tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-234383342024-03-13T19:57:50.404-07:00Temple of the Seven Golden CamelsEverything I know about the art of storyboarding.
mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.comBlogger450125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-49109497927616285772016-09-18T18:45:00.002-07:002016-09-18T18:46:17.809-07:00"Presentation of Storyboards" by Joe RanftI posted a quick page of drawing tips by Vance Gerry on twitter and people seemed to like it. That reminded me of this old handout by Disney/Pixar legend Joe Ranft about how to pitch storyboards. It's from an old manual about how to do story at Disney that I'm probably not supposed to be circulating. But I really want people to remember Joe and what a great, fantastic board artist and teacher he was.<br />
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I've posted this before so I apologize to those who've seen it already.<br />
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We don't pitch like this anymore because we don't really board on paper anymore. So we don't really have to stand in front of an audience while pitching, we get to sit in the back of the room while our boards are projected onto a big screen. Those days of standing in front of a big group, pitching drawings you weren't happy about, and bombing in front of an audience are over forever, it seems. It's still nerve-wracking to me every time I pitch though. Some things never change.<br />
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Almost all of Joe's advice is still very relevant to pitching in the digital age. The main point of pitching boards is to give a sense of what the sequence will feel like when it's turned into a film, and that means not slowing down to over-explain anything or get off-track from communicating the story and characters to the audience.<br />
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Here's a video I found online (I think it's from one of the "Toy Story" DVDs) of Joe talking about storyboarding and pitching a sequence.<br />
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Hope you enjoyed the handout. If you have any questions (or can't make out the text), let me know.<br />
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And to end things, here's a photo of Vance Gerry himself, pitching the old school way to an audience that includes Woolie Reitherman, Larry Clemmons, and Milt Kahl.<br />
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mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com112tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-29985398934805732762016-09-12T07:15:00.000-07:002016-09-12T07:15:21.193-07:00Some Shameless Self PromotionSometimes people ask me if I'll ever write a book about storyboarding. I would never want to do that...I enjoy sharing what little I know for free, and I've always felt that the whole point of having knowledge is to share it with others. So I'm glad people have found my posts helpful over the years. It's been very gratifying and you have all been a great audience.<br />
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Over the past six years I have been working on a book, however...I've been writing and drawing a graphic novel that i'm planning on releasing next year, and now I need <i>your </i>help (don't worry, it's easy). In a shameless and transparent ploy to seem relevant and like I have an audience, I'm trying to get followers on social media. So if you wouldn't mind following me on Twitter, Tumblr and/or Instagram, I'd really, really appreciate it. I'm going to start posting a bunch of artwork from my graphic novel as well as other stuff I've done, so I promise to make it interesting.<br />
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Twitter link: <a href="https://twitter.com/Mark_D_Kennedy">https://twitter.com/Mark_D_Kennedy</a><br />
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Tumblr link:<a href="http://themarkkennedy.tumblr.com/"> http://themarkkennedy.tumblr.com</a><br />
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Instagram link: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mark_d_kennedy/">https://www.instagram.com/mark_d_kennedy/</a><br />
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Thanks to everyone who still visits and thanks for all the nice things you've said over the years. I will continue to write posts here and I hope you'll continue to come!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-14145438824316196972016-09-07T07:16:00.000-07:002016-09-07T07:16:57.950-07:00Drawing Crowds Not as in attracting a gathering of people...but as in literally depicting crowds in a graphic way.<br />
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I always like it when I see a book about drawing that covers some subject I've never seen written about before. Jack Hamm wrote some good basic books on drawing that have been around for a long time. They're well illustrated and they're full of basic, straightforward and clear instruction, which is more than I can say for most books on drawing. Also they're extremely cheap. If you search for "Jack Hamm" on Amazon.com, you'll find his books. He has one on drawing people, one about drawing animals, one that's all about landscapes and one on cartooning.<br />
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I'm not usually a big fan of books about "cartooning", because to me, drawing is drawing, and you should start with a realistic approach anyway. All the greatest animators (and cartoonists) started by studying real life and then figured out ways to simplify and caricature what they saw around them. Starting out as a "cartoonist" makes your art very limited and means you'll end up copying someone else's shortcuts.<br />
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For the most part, I can't really recommend Hamm's book "Cartooning the Head and Figure" because it's mostly full of cliched formulas. I would, however, definitely recommend his book on realistic life drawing and anatomy if you're interested, and I'm sure his book on drawing animals is good too (i've got it somewhere but I haven't looked at it in ages).<br />
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But again, I wouldn't really suggest his book on Cartooning to anyone. It was written in 1967 and it's definitely a product of that time. I'm glad it's still published in the same original format, and it's pretty interesting as a bit of a time capsule, but it mostly has pages like "how to draw hobos and tramps" and "how to draw pretty girls" and the like...basically, kind of outdated, quaint ideas about how to draw using formulas. I don't like books that recommend using formulas to draw. I think great drawing comes from observation and learning to see things clearly and with a fresh eye, not relying on shortcuts and formulas!<br />
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The page on "Hobos and Tramps".</div>
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Somebody should make an updated book on drawing that includes formulas on how to draw modern clichès, so instead of "How to Draw Hobos and Tramps" it would teach you "How to Draw Hipsters and Baristas" or something like that.<br />
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Anyway, the page that I wanted to share is one where he talks about "how to draw crowds"...which isn't really a topic I've seen anyone tackle in a drawing book before. Every once in a while, when storyboarding, you'll run into this challenge and it's always a bit tricky. The crowd is never the focus of the drawing (they're almost always a background element), so how do you draw the crowd so it reads clearly as a crowd without being distracting?<br />
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Some rather inventive solutions, I thought. By the way, that odd white shape in the lower left hand corner is in the actual book, it's not a mistake in my scan.<br />
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Some other thoughts on crowds that have helped me over the years...<br />
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If there's a way to throw the crowd into silhouettes, that can work (like this one from Carl Barks)<br />
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Coloring a crowd can get you into trouble. Your first instinct is to give them all different colored pants, shirts, hair, etc. It can easily turn into a lot of little color patches that don't relate to each other and look like Skittles. Somehow, Hergé (or his colorist) pulls it off in these two panels from "King Ottokar's Sceptre".<br />
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It's risky but it works here. I would even say if you're going to do it, choose a couple of colors and repeat them on figures to give the picture a sense of harmony. Or just stick with everyone wearing either cool colors...or warm colors to create harmony and avoid distracting contrast in the crowd. But this panel below doesn't follow either of those suggestions and works beautifully. So what do I know?<br />
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I think it works okay because the figures in the crowd are large enough in the frame that they can stand to be different colors. Also, each figure is pretty much just one color, which helps. When the figures get too small, little pieces of contrasting color get distracting. (like of you colored everyone's shirt and pants differently). Notice how in this panel from "The Blue Lotus" with smaller figures in a crowd, there isn't as much variation in the colors on the characters. Hergé was smart and composed the crowd so mostly we see only the figure's heads in the crowd...that way the colorist can make them all mostly skin color and they blend together. And when it comes to clothes, they're mostly variations of blue with a few green ones thrown in. Not a lot of contrast (there are a couple of orange, brown, red and yellow spots too...but not that many).<br />
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Morris, the artist behind the Lucky Luke series, went even simpler. He just had his colorist make the crowd all the same color in this panel below. It's a trick he uses all the time in his books. Notice how he gave them all black vests to get a little more separation between all the figures and help silhouette the heads clearly. Also they're all about the same size and build so they read as a group. If you start making everyone in a crowd look too different from each other, they become TOO interesting and distracting. Keep everyone in the crowd a pretty similar shape, size and type to avoid confusing the viewer.<br />
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A couple more examples from "Star Light" (artwork by Gorlan Parlov). Coloring a crowd all one color is a lot more common in comic books than you might expect. It might seem like "cheating" but it makes sense. Otherwise it would turn into teeny, tiny spots of color and lose its identity as one thing (it's just <i>one</i> crowd).<br />
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I love how (in the top panel below) there's the foreground group, who are colored darker and with the warm purple tones (both of which make them advance towards the viewer) and then you have the background group colored lighter and with cooler brown and green tones (both of which make them recede into the background), giving the picture depth.<br />
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Also, it's a cool technique to use subtle variations within the palette to differentiate hair, shirts, pants, etc.</div>
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In this big group shot below, the crowd in the foreground is again colored the same way, with little variations within the same brown color scheme. And the background crowd (on the other side of the space ship) doesn't have any variation to make them look like they are father away (objects have less contrast and variation in color the further away from us they are, due to atmospheric perspective--basically particles in the air, like water, smog and smoke).</div>
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Another similar solution from Conrad's "Donito". He draws the foreground characters very distinctly but the background ones are a little more loosely suggested. Then the foreground characters have full color (although they're all very similar in palette). As for the background characters, they're all covered with a blue tone to group them together, and since there's a bit of blue sky behind them, they kind of become part of the background. And as an added bonus, the warm colored (and more detailed) characters in the foreground seem closer, while the cooler colors and more sketchy detail on the background figures help those figures recede into the background. It gives a nice sense of depth to the panel.<br />
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Anyway, that's probably more than anyone needs to know about drawing crowds, but there you go. Someday it''l come up, and now you'll have a bunch of solutions at your fingertips!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-21775767865023449152016-08-08T16:31:00.001-07:002016-08-08T16:31:27.371-07:00Art Adams on Texture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've been looking for these copies forever so I could post them here, and I finally found them. Unfortunately they're just xerox copies, but I scanned them at a high resolution so hopefully you can see and read them okay. Let me know if you can't.</div>
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These are two pages drawn by Art Adams talking about how to draw different textures. They originally appeared in the (now defunct) Wizard magazine in August 1997. As far as I know they've never appeared on the internet before in their full form. If someone has better copies or scans, let me know.</div>
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<br />mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-81754967964744763532016-07-27T10:12:00.002-07:002016-08-10T09:41:25.652-07:00Rowland Wilson on ColorHere is another one of Rowland Wilson's handouts that discusses his theories on color and how to create depth and harmony. Unfortunately I only have two of the pages in color. If anyone out there has the colorized versions of the black and white ones, let me know.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n5eKz4l1d18/SMKnhppeG_I/AAAAAAAABR0/MxTdqVQj55Y/s1600-h/Painting4.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242937112769993714" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n5eKz4l1d18/SMKnhppeG_I/AAAAAAAABR0/MxTdqVQj55Y/s320/Painting4.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a>mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-14472772219805176752016-07-07T20:41:00.003-07:002016-07-07T20:41:46.808-07:00Some Classic Handouts from Rowland WilsonThese are from a series of handouts by the late great illustrator Rowland Wilson. I posted these about ten years ago(!) and it seems like a good time to rerun them, for those people who weren't reading the site ten years ago. Or born yet.<div>
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Rowland did quite a few magazine cartoons over the years and helped create the type for "Schoolhouse Rock." He worked at Disney for a while and I used to sit in a cubicle across from him during the making of "Hercules". He was an amazingly nice guy.</div>
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These handouts are about painting light and have a lot of useful information about values and creating focus. Enjoy!</div>
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mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-71437399282777073092016-06-22T19:44:00.001-07:002016-06-22T19:44:25.255-07:00"Landmarks You Should Know"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here are a couple of useful pages from Andrew Loomis' book "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth" that show exactly which landmarks can be seen on the surface of the human figure.</div>
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Most surface "landmarks" are created by bones that are near the surface, or when a muscle connects to a bone and you can see the result of this insertion or connection on the skin.<br />
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These landmarks are important to know in order to do a solid drawing because these lines that are created on the surface are the indicators of which way a body is twisting and turning in space.<br />
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There are many wide open, blank spaces on the human form so the few surface lines we have to work with become very important, especially from certain angles.<br />
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In my experience, it's much easier to show how figures are oriented in space when you are drawing a figure that is clothed. Wrinkles, seams, collars and things like sleeve openings make it easy to show how limbs and forms are tilting and twisting.<br />
