The Classical Elements - Production - Background Design

Progress has slowed down a lot due to the holidays, and so now I am freaking out a little. Anyway, the background design took a little longer than I wanted it to, and now I'm not sure about which version to go with (The one with the stronger lighting or the more muted one).

In the meantime I'd best get started on sketching out the animation frames.

I decided to go with the original look (Before I destroyed nearly everything with the dodge tool) in the end after discussing it over with a few friends, and before I decided to commence with the animation itself, I thought I'd better extend the background a little more (Especially with the character flying about, the original one just seemed a little too low for its movements).

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Ranma 1/2 (Rumiko Takahashi and Kitty Films)

Ranma 1/2 is a martial arts-romantic comedy manga series written by renowned mangaka Rumiko Takahashi (Also known for other popular mangas such as Urusei Yatsura and Inuyasha), it originally ran from September 1987 to March 1996, and was later on collected into 38 volumes. 

The story centers around titular character, young martial artist Ranma Saotome, who is cursed (Along with his father) during a training journey to Jusenkyo, China, turning into a girl whenever he is doused with cold water, thankfully though, he is also able to change back into a boy when hot water is used. Ranma however is not the only cursed individual in this story, in fact, nearly half of the characters have unique transformation curses of their own, which makes up for a very comedic story.

Ranma's dad is on the left

An animated TV series would later on be created by Kitty Films and was aired weekly between April 12, 1989 to September 16 1989 for 18 episodes, before being cancelled due to low ratings. The series was however later on reworked by most of the same staff and was launched in a different time slot, this time running 143 episodes from October 20, 1989 to September 25, 1992.

Kitty Films is an anime production company established in 1972 in Japan, it also opted a record label under "Kitty" or "Kitty Records". Back in 1972 the company was merely a subsidiary of Polydor and Universal Music, producing TV drama soundtracks. It was only in 1981 did the company commence with anime production, achieving major success with their version of Urusei Yatsura (As I mentioned earlier, was also created my Rumiko Takahashi). Over the next two decades, Kitty Films would become known in and outside Japan as the produced of most of the animated versions of Takahashi's manga works, Ranma 1/2 included.

Despite their fame as producer, the actual animation was handled by several independent anime studios, such as Studio Pierrot, Studio Deen and Madhouse.

While it has been awhile since I have watched the anime, I believe the quality of the animation was actually quite decent, with martial arts (Though not a realistic portraya-- oh who cares it's still fantastic! Props to Ms Rumiko Takahashi for creating so many original and amusing fighting styles for this series and its characters!) being one of the series' focus points, it is a pleasant surprise to see that not many still frames are used for its fighting scenes, strikes, blocks, dodges were all still properly animated out, also unlike other animes (And, well, Hanna-Barbera cartoons), the series barely reused any old animations, if not at all, while fighting styles of course have to be repeated throughout the series, they are still presented through different angles and perspectives.

It is not just the fight sequences though that are so energetically animated, the comedic scenes (Though then again more than 90% of this series contains comedy gold) are just as wonderfully animated, with nearly all of the main characters being inhumanly capable fighters, it only makes sense that they wouldn't do normal tasks like normal human beings.

Ranma 1/2 is and always will be a classic anime, it is a unique mixture of action, romance and comedy (And is still known to have the craziest cast of characters, even for an anime). It is just an added bonus that it has pretty decent animation as well, especially when it came out during a time filled with low budget animations (Eg, Reusing animation cycles, still frames for supposedly 'epic' scenes, etc.).

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Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop Lesson

Adobe Flash

A couple of weeks back (Yeah, I know, I should have had this post published ages ago…), we started learning about the basics of Adobe Flash, notable differences are how vectors are used instead of pixels, and allows for a much cleaner look and of course, preventing any decrease in image quality (Much like Illustrator, a program that also uses vectors). I can see why this program is used more often for online animations than Photoshop, if you actually familiarize yourself with it, it is a very helpful and efficient animating program.

I am still trying to get the hang of this program however, unlike Photoshop, I had never actually touched the program, despite it being installed on my laptop for years now. At the moment I decided to look back to a tutorial a friend so kindly linked me to many years back, perhaps this might be of some help to my classmates as well, and here is another helpful one that my classmate shared with me.

I definitely won't be using this for my present animation project, not until I familiarize myself with it some more. 

Adobe Photoshop (Video Timeline)

The week after that, we returned to Photoshop animating, this time however giving the Video Timeline mode a try instead, previously we were taught on how to use the Frame Animation mode.

The only differences I believe is that it will be less tedious when extending certain pauses in an animation, otherwise I believe it is pretty much the same process as the Frame Animation mode, especially when you wish to create a smooth animation (Because that's what I wounded up doing during our studio exercises, I didn't extend any of the frames on the timeline and made each of them 0.1 seconds… if I remember correctly).

In all honesty, I still prefer using the Frame Animation mode, though the Video Timeline might work better when creating simple gifs.

