Animation Research

Here are deleted scenes from Looney Tunes: back in Action (2003) which show a rough guide to how they made animation possible in the real 3D world. However, these were covered up by CGI in the end but I could use this as an idea to combine real world and animation

Other Artists styles

I redesigned my character for my animation in the style of Matt Greoning's Simpsons.

I also did my charter in Jim Davis' style

Also Shiyoon Kim's (Disney - Big Hero Six) style 

Seth McFarlane's Family guy style

Contextual Essay

   My chosen time period for this contextual essay is the 1950’s, it was said that in the 1950’s America was ‘’standing at the summit of the world’’. It had the single largest military force, its economy was booming and masses of consumer goods were available to the public. Goods such as; Cars, Washing machines, Televisions, even Household pets started rise in popularity, as people had more money to spend and products got cheaper due to World War Two being won. However, there were still many problems in America and Britain alike. Issues such as racism and sexism still being massive and the ever-looming Cold War with Russia (for America). Russia and America were in a Cold War between 1947 and 1991. A cold war is where two or more countries are in a state of political hostility, threats and propaganda showing the other country is bad. So, America decided to use its new secret propaganda weapon; Animation. They used subtle hints within their Animations to make the Russians look bad. This Cold War ended in a truce, as both counties could’ve easily wiped each other out which would’ve been pointless, so both countries gave up. For this essay I will be looking into the growth of Disney, Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, as well as the creators of these shows/companies.

   My subject area of interest is Animation and the creation of moving images. The 1950’s were known as the Golden Age of Animation as many companies like Disney, Pixar and Merrie Melodies were formed or grew in popularity. Animation was used more commonly in advertising, television shows and movies in America and Britain. Animation was used to advertise everything from fuel to televisions themselves and animated television shows took majority over children’s’ channels, with shows like, Superman, Batman, Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzales and Popeye The Sailor-man. Some of these are still even on television now, like Tom & Jerry and Batman. Most animations were done in the tradition flipbook method but had a team of animators working on it to cut down the workload. However this method meant the animations were quite short as they took time to make the scenes. Most Tom & Jerry episodes only last for a maximum of 10 minutes, so they usually put 2 or 3 back to back when shown on TV.

   Disney has been around since 1923, but it wasn't until the late 1940’s/early 1950’s that it grew in popularity. Releasing movies like Cinderella in 1950 and Alice in Wonderland in 1951. Snow White (which was released in 1937) being so popular and doing so well in the box office made Cinderella and all movies after this possible. Cinderella made $70 Million in the Box office and Alice in Wonderland making $116.1 Million on release. These two movies changed Disney forever and set them up to be the big animation company they are today. In 1953 they released Peter Pan, a tale of a young boy who never grew up and it was Walt Disney’s 14th film out of many to come. In 1955 Lady & the Tramp was released then four years later in 1959 Disney’s Sleeping Beauty released, which was Walt Disney’s 3^rd Disney Princess movie following after Snow White & Cinderella. However, Disney’s movies and shorts were known to have massive amounts of sexism, most showing women being useless/needing to be rescued by Princes and the women are shown cleaning & doing general ‘Woman Jobs’ in the 1950’s. Racism was less of a problem for them but there still were subtle hints hidden within their work. For example, there were no black main characters until Princess and the Frog in 2009.

   Walter Elias ‘Walt’ Disney is the founder of The Walt Disney Company or commonly known as ‘Disney’ now. Walt was a filmmaker, popular showman, innovator in Animation and theme park designer. Him and his staff at Disney created numerous famous fictional characters such as; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck & Goofy. He is the original voice of Mickey Mouse himself. He’s won 4 honorary Academy Awards, 22 Academy Awards and 7 Emmy Awards during his time, giving him more awards and nominations than anyone else in history. He gave his name to Disneyland, Disney World in the U.S as well as many international resorts/theme parks Tokyo Disney resort, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. Walt’s Disneyland’s grand opening was in July of 1955 during the ‘Golden Age’ for animation. He opened the park in hope that children would be able to see their favourite Disney characters in person and make their dreams come true. Walt patrolled around the place, introducing one land after another. At Fantasyland, he said, "Fantasyland is dedicated to the young and the young in heart, to those who believe when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true." However, sadly the legend died from lung cancer in December 1966 in California. He left behind him a strong legacy of animation shorts, featurettes, feature films, Theme parks, an animation studio in his name and his own University (California Institute of the Arts or CalArts for short).

