Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (19)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The Characteristics and Anatomy of Human and Animal Forms (Download to Play Videos and see Text)
- 1. The Characteristics and Anatomy of Human and Animal Forms (Just turn sound up on specific video) MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 2. Contents Introduction 12 Principles of Animation Characteristics of 3D Animated Characters ◦size and shape ◦movement ◦skin ◦hair ◦fur ◦feathers ◦facial features ◦sex ◦gender Anatomy of 3D Animated Characters ◦Skeleton ◦Musculature ◦Lever Systems ◦Cardio respiratory Critical Reception MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 3. Introduction MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 4. 12 Principles of Animation The illusion of life is fundamentally the 12 basic principles of animation, which was founded by Disney. These 12 basic principles are very important in the creation of animation because these 12 principles make it look good. These 12 principles of animation consists of 12 techniques still used today in 3D animation as well, they include: 1. Squash & Stretch 2. Anticipation 3. Staging 4. Straight Ahead and pose to pose animation 5. Follow through and overlapping Action 6. Slow-out & Slow in 7. Arcs 8. Secondary Action 9. Timing 10. Exaggeration 11. Solid Drawing 12. Appeal MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 5. 12 Principles of Animation : Part 1 MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 6. 12 Principles of Animation :Part 2 MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 7. 12 Principles of Animation : Part 3 MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 8. 12 Principles of Animation : Part 4 MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 9. Size and Shape MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 10. Movement MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 11. Skin MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 12. Hair MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 13. Fur MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 14. Feathers MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 15. Facial Features MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 16. SEX / GENDER MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 17. Skeleton MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 18. Musculature MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 19. Lever Systems MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 20. Cardio Respiratory MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
- 21. Critical Reception What I have learnt, from conducting my research on, ‘The Characteristics and Anatomy of Human and Animal forms’ MATT BOYLE | GAME DESIGNER
Editor's Notes
- Hello and welcome, My name is Matt Boyle and I’m here today to talk to all about the characteristics and anatomy of human and animal forms. With the intended purpose of explaining any character whether it take on the form of a human being or anything else. In which, it is crucial in the creation of any animation in whatever form it may take, being 2D or 3D as all the principles do still apply to both.
- These are the headings, that is essential to know and fundamentally every character we all know and love, will easily use a combination of the above to create many that are unique and exceptional.
- For millions of years, the earliest form of animation was thought to be a series of cave paintings. But in 1908 a man named ‘James Stuart Blackton’ is thought to have created the world’s first animation, which is held in high regards of this title, by film historians. It may be the first, which showed a series of characters and random acts on a chalk board. In 1937 Walt Disney would produce one of the best animated feature films that has lasted generations and will continue to do so. It is ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, which would be featured in Technicolor. Since then countless animations have been made, but one of the world’s favourite is the Simpsons. Over time since it was created in 1989 to today, you can visually see how it has improved over time. But in 1995 when ‘Toy Story’ was created, it was the first film to be created entirely in 3D. Since then. 3D animation has soared in popularity since then in which has become the norm. But despite 3D becoming more popular, 2D still has its place, but both are used carefully in order of the visual appearance they want to achieve for the TV show or Film.
