Digital Animation

CStudio Ghibli

Fact file:

• Themes
• Characters
• Environments
• Styles
• Narratives

Themes:-

• environmentalism
• friendship
• love
• family
• culture
• Japanese history
• war 
• human emotions

Characters:-

• No face (spirited away) - is a spirit and antagonist in the spirited away franchise. They are a floating spirit with a mask-like face and a black cloak that fades into nothing. He can develop arms and legs and walk and leave footprints. He has an emotionless face with grey and violet highlights. Although there is a mouth on his mask he has revealed a larger mouth underneath.
• Big Totoro (My Neighbour Totoro) - He is a large character with round features and often is seen wearing a large leaf as a hat. He is a large furry creature with grey fur and beige belly, with pointy ears and long whiskers, along with large paws and claws, resembling an owl.
• Jiji (Kiki's Delivery Service) - he is a 13-year-old black cat who accompanies the protagonist Kiki as she is training to become a full-fledged witch. He also at one point had a girlfriend who he then had a kitten. He is a black cat with large eyes, the inside of his ears is iris purple.

Environments:-

• Studio Ghibli - the animations are mainly based in Japan and rural japan, generally in the forests surrounding small rural villages. It is also often mystical forests within japan and ones that are said to be full of spirits. 

Styles:-

• The animation style of Studio Ghibli is 2D animation, this form of animation is flat animation that has no depth however it still shows the characters and their expressions 
• They also animate through line drawings, these are usually hand-drawn sketches that move frame by frame as the shape evolves and moves, Studio Ghibli is hand-drawn unlike SVGs which are computer-animated

Event Driven? or Character Driven? 

One area to explore is whether the animation is event-driven or character-driven, and one of the commercial reasons behind this is the flogging of expensive merchandise to brainwashed/stupid children. 

In a film like Grave of the fireflies however, the characters' actions are shaped by the context of a firebombing raid on a Japanese village during WWII. This is more of an event-driven narrative, even though the film focuses n two young protagonists. 

EXAMPLE: Grave of the Fireflies 

Pre-production documentation: 

Storyboard 

Shot list 

Gantt chart 

Legal documentation 

Location recce (potentially)

Consent forums / Talent release forums

Script 

schedules 

visualisation diagrams 

set design 

Propp theory: 

8 Character types 

The Villain

The Helper 

The princess or prize 

The process' father 

The Donor 

The Hero 

The False Hero 

The Dispatcher 

Todorov's equilibrium theory

1) Equilibrium 

2) Disruption of equilibrium by an event

3) A realisation that the disruption has occurred 

4) An attempt to repair the damage or disruption 

5) A restoration of equilibrium 

Cars: Todorov theory

Equilibrium: Lightning McQueen being one of the best racers and almost winning a piston cup. Then is going to California to compete for the final race.

Disruption: A group of cars sabotage McQueen and he is lost and abandoned in. the desert and ends up in a village. 

A realisation: The whole world realises McQueen is missing and searches for him. 

An attempt to repair damage: The whole world finds McQueen and attempts to take him back to California for the race.

A restoration of equilibrium: McQueen fixes his problems with the people he met from the small desert town and also goes back to compete and succeeds. 

Cars: propp theory 

The Villain: The gang of cars that set McQueen off course 

The Helper: The townspeople who help McQueen get back to California 

The Prize: Tex the car from dinoco 

The process father: The owner of dinoco 

The donor: Rusteze 

The Hero: McQueen 

The False Hero the Green car because he wins but also causes havoc. 

The Dispatcher: Mac the van driving McQueen as he is one of the reasons McQueen was set on the course to the small desert towns people. 

Pre-production Documents 

Interpretation of brief 

Purpose, medium, target audience, run time

Developed storyline with focus on events / characters 

Synopsis / treatment 

Sketches 

Storyboards

Scripts

Personnel and Crew

Running orders and Gantt chart 

2D/3D Backplates (background) 

The cop-out option would be to source these from Google. Produce your own - you could photograph them for 2D Backplates, or model them out of old shoeboxes, cotton reels and pipe cleaners, or use 3D Programs such as Autodesk, 3ds max or Maya 

Think about lighting as well. 

2D Is a picture 

3D is added objects to the background 

SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) - Applying specifically to Animation 

Strengths

What makes it unique? - Narrative, theme,  character 

How does it use generic conventions? 

