#animatedexpressions

Smiling faces holding hands, animated style, shiny eyes, yellow and gold

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SIZE COMPARISON - HAMMER! & HALLSY

Size Comparisons are not always necessarily fundamental to the post-production process, they are usually laid out by character sheets and storyboards, but when two or more characters are featured within close proximity of each other, spend a good deal of time  interacting with one another, and the size difference is an important factor to consider, a sheet to compare the sizes of characters can be extremely useful to maintain consistency in their design and their final look in the outcome.

I personally wanted to create a quick size comparison sheet to outline the sheer contrast in weight, muscle and height between my two characters in the emotions project. Their design and drawing style were chosen specifically to highlight their personalities, I wanted the viewer to get a feel for how they would act from a first glance - hence Hallsy’s exaggerated facial features to make him look innocent and friendly, but also so I can make dynamic changes to his expressions as the story progresses. Hammer on the other hand has largely exaggerated muscles, especially in upper torso (at the expense of the size of his legs and feet, apart from his calf muscles, his calf muscles, are massive)

Orc Expression References

These are some of the references I used to design my Orc character called “Hammer”. As a fantasy creature, the orc as a concept is not bound to any kind of biological distinctions between facial expressions, so I found it quite interesting to see how artists had made use of squash and stretch and exaggerated proportions to make their fantasy characters come to life.

The first reference comes from norm:

 http://normandlemay.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/expressions.html

He made a few other orc designs on his blog too:

Norm’s sketchy style is very different from my own, something I have been told to make use of in the design and storyboarding pre-production process, as a sketchy technique at this stage allows for the designs to be more easily changeable. Helen has said that I have a tendency to jump right into very sure and near finished drawings before really getting a chance to experiment, so this is something I should think about doing.

As you can see from some of Norm’s drawings above, the sketchiness of the style helps to shape the character and get a feel for how they would behave and pose themselves. From this he can easily make adjustments and develop a more finalised character:

I used the expressions in the original source as clear reference for Hammer, as well as the image above for his weapon.

The second reference comes from MMO Champion threads, World of Warcraft:

The Orc expressions here are taken directly from the mmorpg “World of Warcraft”, demonstrating dynamic expression in 3 dimensions. Taking reference from 3 dimensions helps place 2 dimensional characters in a space, meaning that we can observe how the shadows would fall on the character’s face with depth.

What the thread recognizes is that small changes in wrinkles or shadow can dynamically adjust the character:  “Some something as simple as giving each face altered wrinkles, bags under the eyes and shading, you can create different characters, instead of just the 1 face, all because of the expression in idle animation.”

The final reference from DeviantArt User “DrVak”

DrVak is a popular deviant art user from Russia, she primarily draws and paints digital fantasy characters in a comic style that I really admire and take periodically take reference from for my own fantasy subjects.

 http://drkav.deviantart.com/art/This-is-not-good-580521706

http://drkav.deviantart.com/art/Azrian-and-Ceja-576664880

Each of DrVak’s Orcs are individual in design and expression, giving a great range of dynamic emotions and types of faces to express these emotions

Finally, as an honourable mention, the art of the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles (published by Warner Bros c.2013) book was also a massive inspiration for the narrative concept and the orc character. The artists detail the foundations for their hunter orc design process and go through dozens of potential designs to get the ideal look for their savage creations. A pdf is available at:

Developing Ideas for Emotions Animation

These are some rough idea sketches for possible scenarios displaying a change/development in emotion/expressions within an animated short. These two ideas both follow the emotional transition I want to capture, which is the transition from joy/comfort to angry/displeased. I chose the transition between these two emotional states because I feel that the change is not only universally recognizable, but demonstrates strong contrasts in facial expression that I can exaggerate through animation to make them both believable and comedic. 

^ Notice how the eyes shrink when expressing joy (images 1-3), the brow raises, the mouth opens wide in a smile and the cheeks tighten as a result. But with the expression of anger (images 4-6) almost exactly the opposite is perceived. The brow lowers in a threatening manner, the top of the nose bridge wrinkles as a result, the eyes glare full and wide and the cheeks drop as the mouth shrinks into a intimidating scowl.

Reference: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101105124237.htm

Similar to mood swings such as that of happiness to sadness, the emotional transition from happy to angry is one that I feel undergoes strong recognizable changes in the placement of facial features to express them, as I discussed above. What I mean is, unlike emotional changes such as disgust to sadness (which are quite a like in their expression, though perhaps not in the feelings associated with them), the development from joy to anger is one which portrays strong, clear adaptations in the face especially.

So consequently, I chose this as my expressions animation scenario, here are an outline of my two ideas (shown at the top):

1. Cockatoon - A boy stares at a caged Cockatoo in wonder at it’s amusing personality and beautiful feathers, giving a big happy grin at the sight. He decides to let the bird free to let it fly around the room and play with it, but forgets about the open window behind him. The bird quickly flies off into the distance leaving a poop on the boy’s head, the boy is no longer amused, he looks grumpy and displeased at what just happened.

