The title of this critical report is How to personify non-human characters in animation. From the perspective of anthropomorphically designing appearance, expressions, body language and human nature, I specifically analyze the non-human characters in Zootopia, Wall-E and The Secret Life of Pets. In order to make the video presentation better, I think it is necessary to use some clips and behind-the-scenes design of the animation to make the analysis more convincing. So I select and edit some clips based on my presentation. I hope this kind of video presentation will make it easier for the audience to understand my opinions and analysis.
https://youtu.be/7QjJ2CkJi08
Video Presentation
This is my critical report. It was a very interesting experience. How to personify non-human characters in animation? I really like this question because not only have I studied a lot of non-human animated characters, but I’ve also seen behind the scenes and manuscript of many animation designs in order to know how character designers create animated characters. This will be very helpful for my future animation creation.
The focus of this week’s lecture is on how we can use Harvard citations and references in academic report. The most importance of a critical report is a clear and systematic structure. In this way, the analysis and content of the article will become organized. The Harvard format is that all text in the article should be Ariel or Times New Roman with a size of 12pt and spacing of 2.0 lines. How to use academic resources correctly and effectively in a critical report is very important. Choosing good academic resources can make the analysis in the critical report more convincing. I saw Bliss’s Redefining the anthropomorphic animal in animation this week. This article analyzes some examples of anthropomorphic design. He believed anthropomorphic design can strengthen the emotional connection with the audience (Bliss, 2016). I was very interested in his example of the chicken running. The chicken in this claymation is no ordinary chicken. They have human teeth and run like humans. This is a very classic and basic anthropomorphic design of animal characters.
Bliss, G. E. (2016) Redefining the Anthropomorphic Animal in Animation. PhD thesis. Loughborough University. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2134/27423 (Accessed: 09 December 2022)
The main character is an actor from an animated film. People, animals, plants, or inanimate objects can be performers. In animation, anthropomorphism gives non-human characters human characteristics, making them more vivid. The anthropomorphic style allows animators to create more touching stories and deepen the emotional communication between the animation and the audience. Therefore, the method of personification is becoming more and more important to the shaping of non-human characters in animation, especially the design of their appearance and humanity. Good anthropomorphic design doesn’t leave the viewer feeling incongruous. At the same time, the designers will retain the natural features of the non-human characters. Thus, through this design, people tend to feel that non-human characters are alive, especially by giving life to inanimate objects. Anthropomorphism has a unique advantage in designing non-human characters in animation. Anthropomorphic design can subtly make non-human characters resemble humans in appearance. In this way, the characters will become lively and cute, interesting and give people a sense of intimacy. Moreover, the anthropomorphic approach not only simply makes non-human characters wear human clothes and walk and talk like human beings, but also makes them take on human characteristics. At the same time, because of the anthropomorphic approach, non-human characters can take on human nature if they can’t speak human.
This week is a group discussion on the topic of critical reporting. Many students put forward a lot of interesting topics, and I also got some useful suggestions and references. This critical report discusses how to personify non-human characters in animation in terms of appearance, expression, body language and humanity. Combining academic articles with actual animated films can make the analysis of this paper more convincing. I chose Zootopia, Wall-E and The Secret Life of Pets as the reference of animation resources for this critical report. There are a lot of different anthropomorphic non-human characters in these movies. At the same time, I also read some academic articles about anthropomorphic characters to analyze the different anthropomorphic designs of non-human characters in animation.
Quotation is the most important part of academic writing since we need academic resource to support our critical report. Therefore, we need to practice how to write quotation.
The original quote: The authenticity of a documentary is ‘deeply linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images are linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images bear evidence of events that actually happened, by virtue of the indexical relationship between image and reality’
Horness Roe. A. (2013) Animated Documentary. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.more_vertical
Horness Roe (2013,Animated Documentary) expounds the authenticity of documentary is closely related to realism and relies on documentary images as evidence to effectively prove the real process of events.
