Tag: animationfilm

Psychology in Animation

Just something interesting I found recently, whilst I was researching how to design characters! I was looking up more of Klaus’ character design process by Spa Studios on YouTube and accidentally came across these videos made by a filmmaker and family therapist. They make videos about both live action and Disney films and then psychoanalyse it! I thought it was interesting how they decoded the messages in the Pixar films using neuroscience and psychology! 😀

It’s wonderful to see how these themes actually relate to the real world and how Pixar is able to convey these with subtlety! This is of course for a more mature audience, but it is also notable how kids can be made aware of these situations through the medium of animation!

Cinema Therapy

I’m actually really interested in neuroscience – particularly how the brain forms memories, both short term and long term – how we process information and how the brain stores this wide world of information. Its so wonderful how we process so much information in such little time, but when we are really enthused by what we learn our brains store all of it for future reference!

Human memory chart – Google

I researched quite a bit into this during my Foundation course, as I was making a film based on the memories that I could recall of my grandfather when he passed away. I was very little when he did pass away, so I was shocked at the details that I could remember even though it was so long ago! Maybe it was because I was so attached to him and loved him very much!

I suppose this relates a lot to what they (Jonathan Decker and Alan Seawright) were talking about in regards to the brain processing information that is learnt quickly by converting them into abstract thoughts – a scene shown pretty literally in Inside Out! Apparently our brain does process certain information in these very four stages!

They also talked about the subconscious mind, and how our anxieties or repressed memories that are stored in there, actually come out in dreams. Often referred to as the ID monster in Freudian terms – another one of my most favourite things to learn! I love studying Freud’s and Carl Jung’s theories on personas, find them very interesting!

Cinema Therapy

I also found the above video interesting where they talk about Rapunzel being gaslighted by Mother Gothel, especially prominent in the song, ‘Mother knows best’ – which I’ll admit, I loved the way the song was sung and I thought that the acting (animation wise) was great too!

Another thing that Jonathan and Alan mentioned in this video, that I never noticed, although I love this film and have watched it countless times, that Mother Gothel always touches Rapuzel’s hair (because that’s important to her) and Eugene takes the hair away (looking at her true self)

Motherrrr knows best!

Joanna Quinn and Les Mills Talk

I attended a really lovely talk yesterday (19th Feb 2021), which was hosted on Zoom by Joanna Quinn and Les Mills! This was arranged via my MACA course, as Joanna and Les were going to be looking at the current 2nd year’s work. We were all asked to attend the first half as the talk was aimed at creating characters and all things animation!

It was extremely lovely to hear their thoughts on animation and how they created characters for their films. It was really amazing and I really love Joanna’s personality and I really think that it showed in her work as well! 😀 She is so lively and full of character and it really reflected in her drawings, which were so energetic! She is a lightning illustrator, so it all really fits!

She showed us bits and pieces from the sketchbook she kept while she was at university (Middlesex) and it was wonderful to see the way she was able to capture movement through a simple series of sketches. She illustrated to us how important it is to always keep recording things we find interesting in our sketchbook and to just jot down ideas as they come to us, because they might be of use to us sometime in the future. What’s really lovely is that Les comes up with the script and Joanna then visualises his words! Les also mentioned how important it is to always keep a detailed description of our characters at hand, so we know how the character would react to different situations!

This is one the first films of Joanna that I was introduced to at university!

Girls Night Out – Joanna Quinn

Such a great film! Love Beryl’s personality and her own unique take on things and it just comes through so well in this film! I think this was her graduation film. I really love this exaggerated style of animation and also how she experimented with the camera angles. It was amazing to know that this was referenced from real life and also based on people she knew. There is so much energy to these drawings and the comedic timing is wonderful! 

Another lovely Beryl film that they showed us!

She also showed us her showreel, which was absolutely incredible! The audio is so dynamic and really draws you in and the performances in there are just mind blowing! We also got to see a film that she made during her degree; they were all life drawings that she animated! Absolutely gorgeous! I love life drawing as well, especially gestures so it was really inspirational to see her work 😀 

This has really inspired me to keep a sketchbook, just full of notes and drawings, which might come in handy later! Maybe do a lot of movement and gesture studies as well!

We got some great animation advice from her that I’m going to list below for reference:

  1. It’s important as animators to remember that the audience may not react in the way you expect them to, which is a good thing because as a medium animation can mean different things to different people. But we just need to be prepared for that!
  2. We need to start prioritising our ideas! Thinking about what is the most important thing in our film – what is your core idea that you want to convey and finding that!
  3. The most vital part to remember is: ANIMATING WHAT YOU LOVE! ENJOYING THE ANIMATION PROCESS! There is no point in animating something we are dreading as our heart won’t be in it. If at any point the process starts to seem that way, then its best to think about changing it so we can enjoy and learn all at the same time!
  4. BE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY IN YOUR FILM! and then cut out stuff you don’t really need
  5. ANIMATIC should tell the story..the animation should just add to it and make it better
  6. Think about different angles and the spaces around the character or ideally the space that the character occupies within the frame
  7. Do loads of thumbnails and experiment with camera angles! Then you can find one that really emphasises the scene and then stick to it. Don’t just go with the very first thing that comes to mind!
  8. It’s a CHARACTER ANIMATION course! So only do backgrounds if they are extremely necessary for your narrative/story
  9. Constantly asking yourself about what you’re enjoying the most in the animation process!
  10. 1/3rd of the time should be spent on animation and it takes about 2/3rds for clean up and colour! So if you are making a film to showcase animation and movement, do the opposite because then you aren’t rushing your animation process just so you can clean up and colour!

We also saw the following film ‘Britannia’ which is about British Imperialism. I love that she used a dog as her main character to convey the entire narration! 

Here is a trailer for her upcoming film, which looks absolutely incredible and I cannot wait to watch the entire thing! Really looking forward to Joanna and Les’ talk next Friday! Really learnt so much from them last session and extremely enjoyed it!! 😀