The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation Quotes

I have been going through the book, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by the amazing Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. I had marked a few pages with quotes I wanted to take note of a while ago but never did so here they are. They are realy helpful quotes and back-up my reason for doing my animation about a cat. Some also help with making my animation better :)


‘In our own lives, we find that as we get to know people we share their experiences – we sympathize, we empathize, we enjoy. If we love then, we become deeply concerned about their welfare. We become involved in their lives.
We involve the audiences in our films the same way. We start with something they know and like. This can be either an idea or a character, as long as it is familiar and appealing. It can be a situation everyone has experienced, an emotional reaction universally shared, a facet of someone’s personality easily recognized, or any combination of these. But there must be something that is known and understood if the film is to achieve audience involvement.’
The Illusion of Life, page 18-19.


‘“I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real.” Walt Disney’
The Illusion of Life, page 71.


‘That all changed in one day when a scene was animated of a dog who looked into the camera and snorted. Miraculously, he had come to life! Walt was quick to appreciate the difference and so was the audience. The year was 1930 and the animator Norm Ferguson.’
The Illusion of Life, page 74.


‘As he thought about it, Ben decided that the key ingredient must be “realism.” In his own experience, he had found that much of the material in cartoon films was lost on the viewers; they could not understand it or relate to it. Walt had bridged that gap with realism, or a caricature of it. His situations were understandable, clear, and funny. His personalities were based on someone you knew.’
The Illusion of Life, page 80.


‘The scale of the characters to the things around them, and to each other, is an important part of making them believable, as well as giving them charm and appeal.’
The Illusion of Life, page 239.


‘If an animal in a film is wearing any kind of costume, he can be handled with human attributes and the audience will accept him. In contrast, if an animal in his natural fur should suddenly stand up and start gesticulating, the viewers will feel uneasy. Put a cap on him, or a tie, and he can swagger around, gesturing and pointing like any ham actor.’
The Illusion of Life, page 331.

A good example of this is in ‘The Aristocats’. The kittens all wear a small form of human clothing such as Marie wears bows and Toulouse has a bowtie on. The geese even follow the same rule and wear bonnets and Uncle Waldo wears a top hat.


‘Of course natural animal drawing or realistic action will always add sincerity and interest to this type of film, but it is not truly needed to tell the story. On the other hand, if the story is man’s view of what the animal world is like, as in ‘Lady and the Tramp’, ‘101 Dalmations’, and ‘The Jungle Book’, the animals must be completely believable or the whole premise will collapse.’
The Illusion of Life, page 331.


'When we say “real,” we mean only what the audience accepts as being real, for obviously a real animal cannot act or emote as broadly as animators require. The more an animator goes toward caricaturing the animal, the more he seems to be capturing the essence for acting. For example, if we had drawn real deer in ‘Bambi’ there would have been so little acting potential that no one would have believed the deer really existed as characters. But because we drew what people imagine a deer looks like, with a personality to match, the audience accepted our drawings as being completely real.'
The Illusion of Life, page 332.


‘Ears are an important part of the attitude on any animal.’
The Illusion of Life, page 340.

‘Hair can be a key to personality, and many times will show how a character feels. Scraggly hair gives an unkempt, irritable look. Smooth and sleek fur is soft and feminine.’
The Illusion of Life, page 340.

‘Tails can do much to show the mood of an animal. They can give a perky feeling, or show dejection, or affection. They should not rest on the ground without a reason. They must have life too. Watch out for “dead” tails.’
The Illusion of Life, page 340.

‘The neck is often passed over when considering parts of the anatomy that can help show an attitude. It can be arched for belligerence, show alertness, be cocky with chest out, or indicate anger.’
The Illusion of Life, page 340.


‘A cat’s eyes are extremely expressive and change shape radically as they convey different emotions. At times they are mere slits, lost in a puff of cheeks and brows, or they are half closed in complete contentment, or wide with curiosity.’
The Illusion of Life, page 450.

Hand-in Info

After seeing Tracy and Derek this morning I think I understand what my hand-in dates are and what needs to be handed in for each section. Below is my breakdown of it all.

Research & Development - 4th May
* Blog
* Study of cats
* Study of cat behaviour
* Anthropomorphism research
* Visual References
* Videos, animations.etc I've watched.
* Sketchbook scans
* My animation tests
* A concluding statement stating what I did and why I did it, what I achieved, what was easy and was difficult.