In this week’s class, we discuss about animated documentary. Whether animated documentary is a real documentary is a controversial topic. We need to find an animated documentary to discuss this topic and analyze whether this animation is a real documentary.
Israeli director Ari Folman’s animated documentary “Waltz with Bashir” is composed almost entirely of animation. This is a typical animated documentary. It is a journey of memory for Ari Folman. Folman used to be a soldier sent to the battlefield. He wanted to recover the past experience of war from the first perspective of the hero in the form of animation, and explore the relationship between people and the meaning of war. However, different from the general documentary form, animation is unique and absurd, which fully expresses the cruelty of war and the director’s reflection on the meaninglessness of war. The new form of animation challenges the traditional way of documentary production. Of course, its challenge is not only limited to the presentation, but also to challenge the real meaning contained in it.
Waltz with Bashir uses animated interviews with nine war survivors, including the director, to try to bring to life the Beirut refugee camp massacre of 1982, which is actually real. From this point of view, animated documentary is loyal to the local objective presentation of the reality content, but adopts a special means of interpreting the facts of life — animation. This means of expressing the “reality in fact” is not limited to the traditional documentary means, and broadens the artistic expression form of documentary. One of the essence of documentary is fiction, that is, the fiction of reality. The biggest characteristic of animation is to assume that it is impossible to find the characters or scenes from reality. However, animated characters and scenes are all the mappings of real life. All the virtual animated characters and scenes presented in animated documentaries are based on real people and things.
This week, we talk a lot about experimental motion graphic. It’s also an unique form of animation art. We need to find and analyse a motion graphic which we are interested.
Bananas is a short but very funny and quirky motion graphic video produced by Xander Marritt and Elias Freiberger in collaboration with the production team FutureDeluxe. The theme of this work is about consciousness and subconscious, reality and surrealism. The overall tone of the work is bright. The pace is fast and slow animation constantly alternating, like unstable emotions. The colors of the slow animation are basically purple and green, with a bit of depression or pessimistic awareness and mood. But warm colors are the dominant color in most of the quick animations, expressing some sense of tension. Along with the exaggerated animation design, the banana becomes even more witty and crazy. In this bizarre motion graphic, bananas are used to symbolize life as well as the conscious and subconscious mind. The designer said, “Bananas don’t grow everywhere, but you can get them anywhere.” The designer mainly uses 3D models and visual effects to create this work. They personify the very common banana as a medium to express any different person or thing. If the banana doesn’t move, it looks exactly like a normal banana. But designers reflect a variety of conscious and subconscious minds by designing the banana’s movements and shapes. For example, a banana can smoke a cigarette while thinking, or sitting on the toilet in a daze. In the work, the banana in the boiling kettle is not only boiling water, but also can be someone simmering with rage. Although the creation of this work did not use real photography to shoot real objects and use the actual existing materials, when I saw the banana crawling on the ground with banana peel, I really want to say that is my state when I was making 3D animation, especially in the rendering stage. This is my subconscious, caused by bananas. Therefore, obviously, 3D is also the message of this work.
This week’s homework is picking a film for the topic of critical report. My topic is how can non-human characters be personified in animation? Zootopia is a significant animation to discuss this topic.
Story Arc
Incentive Moment
At the beginning of the film, in the form of a stage play, the rules of the Zootopia world are conveyed to the audience. It shows the contradictions in the animal world succinctly, and also serves as a catalyst for the plot of Judy’s firm pursuit of her dream. The film focuses on race and justice, extending the two narrative themes of “The world is the same” and “dreams come true”.
Rising Action
Judy works hard at the training camp to become the first rabbit officer in Zootopia Police Department. The mammal disappearance case announced by Chief Niu at the time of Judy’s entry provides a lead for the main plot of the story. Events that break the peace of life make the main character feel the status quo is unacceptable, forcing her to take action and abandon her quiet life.
Peripeteia
Facing the external and internal changes, contradictions, worries and concerns after the accident, the protagonist struggles with whether to abandon the original peaceful life. Judy volunteers to find Amy, but Director Niu orders that the case must be solved in 48 hours or Judy will be fired. Finding Amy is the beginning of the biggest plot in the story.
