mipeltaja | (no subject)

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So that's the first week of animation now. This week was pure theory.

We watched some documentaries on the history of moving pictures. Turns out animation was actually around before live action moving pictures. I was aware of the existence of magic lanterns, but I'd never thought of them as a form of animation, which they are.

We reviewed filmmaking basics, such as the 180 degree rule (there's an invisible line between two interacting characters. You may only shoot the scene from one side of that line. The camera may only occupy the other side if it is moved there during a tracking shot), shot composition, lighting, and transitions.

Then we watched some animated shorts. Steamboat Willie and some Wallace and Gromit, plus a few short cartoons geared towards really small kids.

As we left the class today, we were tasked with writing storyboards for our own animations. We will all be making two: One in stop motion and the other in 2D drawing.

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(there's an invisible line between two interacting characters. You may only shoot the scene from one side of that line. The camera may only occupy the other side if it is moved there during a tracking shot)

PLEASE EXPLAIN THAT MORE THOROUGHLY. I AM SO SO SO CONFUSED BUT I WANT SO BADLY TO UNDERSTAND, K?

Okay, so, you have two characters facing each other in a scene, and they're both staying in the same place.

So you start with a shot of boht of them, where character A if in the left and B is on the right side of the screen. you can now continue to shoot them from pretty much any angle, but A must stay on the left and B must stay on the right.

So effectively, there is a straight line going through the spots where both characters are positioned. When you start filming, you pick one side to film from and never cross the line to the other side.

The one time you can shoot from the opposite side from where you started is when you move there with a tracking shot. That is, when the camera is moved there while it is filming. Then the audience can see the angle changing to the other side of the characters and it won't look like the characters themselves have moved.

That sounds quite a lot like some of my Film Studies lectures. :D I liked them very much, and sometimes I actually notice things like the 180 degree rule in action.

That homework sounds interesting. Do you have ideas already?

Yeah, sometimes it's pretty cool to notice that sort of stuff. Other times it's ruining the movie experience when you get hung up on things you never would've noticed if you had't been educated. XD

I'm adapting a single-page comic idea I had sometime last year but never drew for one animation, and something I just thought up on the spot for the other. I basically have the entire finished thing visualized in my head for both of them already.

Tell me about it... When you know how and why something is made, it loses some of its magic. Goes for both movies and books.

Well, you're almost done then! XD Once everything is ready in your mind, it's just a matter of getting it out.

I...am jealous. I think I'd have to see a visual example to get the 180 degree rule.

Hopefully I'll be able to take some film classes next semester. The closest was a course on Film Noir and Women's Film, both of which concentrated on the '40s. Both were technically English courses though. I never really concentrated on cinematic techniques/camera angles and what not since I couldn't figure out how to incorporate them in a paper outside of "Hey, the line of sight from the bedpost to his arm make him appear imposing!" Maybe I should read more articles...

I look forward to reading more entries, should they come to be. I hear animating is pretty exhaustive work, so I wouldn't be surprised if you're too busy or tired to write more on it.

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