Special Study - 4th May
* Blog
* Technical stuff -
- How I did stuff.
- What methods I used and was thinking of using.etc.
* My animation tests
* A concluding statement stating what I did and why I did it, what I achieved, what was easy and was difficult.


Dissertation - 4th May
* Dissertation
* Appendix
* Research associated with my dissertation


Showreel - 17th May
* Animated Short
* Storyboard
* My animation tests
* My animatic
* Script


Presentation - 20/24th May
* Presentation for Special Study (20min talk with audio/visual)


Derek also said that he will look at my animation on the 17th and if he thinks it will affect my grade if I have more time then he will put in for as much extra time as I can have that will still allow me to graduate this year. It would probably be only a few extra days.

Plan of the Week

Monday
* Meeting with Tracy - 9am... Ouch!
* Talk to Derek.
* Talk to Keith about hiring out sound recording equipment to get background noise of a fish shop.
* Complete dissertation main text.
* Label stuff in blog that is R+D and Special Study.


Tuesday
* Book out sound equipment.
* Proof read dissertation main text.
* Dissertation appendix.


Wednesday
* Go to fish shop to record background noise.
* Create disc of all Special Study animations.etc.


Thursday
* Print blog.
* Proof read everything.


Friday
* Bind blog together with other special study documents.
* Meeting with Elaine - 3.15pm


Weekend
* Make any last minute changes.
* Any further information from Elaine, Derek and Tracy.
* Bind format.


Tuesday
* Hand it in :D
* Get drunk in celebration.


Wednesday
* Regret the drinking.
* Start on the animation again. Due 17th May (Check that).

Spotting the Butty

This bit is when Remus runs past the shelves, spots the butty and slides to a stop, meerkats and then turns to look at the viewer then turns back. Below is this bit and as far as I've got but next he drops down and gets into a stalking position. I am working on that bit today.

My only mmm about this bit is really he should go from 4 legs to sitting then to meerkat position. If I get time I will go back and fix that.





Another idea instead of the stalk bit is to zoom in like I have roughly done at the end of the video below. I would just do the zooming in using 3D max though so it won't jump or lose picture quality.




On the left is an image I used as reference for when my cat stands like a meerkat. It was really helpful.

You can see that the pose I used is very similar to the picture. The only real difference is the tail and I twisted my cats body a bit.

Run and Slide Test

Well, I woke up this morning to do the in-between animation of what I've block animated and the folder containing it all had some how been deleted and as it was saved onto the desktop it wasn't saved onto my portable hard drive. GUTTED is an understatement :(
Luckily I got one of the videos thanks to my blog but its still making it difficult.

I watched some Disney films to cheer me up a bit and while watching I saw how they did things and decided to change the view of what I blocked so I could get Remus to give the audience a look that was missing in the original. What I've done today is below.

Another Just for fun - My sister Steph

I like to do something a bit different every now and again so I can rest my mind from my work. This time I coloured in the cartoon I did of my sister. Below is a photo of Steph and the drawing I did.

More sketchbook stuff - Girl

I've realised that I haven't posted any of my drawings for the girl who is Remus' owner. At first they started off really detailed. The hair especially was a problem. I then went into drawing people I know. The girl holding the cup is actually based on my sister.
To solve the hair problem I tried making the hair into a bob as its a simple straight cut hairstyle. I even tried making the eyes big like my Remus character but it really didnt work.


The bob then turned into a backward baseball cap with a fish logo on (I know it looks like the Jesus symbol on these drawings but it has changed so it looks lots different). She is a simple character that I think goes well with my Remus character.


I actually made her look a bit like I did when I was younger as thats when I was most confident and happy about how I look. In a way she is the younger version of me. On the left is a photo I found of me in a backward cap too!
As you can tell my character has a bigger head and smaller body than myself. This is for her to look appealing and cartoony.

A cartoon character who is similar to mine is TJ from 'Disney's Recess' who is shown here.

Wish List - More Books

A while ago I made a wish list of books I'd like. I managed to get two of the books and they have been really helpful. They are all pristine and it makes me sad when I have to bend it to see everything. I have a thing about keeping books in a good condition. Should have seen how crazy I went when my sister borrowed my Harry Potter and saved her page by bending the corner! I wasn't a happy bunny.

