Don Bluth's Animation Academy

Character Clean Up

CLEAN UP

UNDERSTANDING ANATOMY

Aside from its purpose in the scene, each drawing can be analyzed for different aspects of drawing. The whole body is a caricature of an animal but all the parts of a real animal are present: head, neck, back, hips, tail, etc., and each of them work and move in a plausible way.

Anatomy, of course, is essential to any drawing whether is has a direct reference to nature or is completely imaginary. Though a character and/or its action may be greatly exaggerated or caricatured, anatomy in a sense remains fairly constant. An elbow is an elbow and only bends in a certain way, and has its limitations. Liberties may be taken but the "reality" of even a cartoon must be kept or it will lose credibility. It is not an easy thing to convert one's knowledge of structural anatomy to the cartoon medium.

It has been said that the location of a joint is more important than the joint itself. For instance, if an arm shape has been established it cannot have an elbow bend in an improbable place, no matter how well the elbow is drawn.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

Positive and negative shapes can be used to great advantage in both Layout and in Animaion.

For instance, a background can help set the mood for a scene through proper staging, utilizing the positive/negative. This allows the Animator to capitalize on the mood suggestion and carry it even further in his animation.

A story is naturally packed with a variety of moods. The gambit runs from happiness to sadness, gaiety to seriousness, and defeat (or the possibility of defeat) to victory (or the anticipation of victory).

A series of scenes where a character feels threatened could be enhanced by using dominant negative shapes, placing the potential victim in ominous compositions.

On the other hand, if the character is "on top" of his situation, he can be the dominant positive, filling the screen with his victorious stances or with his boasting attitude.

CONSIDER WEIGHT

The pull of gravity is one of the most important priciples to deal with in animation. Everything has a certain amount of weight and will act and react accordingly. One easy way to lose the attention of an audience is to have feathers falling like bricks, or bricks falling like feathers.

A certain humor can be gotten by bending the rules but should only be used where humor or special effects is called for. In short cartoons, defying the laws of gravity, weight, speed, squash and stretch, etc., was often the rule of thumb. In feature cartoons such flamboyant abandonment must be handled more discriminately.

SQUASH AND STRETCH 1

Hardly any action will happen without squash and stretch. Sometimes it will be quite broad and obvious, and at other times so subtle that it will be felt rather than seen.

On the following page is an example of squash and stretch, whre the anticipation drawing is also the stretch drawing. Notice in the center drawing both squash and stretch occur at the same time. The body is squashed while the arms are stretched to their limits. The last drawing is also a stretch drawing, but not as violent as the first.

Notice how the Animator directs your attention to the object of the move. In the first drawing there is a strong triangular shape, with lots of tension set up, narrowing right down to the briefcase handle. The grabbing attitude of the right hand, the open stance of the body, the strong eye contact all help. Notice here how everything has been pulled away from the line of vision, allowing the look to be unobstructed. In the second drawing, the triangle has squashed and nearly dissipated itself in the contact. Work your eyes from drawing to drawing and watch this happen.

Notice, too, how the Animator has opened up the negative areas in the anticipation or "preparation for the action" drawing, and the sudden diminishing or disappearing of them in the "action proper." Then normal negative areas are reestablished in the "termination of the action."

SQUASH AND STRETCH 2

Squash and stretch can be very broad, or it may be very subtle. In the Disney features, subtlety has been developed to a high degree. The type of story, the liberal use of dialogue, and the close-up has made this imperative. We capitalize on the use of squash and stretch in the face. For example, the eyes opening wide for surprise or fear (stretch); partly closed from the cheek action during a smile (slight squash); or squeezed into slits from anger or suspicion; or strain (squash).

Nothing moves independently. If the mouth is active, as in dialogue, everything on the face is going to react and move accordingly. Smile broadly in a morror and observe. The upper lip area squashes up toward the nose, while at the same time stretches out into the cheek area. Notice how it changes shape yet still retains its volume. The upper lip action causes the nostrils to spread. The cheeks spread outward and upward. This causes the bottom lids of the eyes to rise up over the bottom part of the eyeball, causing the eye to appear to squash.

All this rising cheek flesh clashes with the more stationary temple flesh. (Stationary since the temple flesh is attached to something more solid.) The result is a set of tiny wrinkles next to the eyes on the temple.

The ears, sideburns, and even the neck and collar react, and to an infinitesimal degree, the cloth on the upper chest. To carry the point this far in animation may prove to be impractical, but it was mentioned for observation's sake and to emphasize the fact that nothing moves independently in full animation. All the parts of a drawing are related, just as all drawing in a scene is related to all other drawing in the film.

The Clean-Up person must be aware of how much squash and stretch the Animator has used and where he has used it. While going through the scene to acquaint himself with it, it might be good to make notes on the drawing such as "squash here" etc., lest in perfuntorily cleaning up the scene he overlook it.