allow me to access files for note-taking and visual aids from any desktop, and from my phone; essentially, this makes it easy to change and record ideas and plans on the fly, and put them into effect much more easily than localised files. My mobile has been a crucial notepad so far, as I often find myself rethinking aspects of my process even without consciously thinking about it, and need a place to store those ideas. Since I started using this system, the general scope of my planning process has become much more fluid, as I had hoped it would. Here is an example of one of my Sheets, a working shot breakdown:

At the moment, the only problem with this system is that it is constantly in a state of relative chaos - given most edits I make are subtle and spur of the moment, they soon add up to a less-than-cohesive model (see the coloured shot numbers above - these indicate holdovers from an old shot plan which I have designated as redundant, but have yet to remove and implement in a full scale update). I think of these edits as ‘patches’, as in video games - soon I would like to incorporate full ‘updates’, in which I will pick check-in points to standardise my plans. I will do my first one tomorrow (Tuesday 4th June).

2. Background selection and implementation

To the far right of the Sheet above, it can be seen I am using a system of reusable backgrounds. This is, of course, to minimize the amount I will have to draw - by cleverly zooming and stretching them, I can make backgrounds work for several shots at a time. Despite having ~40 shots, I only need 13 backgrounds (my maximum stretch is six shots to one background). My original estimate was closer to 15, so I am glad to have altered the shot order to save myself even more time in this respect. My inspiration for this way of working comes from an old industry staple of ‘limited animation’, Hanna-Barbera Productions. They are famous for having used long backgrounds which would loop around the sides of the screen. Below is a clip from the Hanna-Barbera show Wacky Racers, which demonstrates use of this technique.

fig 1. Wacky Racers using the ‘wraparound background’ technique

3. Storyboard trimming + shot choices

In line with the attempt I have made at economy by trimming my backgrounds, I have also revised my storyboard and shot breakdown since I started (some of the removed and revised shots are shown in the Sheet above). Below is, I think, a particularly useful example of my having done this.

Original Shots

1

2

3

Revised shot

With this edit, I have condensed what would have been 3 individual shots, each with separate background to draw and animations to complete, into one shot, which is simultaneously more efficient and more effective. This new shot uses perspective and the ‘rule of thirds’ (fig 2) to establish space and interconnectedness of the characters and objects at hand; I also think it is more visually compelling to see multiple elements on screen, and saves having to animate every aspect to create motion. There are a few other examples of corners I have cut, but this is my favourite.