- Bruce is a character from ‘Finding Nemo’. He is a great white shark, who is pleasant and kind and a jokester. But at times, becomes a horrific cannibal and has the urge to eat fish, at the first sign of blood which changes his personality. Although he is very large in size and would be very intimidating, he would be best put across as a gentle giant, trying to become a vegetarian. So we all have seen people are built like shit houses and because of their sheer height and size, we would all automatically see them as a bit threatening or intimating, but are far from. Randoll Boggs stars in the film ‘Monsters, Inc.’ and works in the same area as Mike and sully. He is a chameleon / lizard and the ability to blend into any surroundings. His visual appearance is one that you would instantly get as an antagonist. He has along body with 4 sets of arms and legs, with a Mohawk like hair style (which is a feature you see, commonly for bad characters). By his body shape and gesture, I would clearly say that he is just like a snake in the grass. But if you compare this character from film ‘Monsters, Inc.’ where he is older, to ‘Monsters University’, where he is younger. The character is slightly visually different, but critically share a lot of the similarities. If you compare the character based on those 2 images in the similar positions. I would say it is the same character but the differences such as: the glasses, weight (younger one is slimmer), the tail one much curvier, the differences on the brightness of skin and the body language gives of two completely different personalities. On being confident and bad, the other non-confident, good but also dorky. But I like the way Pixar reused a character and made him feel completely different in a prequel, by just making some key changes. Because of these characters size and shape they do give off a different impression, but they are both bad in a sense depending on their situation. Bruce may be a big character, but is very friendly, Randall (older one) may be much smaller and thinner, but uses his unique ability and intelligence to do badly. But when Randall was younger he wasn’t so evil and was rather friendly until he had a real grudge towards 2 other characters. However what if we had seen a younger version of Bruce as a young wild shark, would he have a different personality from what he is now. I think so, because he would have been much smaller in size and far less menacing, he may have been a real nasty bully or he could have been the victim of bullying, picked or even preyed upon by older bigger fish. In which, I feel he would have a very shy personality.
- Dug is from the film ‘Up’. He is a fat golden retriever (which to the audience instantly comes across as a very friendly and likeable instantly) who has the ability to transfer his thoughts into speech by a very hi-Tec collar. He is a very happy dog, who is very playful and always has a naïve, but positive attitude to anyone he comes in contact with. In fact he is one of my most favourite characters of all time, not just because of his personality but his movement. Because he is fat, a dog and very energetic. He is very active and uses almost every part of his body. But by looking at his fluent movement I can see all kinds of expressions and emotions. For when he is happy his tail is high and wags constantly (the faster the happier he is), with his head held high and his whole body is higher (because of knees not bent so much). When he is sad, Dug’s head is really low (almost facing towards the ground), with his tail lowered with little or no wagging and his entire body is low when walking. Wall-E is a robot built in the year 2110 and has been trying to clean planet earth for 700 years, and is sadly the last functional robot of his kind still doing so. Because he is a robot built for the purpose of cleaning the planet (in a variety of ways), which is to be a serious design of how it is being an environmentally friendly robot. Which is a clear indication of his visual appearance. This cute robot is a machine with: arm shovels, treads/tracks for transport (like a tank), area inside his cubed shaped body to compress waste, able to hide every part of himself inside his box hiding or sleeping, along with many other useful features. He is a very timid robot and also very curious about everything around him. When he moves around he uses his tracks to get from A to B on a regular basis, but also bumps into things, when blinded or scared. Also adapting them to gain some height by rotating his wheels and raising his body and when moving fast helps to main balance and steady any bumps on the terrain. When cleaning up he uses his robot claws to pick up and examine items, but slightly different as he doesn’t have human hands. Practically all of his movements he does at all, is that of a child, where everything is very new and constantly examines every item he gets his claws on. We all can tell these two characters are going to move considerable different, as one is a four legged mammal, the other a robot with wheels. Although they are completely different there personality’s really shine through mainly because of how they move, especially if you compare them. Wall-e’s movement is very artificial, because of how he is built to be a cleaning robot on wheels, his movements are commonly quite slow which indicates that he is incredible shy. However in comparison to the dog, he is very much the opposite. Dug moves hastily all the time, and his body movement from his back for me really shows how much of his body is constantly moving when he turns. It really fits his personality because of his high active energy, which is significantly different to Wall-e’s, which is slower. I feel that that if dug was a robot, his movement wouldn’t be as fluent as it is in an organic form. He would be far more rigidly as a whole especially where the joints would be. I would try and find something of the equivalent for wall-e, if he wasn’t a robot. But that is very difficult to say, because of his design.
