Animation with envirornment

Today we will start a two to three class partner project. Above is an animation drawn by Kevin Flores. Notice how the addition of a background with perspective drawing adds a completely new element or realism to this animation. The background comes from a basic perspective drawing handbook that was supplied to me by Mrs. Malgeri.


The background is a interior perspective drawing. the above illustration shows how the horizon line, the vanishing point and perspective grid lines set up the entire living room.




Far too often we forget about the lush environments in anime. We have focused a lot of time on character development, but environment development is just as important to making fantastic animations. Above are three screen shots from the anime adaptation of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". A large part of what makes this a wonderful movie is its attention to environment.

Notice how there is more detail in backgrounds. This is because backgrounds are usually static. They do not move. As a result, the animators do not have to make multiples of backgrounds. They are like paintings.


If we observe the above animation still from the 1959 Disney movie "Sleeping Beauty", the figure in the front is blocky and has an emphisis on shape. The background has lots of gradient and tone ... which is more labor intensive.

Today, I would like you to work in pairs. I have made the pairs for you. One of you will work on a background. The other will work on a series of animation stills (a minimum of 8).

The background needs to showcase a knowledge of:

* Perspective
* Gradient/tone or shading
* Have at least 3 objects in which the animation character can interact with.
* Full color

The animation needs:

* At least 8 stills
* A knowledge of human proportions OR CONSISTENT proportions
* Animating an action (not just 8 drawings of a character doing the same thing).
* You do not have to do a human ... (can be an animal, an object, etc.)

This is an assignment that will last TWO classes so please discuss with your partners. Come up with something clever. We will brainstorm backgrounds. Make this something you will be EXCITED to make.

EVERYONE MUST BE SUPPORTIVE OF YOUR CLASSMATES! No making fun of others drawing abilities.

PARTNERS:

DAMION/GEO WEI
SIHUA/KEVIN
JONATHAN/MIO RONG
JING QIA/MATHEUS
RENPING/NATHAN
MARCOS/TIAN DIAN
SHEMAR/YUN LONG
MICHAEL/WEN
JUAN/WEN JIAN
JAIYU/DAVID
CHRISTOPHER/SHUTING

Please decide who will do the background and who will do the animation. The assignment is due at the end of class on March 26th. The best 3 will be animated on the website :-).