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The top of the skirt and the back line of the girl's top say a lot in these simple sketches:</div>
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Wrinkles can be an artist's best friend when describing form...<br />
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...but wrinkles aren't necessary to show form and every character doesn't need to be a slob who never irons his clothes. The creases and cuffs of a pressed suit or a plain, unwrinkled dress can be just as helpful. Clothes always have some amount of wrinkles caused by the body moving against the fabric, as well as collars, seams, belts, etc. to show form on the surface. Things like jewelry can help too.<br />
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It took me a while to get used to drawing digitally (and I still spend much of my time drawing on paper), but one of the things I like about drawing digitally is that you can really draw through things like clothes more completely. Here's what I mean:</div>
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So in any case, these landmarks Loomis talks about are important for life drawing to show direction and form, and they are indispensable for the same reasons whenever we depict an animated character that isn't wearing clothes.</div>
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The challenge of designing a character like Tarzan is figuring out how to give his skin enough landmarks so we can see his form as it twists, turns and moves through space without creating so many details that it takes forever to draw or becomes unappealing through too much fussy detail.</div>
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In many of these frames, the cast shadows also help at indicating his form and showing shape.</div>
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So the challenge with Tarzan is to create enough lines to give him dimension and feel muscular without getting too busy or unappealing. But how do you show dimension and form when dealing with a character <i>without </i>all those muscles?</div>
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Ariel doesn't wear a shirt so she presents a similar challenge. However, she's not muscle bound like Tarzan. She's much younger and if she was muscular she'd start feeling older than she's supposed to be. Also, in my experience, the more surface lines you add to a character, the older they start to look. Triton has quite a few muscles so it looks okay to give him lines denoting his musculature, but if--for example---you gave Ariel a line denoting the bottom of her rib cage like Triton has, I think she'd start to look older and more muscular. That might hurt the feeling of the story...that she's a young girl who's a bit naive and vulnerable, and that she's going out into a scary world she's unprepared for. She's on the verge of becoming an adult, but she's still a kid in some ways. </div>
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But still, you want some kind of surface line to indicate form. How are you going to indicate twists and turns in her torso without some line to show direction? That's why it's so important for her to have a strap that encircles her back.</div>
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As far as the front of Ariel, the two clamshells are helpful for showing form and orienting us to which way her torso is facing, as well as the division between her torso and her tail. It was very smart to design it in the "V" shape. It goes high over the hips and lower in front and that makes it always easy to see which way her hips are oriented. Also, the bellybutton is very helpful to show direction as well as what's happening with the form.</div>
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Bellybuttons are really, really useful for this sort of thing. Belly buttons are great for showing squash...<br />
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....stretch...<br />
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...and twists when the hips and shoulders are pointing in different directions.<br />
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The bellybutton is a very useful landmark. Use it to your advantage!<br />
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Mowgli from "The Jingle Book" is another interesting challenge. He doesn't have much in the way of musculature to help show form, again because he's too young. Also, the whole point of the story is that he's vulnerable, so making him slight really helps support that.<br />
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With Mowgli, it seems that the animators often used his elbows, kneecaps and spine to help show form. Also, he has a line down the middle of his chest to help show orientation.<br />
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They also sometimes indicate his belly fat when his torso is bent down towards his hips. It gives him a feeling of "baby fat" that really sells his age and helps show form when appropriate.<br />
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Anyway, take a look at Loomis's landmarks and remember how helpful they can be when trying to show orientation and form in the nude or partially clothed figure.<br />
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<br />mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-82147079530093711502016-05-10T08:30:00.000-07:002016-05-10T08:30:04.415-07:00Jesus from The Big LebowskiI often talk about character introductions and how important they are. I think animated films could be better in this area so I bring it up frequently.<br />
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Why is a good introduction important? It can be a great shorthand to tell the audience exactly who this character is, what they're all about and what they want. Film is all about economy and if you can make a powerful statement quickly then you've done yourself a favor. Strong characters with clear personalities and wants are central to making a movie work. If you can create strong characters with a lot of drive who are in conflict with each other, you are going to have a more interesting and dynamic story. So if you can make a powerful statement right off the bat and communicate who each character is strongly and efficiently, then you can get back to telling your story and you don't have to constantly remind the audience who the characters are and what they want.<br />
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So here's the introduction of Jesus from "The Big Lebowski" (which is on Amazon Prime for free right now, if you haven't seen it or want to see it again). The language is NSFW.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Euaxoe4XMls" width="560"></iframe><br />
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This introduction does a lot of things well and it has some of my favorite techniques when introducing a character. I always like when we see close shots to see pieces of a character before the camera reveals all of them. It always creates a sense of mystery about the character. What do they look like? Also, it can help create a sense of anticipation so the audience really wants to see the reveal of what they look like from heard to toe, or maybe see what their face looks like, depending on how you do it.<br />
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It's not appropriate for every character, but seeing pieces of Jesus here works well because the little details are interesting and tell you a lot about him. The wrist brace, the jewelry, the all-purple wardrobe and the polished fingernail all give you a good sense of what type of person this is. In the fingernail shot, I like that you can see his face reflected in a distorted way. Again, it creates a sense of mystery about him and makes you want to see his real face.<br />
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The next shots really show a lot of thought an care about his character. Licking the bowling ball...the hairnet...the monogrammed purple jumpsuit...even how intense and serious he is about bowling and how he celebrates by doing a little arrogant dance...all of these great details tell you exactly what type of person he is.<br />
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The other element I always like to have in a character introduction is finding out what other characters think of this person. When you see Jesus's teammate, it seems like this guy looks up to and is impressed by Jesus.<br />
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Then you get the reaction of The Dude and Walter, who tell us what they think of him. The Dude confirms what we suspected: the Jesus is a good bowler, and we find out that The Dude is intimidated by him. Then Walter reveals a different side of Jesus that confirms the creepy vibe we get from Jesus...yes, he actually is a bit creepy. But it's also interesting to see the vulnerability on Jesus's face when that guy comes to the door. It humanizes him a little bit.<br />
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One last aspect I love is the music. The music does a great job of getting us into Jesus's head. That's the music he hears in his head and makes us see how awesome he thinks he is. It's also a nice choice because it's a version of "Hotel California" by The Eagles, which is a band that The Dude says in the film that he despises. So on a subtle level, it's a good choice because The Dude and Jesus are antagonistic towards each other.<br />
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So that's about two minutes worth of film with a ton of information packed in, and it's entertaining to watch as well, which, in some ways, may be the most important part of any character introduction!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-44451094009139865942016-03-30T15:26:00.001-07:002016-03-30T15:26:15.532-07:00How Format Affects ContentOne of the aspects of making mainstream feature movies that may or may not be obvious is how much the format can affect content.<br />
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There's a good reason that a movies tend to be two hours long, as Hitchcock says. We humans can't really sit still for too long, and once you hit that two hour mark, you're really pushing it. So films are made in a certain way because of this basic fact of human physiology, and many people may not even be aware of it.<br />
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Films (at least American, mainstream ones) tend to have a fairly brisk pace. Most films don't linger in one place too long. There aren't usually a lot of moments of characters interacting or having introspective moments other that what's necessary to convey the plot and emotions. Very rarely is there a "time out" for any kind of diversion that isn't absolutely vital to the plot and the story being told.<br />
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It's worth noting that in animation we work with even smaller running times than our live action counterparts. In general, animation is much more expensive and labor-intensive than live action, and every minute you add to the running time equals a lot of money that has to be spent to get it done. Also, we tend to aim for a general audience, and that can include young children who aren't really able (or interested enough) to sit through a three-and-a-half-hour director's cut of a movie.<br />
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Over my years as an animator and a story artist, this has always lead to one of the most difficult (and ironic) balances that you have to strike as an animated film maker. Animated films are all about character and personality. My favorite moments in animated films are little moments where some character shows really fun behavior that shows how their mind works. I love it when an animated character does something that only they would do. This is one of the areas where I feel animation outshines live action all the time. Animated film makers are great at finding moments that speak to who a character really is and portraying their inner qualities through performance.<br />
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And those are always the moments that I love to storyboard. I always look for ways in my boards to give characters behavior and "business" that shows the audience who that character is and what they are thinking.<br />
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The rub is that these are sometimes the first moments to get cut out, because we are always wrestling with keeping the film moving. We are always trying to get the pacing to be quicker. We are always trying to figure out how to cut the unnecessary parts and get to the heart of the story sooner. Because, as Hitchcock <i>also </i>said...<br />
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Audiences are really good at detecting what is necessary to the narrative and what is unnecessary. Whenever you're taking them down an extraneous side avenue, they get antsy. They check out. So you have to keep moving.<br />
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When I worked on "Tangled", there was a constant fight to whittle down the beginning of the movie. People would always give us the note that the movie doesn't really start until Flynn and Rapunzel get together. So we were always trying to tell the audience what they needed to know up front for the movie to make sense, but not give you too much and to keep moving as quickly as possible. And so it's been on every film I've worked on: that balance of having fun, getting a few character moments here and there, but not lingering too long or where it's not necessary.<br />
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We've all had that feeling when we walk out of a film and we think back on what we just saw, and suddenly you remember this one part that didn't fit. "Why the heck was that there?" we wonder. And sometimes you'll hear later that it was a piece of a bigger story that got eliminated late in the game but that piece got kept, for some reason. It's funny, though, that without realizing it, we've all become accustomed to looking at films as a whole and detecting the parts that were unnecessary to the telling and identifying those pieces easily.<br />
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Imagine what books would be like if they had to be read in one sitting. They'd be the same way, I suppose...much tighter and without much of the internal monologues or character interactions that are what make a good novel so mesmerizing. One of the strengths of a great book is how you think about it when you're not reading it, considering what you've read and how you feel about it. Since a novel can be read over days...or weeks....or years, the author doesn't have to edit themselves as rigorously as we do when we make films. In novels, there is time for extraneous detours and exploring different avenues and getting into deep character.<br />
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Which is what is so interesting about the state of entertainment these days. The relatively new phenomenon of modern television shows and their format has changed all that, and added a great alternative to telling a story in movie form. I feel like now, more than ever, stories have the option to be told in the way that suits them best.<br />
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For example, when you look at the Harry Potter films, you can see what a struggle it was for the film makers to fit the books into a film format. So much of what made the books great had to be eliminated to get the films down to a reasonable length.<br />
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By comparison, look at the "Game of Thrones" series. Because each season is 12 episodes and not a film, there's no time limit, and they are able to get much more of the feeling of the books into each season. There's time for detours and subplots that don't necessarily go anywhere. And when you finish watching a season, you don't reflect back on it and think "wait a minute...that subplot never went anywhere. Why did they include it?" with the same critical eye that you would if a movie did the same thing. Because a season of GoT isn't meant to be consumed in one sitting like a movie, we're more forgiving and we're willing to sit through more leisurely paced episodes, where the film makers can explore characters and linger in corners of the world that are interesting to visit just for fun and atmosphere.<br />
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Side note: yes, I am thinking what you're thinking. Why doesn't Netflix or HBO turn each Harry Potter book into a season of shows so that, freed from time restraints, they can get much more of the content from the novels into each season? I think they should. I would watch the heck out of that (personally I would wait until Daniel Radcliffe is old enough to play Snape. But that's just my vision).<br />
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Anyway, Hollywood, call me. I've got many, many more brilliant ideas.<br />