- This is ‘Mike Wazowski’ who works at Monsters Inc, who his best friend and partner at the factory is James Sullivan at the scare factory. He is a small round monster with an enormous eye, with 2 little devil horns with very skinny arms. But because he is a main character and that he has to visually stand out. The colour of his skin I believe is a critical factor to his character as if fits his physical structure, but also because it’s a primary colour. Along with matching his personality which is mainly, determined, cowardly and importantly comical. I believe that if this characters skin was different it wouldn’t be a memorable character and the personality wouldn’t work with his visually appearance. I think if his skin colour was different you would have to give him an entire new personality. Carl Fredrickson is the central character in the film ‘Up’, who is an old man at 78 years of age. He is socially isolated, stubborn, with little or no patience. He is clearly an old character based on his physical appearance, but because of his age one of the key feature of this character because of this is his skin. Sadly as we all age just like Carl, we will all produce wrinkles all over our face. This includes areas such as the forehead, around the eyes, under the eyes sag (bags), corner of the mouth, Liver spots(on the corners of his forehead), cheeks sag, cheeks show more wrinkles, nose enlarges and more. But in every single one of these areas will become red, especially if you’re a Caucasian. Which fits the whole persona of his appearance of any old stubborn men or women that we may know in our lives. But you can also make out the light veins (especially on his jaw) and where the route of his hair would be from shaving. These two characters are different, because of the nature of their skin. Because of that is what makes them different, for instance we associate colours with certain emotions or characteristics and we can easily apply that here. So if we apply that here to Mike, one of the things we associate with the colour green is safe, but for Mike in his case stubborn. But we can’t apply this to Carl, as his skin is very human like (best I’ve seen) which doesn’t make its colour very distinctive. So it doesn’t ultimately define the character wholly, but I feel minimally in this characters case, it’s not really a fair comparison. However because of this character’s personality, I feel that if the studio had to make a colour, I feel that it would be possibly two. I think the first would be a dark red, because of the times he may get mad, or something more conservative such as silver/white or dark brown as he is an old man to show his age and an older personality (which I think would be much more fitting).
- Merida is a 16 year old princess from Scotland, where the setting is the 11th century at the Scottish highlands in the kingdom of DunBroch. What makes this character distinctive in the film is her hair. It is completely different from any other character (apart from her brothers), being the long, curly and free flowing red. As nearly all her movement, weather she’s sitting, or moving her hair is always the main vocal point for the audience. It is always moving. It really makes her stand out and fits her personality from the beginning of the film at her transformation at the end. Which is from a stubborn, wild teenager to a brave, free spirited young woman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4_Z4Sob_rU This antagonist in the popular Pixar film ‘The Incredibles’. The evil villain Syndrome is nothing short of an evil genius who wants to eliminate, using a variety of his inventions to do so. Apart from his physical appearance from the head down, you can tell because of his physical appearance and colours used (black & white), that he is evil. However due to his hair, I feel that it really defines this character due to two key components. First of off is the colour of his hair which is red, which would draw your eyes to it as it’s a primary colour and is forceful. The other is the style, which to me is very similar to another type of popular genius character which is Jimmy Neutron, which more than likely helps to influence this evils characters geniuses, when Pixar designed their character. There are many differences between these two characters hair which clearly matches their personalities, almost oppositely. For starters the hair is completely different, such as Merida’s is long, red, curly and hangs free. While Syndrome’s is also red (only similarity), big and is neat. Which really is the essence of their personalities (as mentioned previously), because it’s their main feature, as Merida is from a different time, where the style would be different as well as attitudes, while Syndrome is just a mad evil genius in the present day.
- Sulley is an employee at ‘monsters Inc’, which is key role is to scare children, in order to provide electricity to his world. He works along with his best friend since University, Mike Wazowski. He provides a critical role, based upon his physical attributes. However one of the key points is his fur (blue with purple dots), which is ideally the first thing that you would notice when you see him, giving off the impression that he is a wild like animal (but only when he’s working). When on his own time, it helps to see a different side to his personality apart from adding to making him scarier. Which is his: confidence, kindness and fear (when his world is turn upside down, when Boo enters his world) which is nervousness. Alex is a taped African lion, raised at Central Park Zoo in New York. Where he is very avid to perform to anyone who visits, but for a treat. Because of this he is also has to look his best where he is very groomed and you can notice throughout his body from head to toe, which shows that he cares about his on appearance. However the key component to his appearance may be his fur, but it’s the one around his head, which really is the essence of his personality and almost sums him up as soon as you meet him, which would come across as very flamboyant. The fur that both of these characters have are both used to exaggerate their personality’s (especially the character Alex). Both have fur throughout their body, but the noticeability is different between them. Sulley fir is consistent throughout his body evenly (which doesn’t really grab your attention, but you notice it, while Alex does as well, but is barely noticeable, except the fur around his head, which is thoroughly well groomed and big, almost that of a model.
