I have listed the content of each section of my article and selected a few films that I need to analyse.
Investigation and Practice on the Form and Content of Irony Animation1 Abstract Introduction Chapter1 1.1 Definition of irony animation 1.2 The origin and rise of irony animation 1.3 Types of irony 1.3.1 Verbal irony 1.3.2 Situational irony 1.3.3 Dramatic irony Chapter2 2.1 Analysis of 2D irony animation 2.1.1 Verbal irony – The Lion King 2.1.2 Situational irony – Aladdin 2.1.3 Dramatic irony – Alice in Wonderland 2.2 Analysis of 3D irony animation 2.2.1 Verbal irony – Monsters Company 2.2.2 Situational irony – Ratatouille 2.2.3 Dramatic irony – Zootopia Chapter3 3.1 Narrative and structure 3.2 Timing and pacing 3.3 Characters 3.4 Scenes 3.5 Color 3.6 Sound 3.7 The difference between ironic animation and traditional cartoon animation Chapter4 4.1 Introduction of my irony animation in FMP 4.2 Inspiration and methodology of my irony animation 4.3 Analysis of the ironic elements in my irony animation Conclusion
I read two expression tutorials about adv and learned about the specific steps. The expression of this animation company is not simple, but the teacher thinks it is helpful for me to learn more complex expression binding.
What I use here is a set of bone system written by the people of this company. After executing the Import command, you can place it according to the model.
Build ADV can mirror bone points and create controllers.
The shape of the controller can be edited. When you select an object, right-click the mouse to the right and a hull will appear, that is, overall selection, or control vertex to the left. You can select a point separately.
The mirror controller options are left to right or right to left in control curves.
After modifying the bone point position again, the existing mirror bone points also have the position, size and shape of the controller with the command of Rebuild ADV.
Some options for the establishment of expression controller in ADV
Part2 Topology
The model is topologized a second time, this time with new wiring based on the model details sculpted in zbrush. More importantly, the brow bone, eye sockets, mouth, nose, ears and other structures were adjusted.
I modified the shape of the nose and face here.
At first, I didn’t know how to wire the model according to the structure and then I found some reference.The eyes and mouth are made closed to facilitate the binding process to ensure that the lines of the model are closed enough. When adding and subtracting lines make sure that the four sides of the face.
The first time I thought that it would be fine as long as the wiring was vertical and horizontal and did not follow the structure of the topology. The consequence of this was that when I tried to execute the command to add another loop of wire I was not able to automatically add a loop of wire at the cochlea position successfully.
If the wiring is reasonable, it is possible to add a closed curve with the embed one-loop command without manually adding wires.
The direction of the ears should be topologized according to the structure. The eye sockets should be wired enough to make the eyelids, the structure of the eye bags.
Then the role of the internal mouth still do the structure to ensure that when the mouth is open will not wear, try to have the mouth and throat wrapped around the teeth and tongue details.
Although the general look of the first version and not much stylistic changes but the topology of the face and reasonable wiring is laying the foundation for binding and drawing weights.
Adjusting the eyes was the part that took the most time because the lines around the orbits were particularly large, and as a closed state first of all the orbits had to be wrapped around the spheres, and the eyes should not be made to appear particularly prominent. Another thing is that the lines above and below the eyes should be aligned so that when you do the eye closure animation there will be no creases. Another thing that is hard to do is to keep the wiring of the face neat and tidy, but also to align the hole into a circle.
Then I created the model according to the two-dimensional design drawing I drew. Starting from the creation of the character’s face and then the body, some details of clothes and the sense of fat flesh gradually became clear.
Process of creating
head
body
Accessories
details
The model is still made into a T-pose to facilitate binding
Close up of the model and details of each part after the first version. After breaking away from the setting, the details are adjusted according to the feeling and local exaggeration is made.
The character in this film is a fat man, which poses a lot of challenges and problems for me. Because obese people are more fleshy, both the model and the binding animation are difficult, need to make the obesity out at the same time to make the body meat can be flexible wiggle.