Any way, I just caught wind that Disney released a visual companion for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The original one I saw in the shop was more illustrations of the film and disappointed me but from the videos that people have posted on Amazon of it... WOW! It looks like it covers all the art, visual effects, design.etc. I soooo want it! I'm sure it could fill my curiosity and love of the Cheshire Cat :D

Amazon - Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland Visual Companion


Another book I've just come across and would love is the Art of How to Train Your Dragon. I'm a total sucker for the 'Art of' books. They always give me an insite of films and their designers, animators.etc. I think when I get a job I'm going to be buying them and build quite a collection, it will be a very pretty collection though as they really do have great pieces of art in them. This one especially interested me because of the dragons. I love mythical creatures especially Dragons, my second favourites are the Phoenix and the Griffin.

Amazon - The Art of How to Train Your Dragon

Silly Symphonies Three Orphan Kittens - Great perspectives!

I saw a clip of this somewhere and the animation by Ken Anderson is just amazing especially the changing perspectives 1.27 and 4.40 minutes in! The kittens are well animated too and show my point of how cats should retain cat movements such as stalking while being anthropomorphic. It also reminds me of when Remus first came home at 12 weeks old and was so clumsy and would knock things over all the time.

The story is from Disney's Silly Symphonies collection and is about three kittens that are heartlessly abandoned during a snowstorm. They take refuge in a nearby house and playfully begin to tear the house apart.

I couldn't find it not in Spanish sorry.




Disney also made a second episode about the three kittens where they befriend a St Bernard and he protects them. They also meet other animals.



I love how the kitten meows as if to say thank you to the dog at 3.48 and all of them do at 7.55 after he hides them from their owner. This episode reminds me a lot of the Simon's Cat book with all the interaction with other animals and especially the way they interact with the bird. With this as a comparision it show what I'm going, which is sort of a combination of the two. Mine is more detailed that Simon's Cat but less than the Disney ones.

Just a bit of fun

I made this as I wanted to do something a bit different for fun. I love this picture of Remus so I thought I'd try putting my characters face in place of his.

Blocking Animation Part 2

Below is my blocking animation for the second scene of my animation. A blocking animation is where just the main poses are put in place, they can be moved or change shape as you will see below.
This is the second part, which is where Remus notices the sandwich. I have done this scene before the first one as I am still finalising the storyboard for the first bit with the fish and snake as it is a recent addition.
You will also see that I added black cartoony lines to the background and made it all black and white. I felt it was more fitting with my insperation (Simon's Cat) if it was also black and white and I mentioned the black lines in the last post.

3D with hand-drawn character

I have had this idea for a while of using the 3D pet shop I made as the background and Flash for my characters. Below is an image I made combining the 3D background and a drawing I did of my Remus character.


I think the only thing that is wrong is the background is too solid and doesn't fit in with the cartoony style of the characters. If I put cartoony texture effects with black line edges it might look better. I know you can do it but Im not totally sure how so I will have to see a lectuer about it.

More sketchbook work

About time that I posted some more of my sketches.

The Cat and the Juggler

I found this animation while searching for something else on Youtube. Its a really nice story and has one of my original ideas of having traditional painted backgrounds but with 3D characters and props. It also won the ASIFA Award of Excellence 2009 in the Best Professional Film category.

The only thing that bugged me was the cats walk was a bit odd, other than that it was a nice story and characters.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland the other day and I loved it, especially the Cheshire Cat. Although I have always been a fan of the Cheshire Cat because of how he is mysterious, mischievous, has a funny grin and the fact I'm from Chester in Cheshire so grew up seeing Cheshire Cat stuff a lot. I even used to go to a pub called The Cheshire Cat for meals!

The Cheshire Cat in this version was just amazing, he is just so stunning especially with the gorgeous blue stripes and Steven Fry's voice was so perfect. The smoke effects were also a bit of brilliant animation and made me really want to know how its done and have a go at doing it myself.
Below is a clip from the film of Alice and the Cheshire Cat so you can see just how incredible it is. I especially love how they make his eyes go bigger at certain points such as when he says "claws". Have a look.



