Joseph Campbell said-
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about.”
We find ways to be in touch with this living experience through our senses in everyway possible; it is natural that we are drawn to conditions that would call to our attention such experiences.
In music, it is the volume, tonal, clarity and texture of sound; in cooking, it’s the seasoning and spices…
And in hand-drawn animation, it is in part the exaggeration and distortion of forms, the amplification of shapes in motion to captivate and provoke our vision sense.
Each animated medium has its own physical qualities. In CG, this distortion is mathematic; but in hand-drawn, it is a ‘sense’ impression; in turn- allowing a raw gut expression to how one feels toward an expressed force.
Both physical and emotional forces affect how forms unfold in motion. How these two forces affect a distortion of shape is highly personal, in turn, a very direct gut expression. The thinking approach rely more on personal common sense to observation in matters, velocity and aerodynamic.
Since it is more personal, this way of expression takes on a spirit of experimentation and adventure, trusting the inner senses to tapping into something more mysterious; at times, how forms distort from one drawing to another, unfolding in a succession that make no sense when rolling, but when projected at 24 fps, it feels ‘alive’ and ‘right’.
Interestingly, if all animated drawings are proportionally correct to model at all time, while individual drawings may display excellent draftsmanship, its expressiveness to experience of being alive is likely compromised in motion, appearing more illustrative.
Here, some still frames from the scene above with distortion mainly coming from legs and beak area, where strongest velocity occurred; bottom right drawing is in normal position where expressed force is calm.
9 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://rainplace.net/wp-trackback.php?p=270
June 16, 2009 at 5:13 am
Patrick Semple
hey man great post.
If you want these drawings to be felt and not seen does that mean you have to place them on 1’s or does this still work on 2’s.
June 16, 2009 at 12:16 pm
rainplace
Hello Patrick,
Yes, they have to be on 1’s; I’ll write some thoughts on approach next time
June 22, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Ellen
Hey Mike!
I hope your summer is going well.
I found a post on Michael Sporn’s blog that shows Pinocchio’s Stromboli in motion with Bill Tytla’s drawings. I thought it was very neat! ^^
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1886
June 23, 2009 at 3:02 pm
rainplace
Hello Ellen,
Hope your Summer is GRAND too! Thank you very much for the link
June 27, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Andy J Latham
Hi there! I just wanted to say that I just found your blog and it’s great! There are a lot of animation blogs out there that really only cover the basics. It’s great to find one that goes into a bit more depth. I’ve only read this post and one of the ones with the hippo, but I’ll be reading the rest as soon as possible.
Thanks a lot!
June 27, 2009 at 6:54 pm
rainplace
Thank you Andy! Hope you’ll find the rest of interest as well
June 30, 2009 at 12:15 am
Frederik Villumsen
Hey Mike and thank you for another interesting post. I read it about a week back and have read it several times since. Your posts are always hard to find good questions to, I find, since they are so well covered, but I do have one to this post.
You talk about exaggeration and distortion as they are one thing. Wouldn’t you differ between the two somehow?
To me it seems that anything containing life will have distortion, but not necessarily be exaggerated. I might be getting too much into small details, but I think that many views on animation distinguishes between realistic animation, where nothing is distorted and cartoony animation where exaggeration is turned up high.
Maybe it’s because you have to understand the concept of distortion and be able to differentiate it from exaggeration that a lot of animation goes to one extreme or the other. Some of the best animation in my opinion contains a very controlled part of both.
I hope that everything is well over at July and that you’re in good spirits Mike, thanks again for the post.
June 30, 2009 at 6:52 pm
rainplace
Hello Frederik,
Thank you very much for sharing your thought in regard to distortion and exaggeration! I think it is one key element to textures of the animated movement; I do agreed with you that the best animation contains a controlled part of both
It is a sense of awareness in this regard that would lead one to have a balanced application.
The word exaggeration and distortion for me seems to share a common root- that shapes bend; pending on how we interpret their meanings, they can appeared to be two separate quality, or one of the same with varying degrees.
But more importantly, how we each applied this thinking process to the animation approach is most important
Maybe the next post will help my explaination abit… Happy day to you in Denmark!!!!
September 11, 2009 at 8:22 am
Frederik Villumsen
I know it’s been a while since you posted this, but I find it very interesting and I have a few questions.
I just finished a small animated cycle yesterday for a short film that Cartoon Saloon are doing and I came to think of this post of yours and remembered some of the comments to it.
It is in regard to Patrick Semples questions about whether the distorted drawings would have to be kept on 1’s or 2’s. Can’t you, with a clever use of spacing, a lot of the times show the distorted drawings for two frames? At times it will actually sync into the animation better leaving a stronger impression in the viewer, I find.
I realize that it is closely connected to which velocity, force and style of animation is in question, however a distorted drawing shown for a single frame wont have a lot of impact if the scene isn’t high on physical action will it?
I tried step-framing through your animation of the falcon (hope it is indeed a falcon) and it was hard to tell whether you held your most distorted drawings for one or two frames. It seemed to me that they were either on twos or your drawings leading up to your extremes were getting the viewer ready to ‘feel’ the upcoming distortion, where after you snap quickly back to more relaxed form. Is this a correct observation?