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So to sum up, different stories are suited for different mediums. I think we really are living in a new world where film is no longer the "best" medium to tell a story. I'm so glad that shows like "Game of Thrones, "House of Cards", "The Walking Dead" and dozens of other shows have really shown what you can do with a season of episodes. And every story is better suited to one medium or the other. And when they're done well, both can be really engaging, entertaining and memorable.<br />
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Someday I'd love to see an animated show that feels like Disney or Pixar, but is stretched out over a season like "Game of Thrones". That way there'd be more time for character and to explore the avenues that we can't explore in those type of films right now.<br />
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Or do the Harry Potter thing. Whatever. Your move, Netflix.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-4999495150498255442016-03-02T17:51:00.001-08:002016-03-02T17:51:28.638-08:00Straight Up and Down, Part TwoA couple of posts ago I talked about how important it is to give your figures lifelike, natural poses and that you should avoid drawing figures straight up and down.<br />
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It's probably obvious, but the same thing applies when drawing four-legged animals. Animals aren't tables, and their legs rarely form a perfect square with their necks posed straight up-and-down (unless they're posing for a portrait, like this horse).<br />
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Looks stiff and unnatural, right? Also very uninteresting.<br />
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If you're drawing an animal that isn't sitting or lying down, look for ways to find variation in their leg positions to add interest and variety. Don't have all four legs straight and parallel to each other. Sometimes it's helpful to think of the leg positions by where they touch the ground.<br />
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Also, remember that the neck is a great opportunity to show character and expression when drawing animals. A neck that juts forward can indicate aggression, curiosity, determination, etc. A neck that's pulled back can indicate hesitation, surprise, fear, etc. A neck that droops can indicate weariness, exhaustion, etc.<br />
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I'm no animal expert, but it seems to me that most four-legged creatures have the same kind of trouble that we have when standing for long periods of time, and I've definitely seen dogs and horses that are standing around shift their weight in order to relieve tension in their shoulders and hips. I haven't spent a lot of time around horses but I've definitely seen them lift a hoof from time to time to (I assume) adjust their stance and alleviate tension on their joints (like in these two photos).<br />
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It's an interesting touch that can add character and specificity to what would otherwise be an average standing horse pose.<br />
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There are some exceptions, however. There are some animals that tend to have a solid, table-like stance most of the time: heavier animals, like cows, oxen and water buffaloes are so heavy that (I assume) they tend to keep their legs spread wide and keep a stance without a lot of variety or variation in leg position. I think they do this to accommodate their heavy frames and bulky bodies. It's hard to find a picture of a water buffalo that isn't squarely centered over four firmly planted legs.<br />
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Also, they don't have nearly as much variation in their neck poses as, say, a horse or a dog does. To draw a water buffalo with their neck pulled all the way back would look weird. It wouldn't look much like a water buffalo anymore, really.<br />
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So, more than anything, I suppose the takeaway from this post is to look for variety in poses when appropriate. When drawing an animal, do your research and figure out what kind of flexibility and variation of movement is typical for that type of animal. Also, let their personality dictate their range of movement and expression. One of the things that animation does better than any other medium is investing animals with personalities and character, and it's always a bit magical to see a well animated animal that retains the characteristics of an animal and yet has that sense of human personality that we all sense sometimes in the beasts around us.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-77908236173308347792016-01-31T22:32:00.002-08:002016-01-31T22:33:51.209-08:00Cutting for Meaning and ImpactOften, when we talk about cutting in film, we think about cutting as a way to <b>expand time</b> (using lots of cuts to stretch out an important event) or <b>contract time </b>(cutting to skip over lengthy, boring unnecessary moments in the story).<br />
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Another way to think about cutting is to use it as a tool to join together two ideas which, when they're combined, create a third, bigger idea than either of the two thoughts could suggest on their own. To say it another way, by relating two ideas to each other, you create a connection in the mind of the audience that is inferred by the combination of two images or ideas.<br />
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The famous experiment that first explored this concept in a simple way was performed by Lev Kuleshov, and lead to a an understanding of the phenomenon that's referred to as "The Kuleshov effect". Kuleshov took footage of an actor looking at something offscreen with no expression. Then, Kuleshov cut from the actor to several different images: a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on a divan. Audiences who saw the scenes didn't realize that the shot of the actor remained the same in each edit, and they were convinced that his acting was specific to each case. All of the meaning was, in fact, created in the mind of each viewer: when they saw the actor and then a plate of soup, the audience inferred that he was hungry. When they saw the actor and then a girl in a coffin, they inferred that he was bereaved, and so on.<br />
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Another example was demonstrated by Alfred Hitchcock. He took footage of himself looking at something offscreen and then reacting with a smile. Then, he cut footage in-between his look and his smile to create two different meanings.<br />
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In the first example, he appears to be gazing at a woman with a child.<br />
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The resulting feeling, of course, is that Hitchcock is a kindly, considerate man who is admiring a mother and child.<br />
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However, when he changes the image in the second shot to a girl in a bikini...<br />
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...as Hitchcock says, now he appears to be a "dirty old man".<br />
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You can watch the clip these are from<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG0V7EVFZt4&feature=youtu.be"> here.</a> It's a seven minute except from an interview with Hitchcock that's pretty interesting.<br />
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So those are simple examples of how to use cutting to create meaning. However, in practice, a good story artist or film editor can really exploit this technique to get an emotional response from an audience or connect ideas in a really impactful way.<br />
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This is part of what makes montages so powerful. By compacting time you can put moments next to each other that might be days, months or years apart. By cutting to one right after the other, you can create great contrast in each new shot to show your audience how much things are changing from moment to moment.<br />
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In this great montage from "Citizen Kane", several years of a marriage are compacted into a few minutes, allowing the audience to see in a dramatic way how the marriage changes from year to year. The couple goes from sitting next to each other and chatting happily to saying fewer and fewer words to each other and treating each other in a more and more hostile way. Of course, the reveal at the end that they're not sitting next to each other is a great punctuation to the end of the scene. Also, as an added touch, the wife reads a different newspaper from her husband--quite an affront, as he is a newspaperman, and she apparently reads his rival's newspaper as a way to insult her husband.<br />
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Here's a nicely edited series of shots from the BBC show "Detectorists" from Season 1, Episode 5 that inspired me to write this post. If you haven't seen the series yet, there are SPOILERS AHEAD.<br />
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At this point in the series, the main character Andy is having trouble with his girlfriend. They've been fighting and she's moved out of their house. Andy isn't totally sure why and the future of their relationship seems very shaky.<br />
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It's already been set up that he can't watch TV without her around because she's the only one that knows how to work the remotes. In the first scene, we see Andy fumbling with the remotes. He can't get the TV to work and, discouraged, he gives up.<br />
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Andy goes to the kitchen and puts some bread in the toaster. He notices the garbage is full, and starts to collect the trash.<br />
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Andy goes upstairs and collects the bathroom trash. Something falls out of the trash onto the floor and he goes to pick it up.<br />
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We see Andy's point of view: it's a pregnancy test kit.<br />
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Andy is hot by the sudden realization that his girlfriend is pregnant with his child.<br />
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Immediately after that, we cut to a half empty bottle of alcohol and a glass. Behind that, we see Andy's back and we hear him leaving a long, heartfelt message to his girlfriend telling her that he loves her and cares about her and he desperately wants her back and wants to work through their issues.<br />
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Andy hangs up the phone and hangs his head in misery. In this last shot, Andy looks small and alone in the frame, and we see a photograph in the foreground of him and his girlfriend in happier times.<br />
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Seems pretty simple and straightforward, right? It is, and that's a big part of what I like about the sequence. It's not showy and doesn't call attention to itself, but very effective emotionally.<br />
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I like the simple setup of how lonely and sad his life seems at the beginning. The cuts I really like, however, is the cut from the pregnancy test to his face and seeing his reaction and then going to the bottle of alcohol and hearing his heartfelt phone call. Cutting from the image of the pregnancy test to the shot of the bottle and hearing the phone call really had an impact on me as a viewer. I think many film makers would have gone from the pregnancy test to a scene of Andy fumbling around for a bottle and a glass, sitting at the table drinking and considering his options and maybe staring at the phone. Then, after we saw him feeling lonely and sad for a while, we'd see him pick up the phone and call his girlfriend.<br />
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However, the way it was done her with cutting from the pregnancy test almost immediately to the bottle with almost nothing inbetween and hearing the phone call works so much better in my opinion. In that cut, you get the impact of knowing that Andy thought this over, had a lot to drink in order to steel his nerves and consider what he was going to do, and now he's reaching out to her and pouring his heart out. Getting from the pregnancy kit to the image of the bottle and his sincere phone call as quickly as possible gives it much more of an impact and an immediacy. You really feel the impact of how hard the realization hit him that his girlfriend is pregnant and how it motivated him to make a bold move because the images were in close proximity to each other.<br />
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And you need that quick shot of his face in-between the two ideas. You can't go straight from the pregnancy kit to the shot of the bottle. We need to see the realization on his face and how it rocks his world. Otherwise, you don't know how hard it was for him to process all he's just absorbed and make his decision. You might even assume he was happy about the news. As a side note, I often think that board artists underestimate how often you should cut to the faces of the characters to show how they're reacting to events as they unfold. We experience the story through the characters and because of that, it's important to see how they feel about events as they transpire. Every time there's a reversal or change in a scene, I like to make sure I'm showing the viewer how the character feels about what's happening.<br />
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Anyway, hopefully my writing is clear and I've illustrated my point in a way that makes sense. If you're interested in checking out "Detectorists", season one is on Netflix right now in the US.<br />
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One of my other favorites instances of joining two ideas to create an idea is this simple sequence from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome". At this point in the film, Max has begrudgingly become mixed up with a group of young children who have no adults to lead them. In this moment, a group of kids has decided to wander off to find the promised land they believe is somewhere in the desert. Max knows that if he doesn't go after them they will perish. So he heads out after them with a couple of the older, more capable kids. One of the littlest kids wants to come but Max says no. So Max and the two older kids head out while the little one stays behind.<br />
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After walking for while, they start to hear a voice calling them. They turn and see...<br />
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...the little boy they left behind. Determined to come along, he's followed them and it's too far away to send him back.<br />
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Max, in his usual irritated way, tells the older kids "He holds his own" (basically telling them not to help the little kid) and storms off gruffly.<br />
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But of course, as we cross dissolve to the next scene, we see the little kid rising over a sand dune...<br />
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...and we reveal that Max is carrying the little kid, despite the fact that he told the other kids not to help him.<br />
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As we cross dissolve again, it's much later, and Max is still carrying the kid on his shoulders.<br />
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It's easy to look at that cut and think, "yeah, that's a funny cut." Granted, we've all seen this type of cut a million times: a character says "no way am I ever doing that thing!" and then we cut and they're doing exactly what they said they wouldn't. But this goes way deeper than that, because by putting the two ideas together in this instance, you're actually summing up the character of Max in a way that reflects the constant theme of both "The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome": that Max works hard to project this tough exterior as a loner who doesn't care about anyone else, and yet, time and time again he reveals his true, deeper character as he sacrifices his well-being for the needs of other people. So I think this is a great cut because it sums up who Max is and one of the recurring themes of the movie in one simple cut.<br />
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One last example is from the original "Psycho" (SPOILERS AHEAD).<br />
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The second to last shot of the film is a long shot of Norman as he sits and we hear his voice as he speaks with his Mother's voice. By this point in the film, we know he's completely descended into madness and he's become a monster. As he smiles a disturbing smile, we cross dissolve (and for a few frames his Mother's skeletal face is superimposed) to a shot of a car being pulled out of a muddy swamp. This is a shot of the police recovering the car of Norman's victim.<br />