What I thought was even more amazing is the work by the guy who designed the Cheshire Cat. I couldn't believe that he had made the image at the top using a graphics tablet!
Below is part of an interview with the artist, Michael Kutsche about the Cheshire Cat. It is well worth reading all of the interview so I have also added a link to it. I have also added an image of him doing the illustration of the Cheshire Cat on his graphics tablet. I so wish I could draw like that!

GK: In your early sketches, the Cheshire Cat is more human-like and is slight and slinky, with hot pink stripes and an unsettling, toothy grin, and your Mad Hatter wore industrial goggles and had less whimsy...

MK: Because it’s a Disney production [some of that] didn’t really have that mass appeal. It would have shocked the kids. Tim Burton is a big fan of that book, and the original illustrator. Tim had his own drawings in his London office, so he wanted to have a little bit of a classic feel, so that the animals were more like animals with a twist instead of having a far-off fantasy. Sometimes he gave like a very quick sketch that was really helpful. I would take that and make it really detailed.

http://www.timburtoncollective.com/labels/michael%20kutsche.html

Kutsche admits that he got the idea from a design by Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu. Below is the concept art they did that inspired Kutsche's illustration. You can see that he didn't stray far from the original design.

Something a bit extra that I found is a website that sells prints of the art that Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu did for Alice in Wonderland! (Sadly not including the one above as that is now owned by Disney).
http://www.imaginismstudios.com/store/prints?_p=1&viewall=yes


The Making of the Cheshire Cat

"The iconic shot of Alice’s first meeting with the Cheshire Cat, who’s grinning at her from his tree limb, begins with what’s similar to a storyboard sketch, using an assemblage of low-resolution character stills."


"The scene moves to animation, where the character is dropped into a low-resolution environment: the images are kept low-res to allow Imageworks’ animators to create the Cat’s performance without having a lot of data to manipulate."


"The biggest challenge is to create a realistic cat that can generate the trademark exaggerated grin. Here, the all-important hair has been added, ensuring it behaves as it should, where it should be, with the Cat now curled on his limb."


"Here, final lighting is added, along with a full-resolution environment behind the Cat, including the flora and atmosphere added for visual effect."

You can also see that the trees in the background have one of Tim Burton's trademarks... curls. As you can see the branches are curled round like he does to objects, clothes, hair.etc in his other films. I was rather surprised how scuttle he was with it in this film.
I loved that he sneaked the black and white stripes in with a quick sneak shot of the Mad Hatters underpants too! Look out for it when you see the film. My friends pointed out that I spot really odd small detail things that they never do... kinda like that even though its probably down to my Aspergers.

Films I have watched

I thought it was about time that I made a list of everything I've watched as research supposedly a record should be kept so here goes. Some will have just the Youtube title as I don't know the actual title. A lot of these have been posted on the blog for you to see.

FEATURE FILMS
The Jungle Book (and all the DVD extra features)
The Lion King (and all the DVD extra features)
The Lion King 2 (and all the DVD extra features)
The Aristocats
Bambi (and all the DVD extra features)
Bambi 2
Brother Bear (and all the DVD extra features)
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (and all the DVD extra features)
Finding Nemo (and all the DVD extra features)
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland


SHORTS
Pixar Animated Shorts
The Cats Piano
Juxtaposer
The Suicidal Cat
Simon's Cat
Little Red Riding Hood: As told by Roald Dahl
Simsala Grimm Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Disney Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood - Kung Fu
Little Red Riding Hood kicks some ass
Little Red Riding Hood as told in the style of infographics
Hey there, Little Red Riding Hood
Li'l Red Riding Hood - Sham and the Pharoahs
The House Guest
Onedotzero Promo Video
Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends
Daphne's New Broom
Feed the Cat!
Cat got your Tounge
Persian Cat Animation
Cat Soup
The Dog Door
Just So Stories


ADVERTS
Go Cat
Feliway


INTERVIEWS
Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield
BBC News - Simon's Cat

Cartoon version of Remus Meow

This is an advance of my meow test with my character design. I like how the head turned out but at the moment I'm not happy with the body. It is too much like the reference one. I will next try doing it with a more cartoony design. I am also thinking about making spots bigger or having the one big stripe down his back, his face stripes and tail stripes. This is because it is very difficult to make the spots look like their in the right place. As I said before less and larger spots maybe a way to make it work.

Below are my tests.