Peter Pan Master Study

ianimate ws5 assign 02 story ideas

originally written in 2013 but didn't post. a good reflection of my process into a dialogue shot at the very early stage:

ws5 journal assign 02
01/11/13 10:24
spent yesterday going through audio clips and landed on what i think is going to be the choice.

the general idea is a car salesman trying to make a hard sell on a lemon. i realise you can take out the opening audio and he doesn't need to be talking about a car. a thought i have is he could nervously touch the car and something falls off it causing him to quickly put it back checking to see if the customer saw.

i feel like i need to be more specific about the scenario and the character. was thinking along the lines of Jerry Lundergard from fargo for character: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gwc4UizUc

and a scenario like this monty python skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igQ18GIqvc

 did some sketching and did the who what where when.  got to remember to follow ed hooks' action objective obstacle, really helps distill what you are trying to say.
i went a bit away from the salesman idea and started sketching a scientist with a james bond type character inspecting his new issue car. what struck me was how adding the 2nd character as  slightly menacing helped with the dynamic of the scene and  to connect with the genuine interactions of these characters.

also note the clear difference in body language and how that instantly sets up the characters and context.
so i went back to the car yard with this new idea of introducing character number 2. the main issue i was having was giving car salesman stakes. why was he so nervous? what worked about prev sketch was the nature of the pose of jb character in contrast to scientist. he is leaning casually on the car but his body is thrusting towards the scientist giving a sense of veiled threat- which is in keeping with a jb type character. it is in this pose alone that introduces the stakes, the audience already sees the threat all we need to do is reinforce it.
at this stage i am bringing in a character that is either a safety inspector or an overly shrewd customer.

the comedy in this i feel is the fact that the threatening character in question is much shorter than salesman.
when going into further development remember to keep the following clear:
head, shoulders, arms, fingers of salesmen in clear silo
head and neck of customer/ safety officer in silo
hood ornament in silo

jupiter run cycle

Playing with the Jupiter rig

Three Flip Studios

toon hole

This is a good resource for looking at posing, staging and simple storytelling.

http://www.toonhole.com/

breaking the joint

in animation, the breaking of a jointed limb is key to showing force travel through the limb.
when an object such as an arm moves through space, the limbs attached below will drag behind until the primary limb has either slowed down, stopped or changed direction. when this occurs, the lower limb will keep moving due to the momentum built up by the primary limb. as the limb swings past the centre line of the primary limb the joint has been broken.

going to the life action ref, you notice the drag occuring in the 2ndary limb (blue) by the straightening out of the arm. Although the movement is slight, this straightening out is what gives the arm its flexibiltiy and ability to generate force through it. as the arm reaches its extreme fwd movement it slows down and the secondary limb to catches up with it. the movement is slight and appears stiff when it is copied.

studying the swing of a human arm you will notice that there is not the xtreme joint breaking as depicted in animations. but its is still important to examine real life movement and see where the oppurtunity for joint breaking can occur.

take that breakdown drawing of the arm mid swing, what if we drag that secondary limb so it passes the upper arms cog, thus "breaking" the joint.

 when we jump to the extreme forward position we feel  the force more clearly being exerted through the arm.

the arm swing now feels more loose and flexible.

surprise take

shot some ref to get poses i liked

                             thumbnailed the action. the final pose took me a few go's to get right.

took thumbs and posed out keys. captured and timed in flipbook

redrew keys and added some breakdowns