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If you want to watch the clip, for some reason Fandango has posted it on YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYDxxHrlmUg">here.</a> I'm not sure why they're posting the spoiler-y last two minutes of a Hitchcock film online. But it made my job easier. So thanks Fandango.<br />
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Anyway, there's really no reason why that last shot has to be included in the film. Nobody in the audience was wondering if they were going to recover the victim's car at that point...it's such an afterthought to the film. But that cut gives you a chance to cut from Norman's smiling face to the murky, disgusting swamp, and it actually really has an impact when you watch it. That cut makes you compare Norman to the bleak, fetid image of the muddy swamp in your mind.<br />
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I hope I've been clear on this topic and that you've found it helpful. I apologize for not having more spectacular, mind-blowing examples but as always, I'm limited by what I can get screen grabs from and the instances that occur to me as I write. I know there are some really great, classic examples of this technique out there and please leave me feedback in the comments if you have one in mind.<br />
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In any case, remember as you plan your cuts that cutting can be useful to compress time and expand it, but it can also be used to create powerful associations in the mind of the audience. Look for ways to combine images for maximum impact.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-1533546472506590042016-01-13T08:11:00.001-08:002016-01-13T08:11:32.293-08:00Straight Up and Down FiguresFor some reason, when we draw people we all have a tendency to draw them straight up and down. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's because it's just easier to draw people that way. Maybe it comes from our innate instinct to straighten things out and find order to things. And maybe it's because when we all started studying drawing and anatomy, we all studied the same anatomy books, and anatomy books tend to have a lot of flat, straight-up-and-down illustrations.<br />
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These diagrams are helpful for learning where muscles and bones are located and how they look when they're not bending, twisting or pulling, which is a good place to start. But as we all studied and copied these diagrams in an attempt to learn, maybe we were all influenced to think that these stiff and uninteresting poses were the way bodies should look. Or maybe not. Whatever the reason, it's a common tendency among artists. Many times when people attend life drawing classes or sketch from life (or even when we generate poses out of our head), most of us tend to straighten out our figures and make them upright (Walt Stanchfield used to talk about this a lot, and you can <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C7TAWAK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1">read what he has to say on the topic in both of his books</a>).<br />
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On the other hand, sometimes people really do stand straight-up-and-down with perfect posture...just not very often. As with everything in animation, character and personality should dictate every choice we make, so it's helpful to ask yourself: what type of character might stand with perfect posture all the time? I think of characters with a military type of bearing (and characters that tend to be more big and muscular, because they're not as flexible) as usually having that kind of stiff, straight posture. Characters with a very straight, strict and unyielding personality could also be good choices for a character with straight upright posture because it fits their personality. Off the top of my head, some characters that seem like their personalities would be supported by giving them a rigid, upright posture:<br />
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I feel like Superman, Captain America, The Silver Surfer and Steve Canyon are four comic book characters who would never, ever slouch. I could be wrong...I'm not really an expert on comic books and I don't know these characters <i>that </i>well.<br />
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Here are some other characters that (in my mind, at least) have personalities that lend themselves to upright, straight posture. The strict and severe Nurse Ratched from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"...<br />
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...Meryl Streep's severe, uncompromising nun character from the film "Doubt"...<br />
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...Sam the Eagle, All-American patriot...<br />
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...Stannis Baratheon, the rigid and severe heir apparent from "Game of Thrones"...<br />
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...Cersei from "Game of Thrones", who has a bearing of arrogance and superiority...<br />
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...and the strict and cruel Professor Umbridge from "Harry Potter".<br />
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Anyway, you get the idea. So those are some thoughts on characters with personalities that might fit having an upright, rigid posture. But what about other types of characters?<br />
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With most other characters, where appropriate to the personality, you can add interest to a drawing of any character by adding twists and tilts to their head, rib and pelvis masses in relation to each other.<br />
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Most of us naturally arrange ourselves into twists and tilts every day as we stand and sit. It relieves pressure on joints and helps us to stand and sit more comfortably.<br />
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Often, when a person is standing casually, the hips, shoulders and head will all tilt opposite ways to maintain balance and take pressure off of the joints and muscles, creating an interesting arrangement naturally.<br />
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Just how much twisting and tilting there is can vary quite a bit from character to character, of course. A character who has a more loose and relaxed personality will tend to twist and tilt to a greater degree than someone who is more stiff and uptight (do any of the stiff, upright characters mentioned above seem like they'd tend to hit poses where twist and turn a lot? Not really). A younger person will show more twists and tilts than someone who is older and has stiffer joints and more aches and pains and less flexibility. A character that is lanky and tall will twist and tilt more than a character who is shorter or more stocky.<br />
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Some random web clipart of teens hanging out to show interesting tilts and twists:<br />
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Our characters rarely spend time sitting and standing around, though (at least interesting ones don't). Mostly, our characters are in action or reacting to something that's happening. And this is where it's really important to find any way you can to avoid drawing straight up and down characters. No matter what the action or attitude is, every character can benefit from having a line of action that is stronger than a straight line.<br />
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The classic Preston Blair primer on Line of Action:<br />
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A page by Carson Van Osten talking about the importance of line of action:<br />
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People may sometimes run upright in real life, but when it comes to drawing an action like that, it's so much more interesting to give a running character more direction. It feels so much more urgent and has much more energy when you tilt the figure in the direction they're running.<br />
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Sometimes the runner isn't tilted forward, but backwards. Whatever works...anything other than straight up and down can add a lot of interest and attitude.<br />
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Even in the simplest scenes, adding tilts, bends and adjusting poses so that they aren't straight-up-and-down can add a lot of personality, variety and interest.<br />
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I think Hergé (creator of Tintin) was always aware of this. He almost never drew characters that were posed straight-up-and-down. Even in the most ordinary or subtle of poses, he always has his characters tilted or twisted in some way.<br />
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Willard Mullins was a great sports cartoonist. His work has an amazing amount of energy and life, and it's probably no coincidence that his figures often have twists and turns that work in opposition to each other.<br />
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Comic book drawing is all about creating dynamic poses and compositions and generating excitement on the page, so it's no surprise that great comic book artists rarely draw characters as straight-up-and-down and make great use of twists and turns in the figure to create dynamic poses.<br />
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Jack Kirby<br />
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John Romita Jr.<br />
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In any case, I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-89989938185172375952015-12-15T15:50:00.002-08:002015-12-15T15:50:58.332-08:0099% Invisible "Fixing the Hobo Suit"One of my favorite podcasts is <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/">"99% Invisible"</a>, which is hosted by Roman Mars and covers various topics that all relate to design and architecture. I thought a recent episode entitled <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/fixing-the-hobo-suit/">"Fixing the Hobo Suit"</a> was especially interesting to those of us in the film and animation world.<br />
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This particular episode is all about costuming, and specifically costuming superheroes. As I've talked about before, costume design can be a really powerful tool in telling stories. What a character is wearing tells the audience a lot about their personality and mindset. How the costume of a character changes over a story can tell an audience a lot about how the character is changing and feeling. I think that's an area in animation that could use more awareness and that animated film makers could make better use of costume to tell stories and exploit all that clothes can suggest.<br />
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"Fixing the Hobo Suit" talks about the challenges that costume designers have faced as they've begun to translate superheroes from the pages of comic books to the movie screen. Things that look good on paper and don't really make sense in a three dimensional way can be very hard to interpret as a real costume that an actor can wear. And a costume may look cool in a comic book, but a good costume designer also thinks about why a superhero would choose to wear this particular design. Is it functional? Could you really fight crime in this type of costume? Is it conducive to flying, or swinging through the air, or hiding in dark alleys?<br />
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Also, the episode explains why Superman wears his underwear on the outside, which I've always wondered about.<br />
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<br />mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-64010705720673386912015-12-08T07:54:00.002-08:002015-12-08T07:54:24.483-08:00Holiday Greetings and Thoughts on the iPad Pro Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.<br />
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I never would have bought an iPad Pro for myself, but my wife bought me one for our 20th wedding anniversary (which was a couple of weeks ago). I thought I would write about my experiences with it (although I haven't spent too much time with it) to help anyone who is thinking about buying one for themselves or as a gift. I'm not paid by anyone to endorse it one way or another, and I'm not the most experienced or knowledgeable person when it comes to tablets, but I thought someone somewhere might find my experiences useful, so here you go.<br />
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I've always been envious of people who make and print their own holiday cards, and I have to admit it was pretty amazing to be able to create a piece of art, upload it to a website and get my own greeting cards printed and sent to my house...all while sitting on the couch watching TV. What an age we live in.<br />
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Of course, the iPad Pro doesn't provide ideas, so that's why my card is this hacky take on modern Christmas.<br />
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I used the Apple Pencil as a stylus and I used the App <a href="http://procreate.si/">Procreate</a>, which I like very much. At the time I designed my card, it was the only App (that I know of) that had pressure sensitivity for the Apple Pencil so that's pretty much the only App I've used extensively so far. Recently, Tayasui Sketches has added pressure sensitivity for the Apple Pencil, but after trying it out, I still think Procreate is way more responsive. Sketches supports a range of other styluses too, so those may work better with that App. And Tayasui has a text function, which Procreate doesn't. So I created the text for my artwork with Tayasui, saved it to the Photos on my iPad and opened it and manipulated it with Procreate. It all worked pretty seamlessly and easily.</div>
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As one of the rare old-school dinosaurs who usually prefers to draw on paper, I can say I'm really impressed with the iPad Pro. I can't say I've done a lot of drawing on other tablets so I can't compare it to anything other than using a Cintiq and Photoshop. It's a pretty comparable experience. If anything, the responsiveness and sensitivity of the Apple Pencil is better than the responsiveness I can get on my Cintiq. And of course, being able to carry it around and take it anywhere is a huge advantage over the bulky Cintiq. I find the Pencil comfortable to hold and use. I know people have criticized the way the Apple Pencil charges, but it charges so quickly that I don't worry too much about it being left unattended and then broken off in the charge port. Also, you can charge it with the iPad charger so you don't have to plug it into the iPad if you prefer not to.</div>
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Also, it's worth pointing out that as far as drawing apps, I've tried a few but the only one I've stuck with is Procreate. It's the best fit for what I like to do. I really like the brushes in Procreate and the brush settings are easy to understand and manipulate. Procreate has almost every function that I could ask for and I've found workarounds for the few things that it can't do. It's got almost every function I use in Photoshop and eliminates most of the things that I never use.</div>
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I know there are people who are impressed with other, more reasonably priced tablets, and I haven't tried any of those. I'd like to, at some point. If you're interested in drawing tablet, it seems like there are finally some good options out there. </div>
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Some other drawing I did while watching TV, trying different brushes and messing around to get the hang of Procreate.</div>
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Anyway, I hope this is helpful. I would never want to encourage anyone to buy an expensive tablet they don't need (I never would have bought it for myself, that's for sure), but now that I've messed around with it I'm really impressed with it. I don't do a lot of color work or painterly pieces, but as someone who mostly just likes to draw, the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil delivers a good experience and impressive results.</div>
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If you have a question you'd like to ask, or if you have a tablet/app that you'd like to recommend, please leave a comment and fill us all in. </div>
mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-29471016589515654312015-11-22T20:33:00.002-08:002015-11-22T20:33:21.622-08:00ShadowsRecently, I was watching the movie "Anchors Away" on Netflix and there were a couple of moments that got me thinking about shadows, and how useful they can be when storyboarding.<br />