How does it meet its purpose? - refer to the brief 

How is it engaging for the audience? 

Weaknesses 

What is it missing? How does it compare with competitors? 

What are the limitations of your plan? 

What are the obstacles, and how might these impact the final production? 

Opportunities 

Based on the brief, can you expand the target audience? 

Are there opportunities for online revenue? 

This is for a yearly event, but could you roll it out as an animated short or webisode?

Threats 

Who is the main competitor? 

Any distribution problems? 

How can it be accessed online? Do you foresee any problems with this?

Risk Assessment: 

. If you looked into stop motion, think about how long it will take to film, and securing a safe place to do this. The last thing you want is t compete half of the filming, leave it overnight and come back to it next morning to discover its's been attacked by raccoons. What about Claymation> Might this dry out overnight?

You could also look into the health and safety at work and computer misuse acts ( repetitive strain injury, crick in the neck.). Then there's the usual stuff about burning yourself on lights, electrocuting yourself on SD cards or impaling yourself on tripods. 

Personnel and Crew 

Additional personnel / crew to consider for an animated film would include voice artists and foley artists. 

Foley artists produce sound affects across a range of feature, not just animated. They often use real objects to mimic those seen in a film bashing water melons and other forms of vegetable matter is popular in the profession. 

Visual and Audio Effects 

You'll need to create an offline edit for your animation, then apply a variety of visual and audio effects to create meaning in the final edit. What kind of visual and audio effect can you think of that might be employed? 

Log Sheets 

Before creating your animation, you should create a log sheet. 

The log sheet is used to identify time codes with descriptions of all shots. Appropriate footage can then be selected from the log sheet for the animation.

Offline vs Online Editing 

What is offline editing? in short, its the stage where your raw footage is run through a program that transcodes it to have a lower resolution. You can gate use that lower resolution footage to edit your film.

Online editing, better thought of as he finishing stage, is where you'll reconnect those low resolution files to the originalal, full quality footage. This is also when colour correction, effects work, final titles, and audio are brought into the film. It's at the end of the online stage that you export your completed film. 

Offline Edit 

So, as part of the animation process, you will need to create an offline edit - think of it as a rough raft in which you sequence your footage on a timeline. 

Transitions 

Once the offline edit is complete, and you've made notes for corrections, you'll need to produce the final edit. One of the first considerations is cuts and transitions. You should avoid using transitions just for the sake of it. Think about what these transitions mean. What kind of effect are you trying to convey?

Transition name  - Description - Effect 

Clock Wipe - Resembles the hand of a clock sweeping around a clock face - suggests passing of time. 

Graphic matching - One graphic, transitioning into another graphic - Suggests the similarities in the shots 

Jump cut - Scene jumps from one cut to another - This creates speed and excitement into the scene. 

Cutting on action - cuts at the exact moment an action occurs - creates tension and excitement

Contrast cut - The cut changing from something good to bad - creates a realisation of a situation

Dynamic cutting  - Where the cutting is made abruptly - creating a lot more interest in the scene 

L Cut - Where we head the next scene before we see the scene - Creates a smoother transition 

Match Cut - Creates two shots with matching shapes - creates a resemblance of the shots 

Colour control  

What kind of colour palette, or colour scheme, will you use in your animation? You can apply filters in post production to generate meaning. 

Titles and Graphics  

Graphics and title cards can help you to generate the appropriate mode of address for your. audience. 

Look at the title cards on the following slides. What kind of connotations and effects do they produce? Why is this? 

Connotations of Akira: 

Colour of red connotes danger fear, blood, love. 

Dominant masculine tough representations 

Crater behind the title suggests a supernatural / otherworldly / post apocalyptic setting. 

Dark setting and dark tone all connotes fear and danger. 

Connotations of Toy Story: 

Colourful primary colours connotes a childish and fun setting 

Blue, white red and yellow all connotes happiness, love, calm settings and joy. 

Clouds suggest aspirations, dreamlike hope. 

Snow White connotations: 

Font suggests something classic and regal

Background looks like a smashed mirror to present a disturbance

Baby blue colour connotes feminine aspects.

Audio Effects 

You will also have to think carefully about recording and mixing sound in your animations 

 

Dubbing -

Incidental music - 

Noise print - 

Wild tracks -