In this video with art and animation teacher Jazza from “Draw with Jazza”, Josiah demonstrates how to draw emotion in a more simplified manner. Rather than getting into the ‘nitty-gritty’ of emotion and the theories behind it, he jumps right into showing what happens to the face when we perform select expressions and how we may want to observe/draw them with both a ‘cartoony’ and a more realistic style. Here’s some of the main points I took from the video, I recommend checking it out:

When content, the face is generally in a neutral state, perhaps with the eyes slightly lifted and the curve of the mouth tilted slightly upward to get across that the character is feeling satisfied or pleased

With happiness, bringing up the lower eyelid a little bit helps “flourish the expression”, where of course everything is pulled upward, the mouth curves up and the eyebrows lift up in a joyous state

When angry, things start to “overlap a bit”, the face is pulled/scrunched in together and becomes tight and wrinkly in the places where the face overlaps (such as in the higher section of the nose)

“Angry scrunches IN, where sadness scrunches UP”, the eyebrows lean upward at a curve, the lower eyelid is really pulled up and the mouth curves downward in a pout or a frown. Where happiness pulls the face upward, sadness pulls it down, making the expression feel droopy or slouchy

Pictures taken on the “Change of Expression” Section of the Animator’s Survival Kit

This section of this incredibly useful, famed book I’ve been reading for the past few weeks documents ways to create believable animated changes in expression. “Look for contrast”(shown in the second image), states that the best thing to do is to change the character’s expression before a move instead of during a move. 

The second image is actually not as effective as it could be, as the page after details, as when a character drawn is startled by something, he does not immediately swing his head around to get a glance at what it was, he looks up so we can see his frightened expression first, before moving, instead of during the movement where the audience cannot see it - animation must always be laid out with the audience in mind (just like a movie), clear shots, clear expression and clear movement means an engaging experience for the viewer.

“Gestures are stronger than words”

“Body language is the root and fortunately it is universal” - Ken Anderson. Unlike spoken language, BODY language is the same almost anywhere in the world, we can recognize fundamental expressions and the meanings of certain gestures without even thinking about it. Body language is also very powerful, able to give strong impressions of somebody’s character without even knowing them personally, which is what makes interviews so daunting! 

As stated before - the eyes are one of the most important elements of the human form in relation to expression, as they are the “soul” of a person (see the last image).  We often tell stories with our eyes alone, animating the shape of the eyeball, the size of the pupils and the directions of eyebrows to communicate powerful expression. I found that this is most simply demonstrated in the classic “eyes in the dark” animation cliche:

“Monsters in the dark” - Sesame Street, Episode 871

“Eyes” - original animation by Tom Law

Tom Law is one of my favourite animators on YouTube. This animation is particularly effective, as it shows how more or less the eyes alone, with very little sound and no changes in shot, can tell an entire short story that is both funny and features a great transition in emotion.

References:

Williams, R. (2001) The Animator’s survival kit: A manual of methods, principles, and formulas for classical, computer, games, stop motion, and Internet Animators. Expanded Edition edn. London: Faber and Faber.

https://vimeo.com/tomlaw

https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/ken-anderson/

http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs294-7/sp04/sp_04_presentations/Facial_Expressions.pdf

In our briefing on animation, Helen Schroeder took us through many examples, both well-known and obscure, of animated expression and the creative ways in which animators can really engage with our own emotions

The award winning animation documented here by Karen Kelly really struck my eye as something that truly captures the emotions of frustration and aggravation. In my opinion, the technique alone is very effective in getting the point across, as it just feels uncomfortable to watch. The pencil and crayon colour jitters and jolts as we look upon the man’s life and the stressful nature of his routine, the inconsistency/scribbly style of the line and shape capture his thoughts and feelings.

The use of sound is also very effective, as dialogue is replaced with incoherent mumblings, the sounds of the city and the world around the main character are either screechy, sharp and piercing, or continuous, repetitive and  nauseating, contributing to the stress I feel the viewer can feel just by being exposed to the animation. This is a kind of pathetic fallacy, where the sights and sounds of the world seemingly identify more and more with the feelings of the character

A dove like figure can be seen in the animation, which contrasts with the character’s emotions, as the dove is a symbol of peace and harmony. The use of objects, colours and symbols to identify with emotions/expressions in animation is common in all its mediums, which I will go into more detail later on.

^ “Anger” from Pixar’s “Inside Out” (2015), notice the use of fire to represent the emotion he embodies - an obvious example of symbolism in relation to animated expression

References/Further Reading Used:

http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/1991_1994/stressed

http://karenkellyanimator.com/stressed/

https://descriptivewriting.wordpress.com/tag/the-difference-between-personification-and-pathetic-fallacy/

Bari, S. K. (2012) Keats and philosophy: The life of sensations. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j7q_CTYwdwAC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=pathetic+fallacy+in+animation&source=bl&ots=QZGlkwpPwo&sig=Hw1wPDCCfur6v7jj9pwnz2GPHxU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGvsbN5MXJAhUFVxoKHY62D24Q6AEIMzAE#v=onepage&q=pathetic%20fallacy%20in%20animation&f=false (Accessed: 5 December 2015).

http://www.bustle.com/articles/90762-is-inside-out-about-depression-the-pixar-film-isnt-afraid-to-put-sadness-in-the-spotlight

^ “It's an important lesson, and not just for 11-year-old girls. Feeling all emotions, even the "bad" ones, is a crucial part of human existence; life is not meant to be viewed only through one or two filters.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifi1Zceh1Ds