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In the first example from the film, sailor Gene Kelly realizes he's being followed by Frank Sinatra, and there's a tracking shot where Kelly keeps turning to see if he's still being followed by Sinatra's shadow. Using the shadow to tell the story instead of just shooting the actors together in the same shot turns a moment that could have been ordinary into a sequence that's a bit more magical and interesting.<br />
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Later in the story, Frank sings a song to a woman in a restaurant while a Mariachi band plays. The Mariachi band is heard playing but only seen by the shadow they cast on a wall.</div>
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It got me thinking about shadows and how shadows can be used when storyboarding to solve problems, and how often I've seen artists use shadows in an inventive way to tackle a challenge.<br />
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Sometimes when you're boarding, it can be hard to arrange your compositions to include everything you need to show in the frame. Often, shadows can be a helpful trick to include everything you need in the frame without the composition getting cluttered or crowded, like the example above. The Mariachi band is still "present" in the shot, but they're not cluttering up the composition, and the scene is more intimate because we only see the two actors falling in love. Seeing the Mariachi band might be distracting and step on the intimacy of the scene and the chemistry of the two actors.<br />
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So, like the Mariachi example, in the drawing below, I used shadows to fit the dog's accusers into the shot in a way that doesn't get too cluttered and allows you to focus on the dog's expression. You don't need to see the people's expressions to know what their attitude is so shadows are a good solution. Shadows are also nice because you can take a little artistic license with them and bend, tweak and exaggerate them for emphasis. Here, I tried to make them look imposing and intimidating and I pointed them at the dog in a way that is a little caricatured but doesn't feel unnatural or awkward. And shadows can feel creepy or unnerving sometimes so they're a good choice for a scene where someone's getting in trouble.<br />
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Shadows can be helpful to show things like prison bars on a subject's face, to either give the viewer a dramatic feeling of his (or her) imprisonment, or to simply indicate that the bars are there when you aren't able to include them in the composition.</div>
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Famously, the film "In Cold Blood" used the shadow of rain on the window to cast shadows on the actor and make it look like he was crying, because (as I have heard it told) the character was too heartless to cry but was feeling remorse, so the shadows "cry" for him.</div>
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Another way to use shadows is to use a cast shadow to make things look bigger or more dominating than they would be if you saw the actual subject. In reality, depending on the light source, a person or object can cast a shadow that's considerably bigger than they are. When boarding, you can use that to your advantage and get an emotional or dramatic shot using shadows. We've all seen the stereotypical "trapped by an advancing monster" use of shadow (like the drawing below), but there are many other ways to use shadows to make things look big or imposing.</div>
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Another related example we've all seen is the version where a character "casts a long shadow", and a large shadow is used to show how the character's stature exceeds their actual size. There's a shot in Disney's "Johnny Appleseed" where Johnny's shadow is seen stretching out over a large portion of America. It's used to show what a legend he became across the land, but also to show how he exerted a huge influence over the developing country. So it can be used for a variety of statements...it can also be an effective way to say someone is controlling the landscape and dominating it in a more negative way.</div>
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As children, one of the things that scares us most about the dark is that we never quite know if something is hiding in the dark or not. It makes us uneasy when we can't penetrate a shadow's murky depths and see what's going on. When you use shadows to hide a character's face or expression, it can be creepy, unsettling or intimidating, depending on the situation.</div>
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Whenever you want to make a scene seem moody or dramatic, it's hard to do without using tone. Vance Gerry did these drawings to illustrate how you can use tone to simplify confusing line work and sublimate detail for story sketch, but the drawings also serve as great examples of how adding tone makes a scene feel more dramatic and weighty, and the more tone you add, the stronget the dramatic feeling.</div>
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So, if you're storyboarding a comedic or lighthearted scene, you want to minimize how much tone you use to make sure the scene retains a light and airy feeling. When you're boarding a weighty, dramatic scene, use tone to make the scene feel more somber and dramatic.</div>
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A couple of drawings I did to show how adding tone and lighting can make a drawing feel much more dramatic, tense and suspenseful. </div>
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Again, it's a cliché from film noir movies and horror films that we're all familiar with, but when the lighting comes from below in a scene (like when someone shines a flashlight up onto their face), I think it feels unsettling and dramatic because--most of the time--we are in environments where light comes from above, as it does when the light is coming from the sun or the moon. When light comes from below, it throws odd shadows on the face that we don't normally see, and can throw long shadows on walls (and even ceilings) which is probably disconcerting to us visually because we're so used to seeing shadows cast on the ground during normal lighting conditions. Just a theory, not sure how true it actually is, but there you go.</div>
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I hope this quick look at shadows and ways to use them is helpful. This is just the tip of the iceberg and be on the lookout for other ways to use shadows in your work. Remember that shadows are your friend and can be very helpful in overcoming hurdles when it comes to storytelling and composition.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-6907076792926998622015-11-01T16:55:00.001-08:002015-11-01T16:55:31.149-08:00Dani Sulikowski on Head TiltsIf you've ever struggled with how to draw a man so that he looks especially masculine or a woman so that she looks especially feminine, you might find <a href="http://www.comparativecognition.com/researchfacetilt.htm">this research</a> interesting.<br />
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Researcher Dani Sulikowski found that if she took a generic CG head and tilted it either forward or backward in space, it accentuated the feminine and masculine traits of the image when viewed by research subjects.<br />
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Basically, if we are looking <b>up</b> at a face from below, the traits generally thought of as <b>masculine </b>are accentuated (bigger jaws and smaller foreheads) and if we are looking <b>down</b> at a face from above, the traits usually thought of as <b>feminine</b> are accentuated (bigger foreheads, fuller lips and flatter eyebrows).<br />
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She doesn't mention it in her summary, but obviously the size of the jaw is minimized if you're looking down at someone, so that's another factor that helps make someone appear more feminine when viewed from above.<br />
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This information might be helpful for a couple of reasons. First of all, I'm always fascinated when people list aspects that can affect the femininity or masculinity of an image, because I'm always looking for help when trying to draw anything, and I've never been good at drawing masculine men or feminine women. So when someone says "flat eyebrows look feminine", that is interesting to me. I've actually never heard that before. Maybe I can change the way I draw eyebrows on men and women to reflect that and see how it looks.<br />
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Also, sometimes as an artist, you're trying to design a woman that has more "masculine" features or a man that has more "feminine" features. Maybe to assist with that, you can control where the camera sits and how it views that character using this research to help sell this idea.<br />
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Also, as far as storyboarding, this research might help depending on what you're trying to say. Depending on what the character's personality is or what you're trying to accentuate about them, this information might suggest a way to orient the camera, depending on the demands of the scene.<br />
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I'm no expert and I've never done a scientific study, but it seems to me that most selfies I see by women are taken either with the camera slightly above their eyeline or with their heads tilted down a little. Both of these elements could assist in making them look more feminine. A quick Google search of "woman selfie" doesn't exactly confirm that hypothesis but there are definitely quite a few that fit the theory.<br />
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It's really interesting, as Dani points out, that men are usually a little taller than women, and I wonder if that lead to these concepts developing over time as women got used to looking slightly upwards towards men and vice-versa. It also makes me wonder if this lead to the cliché that woman aren't as attracted to men who are shorter (and please don't get mad at me...I'm not saying it's true, but there are tons of articles out there<a href="http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2015/03/5-dating-tips-for-short-men/"> like this</a>).mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-22531246615073540542015-10-18T16:33:00.004-07:002015-10-18T16:33:36.256-07:00The Five C's of CinematographySometimes people ask me to recommend books that are helpful to an aspiring storyboard artist. One of my absolute favorites is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Five-Cs-Cinematography-Picture-Techniques/dp/187950541X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445207939&sr=8-1&keywords=the+5+c%27s+of+cinematography">"The Five C's of Cinematography" by Joseph V. Mascelli.</a><br />
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It's an old book (first published in 1965) and I feel like I rarely hear people talk abut it. Granted, it's not very exciting or flashy, it's pretty much a textbook on how to approach "The Five C's": <b>Camera Angles, Continuity, Cutting, Close-ups </b>and <b>Composition. </b>All of these topics are vitally important to any storyboard artist, and Mascelli does a good job of explaining the basics of each one.<br />
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It uses a lot of old TV stills to explain the concepts (another reason I think it seems dull and doesn't get a lot of love), and it doesn't really provide any insight into more modern, experimental techniques, so it might seem creaky and outdated to some. But I think it's essential to know the basic, traditional reasons why things like proper cutting and screen direction are so important before you can start experimenting and finding new ways of doing things. With anything artistic, I think it's important to understand the core "rules" of why things have been done the way they've always been done before you can start questioning and breaking those rules. I can't stand it when people are determined to break the rules but don't even know what the rules are or why they're breaking them! The best film makers break rules to help tell the story in the best way or have some sort of effect on an audience. It's an inexperienced and lazy film maker who breaks rules just to be a rebel.<br />
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Anyway, here are some scans from "The Five C's" to give you a feel for the type of information the book covers.<br />
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There's another book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Film-Directing-Shot-Visualizing-Productions/dp/0941188108/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445208818&sr=8-1&keywords=shot+by+shot">"Shot by Shot"</a> that's more recent and more popular. It's good too, and I would advise any story artist that wants to be any good to read one or the other at some point.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-27572116953988484182015-09-27T22:21:00.003-07:002015-09-27T22:21:40.703-07:00Silhouette for Drama and Interest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I was watching the film "The Bounty" a while ago on Netflix and I noticed an interesting scene.</div>
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It takes place just after sunset and I thought it was very interesting how the ship, the boat and the land were thrown into silhouette (for the most part) and the sky and the water have such interesting textures and colors. It might seem like throwing things into silhouette will obscure important details and make things unclear within a scene, and yet every detail of the ship, the boat (even the lone passenger and the two oars) and the contours of the land are very clear and readable.<br />
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(POSSIBLE SPOILER) The silhouette creates a nice sense of drama and mystery as well. In the scene, the character is sneaking away from the ship under the cover of darkness, so the choice of silhouette is not just for artistic purposes. It fits the feeling and mood of the scene. It's a good choice that services the story.<br />
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More recently, I was watching an episode of "Narcos" on Netflix and came across another nice use of silhouette. Three figures are having a conversation against the backdrop of Medellín at sunset. The three figures are very clear. You can't read their expressions, of course, but you could still watch it and get a lot of meaning from the scene. By hearing the quality of their voices and the words they say, coupled with their postures, gestures and actions, you could get plenty of emotion, acting and meaning out of the scene, even with the choice of silhouette that obscures their expressions. I thought the use of lighting was a nice touch that provided some visual variety and interest to a scene that could have been just another scene of three people talking.</div>
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I thought it was an interesting choice that, as a storyboard artist, I probably never would have considered, but could definitely be a useful way to approach a scene someday.</div>
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It's easier to create these kind of silhouettes in a pre-dawn morning scene or a sunset evening scene, obviously. If you want to throw figures into silhouette in the middle of the day, you could always put them in shadow, or in a dark room or a tunnel, or something. </div>
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Certain comic artists are great at using silhouette to simplify panels and direct the eye where they want it to go. Also, silhouette can make a panel visually exciting and dramatic, just by throwing some of the panel into silhouette.</div>
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Here's a panel from Alex Toth's "Bravo for Adventure". Notice how in the top right panel, Toth throws the main character into silhouette. The character's body language carries his acting in a way that works…having the character be in the light and seeing detail on the character wouldn't have made the pose or expression any clearer (and we'd be looking at the back of his head anyway…not very interesting). So silhouette is clearly a good choice.</div>
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In the lower right panel, I like how Toth used silhouette to direct your eye to exactly what was important about the frame: the expressions of the man and woman. The men in the background and the plane aren't important, and the men's expressions wouldn't be readable at that distance (and they're not important). So silhouette helps simplify and tell you what's important, as well as giving the panel a dramatic feel that it wouldn't have otherwise. The figures and the airplane read really well in silhouette too…both people and airplanes have very distinct shapes!</div>
