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Did you know… Between 1988 and 2005 Disney released at least one animated feature in every year except 1993. Three films were released in 2000: Fantasia 2000, Dinosaur, Emperor’s New Groove, the most wide-released animated films released by a single studio in one year. |
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What Brings a Scene to Life?  By: Aaron GilmanFirst off, I want to define the word "archetype". The Greek roots are arkhe- ("first" or "original") + typos ("model", "type"). The meaning behind the word was advanced by the famous psychologist, Carl Jung. Archetypes can be defined as innate, universal prototypes for ideas, and may be used to interpret human observations of the universe. In simple terms, archetypes are stereotypes or preconceived notions of a concept that all human beings carry inside of them. Through our own collective experiences and personal observations of the universe, we build concepts and ideas for things that we carry in our psyches our entire lives. Some examples of archetypes are: The mother figure - (warm, nurturing, loving,) the hero - (square jawed, knightly, courageous) the villain - (shadowy, deceitful, dressed in black, evil) the comedian – (goofy, uncoordinated, slaptstick) Here are some examples of characters as archetypes. I purposely used Star Wars characters in many of these categories as I think that particular film exemplifies the concept of archetype extremely well, and we are all very familiar with the characters. But you will find that you can categorize many of your favorite film characters into different archetypes. Wise mentor - Obi Wan Kenobi, Mr. Miyagi These are just some examples of archetypes. In fact, there are dozens of these psychological models or prototypes. They help us identify and connect with the psychology of characters we see in film, literature, theatre, and opera. It is a way for human beings to communicate relevant ideas to each other. A character animator's job is to tap into these archetypes when creating a performance. As a storyteller, motion can never be created randomly. It must always have a purpose. In telling a story, an animator must use their knowledge of motion and mechanics within the context of the archetype. Each of the above archetypes possesses its own animation-based ingredients. This applies to all departments involved in its creation. For example, the scriptwriter will write about the "mother figure" as being “protective” and “loving.” Her actions will never be violent or malicious. Her role is to “nurture” and “educate.” A texture artist will create textures that have earthy tones such as browns and warm oranges. The mother figure will not be modeled with long sexy legs and high cheek bones. That would be reserved for the “love interest” or “Femme Fatale.” What does the animator do? What are the animator's tools? Through understanding archetypes, the animator uses posing, timing, and observation to embrace its defining characteristics -- to bring it to life in the shot. This is executed through a comprehensive understanding of the ingredients that go into eliciting a "mother figure" performance. Through this mastery of archetypes, an animator can successfully create a clear emotive performance connecting the viewer's psychology with a particular universal concept. And this idea can be mapped or modeled onto any kind of character. This is why some studios have been so successful in creating vivid personas for non-humans; the “motherly” tea cup in Beauty and the Beast, the “pitiful” lamb in Boundin’, the “comic relief” giraffe in Madagascar, and the “jubilant child” lamp in Luxo Jr. Luxo is a perfect example. Why is it that we can watch the movements of a lamp, without the help of any spoken dialogue, with a physiology completely different from a human, and know that it is a young playful child in love with his ball? Now by extension, I believe archetypes may not be limited to psychological concepts shared only between humans. If we look at our relationship with the world all around us, we can find a multitude of models or concepts we recognize and experience in nature. We carry within our psyches models of how nature functions. In fact, in certain ways we are incredible experts in the rules of the universe by virtue of the fact that we are inherently apart of it from our very first breath out of the womb. We can spot the most imperceptible abnormalities around us everyday. We instantly notice a lady with the slightest limp because one leg is longer than the other; or a man who enters a room and you recognize almost instantly that he is unhappy just by the way he carries himself; or even a car veering ever so slightly off its lane causing us to break cautiously. If we see a four-legged monster in a film, we naturally expect, and even anticipate its movement and behavior to reflect our experiences of quadrupeds in nature. Physics, corporal mechanics, and even behavioral patterns existing outside of human social interactions fall within the spectrum of our collective experiences, and as animators we can communicate these concepts through animation. Of course the design of the creature may be vastly different from anything on earth, and its physics may have peripheral variations, but ultimately the animator must pull from their knowledge and understanding of the natural universe to create a performance consistent with the viewer’s expectations of believability. Take Jurassic Park, for example. Why is it that so many viewers, who's only familiarity with dinosaurs were seeing prehistoric bones in museums, completely convinced that the T-Rex was authentic? The way it ran, roared, bit and attacked, felt terrifying and real. No one had ever seen a dinosaur move so realistically. Sure, scientists can argue all they want about how it could have moved based on decades of fossil analysis. Whether the T-Rex in Jurassic Park moved the way a real T-Rex would is not the point. The point is that the animators understood the way predators move, hunt and react in the wild and they extrapolated those ingredients and converted them into tangible “animation facts”. If we look closer, we can find many such behavioral models that exist in nature that we as animators can become experts at communicating to the viewer. “Mothering”, “posturing”, “mating”, “birthing”, “fighting”, “hunting”, and “feeding”, are just some examples of common behavioral patterns existing in nature. Even though species may vary in the specifics of how they perform these behavioral patterns, a successful animator will find commonalities in the world and be able to express a behavioral model in a consistent way that allows the viewer to recognize it as a meaningful psychological concept. I would like to offer one disclaimer. In the words of the famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” When Freud said this, he was referring to the idea that not every human being’s relationship with a long narrow object need be interpreted as a psychological phallic symbol. In the same way, not every character you animate is necessarily based in an archetype. Sometimes your inspiration for animating a character in a certain way is based on a specific reference. For example, when I animated Abe Sapien in Hellboy, I was told to analyze references of Patrick Duffy swimming in the show Man From Atlantis. This was a direct reference and there was nothing archetypal about the performance. On Matrix Revolutions we used octopus tentacle movement as reference for the Sentinels. An octopus is obviously not an archetype. On Rainbow Six: Vegas we created thousands of SWAT animations, and used close quarter combat videos as our main source of reference. Remember that archetypes (as I have explained their relationship to animation), are psychological models that represent our collective experiences as human beings, and may not always be called upon in your performances. To conclude, an animator’s job first and foremost is to both understand the essence of their subject, as well as how human beings collectively think about archetypes. Whether you are animating humans, animals, monsters, or inanimate objects; and whether you are creating something cartoony and highly expressive, or hyper real creature content, you must understand the ingredients that make up its archetype. Know the essence of your character, understand the posing, timing, and behavioral principles that go into that essence, and you will know the archetype in your subject better than your audience. In that knowledge and expertise, it is a natural consequence that your audience will believe you. Remember that archetypes may not be a viable source of information in every performance you create. They are simply a vehicle to connecting with your viewer, and therefore one of your greatest tools. About Aaron Gilman
Animation Tips & Tricks eBook in Spanish!  By: Shawn KellyI'm TOTALLY excited to announce that the Tips & Tricks eBook is being released in Spanish! We have a "sneak peek" of the eBook in Spanish for you -- the full book will be available in December. I've received a lot of emails asking for this, and I really appreciate all the offers to help with the translation - I hope you like the results! I don't know very much Spanish, but hopefully there are words for "fried" and "chicken," otherwise the book isn't going to make very much sense, huh? :) I also wanted to thank my buddy Carlos Baena for writing the foreword to the book! Woo hoo! Exciting stuff. Muchas gracias!
If you have questions, you can also email: tipsandtricks@AnimationMentor.com |
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