Animation Unit

 Like painters, animators use perspective and scale to create depth, and color to enhance mood, but most of the visual information in an animated film is transmitted through movement.  Before animating a scene, animators study the way their subjects move, whether they are animals, people or leafy trees.  Although the movements they draw are based on real life, animators often caricature or exaggerate both movement and design.

 Animated characters, like human actors, express themselves with gestures, mannerisms, posture and facial expressions as well as voice.  A tilted head can indicate surprise.  A body slanted forward suggests speed.  A character freezes at a scary sound.  Background movement also conveys meaning. The gentle flutter of leaves signals a breeze, but when the leaves toss and turn, it could mean a storm is coming.

 Animators use the term “squash and stretch” to describe the effect of gravity on living creatures and pliable material.  Racing after the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote flies off a cliff and plummets downward. His body smashes into the ground (squash) and then elongates into a bounce (stretch). In this instance, the deformation is used for comic effect, but in more realistic situations squash and stretch lend weight to characters and make expressions such as smiles or frowns convincing.

 Choosing the right look for a character is important for creating its personality.  A “cute” character might be drawn with characteristics that resemble a human baby’s, such as a large head, small body, high forehead, big eyes and short, plump arms and legs.  A bully, on the other hand, might have a small head, a thick or nonexistent neck, a big chest, and short legs.  What is cute? Y Y

 Exaggerated features and a quirky posture could indicate a comic character.  The animator can also use these traits to ridicule stereotypes. The mutant toys in Toy Story, for example, turn out to be selfless and helpful, not dangerous as they first seem to be. Handsome Gaston in Beauty and the Beast is also egotistical and mean.

 Paul Ekman, professor of psychology.  Expert in facial expression recognition; the TV show “Lie to Me” is based on Ekman.  Categorizing different emotions  Are facial expressions universally recognizable?

 Charles Darwin proposed that human facial expressions were universal. Ekman proved that theory by going to deeply unexposed areas of civilizations and showing the natives photos of Western expressions. Ekman also studied blind people and infants. Their reactions to the faces were the same.  Expression is universal.

 Facial Action Coding System: method for measuring and describing facial behaviors.  Goal of FACS: To create a reliable means for skilled human scorers to determine the category or categories in which to fit each facial behavior.

 Sadness and agony  Anger  Surprise & Fear  Disgust & Contempt  Happiness

 Often invokes similar feeling of sadness in the viewer  Rarely voluntary  Hard to mimic  Consists of a combination of conflicting actions  Recognizing sadness:  Mouth-- Corner of lips pulled down, raised cheeks, possibly dropped jaw (for agony and crying)  Eyes-- Upper eyelids drop, inner corners of eyebrows raised and brought together.

 Unlike sadness: looking at anger does not provoke it and it is easier to mimic.  Recognizing anger:  Mouth: Jaw tightly clenched, if teeth exposed mouth has rectangular shape, thinning of lips (subtle, earliest sign), lower jaw can be pushed forward  Glaring eyes- raised upper eyelids, possibly tenses lower eye lids  Muscles- tighten up area around eyes, mental and physical difficulty cause it to contract  Eyebrows lowered and brought together

 Fear has been studied more than any other emotion.  It’s hard to distinguish between surprise and fear.  Surprise is temporary expression which often converts into other expressions.  Recognizing fear:  Eyes- upper eyelids raised as high as possible, tensed lower eyelids, eyebrows raised and slightly closer together, eyes staring straight ahead  Mouth- lips stretched horizontally, possibly dropped jaw

 Subtly different from anger  Rarely photographer in comparison to the other emotions  Paul Rozin- studied disgust.  Disgust developed from internal systems to protect the body and soul from harm.  The most disgusting things come from animals: food, feces, rotting flesh and gore.  Other disgust and contempt triggers: strangeness or oddity, dead people, misfortunate (homeless/injured) or morally tainted people (ladies of the night)

 Recognizing disgust and contempt:  Active muscles around nose  Eyes can be relaxed comparatively to anger  Can be limited to one side of the face, feeling of imbalance  Lowered eyebrows  Raised upper lip  Combinations: disgust and anger; contempt and smile

 More general term: describes a state of mind  Emotions invoked differ from all the other facial expression categories  16 categories of enjoyable emotions  Recognizing happiness:  Duchenne smile- Activated the orbicularis oculi muscles around the eyes, can not be voluntary  Fake smile- a smile from the mouth that does not move the orbicularis oculi eye muscles

 Anthropomorphism: Giving human form or attributes to non- human beings or objects.