Life is an endlessness of variations on themes. Once a hint of possible direction is established, the ‘variations’ component kicks in, searching and modifying to arrive at best possible solution.

When in creative mode, one can truly experience and appreciate this ‘variation’ aspect, being naturally propelled to mutate from one condition on to another.

The trouble is- often there can only be one final solution.

Like in physics of the subatomic world, there were many possibilities at the moment of becoming but then made its mind in an ‘instant’. (There is a theory that something becomes what it is at the instant when it is being observed).

I think we being part of the universe, we too inherit and ‘felt’ this immense creative energy that is part of the grand and infinite universe consciousness, (to a much smaller extent that of human consciousness).

Here, the wish is to express an immense sense of space and scale through the condition of a set white rectangular working space, a rectangle, circle, equilateral triangle and 6 black lines.

In this variation above, the focal point is concentrated to lower left of working space in contrast to the larger white open area.

Of the 3 variations, this one gives best impression of scale with triangle placed away from grouping, causing the eye to account for full width and height of working space.

This variation felt large but clustered in feeling.

And here, the red triangle in accord with the other elements generates an ‘anchored’ feeling.

When triangle is placed on lower right and cutting black line, it gives impression of movement, suggesting a right and upward ‘propelling’ feel.

And here, the triangle angled away from being paralleling with the white working space, generating a directional ‘commotion’.

The universe is alive and vibrant in an immense and complex flow of energy. This flow is ongoing and ever presence, even to matters appearing stagnate and motionless.

We are caught in this flow and experience its presence through points of reference- movement in relative to non-movement, organic life to inorganic, time, space, birth, death in relative to Earth, moon and planets going round the sun, on and on to the Milky Way and beyond…

And because of this root reason, I think that’s why we’re naturally drawn to motion, be it animated film, music, dance, photography or painting…

To generate compelling works, I feel one must be in touch with this root energy.

A piece of art is alive when it embodied a flow of movement, even when the intent is to express static.

It’s good to acknowledge the conditions of the working space then compose and arrange all elements in relation to each other with regards to the given spatial dimensions. (In film, we’re stuck to the working boundary of a chosen aspect ratio.)

When the contours of various elements run parallel to width and height of working space, they feel locked and steady, generating senses of stability. While this aspect doesn’t generate movement, the contrasting large and small sizes of elements do.

When elements are place onto working space, they cut the background into various sizes of negative spaces. These variations of negative sizes vibrate and enticing the eye to travel from one negative space to another, in turn generating movement flow of left, right, up and down.

This left, right, up and down is further enhanced when an element tilts and angles away from being parallel to the working space.

Movement is also achieved by the flow of contour continuations, where connections to boundaries of elements and their directional flow are made.

Shapes and grouping of shapes also exert an invisible gravitational pull, keeping them locked to each other in space in a balanced relation.

To sum up, a solid and compelling composition should have clear and balance directional flow of movement with regards to the focal point of composition.

(For me, animation is part of and in context to the larger cinema language that encompassed thoughts in design, composition… to better communicate. Hope you’ll find these away from animation specific posts of some interests.)

Recently I’ve been to an art exhibit entitled ‘In the Landscape Where Nothing Officially Exists’ conceived by Dai Toyofuku and participated by a selected group of dedicated artists and biologists. The idea is to raise awareness to the list of 50 plus endangered species within the Los Angeles basin through art and symbolically allow them to bio diversified through art representations and reposting of its imagery on the internet.

From an article in the exhibition catalog, Dai Toyofuku wrote-

“Art deals with culture and it is human culture that in many ways determines the future of many species.”

I think that’s a great insight from Dai. When applying art in light of culture, artistic expressions become accessible, relevant and pertinent, trimming away any pretention and artificial flavoring.

The exhibit consisted of the many artworks, each represents an endangered species. It was held at lunch time outdoor and coincides with a larger event relating to arts and education. During this brief hour long interactive exhibition, one by one, the artworks were announced in their chosen spirit of respective endangered species ranging from fish, amphibians, insects to small mammals and to be given away free of charge- with the condition that should one choose to adopt an artwork, one has to post its image somewhere on the net.

I’m much delighted and very grateful to have found this ‘Mountain Yellow Legged Frog’ as interpreted by Dai Toyofuku. And in a sense, its spirit is now popping up here in Rainplace and being reintroduced at where I live in Glendale.

In nature, this small amphibian lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountain and hanging to life due to modern thread. To learn more about them, you can click here.

(Dai Toyofuku is also known as Stephen Wong and a major artistic contributor to My Little WORLD).

And below, an animated demo I made from a recent trip to Denmark… wasn’t quite happy with the result, but it brings beautiful memories when I was there).

In animation, a character is coming to life most often by a group effort and through several stages from rough to final clean-up, encapsulating in clean, precise and define series of line drawings.

