OUAN404 - Visual Language, Flow, Form and Force, Life Drawing Animations 3

OUAN404 - Flow, Form and Force:

How could I go an entire module without mentioning Disney? Well, here's the Disney fix as I ran completely out of other animations that featured some form of reference to life drawing. I would've much rather talked about something else, but then I discovered that Disney are actually an appropriate example as they often used real life examples of actors and actresses (not being entirely politically correct here, but hey ho) posing for specific parts of the corresponding animation. For example, for Sleeping Beauty, (old but gold!) the actors would dress up in as accurate costumes as possible to the characters' in order to show how clothes gather and crease at certain joints, how fabric drops and flows depending on weight and structure, and how certain items being held affected the way a joint or limb moved due to weight and form.

Disney really thought hard in many of their films on how to be as realistic and psychically accurate to real life as they could, despite the wacky storylines and obvious takes on Grimm's tales... Anyway, I feel that using reference as detailed and well thought as this is a good way to help with the process of animating and is by far not a means of cheating as if you were to simply guess how a fabric moved or a limb swished in a particular way, you may make mistakes that cannot be easily rectified. Using reference is a good way of learning as the more you draw, the better you remember and if a certain pose or material or weather condition and so forth (the list is endless) is worked with for long enough, it becomes drilled in your mind and eventually the process will be quicker and easier.

OUAN404 - Visual Language, Flow, Form and Force, Life Drawing Animations 2

OUAN404 - Flow, Form and Force:

After scouring the internet for suitable uses of figure drawing in animation, I couldn't find anything that compared with Thought of You. However, I did realise that animation shouldn't just be limited to film and TV as this highly annoys me when animation is considered to be restricted to those categories. So, again, video games play a huge role in animation and require a suitable knowledge of character design and figure drawing in order to be well informed and successful. Bayonetta being one of those video games that has an obvious of life drawing...

Bayonetta herself is very lean, long and flowing in terms of movement. The essence of being seductive and a temptress is shown off very well in her movement and body language. I like that character isn't all about the way someone looks or behaves with the use of characteristic and personality traits. It's nice to see character coming through heavily in movement and the way a character walks is a crucial part of giving them appeal and strengthening their personality. Bayonetta was created with the purpose of being seductive eye-candy with an edgy bad-ass personality. This comes through in the way she struts, moves her hips and places one foot in front of the other when walking (which after lots of research is how most women walk when trying to be sexy...) which instantly brings out her personality. The way she swings her hair and flicks her hands around shows confidence. Lots of reference material must have been needed to create her as Bayonetta's movement is so precise and detailed, even down to the way she snaps her fingers or waves at the camera moving every individual finger in a swaying motion to look attractive and alluring.

These very soft, often subtle movements and gestures are what makes up a character and gives them life. Curves are very prominent in Bayonetta's physical appearance but every movement she makes is either a swoop or an arc, or a sharp, linear movement. This indicates two sides to her personality. Platinum Games have thought about this very well.

OUAN404 - Visual Language, Flow, Form and Force

OUAN404 - Flow, Form and Force:

I had immense fun drawing people from our class in life drawing sessions. I feel it's a vital part of being an animator that we should explore different poses on a daily basis and learn how to draw from different angles, perspectives and also through spaces. We were asked to capture the essence of motion through a series of drawings of our peers or other models in order to improve our life drawing skills and to understand how a character can move through a space and creating a particular emotion or character personality. For instance, we had a go at creating jolly and bouncy movements and capturing those in short bursts of time using a range of different media.

After trying different poses, time lengths and media, I decided that my favourite media for capturing flowing, soft movement was watercolours, inks and brush tip markers. Wet media gave that essence of fluidity and had a really nice aesthetic to it. For sharper, angry or abrupt movement, pencil, charcoal or graphite felt nice and fitting. For heavy, manly, boisterous or dragging movement, thick lines worked best and chiseled tip markers seemed to capture that. I learned a lot whilst doing this activity and felt that I improved slowly as the drawings went on. I would love to do this again sometime!

OUAN404 - Visual Language, Flow, Form and Force, Life Drawing Animations 1

OUAN404 - Flow, Form and Force:

A good few months ago, a fellow Animation student showed us a beautiful piece of work by a very talented man named Ryan Woodward. He created "Thought of You" in remembrance of his wife when she was away from him and he couldn't be with her. This animation actually made me cry a little because I'm an emotional wreck at times when something so amazing pops up out of the blue. I relate very heavily to this animation and it was ever so sweet that this was a tribute to the person that meant the most to him. I often go back and watch it as it's very comforting.

In terms of how it relates to the brief and not just Grace moaning about how she's a blubbering mess when watching this, I absolutely adore the way he draws his characters in such a soft and delicate way. He really thinks about flow, form and force and the animation itself is full of fluidity. I really aspire to make something as heart-stopping as this as not only does the soundtrack get you, but the way he captures figure and movement with such simple detail is astounding. He does not have to give the characters facial features or specific clothing to give them personality and appeal, the way they move with one another and work together creates that emotion and character instantly. It's full of passion and that's why it works!

I then watched the "Making of Thought of You" and learned how Ryan Woodward made this astonishing animation! It took over 20,000 individual drawings on what looks like Adobe Flash. He had over 20 different layers for something that looks so simple in the make-up of the characters. The backbone, hair, feathers, every different part had a layer and took a lot of hard work, choreography and emotion to make this.