Rising Action
Judy finds out that Amy ate the popsicles Nick sold and convinces Nick to join her in the search for Amy. Judy and Nick go to find Amy together, the story of the brewing conspiracy will be layers of open.
Crisis
When the driver, Cougar, goes mad and Judy calls in the police for backup, it’s a demarcation point in the plot, where the forces of obstruction and the forces of the character are pulled against each other. The protagonist team faces the moment of internal and external crisis, internal disagreements, doubts, and jealousy to collapse the protagonist team’s opportunity.
Climax
The darkest moment of the protagonist, the climax of the story. Judy was inadvertently led to say that carnivores are murderous, triggering the animal city’s racial confrontation. Nick was hurt by Judy’s tone and Judy broke up.
Reversal
Judy comes to understand that it is her own prejudice that causes the originally harmonious animals to hate each other. She refuses the propaganda task of the sheep mayor and returns home to grow carrots. At this moment, the protagonist abandoned his original dream, lost a friend who shared ups and downs together, and fell into deep remorse.
Denouement
Judy discovers the truth, as much about the disappearance of mammals as it is about how races should live together. Judy apologizes to Nick, and they catch Doug, trick Mayor Sheep and get the proof that Mayor Sheep is causing the carnivore to go crazy.
Timeline:
Judy Rabbit has dreamed of being a criminal policeman since she was a child. With intelligence and hard work, Judy successfully graduated from the police academy and joined the Zootopia Police Department. In the day, the city has a series of missing animal cases. When all the police are committed to investigating the truth of the case, Judy was sent by the chief to become a trivial traffic police. One day, being on duty Judy met a fox named Nick. They were sent on a mission to find the missing Otter. Driver Cougar goes crazy, Judy calls the police for backup. Judy was inadvertently led to say that carnivores are murderous, triggering the animal city’s racial confrontation, Nick was hurt by Judy’s tone and Judy broke up. She turned down the mayor’s promotional assignment and returned home to grow carrots. Then Judy discovers the truth, which is the truth about the disappearance of mammals. Judy and Nick Doug, trick Mayor Sheep and get the proof that Mayor Sheep is causing the carnivore to go crazy.
Characters Archetypes
Hero: Judy, Nick Mentor: Bogo Herald: Flash, Benjamin Clawhauser (an obese) Shapeshifter: Manchas Shadow: Lionheart Trickster: Bellwether Allies: Mr. Big
In this class, we need to write a critical report about animation, movie or game. So we have to think about a potential topic or question for this report. What I am thinking is how can non-human characters be personified in animation?
Reference – Cars
I’m very interested in how non-human characters can be personified in animation. There are many animations that require the anthropomorphic design of non-human characters, such as Zootopia and Cars. The excellent personification design will not make the audience feel any incongruous. At the same time, designers also will retain the natural characteristics of non human characters. Therefore, through this kind of design, people often feel that non-human characters are alive, especially to give life to inanimate objects. First of all, personification of non-human characters requires special design of their appearance and body movements, such as allowing reptiles to walk like humans. It’s very hard to let a non-human character to have harmonious appearance and movements like humans. Second, designers always give non-human characters human’s mental activities and thoughts. This kind of characters tend to have high intelligence and sensitive psychological activities. As a result, people will resonate with non human characters in animation.
The main content of the first class is to introduce that we need to write a critical report about animation, games or movies in this semester. Since the requirement of word count is 1500, the topic we need to put forward should not be too board. I am very interested in different kinds of animation production and conceptual design.
How to use three-dimensional technology to make two-dimensional animation.
How to combine Chinese and Western styles to do the conceptual design of animation.
How to design non-human characters in animation?
Among these interesting ideas, I need to think about what potential themes are worth to be analyzed and discussed. At the same time, this class also introduces us about the Harvard style of academic articles. This part is very important. Because the correct format is the framework of the paper.