But line drawing is like hand-writing. So while everyone is aiming to stay on model, by nature, each artist generates drawings that have slight differences in texture that defines a character.

Where in rough pass an appropriate performance is determined, the tie-down stage refines the action, putting character on model and addresses the overall secondary motions such as clothing articles and hairs.

It is easier for animators to control the look of a character but very difficult to be completely in sync with each other over a more exacting feel of something, such as a loose jacket made of certain type of fabric through motion.

To best maintain a consistency to the feel of movement textures, we opted to have one key animator to tie-down the entire sequence. This workflow would unify all scenes in a sequence, appearing seamless while allowing the performance to be contributed by more than one animator.

(Above, scenes animated by (in order of appearance) - Steve Wong, Mike Nguyen, Casey Alexander, Mike Koizumi and tie-down by Mike N.).

Animating group movement begins with identifying the overall energy ‘feel’. And in this sequence, the chiru (Tibetan antelopes) are purposeful, springy, carefree and unconcerned to the children that are inadvertently blocking their path.

From here, a sense to general texture and pattern of group movement begin to emerge; though still inward and abstract in manner, it will subconsciously dictate how things will unfold.

Since there are 2 main interacting elements- the antelopes and the child, it is best to approach each component separately.

TINY, being the main focal point was animated first, followed by the chiru.

To arrive at an organic texture and not becoming overly busy to overall group movement, (based on scene criteria and length), 3 antelopes were animated each with own individual mindset and mechanic variations but within relation to the herd overall mindset.

They will then placed into scene like straight-ahead without knowing exactly how the whole will look-

- One chiru at a time with Tiny as anchor.

- Adjust placement and entrance points through real-time playback.

- Variations to pattern of repeating chirus.

- Keep in mind the back-and-forth subtle switching of focal point between Tiny and the chiru.

By reusing same chiru animation several times to building herd movement, the repeat pattern generates a calmer feel. But since they’re placed differently in relating to group pattern, they don’t appear as reused animation. (It also saves time and still achieving an uncompromised result).

One thing to keep in mind while animating individual element in a group scene- it doesn’t need to be flawless in timing and mechanic to commanding solid attention on its own, long as it works within overall group. For example, chiru in variation 2 in above clip is a bit stiff and not quite right; (it would need to be further refine if it was the only element in scene).

Likewise in reverse, if all the separate chiru would command full attention on its own including perfect individual timing, the scene might appear overly active when all are combined together.

Here, color exploration of the Chiru sequence by Geefwee Boedoe. (For more images of his work on My Little WORLD, please click here.)

Our view of rough pass is like being in quantum mechanics. To help us be in touch with senses of primal energy, the drawings are freer to finding their organic ways into being, within a general direction given by story intent and a predetermined sense of force.

In tie-down, the raw energy is then encased in definite defined outlines, appearing orderly like looking outward towards movement of the stars.

And like in rough pass, the tie-down lines do have freedom to take shape as they should, but must take cue and build on foundation that has been established by rough pass, with added discipline to bring character into intended model.

Life vibrates, disorderly in definite order, predictable in unpredictability; ONE- made of infinite parts… Subconsciously, these thoughts guide our creative path.

This scene from My Little WORLD was animated by Natalie Kim and tie-down by me

There are moments when one seems to fall into ‘trance’, becoming unaware and not in control of the surface look of the drawing-at-hand, taking dictation from the successive drawings that have already been established.

For me, the paradox of being in control but yet not fully in control of the unfolding frame bring about a very organic texture to movement and best reflecting the elusiveness that is- life.

Organic nature doesn’t arrive at one ‘exact’ location in space and time every time by prediction, but most often within approximate range, so too that there is no 2 identical moments in the unfolding of matter through space and time.

When I’m too conscious of the drawing in frozen mode or surface motion mechanic in first pass, the movement will likely inherit a mechanical feel or stiffed looking. It’s an interesting balance between being deliberate, precise and allowing a margin of unpredictability.

This intricate balance is achieved by placing main emphasis on the force flow of structure in motion and not in frozen mode.

In this animated context, the impression that a movement gives is everything and one single frame is nothing, no matter how beautifully it is drawn.

Yet, the way a movement feels in playback is intricately linked to the surface look of each successive frozen frame; they each must properly reflects-

- Appropriate spacing location of structure in context to its path of action.

- Maintain structural volumes and breathe in context to its mass, make and velocity.

The more self-conscious I am to surface structure and movement mechanic, the more stiff things ‘feel’. It really a lot like in real life when one is too self-conscious of one manner and action.

In this above example, I was more self-conscious to the movement mechanics went approaching this new character, causing scene to be stiff looking both in single drawing and movement (like above 2nd try on the Tibetan antelope).

…It takes a few tries to get more comfortable with a structure. (This set is much looser in 3rd attempt).