- This is Blu from the Amazonian rain forest, who was kidnapped and moved to another country where he was founded after an accident and kept as a domestic pet. He is a very socially awkward character and very shy, but kind and gentle. He is a very rare to the point of extinct ‘Sphix’s Macaw’. What makes up this character almost entirely is his feathers, which is consistently blue on his entire body. However apart from all the feathers are the primary colour which, reflects his calmness (at times), naive and awkwardness in the film. He has different types of features as you can see in the example, in which he has small fluffy feathers around the main parts of his body such as his: neck, back, back of his head and sides. He has long feathers which makes up his wings which there are 3 different styles. This is Nigel from the film Rio. He is the main antagonist and use to be a very handsome television star until he was sadly eventually replaced by a younger different breed of bird. Since then has had a grudge to any other bird: deemed to be beautiful. He works for smugglers to keep other birds captured in check, not just by his sheer height and size, but also through intimidation. Early on in the film he looks like a fat sick bird, by changing his appearance; but only does so for a while to show his true form. Of course he doesn’t look like the very threatening character depending on what pose is shown; however he is a very deceptive character even with the use of his feathers. Wen not trying to fool anyone by acting or sick, he has a very muscular like build (underneath), with white/greyish feathers (different length’s like Blu) along with a yellow crest (part at the top-back of the head). Technically speaking both of these birds are both from the Amazon rainforest and are two different species. But the nature of their feathers are different. We can tell that they are both distinctively different colours, the size would be different due, due to the size of the two characters along with the style of feathers are different.
- EVE is from the film ‘Wall-E’, set in the long distant future from now. This character is roughly about 3ft tall and has a very futuristic shape about her, from the three key that make up this character: the head, arms and body. They shape is very simplistic as a whole for a robot, with no buttons that are clearly indicated. This character would come across as very sleek, rounded and with a plastic exterior (much like an egg or curved shape cone), with an overall design, I personally feel like a ‘white Apple IPod’. But what stands out uniquely for me about this character, which makes it different from any other is the facial expressions EVE uses. The only way EVE can show and portray emotion at all is only through the limited noises, but importantly with her eyes/ LED screen. The character does this by changing and rotating the shape of her eyes and as the film progresses, I feel that her emotions feel less artificial. In the film EVE portrays many emotions, such as: Joy, anger, confusion, happiness and fear. Flik is a common work ant and lives at ‘Ant Island’. He is a very inventive nerd, but always somehow ends up making matters worse, not just for himself but literally for everyone at ‘Ant Island’. Because of his personality in the film and his adventure, he constantly and consistently portrays a variety of motion throughout the film. He displays a variety of emotions such as joy, depression, shock, and anger with his antlers also acting as ears. When he is trying to explain to dot by imagining a rock as a seed, but Dot is unable to pretend. Flik gets furious and shows some different facial expressions that clearly indicates this. These two characters are remarkably different and shows expressions differently. Flik’s face is almost human (apart from the ears), which would be similar to how a human face would move. But Eve’s is different has her face doesn’t show any emotion by how it’s shaped to show expression, but only by what is displayed on her facial screen. If you were to display the same emotion, Flik’s would be much more complex yet detailed, while Eve’s would be very plain, but very obvious.