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Another great page from the same book. In the top left panel, two characters are being confronted by a man. They are illuminated by a car's headlights. I really like the way the silhouette of the car makes it instantly readable. I love how the harsh high-contrast lighting of the headlights makes the scene dramatic, and I think it's really interesting how the man with the gun is thrown into silhouette, and that allows his to "read" against the two characters in the background. The character he overlaps has complicated textures on his jacket, and drawing a character overlapping that pattern could be visually confusing. But putting the figure into silhouette eliminates that problem. And it supports the story…the two characters don't know the identity of the man confronting them, so the silhouette helps the dramatic feeling of mystery (and keeps the reader from getting clues which would reveal his identity).</div>
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Hopefully these provide a little inspiration and give you some ideas. I can post some more examples soon (there are certainly a plethora of comic artists that are great with silhouette and have used it to great effect). Let me know if you have any questions!</div>
mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-75143122475628204272015-09-04T16:30:00.001-07:002015-09-04T16:30:09.623-07:00Setups and PayoffsSetting up ideas and paying them off is a big useful technique in making movies and telling stories. A story can't be a random collection of events with no connection to anything. The events in the story need to be there for a reason and they need to build on each other to tell the narrative and give the tale meaning. By setting up ideas and paying them off, you can accomplish a lot of things that aren't really possible in any other way. One of the most useful ways of using setups and payoffs is to show how much a character has changed. <br />
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For example, if you setup that your heroine is unable (or unwilling) to do something at the beginning of your story, and then you pay it off by showing she's able (or willing) to do that same thing at the end of the story, you've shown character growth.<br />
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The trick is that, in order for them to work, setups can't <i>feel</i> like setups. If the audience realizes they're watching a setup for a later payoff, it takes them out of the movie and ruins the effectiveness of the payoff. Setups need to feel like an organic part of the unfolding of the story in order to work.<br />
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When I saw the Coen brothers' remake of "True Grit" (2010), I was struck by a couple of ways they used setups and payoffs. I haven't seen the film since then, so I hope I'm remembering this correctly…SPOILERS AHEAD.<br />
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In the middle part of the film, as Mattie and Rooster travel together, there is a scene where they arrive at a general store. Outside the store, there are two bored kids who are using a sharp stick to poke and torment a horse, who is tethered and can't get away.<br />
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Rooster stops the kids from bothering the horse (I think he takes the stick away and maybe smacks one of the kids). In the moment, it feels like a beat confirming what we already know about Rooster: he's a prickly guy and doesn't mind thumping a couple of kids. Also, we know he's a lawman of sorts and so he must have a sense of right and wrong, and we can surmise that seeing the injustice of the animal abuse probably offends his sense of morality.<br />
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At the end of the movie, when Mattie has been bitten by poisonous snakes and she needs to be rushed to a doctor, we see that Rooster is so desperate to get her medical aid that he uses his knife to stab her beloved horse in the haunches, forcing the poor horse to run faster.<br />
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These two moments--when taken together--show that he is not the type of person to abuse an animal lightly…in fact, he's so offended by the idea that he won't allow other people to do it in his presence. But when it comes to saving Mattie, he will put that aside in order to save her life.<br />
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This is a nice way of showing how much she means to him, and this ending is a nice contrast to the beginning of the film, when these two characters were at odds and couldn't stand each other. He doesn't want to travel with her and even tries to abandon her in the beginning so he won't have to deal with her. At the end of the movie, he cares so much for her that he will cast aside his own personal code to assist her and save her life.<br />
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There's another setup and payoff example in True Grit that I find very interesting. At one point, when Rooster is bedding down for the night in his bedroll, the other characters notice that he circles his bedroll with a rope before he goes to sleep. When they ask way, he tells them it's to keep snakes away from his bedroll at night.<br />
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In the moment it doesn't seem like a setup, it just comes off as a weird quirky thing that Rooster does. He's full of odd behaviors--it's part of his character--and just seems like one more odd thing that he practices.<br />
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The climax of the movie, of course, is Mattie falling into a cave full of dangerous snakes.<br />
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So why do I see this earlier Rooster scene as a setup? It's a way of introducing the idea of snakes into the movie, and giving someone in the movie a chance to say "snakes are present here, and they can be dangerous". That way, when Mattie falls into the cave in the end, it doesn't seem like a completely random even that happens by chance. It's an idea and a threat that has already been present in the movie and feels more organic because of that.<br />
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I know a lot of people will think I'm reading too much into this, but I can only say that my experience making films makes me think that this is what the Coen brothers intended. Good film makers (and the Coens are certainly that) don't put ideas into their films just to put them there. In a good film, everything is there for a reason, and I doubt the Coens would include the snake bedroll moment just for entertainment. I think they wanted to introduce the idea of snakes and the threat of snakebites before they became such an important plot point late in the film. Without this type of setup, the important role that snakes suddenly play in the climax of the film can feel jarring and random.<br />
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If you've ever seen the film "The Ladykillers" (the 1955 version, with Alec Guiness), this film has an interesting variation of this problem (SPOILERS AHEAD). Again, it's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember that the film takes place mostly in an old lady's house and around the village where she lives. Then, the climax of the film takes place on the train tracks behind her house and involves passing trains as the characters fight each other. Trains become a huge part of the climax, and I remember feeling that it came out of nowhere a bit. Trains and the train tracks aren't really set up or alluded to in the film and they have a lot of weight at a late point in the movie. I remember it feeling a bit off-kilter to have trains and the threat of trains become so vitally important late in the movie, without some setup earlier that the train runs by her house and that the trains can be dangerous. Some simple setup would have helped the climax feel more organic.<br />
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I think trying to avoid this problem is precisely why the Coens set up the snakes as a concept in "True Grit".<br />
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Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed "The Ladykillers" very much when I saw it. If you've never seen the original, I remember it being quite good and definitely worth seeing, despite that minor point about the ending.<br />
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Coincidentally, the Coens later remade "The Ladykillers". As I remember, they ended the film in a much different way. But again, I haven't seen it in a while.<br />
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Let me know if you have any other examples that might illustrate the point better or if you want clarification on what I'm trying to say. Also, I'm sure there will be some who disagree with my conclusions, and, as always, feel free to leave a comment sharing your point of view!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-28954310039755437042015-08-16T10:37:00.000-07:002015-08-16T10:51:40.813-07:00Thinking, Processing, and ReactingPeople often ask me what makes a good story artist and what we look for in story portfolios at Disney. By far, the most important quality we look for is people who can invest their boards with a sense of personality and character. Do the boards show a unique character that feels like a developed personality? That's always our number one question when we look at people's portfolios, and the board artists who have been the most successful at Disney are the people who excel at that.<br />
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The number one job of a story artist at Disney is to storyboard in a way that lets the viewer understand what is going on in the character's heads.<br />
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Why is this important? The reason is that we experience movies by projecting ourselves onto the characters in the film. We live the story and experience it through the characters. We feel the emotions they feel…but in order to do that, we have to understand what they are thinking and feeling. If we remain emotionally separated from them and we don't understand their inner feelings, then we cannot connect to them on a deep level, and we cannot understand why they make the choices they make. Watching the film is reduced to simply seeing people go through empty, meaningless motions. It may be interesting…it might even be exciting…but we don't<i> feel </i>anything. We've all seen films like that. It can be an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours (and sometimes that's exactly what we want), but we won't remember the film later. We won't feel anything at the end of the movie.<br />
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For us at Disney, this is very important to get into the storyboards as we develop the movie. In order to screen the storyboards and see if the movie is working, we need to understand the characters and who they are. So we spend a lot of time getting the acting and expressions right as we dive into the characters and debate who they are in our story meetings.<br />
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Consequently, we always look for artists that can get this aspect into their storyboards. If I had one piece of advice for an aspiring story artist, it would be to get to know how people think. Watch how people take in information, process it, and then react in a way that's unique to their character. And get that into your boards.<br />
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Sounds simple, but I honestly feel that few people really grasp that this is what makes storyboards work…or not work. It's the same thing that makes animation work or not.<br />
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When Frank and Ollie wrote the book "Illusion of Life", this is basically what they meant by the title of the book. If you can convince an audience that a series of drawings is thinking, reacting and feeling, you can convince them that this is a living, breathing creature.<br />
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For inspiration, the best place to look is real life, as always. Live action movies can be a source of great inspiration as well. I would never advocate looking at animated movies to learn about acting and character (because we don't want to copy what has already been done in our medium), but here are a couple of my favorite examples of Disney characters thinking and reacting.<br />
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Here's a 8 second clip that I love of Lucifer from "Cinderella". Lucifer is looking for the mice under the teacups, and as he realizes where one is hiding, he has a great reaction that's perfect for his character. It's pure evil and we really feel the enjoyment he has at the prospect of finally catching one of them.<br />
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I wish the rest of the clip was here, because as Lucifer gets busted and has to slip under the table, his head disappears but his hands remain behind for a beat, desperately clutching at the cup but unable to grab it. You really feel his sense of triumph and then frustration as his desire is denied. Ward Kimball did a great job at animating Lucifer, creating a lot of great acting and thinking moments that fit his personality well. He's not like any other character you've ever seen.<br />
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Another clip that always comes to mind when I think about great thinking scenes is the end of "Lady and the Tramp". In the sequence where Jock and Trusty chase the dog catcher, Jock follows behind Trusty as the bloodhound follows the scent of the dog catcher's wagon. As they reach a crossroads and Trusty tries to find the right way, Jock reveals his doubts about whether Trusty still has his sense of smell. This deeply offends Trusty (being a great bloodhound is his whole identity), and Trusty has a great reaction.<br />
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Start watching at about 20 seconds in to see the brief scene I'm talking about (sorry for the low quality…I'm at the mercy of what I can find on youtube. Also, this film is actually in CinemaScope--a much wider format than what you see here--and I'm assuming Trusty's reaction is much more visible in the original film. But I think you'll get the idea).<br />
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I love Trusty's reaction…you can really see his thought process as he reacts to Jock's comment. He's totally shocked…and offended…and then he wants to react and tell Jock off…but then he thinks "there's no time for that now" and then "I'll show him that I haven't lost my sense of smell". At least, that's how I read it. All that passes in just a few seconds, but you really get the sense that Trusty is a living, breathing creature with real feelings and reactions.<br />
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When I was working on "Aladdin" as an animator, we had a ton of scenes of Aladdin to animate in the final weeks. The scenes had to be distributed among animators who hadn't worked with that character before. Supervising Animator Glen Keane created a worksheet to help everyone approach Aladdin the right way.<br />
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I really like that first piece of advice…that Aladdin is a confident guy who's usually in control, and his expressions will be tempered by this aspect of his personality. I thought that was a great way of showing how to get into a character's head and understand how that affects their reactions and expressions accordingly. That's what makes Glen a great animator. It's not just that he's an amazing draftsman…he knows how to think character and personality and get it into his scenes in a brilliant way. That's truly what makes an animator (or story artist) great.<br />
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Every great animator understood this. Think of how great all the thinking and reacting scenes are in Chuck Jones shorts, for example. It's often the reactions on a character's face that you're laughing at, and not the action that preceded it. It's all about the thinking and reacting that each character does.<br />
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So look at the people around you and see how their personality comes out in their thinking and reacting to what happens to them. And if you can get it into your work, it will have a great sense of life and character, which is truly the heart of everything we do in animation.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-35440177022961435182015-07-29T16:12:00.003-07:002015-07-29T16:12:55.211-07:00Eyelids and Eye TypesOne of the first posts I wrote for this blog was concerning this page from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Yellow-Drawing-Book/dp/0967591902">"The Big Yellow Drawing Book"</a>, a short book written to teach kids about drawing. It contains some interesting insights I haven't seen written down anywhere else. Including this advice about how to use eyelids to show emotions:<br />