(From My Little WORLD production blog)

When approaching a new subject in My Little WORLD, and in this case- the Tibetan antelope or chiru, we began with research study, finding clips, images and books to learn its natures and habits.

When actual footages of the referenced animal is difficult to find such as the case with chiru, we then look for footages of animals that share similar attributes, like a gazelle or others within the antelope family. In this circumstance, a combination of observations from several different animals is utilized to arrive at the film’s specific needs.

Reference study is divided into 2 stages, (through observing freeze-frames, slow-motion and regular playback speed).

First, we begin with searches to understand the ‘feel’ of its make, learning to draw and visualized its structures from various angles and perspectives; much more critically- is to identify its spirit essence through distinct and unique mannerism, both in still-gesture and movement pattern.

Next is to be in touch with a general understanding to the 4-legged movement mechanics, avoiding direct referencing image-per-image to animating.

It is good to take note of the specific condition and emotional nature of the reference footages, which are most likely different from the emotional intent of the animated scene.

For example, (as in the very precious 3 min. footages of chiru we’ve recently found in a BBC documentary entitled ‘Wild China’), the manner of chiru galloping here are at mating season; its speed and gestures are war-like and aggressive; and in our film, the chiru are strolling around, brisk and playful.

For us, key to studying and translating reference is interpreting and not copying, with aims to reflect certain essence of ‘soul’.

Once we’ve found ‘just enough’ insights into a subject matter, then the animating process begins, often still with much apprehension in these first attempts…

(This post is from julyfilms.com/blog).

Our animation workflow begins with an in-depth understanding to intent of scene in relation to the approximate scene’s running time, established in the animatic.

Generally, we don’t precisely lock down scene length from the animatic, so to allow room for movements to organically breathe as needed.

To best stay within range, our next step is to find and define an appropriate phrase to flow of scene’s energy by acting out, aiming to be in touch with the right ‘feel’ of movement in accord with scene length.

At this point, the scene is still in abstract stage locked inside the animator’s inward sensibility. This abstraction becomes guide to begin our first pass to roughing out the scene (if needed, we would create thumbnails to further understand scene’s nature).

In this initial pass, the drawing lines are fainter, scratchy, loose and rough, (but stay within volume) as the hand searches for the right spacing and allow character’s structure to breathe accordingly, laying down foundation to movement, not yet taken into considerations for details and draftsmanship of the drawings.

This rough pass is then photographed and drawings are to be assign exposures to reflect intended speed of movement based on visual real-time playback. The rough pass is then analyzed, looking into ways to further define and strengthen scene.

In tie-down stage, movement foundation is further strengthening by definite commitment to outline of drawings and defined details to all parts of character design.

This new scene in our film was originally inspired by Marta, the wonderful Brazilian soccer player (whom we first learned from this passed FIFA Women World Cup in Germany a few months back). Her on-field presence, dance-like and graceful footwork is most mesmerized and inspiring. (Below, a link from womensprosoccer’s Channel on Youtube)-

As simple the mechanic of a movement appeared to be, the handling of delayed parts can be very intricate; so too are slower movements with softer force as oppose to faster ones.

There are 2 physical conditions that affect the textures of delayed parts- the unfolding order of delayed compartments and the corresponding velocity of each compartment within a structure.

If too little delayed parts, the movement would feel stiff and mechanical; in reverse, if too much then it appears lacking solidity, woozy and feeling like being underwater.

To relate these thoughts into a practical situation, here, an example from a scene in Brad Bird’s ‘The Iron Giant’ that I animated. In this scene, Hogarth is looking into darkness, holding a flashlight to enable him to see.

Because the character’s eyes and his flashlight are 2 major elements, there is a potential problem that both elements would fight for attention and taken lead at the same time. If so, this would likely to make the scene appearing busy, complicated and feeling unnatural.

Pending on the part (eyes or flashlight) that is taking turn to lead the movement, all subsequence structural components of the character would follow their turns accordingly.

This simple scene has 2 phrases. It begins in mid-motion with eyes already locked into screen right, coming to a very short pause then changing direction.

Below, a closer look at phrase 2.

While whole body is at full stop, eyes initiate a new direction toward screen left.

Eyes come to a stop (1).

Head follows lead, then shoulder, body and arm with flashlight.

Head exhilarates slower into speed, in contrast to flashlight moving faster with one frame stretch. This accent allows flashlight to be louder and takes lead from the face area for a slit moment in a more supportive role.

Flashlight come to abrupt stop (2); face retakes focal point, taking time slowing into stop creating contrast in speed.

Rib-cage comes into stop (3); head continues its path and stop last (4).

When animating, I’m not at all analytical and consciously implementing all these to do list in its rightful order, but letting the leading force to dictate the natural unfolding of all components, only becoming analytical when viewing pencil-test.