There is also the fact that I try to keep the mirror image principle throughout the process of making the model this time so that I only need to adjust one side. I found that to be able to mirror the model, I need to align the model to the center axis of the mesh.
Part2 Topology
Re-topology is the process of converting a high-resolution model into a smaller model that can be used for animation. This may be a difficult process, but the basic idea is to create another grid that can simplify the original HD assets.
In the past, 3D artists have spared no effort to build meshes polygon by polygon. The problem with this method is that it is very technical and difficult. Engraving is a more intuitive process that enables modelers to think and work better.
The disadvantage is that I must create many polygons to sculpt the desired curves. Too much detail can slow down even the most powerful computers. That’s the use of re-topology. By overlaying the low polygon mesh on the high polygon mesh, I can get the perfect choice that can easily realize the animation effect in animation.
With re-topology, modelers can create organic high-resolution models from the beginning using a smoother workflow than the old box modeling technology. Similarly, if we re topology the model, it becomes easier to add textures to the sculpted model. The new re topologized mesh will not have the deformation and other problems that often occur in free sculpted 3D mesh.
The main purpose of re-topology is to obtain polygon meshes that can be used for animation at a small file size. The process of sculpting with tools such as ZBrush or blender results in a high-resolution model with many unnecessary polygons.
Through re-topology, we get a more effective 3D surface, which is more suitable for painting and animation (whether in movies or video games). UV untangles low polygon models more easily than models with many polygons. For the texture and materials that make up the final model surface, a good UV unlocking effect must be obtained.
The best part is: we can use the high polygon model to texture the re-topology version! In this way, we can retain the details obtained from high-resolution work, but still generate a model that can run smoothly in animation.
Information about re-topology includes the closure of eyelids and mouth, as well as the rational wiring of the face.
Because I don’t know about Zbrush, I did re-topology several times in Maya. This standardized and rigorous re-topology form is my first exercise. Although I have done topology before, there is no such professional training. However, on the one hand, this topology can increase the details of facial features, on the other hand, it can be conducive to later binding.
The mouth can’t be just a simple “hole”. It needs to have internal structures, such as teeth and tongue, and then make the internal structure of the mouth, which plays a key role in later expression binding and mouth opening animation. The shape of the eye socket needs to wrap around the eye, also the crease of the eyelid needs to be emphasized.
The method of re-topology is to first select the original I alternate to lock the surface of the object, so that the topological model will be adsorbed in the original model is, and then the quad draw command.
I looked up some information and tutorial.
Here I pay attention to several requirements. The first is the closure of the mouth, because the corners of the mouth, including the corners of the eyes, should pay attention to the formation of horizontal lines, which is more conducive to regular lines.
There is also the core of re-topology, that is, re-line processing according to the human facial structure. There are several very important points, including orbicularis oculi muscle, oral wheel acrobatics and eyebrow bone. The new facial models formed in this way are like monkeys.
This topology was really just an experiment, because my topology process took a lot of time since I added the lines, and my key points were not accurate. My teacher told me that the position of the “five side points” is fixed because it will be used in the subsequent weighting, so the eyebrow points, the intersection of the eye socket and the orbicularis oris muscle, and the points next to the nose cannot be moved.
Considering that I have decided the topic of my FMP and thesis project, so in order to show my personal project more completely, and quickly integrate this project into my internship project. I decided to shelve the animation part of my narrative animation and complete a general FMP setting first.
I was inspired by these ironic cartoons. On the whole, I’ve come up with some shots. So I hope to draw some atmosphere maps, simple scenes and sketches of characters.
script
Compared with ordinary animation, the characteristics of irony animation are as follows:
Exaggeration of characters and scenes
The contrast of the picture
Create atmosphere through light, shadow or material
The contrast of music
Uncomplicated and repetitive movements
I found some references for obese characters and claustrophobic rooms
Characters
Scenes
Because this character will become a pile of rotten meat from a normal person, so I hope the image after eating fat will be particularly exaggerated. Then it can be felt that he’s trapped in these takeout boxes, like being trapped and imprisoned.
