XHong MA 3D computer animation

Film language

I. Visual language (the camera)

1. Shot length – how far the camera is from the thing that it’s shooting

Shot can be generally be described as wide and tight, that is far or near.

Wide shot – you can see the whole subject the whole scene just like watching a play on the stage. To let the action speak for itself
Extreme wide shot – watch the whole scene from a distance. To establish a place.
Medium shot – partial body shot of the subject easily from the knees or waist up. To show off a character
Two shot – two subjects are in a frame. To show closeness
Close up – complete detail of an actor’s face or an important object. To show powerful emotion
Extreme close up – closer than a close up, can’t see the whole head. For exposition or disorientation use

2. Angle

Eye level – the camera looks straight on at its subject where were actually at the level of the actor
High angle – the camera looks down at the subject. Make a person seem small and kind of silly
Low angle – the opposite of high angle, which looks up at the subject. Make a person seem large and menacing
Dutch angle (Joyce angle) – the camera looks at the subject from a tilted angle. To make everything seem a bit strange

3. Depth of field – how much is in focus

Deep focus – with a depth of field, everything in the shot is in focus
Shallow focus – a shot of field, only part of the shot is in focus, it’s often used to show an important part of the frame
Rack focus – changing the focus mid shot
Tile shift – a special lens of digital post-production can selectively blur part of the image, this creates an artificial depth of filed to interesting effect

4. Lens

Telephoto lens – to compress space
Wide angle lens – give a space more depth
Fisheye lens – can make some disturbing images

5. Movement

Handheld shot
Steadicam – a handheld shot but with a rig helps stabilise it
Pan – only move the camera horizontally
Tilt – only move the camera vertically
Zoom
Dolly/tracking shot – moving both the camera and the rig horizontally
Jib/crane shot – moving both the camera and the rig vertically
Dolly zoom (trombone shot) – the camera is dolly while zooming changing the depth of shot

II. Mise en scène (overall look of a film)

Decor

A director starts by setting a scene by choosing a setting for the shot, it can be outdoors, indoors, a real place, a set or composited on a green screen. Once the location is chosen, it gets filled first with objects, then with actors. The objects that are not used by actors call set dressing. The objects are meant to be used by actors call props. Character differences can be shown through costume.

Lighting

Three point lighting – a key light which serves as the main source of light missing, a fill light which fills in the shadows created by the key light and a back light which lights the back of the subject.

High key lighting – bright lights, colours, strong key and fill
Low key lighting – weak key and fill, but strong back light to emphasise the outline of the object
Chiaroscuro – high contrast
Hard lighting – tough
Soft lighting – romantic

Colour

Space

Balance
Shallow space
Offscreen space
Blocking

III. Editing

Sequence shot (long take) – usually over 1 minute
Cut – transition between the end of one shot and beginning of another
Dissolve – one shot slowly fades into another sharing the same space for a few second
Wipe – Second shot rolls over the first shot
Fade in and fade out – a common way to start or end a film going to/from a black/white screen
Continuity editing – make you believe everything is happening simultaneously
Screen direction – a common way to link together by continuing the action from one shot to another (match on action/continuous action)
Eyeline
180 degree rule
Crossing the axis – usually use while each character’s eyeline fixed and placement is made clear
Cross cutting – the film jumps between two lines of action to show that they are happening simultaneously
Slow motion – let audience see the tiny movements we would miss at normal speed
Fast motion – make it feel comical
Reverse motion
Jump cut – a piece of time is cut out of a shot, can have some interesting effects from simply cutting out the dead weight of a scene to show connection between two objects
Split screen
Overlay
Montage

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Twelve principles of animation

Disney’s twelve basic principles of animation were introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

In order, they consist of:

Squash and stretch
Anticipation
Staging
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Follow through and overlapping action
Slow in and slow out
Arc
Secondary action
Timing
Exaggeration
Solid drawing
Appeal

1) Squash and stretch

Squash and stretch is the most fundamental principle. The purpose of squash and stretch is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. However, the most important aspect of this principle is that the volume of object doesn’t change when squash and stretch.

2) Anticipation

Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for the action, and to make the action appear more realistic.

3) Staging

Staging directs the audience’s attention toward the most important elements in a scene in a way that effectively advances the story. This can be done by various means, such as the placement of a character in the frame, the use of light and shadow, or the angle and position of the camera.

4) Straight ahead action and pose to pose

Straight ahead action is animated frame by frame from beginning to end, while pose to pose starts with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the frames in-between. Straight head action is easy to create a fluid movement, however, it’s hard to figure out exact poses along the way. Pose to pose gives animators more control over the action.

5) Follow through and overlapping action

Follow through and overlapping is a performance of laws of physics, especially the principle of inertia. When a moving object such as a person comes to a stop, the loose part might continue to move in the same direction because of the force of forward momentum, such as hair, clothing etc.

6) Slow in and slow out

The movement of objects in the real world, such as the human body, animals, vehicles, etc. needs time to accelerate and slow down.

7) Arc

Life doesn’t move in straight lines, and neither should animation. Most natural action tends to follow an arched trajectory, and animation should adhere to this principle by following implied “arcs” for greater realism.

8) Secondary action

Secondary action is gesture that support main action to add more dimension to character animation. Secondary action is able to give more personality and insight to what the character is doing or thinking about.

9) Timing

Timing is about where on a timeline you put each frame of action. Take the bouncing ball as an example, the ball is slowing down as it gets close to the peak of the bounce, and the spacing between ball ghost is narrowing. As the ball falls from its peak and accelerates, the spacing starts becoming wider.

10) Exaggeration

Exaggeration presents a character’s features and actions in an extreme form for comedic or dramatic effect, it is a great way to increase the appeal of a character, and enhance the storytelling.

11) Solid drawing

The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, or giving them volume and weight.

12) Appeal

People remember real, interesting, and engaging characters. Animated characters should be pleasing to look at and have a charismatic aspect to them.

Bouncing ball

This week, our task is to create two animations, bouncing ball and ball bounce maze.

animation 1

I put the ball on the height of 10 on the y axis at the beginning. The ball falls and hits the ground after 12 frames. Due to momentum loss, the ball is unable to bounce to the height of 10, I set it as 8. Due to the decrease of the height, the second fall finishes within 10 frames and so on. So, the height is going to be 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, 0.5, 0. And the frames of each fall process is going to be 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

The ball is slowing down as it gets close to the peak of the bounce. As the ball falls from its peak and it will accelerate. So go to graph editor, adjust curves in ‘Translate Y’, make the peaks more smooth, whilst the bottom is more like a V shape. By doing this, the bouncing ball matches the physical laws.

Here are two tools to catch the path of animation: ghosting and motion trail (see below in order).

Animation 2

In this animation, I created a ball bounce maze.

In this animation, the most difficult part is about the loop object. I hit keyframes instantly to ensure that the edge of the ball and the edge of the loop just touch, and do not overlap.

However, from the graph editor, it can be seen that the movement on the z axis is not perfect. The slope of the blue line after 58 frames should be smaller than before because the speed on this direction slows down.

Summary

In these 2 animations, I didn’t use the principle of squash and stretch. However, I have a good learning of the principles of slow in and slow out, timing. Besides, the ball bounce maze seems to be too simple.

Week 2: film language, history of film, animation and VFX