   Disney's Nine Old Men were crowned Disney legends by Walt Disney himself and are the original nine creators of characters, settings, backgrounds and generally everything in most of the classic Disney movies. Working on everything from Snow White (1937) to even Disney's Robin Hood (1973) and there were many cameos of the creators in later Disney/Pixar movies such as The Incredibles. The Nine Old Men’s names were; Les Clark, Marc Davis, Ollie Johnson, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman and Frank Thomas. Together they lay the foundations for Disney’s style in Animation and without them Disney wouldn't be the big company it is today. Whilst at Disney the Nine Old Men refined the 12 basic principles of Animation, these being; Squash & Stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight Ahead Action & Pose to Pose, Follow Through & Overlapping Action, Slow in & Slow out, Arcs, Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing and Appeal. These 12 basic principles helped the Nine Old Men make Disney the biggest and most commonly known Animation movies company in the world. Some Old Men trained many of the top Industry animators. They even opened their own University with the help of Walt Disney in California, based around Animation & the Arts. It is called California Institute of the Arts or CalArts for short and it takes on average 1,500 students a year. I love the style the Nine Old Men used and I’m inspired by how they built on the 12 principles of Animation and laid the foundations for the modern Disney we know now.

   Merrie Melodies (and more the commonly known Looney Tunes) grew massively in the 1950’s due the popularity of animated movies. Both were American made animation television shorts produced by Warner Brothers during 1930-Now. Looney Tunes grew to popularity after creating characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester & Tweety Bird, Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner and the Tasmanian Devil. Looney Tunes overtook Disney on popularity for Television and animated shorts. Even though Looney Tunes were popular and it was expected of them to show equality as a lot of children watched their shows, there was a lot of racism with their shorts and T.V shows. Such as black people looking stupid and even going as far as to obvious racist slurs & insults. Bugs Bunny had a whole episode where he mocked a black hunter who couldn’t catch him and made him look stupid, being obviously racist. Looney Tunes even had its own live action movies using CGI to bring Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote into the real, modern world. Looney Tunes: Space Jam was the first in 1996 which featured Michael Jordan. He agrees to help the Looney Tunes win a basketball game against a team of Aliens, which have sucked the power out of his friends. The second movie was Looney Tunes: Back In Action, which featured Brendan Fraser and the Looney tunes searching for Brendan’s father and a secret artifact known as the Blue Monkey which can turn people into monkeys. The main protagonist however is Daffy Duck as he wants his own feature movie and is sick of being second to Bugs Bunny.

   One of my favourite shows by Looney Tunes was The Road Runner Show, which ran from 1949 to 2000 but only had 44 episodes, as they were hard to make in the tradition style used back then. It featured Wile E. Coyote trying to hunt down the Road Runner to eat him, but every time he fails in funny and crazy ways. They very rarely spoke, other than the Road Runner saying ‘Meep Meep’ before it ran off after every attempt. Their rivalry is still going as they enter the new age of animation and technology, Wile E. Coyote continuing to try to catch the Road Runner in the Live Action/CGI movies and making cameos in other Looney Tunes shows.

   Casper The Friendly Ghost was a well-known Comic book series by Harvey Comics, which its first issue was released in 1949, his first appearance on television showed him trying to be scary but failing. He befriends a little fox, which is being hunted by a hunter & his dog, he scares the hunter but it’s too late and the fox died. However, the fox returned to Casper in the afterlife and followed him around in his own television series. But, when Harvey bought out the television series in 1959 they didn’t like the fox & erased him from Casper’s T.V show. Casper the Friendly Ghost went on to be super successful and even had s live action movie where Casper was made via CGI in 1995. Other popular Comic Book characters, which were adapted into animation, are Batman & Superman. Both were again super successful and are even animated series on T.V now, just with a more modern take on their stories and updated techniques and styles. However, not all animated TV series stayed popular as shows like Felix the Cat and Speedy Gonzales are no-longer well known are aren’t on television anymore. Speedy Gonzales stopped production in 1980 and now only appears as a cameo/supporting role in other Looney Tunes shorts, animation and movies.

   Felix the Cat’s last episode was aired in May 1961 as its ratings had dropped quite rapidly and less people liked the show. However, one character survived the show & went on to join the Looney tunes. This character was Marvin the Martian who helped Felix on the odd occasion he ended up in a ‘Space Jam’. Felix the Cat was a silent animation, which eventually adapted to having a narrator. An Australian cartoonist called Pat Sullivan created him. Aside from the animation shorts Felix was featured in many comic strips. Felix the Cat started to fade into the background once Disney started to make animated shorts with their new character ‘Mickey Mouse’. It died out once Sullivan refused to move into adding sound to his animations, he tried to revive it in later years of the 50’s by adding sound but it was just too late and people were no longer interested in Felix the Cat and preferred the cooler, better Mickey Mouse.