I know that in the process of creating a model, I will face a huge challenge, that is, the two characters must be able to see that they are caused by one person’s constant eating, which means that it seems that the two characters are the same person. In the process of modeling, the fusion and deformation of characters may be a very difficult technical point.
Generally speaking, this week I got a new understanding of the professional process of the animation industry by familiarizing myself with professional film production 3D characters.
Considering that I have to do my FMP and internship at the same time, I am under a lot of pressure to manage my time. My goal for this project is to combine the modeling and rigging techniques I learned during my internship to make my project character a relatively complete film and television level model. The film level here is not the complexity, but the production process. My biggest challenge and main task at the internship was to discard the modeling and binding techniques I learned during my undergraduate studies and to produce it in a professional and industrial way.
For instance, my modeling is almost my own learning, my habitual practice is to shape the shape through low precision modeling in Maya and then add layers to reach the number of faces needed for sculpting, and then use the sculpting tools to push, pull and smooth. This is not a method a company would use, but this method does allow a character to be completed in a short period of time, but it is usually not detailed enough and has limited accessibility. So for film and TV level animation characters say, they still need more details and more specialized techniques to sculpt.
The process I understand is to sculpt a simple model in Zbrush, then topology in Maya, then sculpt again, repeating several times to ensure that the character’s shape and wiring are more detailed and accurate after each revision.
On the other hand, the binding is not the same as what I learned from the tutorials. Although the general process is to establish bone points, then mask and brush weights, but the company will require more rigorous, such as locking certain properties, such as wiring must be neat or topology must be standardized, which I will mention in detail in the later blog.
These methods include what I have done before. Although it is said that both can make a certain quality of character modeling, there are actually a lot of differences in terms of presentation, or from a professional point of view, such as wiring, number of faces, and structure. I admit that at first I was very uncomfortable and didn’t even want to change my own way, but considering that I’m going to work in this area in the future, then I need to make what I do is also usable in other departments. If I make a character that doesn’t meet the requirements, the binder won’t be able to rig it accurately, which will affect a series of steps such as animations.
So I made a plan of tables to make sure that while I was learning new techniques, I would apply these to my FMP characters.
The table of the schedule
9.13-9.16
Role 1 model draft
9.17-9.20
Role 1 modify + topology
9.20-9.26
Role 1 rigging
9.27-9.30
Role 2 model
10.01-10.04
Characters 1 UVand maps
10.05-10.13
Scene modeling, mapping, lighting, and rendering
10.14-10.17
Role 2 modify + topology
10.18-10.22
Role 2 rigging
10.23-10.26
Characters 2 UV and maps
UV10.27-11.25
Animation + rendering
In addition, one of my test items was to align the character’s body with the bone points, the teacher said that the bone points I made were not very accurate, they were all in an approximate position. But he asked me to align the bones every time after that to the precise position according to the human body structure, and to pay attention to ik and fk. this time to use their company in adv professional skeleton system, I learned that about the arm and leg bone point, only can have x-axis direction displacement and z-axis direction rotation, the thigh bone joint through the rotation to determine the position of the ankle, and the knee position only through the x-direction displacement. The position of the knee is changed only by displacement in the x-direction. Including the fingers, the displacement value of xyz cannot be moved at will, but the position is determined by rotation, one by one, starting from the root bone point.
Notes：
adjust a bone point alone without affecting other bone points – keyboard D
the bone point of the thumb should be established when it is rotated to the angle it goes
I have set the title of my thesis as’Investigation and Practice on the Form and Content of Irony Animation’. Because I wanted to research about ironic animation in relation to the definition of ironic animation and how to do ironic animation. This is also relevant to my FMP, as my FMP is also a satirical animation that satirises the current social situation of teenagers being addicted to games and food.
The research and investigation part is where I parse and analyse the ironic animations by finding information, and the practice is to show how I refer to this theoretical knowledge into my FMP by analysing my own ironic animations.
