COP Animation - Ryan Woodward, Thought of You

This animation was a good source of visual inspiration for certain elements I wanted to implement into my visual response animation. The elements I am talking about are the dragging motions in the smear frames. Here are a few stills:

The making of the short film:

COP Animation - Michael Dudok de Wit, Father and Daughter

Traditional hand drawn animation has an aesthetic quality that digital animation is lacking. This is an offbeat, and rough aesthetic that typically carries sentimental associations. Father and Daughter by Michael Dudok de Wit is a hand drawn and hand painted animation about a daughter losing her father at a young age. The soft lines and shading coupled with the heartbreaking story create a very touching piece of animation.

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Glenn Keane's Nephtali is another example of how the traditional method of animation adds to its sentimental value. In Glenn Keane's recent and solo work, the aesthetic is even more rough than that of the previously mentioned animation. The work appears to be a glance into the sketchbooks of the animator adding a completely new dimension to the animation.

COP Animation - Production

Using the animating method I created during ‘The Other Side’ project, I began to create the key frames for my responsive COP animation, beginning simply with an elderly woman and an infant.

As I have done in previous projects, I created two separate layers one entitled ‘Grandma’ and another entitled ‘Girl’. Using an orange colour, I sketched out the grandmothers Key poses for each frame and then traced into the given frame in black. I did the same with the girl only using the colour blue.

For the moment when the grandmother vanishes, I decided to attempt to create an effect I saw in Ryan Woodward’s ‘Thought of You’ animation. The girl would fall forward, her arms collapsing into her chest as the grandmother vanishes in a cloud of smoke that pushes through her granddaughter.

I wanted the moment to be quick and impactful so I decided to smear the frame in between the woman hugging her grandmother and collapsing into smoke. Since I’ve only thus far completed the first set of in betweens I am not yet certain how good this will look as a finished product but I am willing to modify the frames as needed.

Lastly, because I intend on using some digital effects on the animation I decided to go through and colour in each character. The colour palette is simple; the characters each have their own colours (Green and yellow). The green and yellow create a contrast as the green colour is duller, darker and calmer and the yellow colour symbolises youthfulness. The rest of their bodies remain white as to not deter from the chosen colours. In order to effectively see how well I coloured in the frames I created another layer with a red background colour to more easily notice any inconsistencies.

COP Animation - Idea Development and Pre-production

The subject of my essay is the role of traditional animation in the digital age. For my animation, I decided to attempt at traditional and digital animation separately as well as combined. My thesis for the essay is quite simple: traditional and digital animation are different methods of storytelling. Each hold their own characteristics that make them more or less suitable to tell a certain story. 

I began the project by brainstorming a story that had strong sentimental value, something that stood out past the method of animation. I began to explore human connections and relationships especially those of family such as sisters, mother daughter, father son etc. 

I decided to go with the relationship between a woman and her grandmother through childhood and adulthood. The idea is to create a 10 second animation using the traditional method of animation. Then, to recreate the animation with the help of digital means. The story in itself calls for the traditional method, I believe, because there is something aesthetically sentimental about traditional animation.

The story is simple: an elderly woman and an infant appear. The woman picks up the child, sets her down and they embrace. While this is occurring, the elderly woman is ageing as the baby is growing into a woman. After they embrace, the elderly woman disappears and the young lady is left alone holding flowers at a grave.