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I drew a few more tips that I think are important to consider when drawing eyelids:<br />
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There are other factors that affect eye shape and expressions than just the upper and lower lids. Obviously, the eyebrows change the shape of the eye as they pull upwards and push down on the eye in different expressions.<br />
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Also, everyone has a fat pad that sits above each eye that can be an agent of expression. These are very pronounced in some people and almost absent in others. They can be particularly visible when the brows are lowered and they get squashed down on top of the eyeball. Then when the eyebrows are raised, they can get stretched to the point where you can barely see them. I drew them here (the black surface lines describe their shape in each drawing).<br />
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These fat pads be used to enhance expressions and even be used to give your character an interesting eye shape and look. They're a part of the face that people don't draw or exploit very often but they can add a lot to an expression.<br />
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Also, eyebrow wrinkles can add a lot to a drawing. Look for ways to use them to help accentuate the feeling you're trying to get.<br />
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As always, I would encourage you to study real eyes and learn how they work to really understand how they work. I'm not a big fan of cartoon shortcuts or formulas and the best artists understand the real thing before attempting to caricature or simplify it.<br />
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Sometimes people like to point out that some Disney characters look a lot like other Disney characters. One area where I think this can be true is with eye shapes and types. In humans, there are a lot of variation in the shape, size and placement of eyes. <a href="http://www.beautylish.com/a/vcacj/whats-your-eye-shape">This page </a>at beautylish.com has an interesting rundown of different types of eyes (along with makeup tips for each type, if you're interested).<br />
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I think giving your character hooded eyes, for example, gives them a definite feeling and suggests a certain type of personality. The same hold true for deep-set eyes (and all the other eye types). I wish more people would explore different types of eyes and find a wider range of ways to use eye shape and size to convey personality. I think we all grew up with books that teach you to draw one generic, middle-of-the-road type of eye, and then we tend to repeat that one type endlessly. It's a good idea to experiment and see what other kinds we could use to broaden the scope of our designs and see what new ideas we can come up with!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-64378640310635194722015-07-14T22:21:00.000-07:002015-07-14T22:21:01.825-07:00Arnold on Creating The TerminatorArnold Schwarzenegger has been doing interviews to promote his new Terminator movie, and he revealed an interesting tidbit in one of them. Arnold was recounting that when he first met with James Cameron to talk about doing the movie, Arnold told the director that he wanted to play the hero and not the Terminator. The Terminator has very few lines and it seemed, to Arnold, that playing the part wouldn't be that glamorous and exciting.<br />
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But what convinced Cameron that Arnold was perfect for the role was how much thought Arnold had already put into the way the Terminator should act and look. Arnold said that he told Cameron that the Terminator should be able to put together guns, disassemble them and load them without looking at them because, after all, he's a machine and would know how to do anything with weapons without looking at them.<br />
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I thought that was a very interesting tidbit. A great actor thinks about a character from the inside out, and finds ways to base a character's behavior, look and speech on what background the character has and what their personality is like (or, in this case, what they were built to do). These are the same things that a great actor, writer, storyboard artist or animator (etc.) can bring to a character in order to bring characters to life and make them specific and memorable. These are the kind of deep personality traits that make characters feel alive and real.<br />
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The Terminator may seem like a silly example to point out, but I thought it was an interesting insight into the thought Arnold put into the character, and I think that kind of thinking is probably what makes the Terminator a memorable character (and keeps the franchise going after all these years).<br />
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I see a lot of storyboard portfolios (and storyboards in general), and the ones that always seem to excite people and interest them are the ones where the artist has done this kind of thinking. Sometimes artists will board in a way that is simply moving the characters around the screen as they perform actions in a straightforward way. These kinds of boards never really work because there's nothing special or interesting about them. They aren't entertaining or surprising. On the other hand, when an artist invests the characters with personality and finds mannerisms and behaviors that showcase these traits, invests all the character's movements with his or her personality, and when the artist exploits these things for entertainment, the sequence begins to shine and the characters come to life.<br />
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So as you create your own characters (or board on a film or TV show), get to know your characters in a deep way. What makes them tick? What are they like? How do they think? What is their background like? And ask yourself how you can dig deep inside them to find mannerisms, behavior and expressions that match who they are and what they're about. You'll be happy with the results, I promise, and your work will be richer, deeper and more entertaining.mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-32901785634442560472015-06-24T12:22:00.000-07:002015-06-24T12:22:05.258-07:00Match CutsA <b>match cut i</b>s when you cut from one scene to another, but the place where you want the viewer's eye to focus on is in the same spot in each composition. Before and after the cut, the viewer is focusing on the same part of the frame. It makes it easier for the viewer to track what's going on, and minimizes the amount of effort the viewer needs to expend in searching around for what's important every time you cut. It can be really helpful in fast cutting action scenes to keep the viewer oriented and clear about what's happening. It can also be useful in simple, straightforward scenes, because it can give your scenes a nice smooth feeling that makes it easy to watch.<br />
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For example, in this dialogue scene, I have three scenes cut together where a guy is talking to a girl. The guy is our hero, and he's the focus of the scene.<br />
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In each composition, I kept the guy in the same place compositionally (see where the red line is, below):<br />
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This scene doesn't have a lot of potential for confusion, and match cuts aren't totally necessary, but I like using this kind of technique because the viewer will have an easier time watching it and the scene will feel smooth and seamless, even though the viewer won't really realize why. Also, to the audience, the guy will<i> </i>subconsciously <i>feel</i> like the focus of the scene because the viewer's eye remains locked onto him through every cut. </div>
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Again, the advantage of match cuts is that the viewer doesn't have to scan every frame to find what they're supposed to be looking at. Their eye doesn't have to jump around with every cut. This can be a lot of work for a viewer and can be tiring and frustrating when they're trying to watch a movie.</div>
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Compare the examples below. I mean, you <i>could </i>board it this way (after all, the screen direction is correct), but now the viewer's eye has to jump with each cut to find the subject of the composition. It won't flow as well and, if you're trying to have the audience follow a conversation, it might make it a little bit harder for the audience to focus on what's being said. If the scene goes on too long with too many of these cuts, it can create a sense of frustration or tension in the viewer that you're not intending.</div>
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It's a pretty subtle difference, I know, and admittedly no movie with a great script and great acting has ever been ruined by a lack of match cuts. But it's one of those things that I find can make watching a movie (or sequence of storyboards) more enjoyable for the audience. And as storyboard artists, it's very easy for us to control. So why not exploit this trick?</div>
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The type of situation where the match cut can be especially helpful is when you're faced with something like this: cutting from a close-up of our character to a wide shot of him in a crowd. Since it can be confusing to pick our character out of a crowd, using a match cut allows us to lock in on his location immediately and prevents us from having to search around in the new shot for our hero. Our eye was already on him in the medium shot so we naturally look right at him when the cut happens.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O2SuI5ubarg/VYrAxzr5wGI/AAAAAAAAGWc/DoQ_SBQfcOE/s1600/ExamplecrowdA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O2SuI5ubarg/VYrAxzr5wGI/AAAAAAAAGWc/DoQ_SBQfcOE/s320/ExamplecrowdA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jSJekdJHdVw/VYrAx0lqxYI/AAAAAAAAGWQ/oscr-5OEP5Q/s1600/ExamplecrowdB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jSJekdJHdVw/VYrAx0lqxYI/AAAAAAAAGWQ/oscr-5OEP5Q/s320/ExamplecrowdB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Again, the same sketches with the red line to show how I kept the character in the same place:</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t9qtFJJiTg8/VYrAyFAIkiI/AAAAAAAAGWU/YpLf7ZNvZJ0/s1600/ExamplecrowdA1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t9qtFJJiTg8/VYrAyFAIkiI/AAAAAAAAGWU/YpLf7ZNvZJ0/s320/ExamplecrowdA1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4od2limURaI/VYrAykmaZpI/AAAAAAAAGWo/CDmgyn73WbI/s1600/ExamplecrowdB1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4od2limURaI/VYrAykmaZpI/AAAAAAAAGWo/CDmgyn73WbI/s320/ExamplecrowdB1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here are a few examples from the beginning of the truck chase from "Raiders of the Lost Ark". I seem to use that sequence to illustrate everything on this blog, and I apologize…to find examples, I'm at the mercy of what I can find on youtube and I couldn't find any of the other examples I was looking for. </div>
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Here's the whole sequence if you're interested. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FVdRfnLPypE" width="560"></iframe></div>
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Here are some screen grabs with a few comments about how the match cuts work. They're pretty simple and straightforward, and I would doubt that many of them are necessarily planned out, but I would bet the editor chose the staring and ending frames for each cut to make as many match cuts as possible, because, when you watch the sequence, some of them work quite well.</div>
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In the first cut, you go from Indy saying "what truck?"...</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qMG-DBAEpn4/VYrzN4h4v5I/AAAAAAAAGXA/wNg9la5G0U0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.41.15%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qMG-DBAEpn4/VYrzN4h4v5I/AAAAAAAAGXA/wNg9la5G0U0/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.41.15%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…to the truck, in the center of the frame, right where Indy's head was.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X9a4h5aLrl8/VYrzS_o8w9I/AAAAAAAAGXI/3e2CvUZp3aU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.41.59%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X9a4h5aLrl8/VYrzS_o8w9I/AAAAAAAAGXI/3e2CvUZp3aU/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.41.59%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The truck drives through the scene, ending at the upper center of the screen…<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ul6140P1UeY/VYrzSxBzB_I/AAAAAAAAGXM/fsDptbuFBsw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.47.09%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ul6140P1UeY/VYrzSxBzB_I/AAAAAAAAGXM/fsDptbuFBsw/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.47.09%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…and we cut to the ark, in the center of the screen.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PdaaSnEOeg0/VYrzS4Yq5iI/AAAAAAAAGXQ/NjCaXzBhe8k/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.47.22%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PdaaSnEOeg0/VYrzS4Yq5iI/AAAAAAAAGXQ/NjCaXzBhe8k/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.47.22%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The camera pans with the Ark as it's moved, and it ends up just right of the center of the frame...<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7rK6IEljVrw/VYrzTQqqBYI/AAAAAAAAGXU/Tyy4L9bDsMw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.48.35%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7rK6IEljVrw/VYrzTQqqBYI/AAAAAAAAGXU/Tyy4L9bDsMw/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.48.35%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…which happens to be exactly where our heroes are in the next scene...<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-278C5_JtXBw/VYrzTiiJQbI/AAAAAAAAGXc/eDv6Q9ArPiw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.49.13%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-278C5_JtXBw/VYrzTiiJQbI/AAAAAAAAGXc/eDv6Q9ArPiw/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.49.13%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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…and where the Ark is in the next scene as well (lower screen, just right of center).</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FLO4YDBD8Dg/VYr0elSAv0I/AAAAAAAAGX4/hyI8wrwH1gc/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.49.46%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FLO4YDBD8Dg/VYr0elSAv0I/AAAAAAAAGX4/hyI8wrwH1gc/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.49.46%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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These next few aren't quite as exact, but as you watch the clip, you'll see that you are easily able to track the characters through the cuts because they are basically in the same place before and after the cut. As villain Belloq climbs into this car...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K-6anb9gtCI/VYr0eZeUzTI/AAAAAAAAGY0/4ZHS0eo2MUY/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.56.32%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K-6anb9gtCI/VYr0eZeUzTI/AAAAAAAAGY0/4ZHS0eo2MUY/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.56.32%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…his hand and body are close to the same place in the new cut.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-btTRA5T4FzY/VYr0eq_LXQI/AAAAAAAAGX0/ItKbGv8WaNg/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.56.44%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-btTRA5T4FzY/VYr0eq_LXQI/AAAAAAAAGX0/ItKbGv8WaNg/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.56.44%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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You'll notice that as Belloq sits, the soldier moving in the background is around the same place...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1dwtrQfB5pQ/VYr0ezUWDeI/AAAAAAAAGX8/0LD7KQA0hlk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.56.59%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1dwtrQfB5pQ/VYr0ezUWDeI/AAAAAAAAGX8/0LD7KQA0hlk/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.56.59%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…as the soldier in this shot climbing into another car.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3FRgsfuR7E/VYr0fmpBZ0I/AAAAAAAAGYE/oSAq13cplQ8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.07%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3FRgsfuR7E/VYr0fmpBZ0I/AAAAAAAAGYE/oSAq13cplQ8/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.07%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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As this scene ends, the soldier starting to put on his goggles is in close to the same area...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xTPQtwxVohU/VYr0f78poeI/AAAAAAAAGYI/DtdADKXHvO0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.18%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xTPQtwxVohU/VYr0f78poeI/AAAAAAAAGYI/DtdADKXHvO0/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.18%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…as he is as he finishes the action of putting on his goggles (cutting on an action like that is another good way to smooth out your cutting and helps the audience focus in on the person you want them to be looking at).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i1JC0KM6F6I/VYr0gHxTiYI/AAAAAAAAGYQ/vrQM_PZlGyY/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.25%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i1JC0KM6F6I/VYr0gHxTiYI/AAAAAAAAGYQ/vrQM_PZlGyY/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.25%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