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The Classical Elements - Pre Production - Storyboard and Animatic

And finally, I end off my Pre Production posts with the storyboard and animatic, there is not much to say really aside from the fact that I did have thinking up numerous silly (And also painful) scenarios to put my character in, to see which ones would stay in and which ones should be taken out.

First sketched out on posteds

Edited for easier viewing

I struggled a little when creating the animatic (Yes, yes it's embarrassing, go ahead and laugh…), since I am still trying to familiarize myself with Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Flash, in the end I wounded up using After Effects and added in the horribly done sound effects with iMovie. I really wasn't sure how to add in my audio when I was trying out the other programs. I really liked how iMovie had a really simple feature that allowed me to directly record my audio… though maybe the others had that feature too and I just couldn't find it, I am just going to go ponder to myself again… enjoy the animatic!

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The Classical Elements - Pre-Production - References and Research 2

This research post will be focusing on the aesthetic aspect of my animation project.

Pooh Bear and the Blustery Day

                                       

The first thing that came to mind when I decided on doing my "Windy Day" animation was from this animated short, known especially for being featured in the "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" along with several other tales about the adorable yellow bear, this was also the last animated short produced by Walt Disney.

This was the only animation that came to mind that featured harsh, troublesome winds as a plot line and as a source of struggle for the characters, while I am sure that there are many other animations, I found this to be a great reference for how characters of different sizes interact with various strengths of wind.

The visuals of course are also great references (Disney always did some fantastic background designs, though I also adore the other interpretations shown in the book illustrations), I love the colors used to create that autumn feel and especially and hope to at least design a similar looking background later on when the Production stage commences.

Art Styles

  

While "Pooh Bear and the Blustery Day" remained my main source of inspiration, it was only right to look up on some other suitable art styles. I especially tried finding more stylish and unique looking art styles, studying the mediums used (Or at least the unique look that the digital animation was still able to achieve), the color choices and of course the amount of details put into each one. (Sometimes I just stare at the middle one and think to myself about whether I will be able to animate something of a similar style in the future…)

Color Schemes

And then there were color choices, to see how much more appealing I can make the overall animation look, while color choices were pretty much confirmed for the character and his props, there is still time to alter the background design a little, and maybe perhaps add some colors into the wind to make it more visible.

Though I suppose most of these references are more suited for gentle breezes (Unless the wind is a two-faced little… uhm.) and will not really suit the animation, I will most definitely have to do some experimenting though.

Wind Movements

 

Finally, it wouldn't be animation research without some animated gifs, did I mention how tough it was to find animations that featured vicious wind storms? Sure there are ones with rain storms, but there's a difference! 

Anyway, the animations that featured gentler winds weren't exactly going to be completely useless to me, in fact, along with the animated gifs that featured stronger levels of wind, it allowed me to compare how different they all looked from one another, to see how much their surroundings would distort and how their clothes and hair would move along (Though my character doesn't have a face… well, he has a scarf and an umbrella though andmaybeasuitcase).

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The Classical Elements - Pre-Production - References and Research 1

This research post will be focusing on the slapstick aspect of my animation project.

From the previous posts, I had mentioned numerous times (And I apologize for that) how body language would be one of the more important factors in my animation, seeing as my character does not exactly have a face and will not be speaking, the expressiveness of its poses and movements would be more important than ever. 

And so it only makes sense to look up on good old fashion slapstick comedies to use as my research and references (I also need to thank my lecturer for the suggestions). The older ones especially had no audio (And only a few simple lines would be shown in between scenes if it was truly required), and so depended far more on exaggerated poses, actions and movements to bring out what the characters are actually feeling or trying to do.

While their more cartoony and zany actions are most definitely amusing, I wounded up studying at these comedians' more discreet mannerisms (Such as running, the way they flinch or wince, and even when they are just sitting down). I really had tried adding in more goofy bits during the storyboard process, but in the end I think it was better to just go with something more discreet, instead of making it seem like an exact copy to the works of these genius comedians.

Charlie Chaplin

 

Buster Keaton

Harold Lloyd

"Singin' in the Rain" (1952)

Now this one might seem like an obvious bit of reference to use for my animation, but in all honesty, aside from all the energetic dancing, at the time I was taking into consideration about whether I should add a little rain to the animation (Because I still find it weird to carry an umbrella just because it's windy, but well people still do that apparently...) and so I studied the way the character got soaked and how rain droplets and puddles would respond when the character comes in contact with them as he strolled and danced.

"Make 'Em Laugh"

I believe this musical number was of a bigger aid to my project as compared to the previous one as it presented much more slapstick humor and oh so much self inflicted pain for the sadistic enjoyment of us the viewers… (You really have to respect the folks that acted in this film, that's for sure…)

Mary Poppins

Another obvious piece of reference, though you probably expected me to look up on the main character herself as she gracefully descends with her umbrella. But let's not forget that the character in my animation will in no way show such grace (The complete opposite really), and so I instead looked to this scene.

The visuals are also quite helpful as the characters are only actually shown as silhouettes for a couple of scenes during this song, with a simple but suitable night sky background. I am just taking into precaution some alternatives should I run out of time...

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