So, an overview of animation in the 1950’s would be that Disney made its rise the massive brand it is now; with Disney Princesses and the evolution of Mickey Mouse and his friends. Looney Tunes wasn’t far behind but took ownership of television. Many shows like Casper the Friendly Ghost, Speedy Gonzales and Felix the Cat died out due to the rise of Disney and Looney tunes and animation made a massive leap into advertising and media in general.

FMP display & Evaluation

This is my Final Major Project exhibition showcase, I have a projector showing my two scenes, my sketchbooks on a plinth in front of the projection and a board up with my flip-book and my storyboard on. I also have my name tag above the board so no-one can mistake my work with anyone else's nearby. 

My animation is shown by a YouTube repeater at 1080p, however the YouTube repeater keeps freezing every 30 minutes or so, so I have to keep coming in & wiggling the mouse or refreshing the page to keep it running. (Next time get in contact with Tech Support to stop time-out on computer). 

I am quite proud of my exhibition, however I am not happy enough with how much work I have done in the time given. I spent far too long deciding on what to do, how to do it and took too long in the development stage. I should have started making my animation earlier so I could have gotten more done. I don't think I've done a bad job teaching myself how to do use the software and equipment I used to make it. I came into this project not having a clue how to make even the simplest of animations and came out with some useful knowledge with the help of a past Student (Liam Eccleston) teaching me how to add sound and improve the quality and smoothness of my animation. Now I know the basics of animation and have more time I can do more research into how to use the software and how to make better, cleaner and smoother animations. Although my animation is still quite jumpy/rough I sort of like the style I used (accidentally).

Disney's Nine Old Men

Disney's Nine Old Men were the The Walt Disney Company's core animators, some of whom later became directors, who created some of Disney's most famous animated cartoons, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs onward to The Rescuers, and were referred to as such by Walt Disney himself. All members of the group are now deceased—the first being John Lounsbery, who died in 1976 from heart failure and the last being Ollie Johnston, who died in 2008 from natural causes—and all have been acknowledged as Disney Legends

As part of their work for Disney, the Nine Old Men refined the 12 basic principles of animation:

1. Squash and stretch


2. Anticipation


3. Staging


4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose


5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action


6. Slow In and Slow Out


7. Arcs


8. Secondary Action


9. Timing


10. Exaggeration


11. Solid Drawing


12. Appeal

The Nine Old Men include:

Les Clark (November 17, 1907 - September 12, 1979), who joined Disney in 1927. His specialty was animating Mickey Mouse as he was the only one of the Nine Old Men to work on that character from its origins with Ub Iwerks. Les did many scenes throughout the years, animating up until Lady and the Tramp. He moved into directing and made many animated featurettes and shorts.

Marc Davis (March 30, 1913 - January 12, 2000) started in 1935 on Snow White, and later he went on to develop/animate the characters of Bambi and Thumper (in Bambi), Aurora, Maleficent, and Diablo, the raven (in Sleeping Beauty), and Cruella De Vil (in One Hundred and One Dalmatians). Davis was responsible for character design for both the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland.

Ollie Johnston (October 31, 1912 - April 14, 2008), who joined Disney in 1935, first worked on Snow White. He went on to author the animator's bible The Illusion of Life with Frank Thomas. His work includes Mr. Smee (in Peter Pan), the Stepsisters (in Cinderella), the District Attorney (in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad), and Prince John (in Robin Hood). According to the book The Disney Villain, written by Johnston and Frank Thomas, Johnston also partnered with Thomas on creating characters such as Ichabod Crane (in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) and Sir Hiss (inRobin Hood).

Milt Kahl (March 22, 1909 - April 19, 1987) started in 1934 working on Snow White. His work included villains such as Shere Khan (in The Jungle Book), Edgar the butler (in The Aristocats), the Sheriff of Nottingham (in Robin Hood), andMadame Medusa (in The Rescuers).

Ward Kimball (March 4, 1914 - July 8, 2002) joined Disney in 1934. His work includes Jiminy Cricket, Lucifer, Jaq and Gus, (in Cinderella), and the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat (in Alice in Wonderland). His work was often more 'wild' than the other Disney animators and was unique.

Eric Larson (September 3, 1905 - October 25, 1988) joined in 1933. One of the top animators at Disney, he animated notable characters such as Peg in Lady and the Tramp; the Vultures in The Jungle Book; Peter Pan's flight over London to Neverland; and Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear (in Song of the South). Because of Larson's demeanor and ability to train new talent, Larson was given the task to spot and train new animators at Disney in the 1970s. Many of the top talents at Disney today were trained by Eric in the '70s and '80s.