- In any 3D animated film, every character whether they’re male or female will be exaggerated as much as physically possible according to the role they play. Typically most male characters in films (depending on the role) are big, strong, fat, hairy, bald have a huge muscular jaw or stupid. While female characters tend to be slim, thin waist, breasts (depending on the age) and have long hair (sometimes). I feel that the two genders characters above, from the Incredibles, film are exactly those types of characters. However I feel that Mr Increadible is almost what defines that gender, but Jessica Rabbit ultimately defines that gender and if you compare everything as before there is little or no similarities between male & females.
- In 3D animation knowing the bones of a skeleton is very relevant, because it helps to understand how our body moves the way it does. For instance when a baby is born, they will have somewhere between 300-350 bones, because some are born sooner and some later. When they eventually grow up and become an adult, there bones will fuse together and when complete will make up to 206 bones. Which means that’s how a child and an adult move will be different. Of course when a 3D character is modelled, not that many bones will be boned to them. However only the ones that are deemed necessary will be important for key joints which includes the: neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers (and thumb), waist, knees, angles and toes. These are the most critical points when rigging a character with a human shape, as they bridge the start and finish points. But this doesn’t just have to with human beings, when the research for ‘Jurassic park’ was done for the T-Rex, all they knew about it was the bone structure. But by carefully examining it (professionally), in order to understand how it moves and the distribution of weight would also possibly affect it. Both of these bones structures are completely different if you compare them, but that is why the character as well, in terms as how them move.
- The musculature is the muscles of a body (of any living thing). For instance the human body has over 640 muscles, from head to toe. But in animation the importance of muscles, is to provide movement. But the importance as well that these muscles have also defines our appearance in many shapes and forms, the areas that can be shaped is from head to toe.
- Lever systems is where a body (ours for instance), uses a series of muscles, bones and ligaments in order to create some sort of movement. Typically it is where a joint will be the axis and the muscles will cross the joint in order to force any weight and resistance to a direction. There are 3 different types of classes of levers in the human body. The 1st is when the position of the fulcrum, which allows greater force for less effort. The 2nd is when the weight is between the force and axis. For example if you do a push up, your feet act as the axis (fulcrum) and your body is the resistance, in which the effort is applied through your hands pushing the ground. The third class is when the force is between the weight and the axis. For example, when you lift a dumbbell, all the force is in your bicep, which bends the forearm to which any weight, which is being held.
- The cardio respiratory system consists of two key part of the human body, which is the heart which pumps blood to maintain circulation and the lungs which air passes in and out of our system in order to breathe. Whenever we watch a 3D character, we see how they breathe by looking at some key parts of the body. For example if we were watching a human we can see them breathe, because their chest will be getting bigger and smaller, this will also move forwards and backwards, the head will tilt up/down or backwards and forwards, or the nostrils from the nose will get bigger and smaller.
- What I have learnt from conducting my research on, ‘The Characteristics and Anatomy of Human and animal forms’ is that a lot of hard creative work goes on behind the scenes by a team of creative and enthusiastic people, who have created many unique and exciting characters that we all know and love, which will continue for countless generations to come. In each animated film, almost no character is the same and every single one has its own unique personality. But I’ve learned that all the characteristics I have mentioned in this PowerPoint have been used countless times. Can be reused to create more in the future. But understanding them all is critical to produce this time and time again. But as well as the producing characters with their individual characteristics. The central role to all animation, which is essentially a set guideline to create the illusion of life, which we know as the twelve principles of animation. Which was published in 1981, by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who both worked for Disney. In an effort to create more realistic animations, which in 1999 was considered by the public in an online poll to be the single best animation book of all-time. Which even though was intended for 2D animations, 3D animations still follow the 12 principles for the animated created by computers today. Even from that stand point the advancement of technology has only ever gotten better, as time will do that as 3D computer graphics are consistently getting better all the time. Which if we compare ‘Toy Story 1’ made in 1999, To ‘Toy Story 3’, made in 2010. There are remarkable differences in every aspect: the detail of characters and environments, lighting etc. By learning all I can through this process, I feel that I have a better understanding, of not just the characteristics and anatomy of human and animal forms, but animation as a whole.