As you cut to the Ark in the back of the truck, it's dead center, just like the soldier was in the previous shot.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KZTzu7QZIuM/VYr0gewenjI/AAAAAAAAGYY/YEbRLxgW-y0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.33%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KZTzu7QZIuM/VYr0gewenjI/AAAAAAAAGYY/YEbRLxgW-y0/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.33%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
As you're still focused on the Ark in the center of the frame, the scene cuts to a boot starting a motorcycle, also in the center of the frame...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XVTkrJRSvYU/VYr2j1XMWKI/AAAAAAAAGZA/hNWfe5mq73U/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.57%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XVTkrJRSvYU/VYr2j1XMWKI/AAAAAAAAGZA/hNWfe5mq73U/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.57.57%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…as are our heroes in the next shot.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZzbdl-glH8/VYr2j1_SsNI/AAAAAAAAGZE/sqn2VGbo4gU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.03%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZzbdl-glH8/VYr2j1_SsNI/AAAAAAAAGZE/sqn2VGbo4gU/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.03%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p9W5AAk0SP4/VYr2j9iKD_I/AAAAAAAAGZI/oBn-jgd5F6g/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.23%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p9W5AAk0SP4/VYr2j9iKD_I/AAAAAAAAGZI/oBn-jgd5F6g/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.23%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
As Indy leaves the frame, Sallah and Marion look towards the center of the frame, focusing our attention there...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mS1UHCxmDPQ/VYr2kZPRhgI/AAAAAAAAGZM/1BD9w0Jhvno/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.44%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mS1UHCxmDPQ/VYr2kZPRhgI/AAAAAAAAGZM/1BD9w0Jhvno/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.44%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
…which is exactly where the horse is as we cut to the next shot.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HpLAm3-5cs8/VYr2klNdvwI/AAAAAAAAGZQ/XS7GzRpkJcU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.49%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HpLAm3-5cs8/VYr2klNdvwI/AAAAAAAAGZQ/XS7GzRpkJcU/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.58.49%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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This next sequence of quick shots is very interesting, because the horse is in the exact same place very time you cut to a new shot of him. It can be hard to tell from my screenshots, but take a look at the clip and you'll see.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w15SE_iM8Yo/VYr2k-eJpOI/AAAAAAAAGZY/5UGtBXJZ5Lg/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.59.24%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w15SE_iM8Yo/VYr2k-eJpOI/AAAAAAAAGZY/5UGtBXJZ5Lg/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.59.24%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2btQnphNG8Q/VYr2kxFNwZI/AAAAAAAAGZc/E96muwQdr_s/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.59.30%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2btQnphNG8Q/VYr2kxFNwZI/AAAAAAAAGZc/E96muwQdr_s/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.59.30%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GEFUsRXrEwk/VYr2lOyYeAI/AAAAAAAAGZg/jl7vZYyIlzQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.59.47%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GEFUsRXrEwk/VYr2lOyYeAI/AAAAAAAAGZg/jl7vZYyIlzQ/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B12.59.47%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5WfCc4BvyP8/VYr3UkNjIPI/AAAAAAAAGaA/pMT9ezQjQjQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B1.00.52%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5WfCc4BvyP8/VYr3UkNjIPI/AAAAAAAAGaA/pMT9ezQjQjQ/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B1.00.52%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8XD9VFek4s/VYr3Upd5WzI/AAAAAAAAGaI/4m6WOv_DSYo/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B1.01.00%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8XD9VFek4s/VYr3Upd5WzI/AAAAAAAAGaI/4m6WOv_DSYo/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B1.01.00%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kJpRE89y_Y4/VYr3U8QT9tI/AAAAAAAAGaE/5Tj1PN7Rz58/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B1.01.17%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kJpRE89y_Y4/VYr3U8QT9tI/AAAAAAAAGaE/5Tj1PN7Rz58/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-06-23%2Bat%2B1.01.17%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Anyway, you get the idea.</div>
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The last example I wanted to show is an especially smart use of match cuts, because it covers a change in screen direction, which is usually a big no no and can be confusing to an audience. Up until now, the horse has been running screen right to screen left. Normally, that's how the horse would always be running, and changing the direction he's headed would be a mistake in continuity. But Spielberg wanted to be able to cut to a reverse shot, with the horse in the foreground, looking down at the truck below. So he used match cuts to smooth out the screen direction problem. Because the horse remains in the same spot through each cut, it eases the jarring effect that such a reverse would usually have.</div>
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So here's the horse, going from right to left...</div>
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…then we cut to a new angle, going left to right. The match cut helps smooth out the bumpiness of this.<br />
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Then the horse actually passes all the way through the frame, which helps with the next cut. Not seeing the horse for a second gives you a beat to reorient yourself and it doesn't feel too odd when the horse is heading the other direction again suddenly.<br />
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Also, Indy is pretty close to where the truck was in the previous frame, so it works as another nice match cut.</div>
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Anyway, that's a little bit about match cuts and how to use them…let me know if there's anything confusing about all that.</div>
mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-75369798954573756472015-06-02T21:07:00.001-07:002015-06-02T21:07:36.312-07:00Foreground, Middle ground, BackgroundSorry my posts have been infrequent lately. As a lot of you know, I've been feverishly working on my own thing for a while. It takes a lot of energy. And I've been blogging for so many years that I can't always muster up the inspiration to write about something I've never written about before.<br />
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So here's a topic I've covered before that some of you may have never heard. Or maybe some of you could use a refresher. It's one of the very first topics I covered.<br />
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Like a lot of great drawing tips, it seems so simple that it's easy to dismiss.<br />
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I started out as an animator, and when I transitioned into story, I struggled with everything, especially things like layout that aren't always part of an animator's job. I'm not sure where I learned this concept; probably my layout teachers in school covered it but I never listened to them because, after all, I was going to be an animator. And I'm an idiot.<br />
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So as I struggled with doing storyboards years later, I was looking at the work of artists I admire and trying to figure out a way to teach myself how to do layout. At some point I realized that I just needed an approach: some way of organizing the visual information that layout required…some way to get a "handle" on how to approach layout.<br />
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Then it hit me: you could arrange layouts into three levels: Foreground, Middle ground and Background, and that gave you three manageable levels to deal with instead of trying to somehow draw the infinite depth of space that exists in the real world.<br />
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Some examples from Carl Barks:<br />
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This sounds simple and unsophisticated, and like an unsatisfying, gimmicky trick. However, it has helped me immensely, and when used by a good artist, the viewer isn't even aware that the artist has organized the background this way.<br />
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Franquin:<br />
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Hergé:<br />
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Bill Peet:<br />
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This approach isn't just for animation or cartooning, though. You can see this type of organization in the work of more traditional artists as well.<br />
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NC Wyeth<br />
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The whole idea of just three levels may sound overly simplistic, but it's not. Really, any more than three levels of depth to a picture can become overwhelming and visually hard to understand.<br />
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Hopefully you find this helpful and not a repeat of things you already know. Sometimes I find it helpful to revisit the basics and give myself a refresher!mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23438334.post-19119834568143372892015-05-16T13:28:00.002-07:002015-05-16T13:44:41.808-07:00Sincerity<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When I was at CalArts many years ago, my teachers would use the words "sincere" and "sincerity" often. I know Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston used these frequently words as well when speaking about animation. These words aren't used very often anymore (at least in my experience), and I've been thinking about them a lot lately. Maybe it's a good time to bring them up again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The dictionary definition of "sincere" is <b>f</b></span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ree from pretense or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Some great advice on the importance of the subject from Ollie Johnston: <b>"you have to make it sincere, so that the audience will believe everything they do, all their emotions. Ask yourself: 'what is the character thinking and why does he feel this way?'"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sincerity is an elusive quality and hard to define, but very important to what we do. The films and characters that come from a real place and feel grounded and sincere will stand the test of time and be enjoyed by audiences for decades to come. Over the years there have always been snarky, insincere movies and they just don't touch audiences or live on in people's memories the way a really sincere story will. There's nothing wrong with those kind of movies, of course, but our goal in animation is usually to create stories that stand the test of time. And sincerity is key to accomplishing that goal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I think the word sincerity has fallen out of fashion in the animation community, and I feel like when I use the word sometimes people roll their eyes. I think this is because, over the years, people have begun to associate the word sincere with things that aren't actually sincere at all, but are instead saccharine, cloying or overly earnest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The definition of "saccharine" is <b>excessively sweet or sentimental.</b> The definition of "cloying" is<b> to disgust or sicken someone with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I think that those of us in animation are wary of the word "sincere" because so many animated films over the years have tried to mimic the tone and feel of the best Disney movies and many of them have missed the mark. Many of these films have an overly sweet and sappy tone and feel completely insincere. Some people even have an impression that Disney films tend to be sappy or saccharine. I don't think they are (at least not the best ones). Over the years, Disney story people and animators have always tried to find the real, true feelings at the heart of every story and build our stories and characters on real emotions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Also, the best Disney films don't shy away from the darker, more frightening parts of life. I think that's one mistake people can fall into that can cause a story to feel saccharine: they gloss over any actual conflict or potentially dark part of their story. That can make a film feel too overly earnest and create a feeling of insincerity. The best Disney movies find a way to deal with darkness and tragedy in a tasteful way that isn't overly heavy-handed or manipulative. That's another way for a film to become insincere: if the audience feels like you're exploiting something dark or tragic to force them to feel an emotion. Great film makers have a deft touch and can lead you into feeling what they want you to feel without you realizing what they've done. It's not easy, but it's key to what we do, and sincerity is very important to pulling it off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So keep "sincerity" in mind as you work. There's no easy way to grasp what it means or implement it, but here are a few thoughts that might help you in that area:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">No matter how fantastic or imaginative a world you're creating, your story and characters should always have a least a glimmer of basis in your experiences to ground everything. It's always best to base your stories and characters off of real people you know and real emotions that you've felt. If you're trying to express an emotion in your work that you don't understand or haven't felt, it just isn't going to feel real. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Don't ever base your work on what someone else has done. Copying someone else's work always falls flat and feels insincere. There have been a few distinctive animators over the years that have developed a unique style because it came out of their individual taste and personality. When someone else tries to imitate that style, it never feels sincere. Similarly, when a storyteller creates a story because they were inspired by another story, that always feels insincere and you can always tell. Dig deep into your own tastes and feelings to create something original. The world doesn't need clones of something that already worked once. The world always needs fresh ideas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When you're being sincere, you will sometimes feel vulnerable. You might worry that people will laugh at you or mock you because you are putting real emotions on the page. I think that's why so many snarky and sarcastic stories are created: nobody ever mocks anyone for being sarcastic. People who are snarky and sarcastic are often revered for being cool and hip. It always seems more cool to not care about anything. But it'll never lead to a story that goes to a deep level or touches people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As screenwriter John Milius once said, "It's easy to be cynical. It's hard to be corny."</span></div>
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mark kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11953166248647413142noreply@blogger.com8