John Lounsbery (March 9, 1911 - February 13, 1976) started in 1935 and, working under Norm 'Fergy' Ferguson, quickly became a star animator. Lounsbery, affectionately known as 'Louns' by his fellow animators, was an incredibly strong draftsman who inspired many animators over the years. His animation was noted for its squashy, stretchy feel. Lounsbery animated Ben Ali Gator in Fantasia in Dance of the Hours; George Darling in Peter Pan; Tony, Joe, and some of the dogs in Lady and the Tramp; The Kings in Sleeping Beauty; The Elephants in The Jungle Book; and many, many others. In the 1970s, Louns was promoted to Director and co-directed Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! and his last film,The Rescuers.

Wolfgang Reitherman (June 26, 1909 - May 22, 1985) joined Disney in 1935 as an animator and director. He directed all the animated Disney films after Walt's death until his retirement. Some of his work includes the Crocodile (in Peter Pan), the Dragon (in Sleeping Beauty), and the rat (in Lady and the Tramp).

Frank Thomas (September 5, 1912 - September 8, 2004) joined Disney in 1934. He went on to author the animator's bible The Illusion of Life with Ollie Johnston. His work included the wicked Stepmother (in Cinderella), the Queen of Hearts (in Alice In Wonderland), and Captain Hook (in Peter Pan).

Unit 85 Ideas

Revisit FMP -
In Real life situation?
Different style?
Movie Poster?

One idea I want to pursue is re-creating my animation in different styles based upon different artists' references. For example, doing it in the style of Matt Groening with bold colours, simple lines and rounded figures. Or, doing it in the style of Disney's Nine Old Men which gives realistic colours, but body figures are exaggerated 'perfection' (women's shape, size of body & men's masculinity)

Another Idea I had was re-creating it in real life, using actual people and props, however this will take a long time and probably cost a lot 

Contextual Notes

Subject Area - Animation

Time Period - 1950's

Social Happenings - Golden Age of Animation
                                -

Main People/Artists - Disney's Nine Old Men
                                   - Iwerks & Disney Commercial Artists (Founders of Disney)
                                   - Friz Freleng (Looney Tunes)

Why I chose to look into them -

Disney - 1950 - Cinderella
            - 1951 - Alice In Wonderland
            - 1953 - Peter Pan
            - 1955 - Lady & The Tramp
            - 1959 - Sleeping Beauty

Looney Tunes
Tom & Jerry
Yogi Bear
Felix The Cat
Speedy Gonzales
Casper The Friendly Ghost
Merrie Melodies

Final Major Project Background Info

Jordan Robins' Final Major Project Animation 

These short clips are two scenes from my animation about how Television & the Media can effect our views, opinions and personality. I has roughly 75 frames in the walking animation and around 12 frames in the facial animation.

My Animation is set in a very near future where television completely controls they way we view the world. There is litter everywhere and buildings are crumbling and falling apart but because the television says it 'normal' or 'nothing to worry about' then no-one batters an eye at the growing piles of rubbish beside pavements and roads or the buildings falling to pieces around them.
The main Character/Protagonist is your average male human minding his own business when he kicks a can and it accidentally hits a Robot Headed Human figure. The Robot then swings round to shout at the guy, saying how everyone is disrespectful ''as they say on television''. -Showing how Television and the Media has effected they way they thought and saw the situation.
The Robot headed people usually wear a smart dress code of shirt, jacket and trousers where as the main protagonist wears a hoodie with rolled up sleeves, jeans and 'ratty' converse-canvas style shoes.

My character lives in a common looking house without a television so he isn't blinded by the media, whereas the house next to his is covered in radio and television antennas, showing they are obsessed with television and controlled by it.

My character isn't alone though, he lives with his dog and does find other humans which aren't controlled by television, which eventually convince him there is a community somewhere where television does not control his inhabitants and they are free from restrains. So, he goes on a journey to find this town/settlement

 

My FMP Animation is now finished with colour, shading, background and the completed can

FMP Animation Progress

I have made a little more progress in my FMP Animation.

Draw With Jazza Research

I have found that a Australian YouTuber/Animator called 'Draw With Jazza' has helped me massively with learning the ropes of animation

Start of my Animation

The first scene I started to make for my Animation. At the moment it is only a skeleton

How to Use Adobe Flash research

I used this video to help me understand the basics of how to make a tradition style animation and how to use Adobe Flash CC