Irony is a literary device in which contradictory statements or situations reveal a reality that is different from what appears to be true. There are many forms of irony featured in literature. The effectiveness of irony as a literary device depends on the reader’s expectations and understanding of the disparity between what “should” happen and what “actually” happens in a literary work. This can be in the form of an unforeseen outcome of an event, a character’s unanticipated behavior, or something incongruous that is said.
One of the most famous examples of irony in literature comes from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. In this story, a newly married couple decides independently to sacrifice and sell what means most to themselves in order to purchase a Christmas gift for the other. Unfortunately, the gifts they receive from each other are intended for the very prized possessions they both sold. As a result, though their sacrifices symbolize the love they have for each other, the actual gifts they receive are all but useless.
Irony is one of the most common rhetorical techniques in narrative art, where the actual meaning of the words is often strongly impugned to the surface meaning. Most animation, like novels, draw on characters, language and plot to develop their narrative and express meaning. The use of irony in animations creates a tangled emotional tension and an intriguing aesthetic meaning in the text, which is why studying the rhetoric of irony is particularly important for a thorough reading of the animation.
Films from 2002 often relied on characters made up of cubes, spheres and other simple shapes. Later, characters became more detailed, backgrounds and surface textures improved, and motion became smoother. A lot of that, Greenberg said, reflects increased computer power and improved software, as well as students who arrive at Cornell with more experience.
But as any fan of “South Park” will tell you, it’s the story that counts, and most of the films offered quirky, often hilarious vignettes with ironic twist endings worthy of “Twilight Zone” episodes: People at a bus stop never found out why their cell phones kept ringing, but the audience did; a chameleon’s efforts to find friends paralleled the tale of the ugly duckling; an elephant struggled to lose weight with no help from his trainer; and a medieval warrior thought he had gotten the best of a dragon but learned the meaning of “do unto others.”
The first animations were all written with a lot more visual storytelling. This is the same with kids animation. You can tell a lot cleaner jokes that are much easier to understand. With adult animation, you get a lot more storytelling that’s based off jokes and dialogue. The simpsons, for example, openly consider themselves an animated sitcom rather than a cartoon.
I summed up my work in personal and collaborative project:
Collaborative:
One character model
One character mapping
One scene lighting
Personal:
Internship — 7 character sketches and 7 scene sketches
Fmp — 3 character sketches and 4 scene sketches
Narrative Animation — one character modeling and mapping / one scene modeling and mapping / lighting / rendering
Part3 Reflection
1 . About collaborative project
As for the cooperation project, in fact, we have not completed the step we expected, that is, we have not yet achieved the AR presentation. This is because we are still busy with our personal projects, so we only complete the modeling at present. However, I still enjoy this cooperation. In fact, we are all trying what we are not good at. Just because we are not good at it, we often communicate and correct it. Timely resource sharing is also an important step for me to promote the project. I finished a character and simple scene lighting this time, mainly focusing on how to use lights and maps to achieve cyberpunk and self luminous effect. Later, we will continue to complete it if we have time. Personally, after the mapping of the scene model is completed, I will do some character animation and push it to the AR part.
2 . About personal project
In fact, I summarized my personal projects process every week in my weekly blog. Generally speaking, the three projects I have carried out this time have improved my ability in pre animation creation. The internship project is a part of my ability to show my hand drawing when I participate in the internship interview. FMP project is to draw some sketches in advance for later creation. These two projects let me paint a lot of scenes and character settings in a relatively short time, which trained my painting ability. The narrative animation project, is to strengthen my modeling and mapping ability, and I completed a complete story board, which is a good exercise of my storytelling ability, but also let me start to apply the theoretical knowledge of lens language and story structure to practice. But this project has not been completed, because there is a shortage of time. I hope I can continue to promote my character rigging and animating in the future.
3 . The way to the future
Generally speaking, I have practiced my 2D hand drawing ability and 3D modeling and mapping skills in this semester. I think it is very helpful for my internship project in September and my FMP. I hope I can spend more time to realize the specialization of modeling and texturing in the future, which can enable me be more familiar with this aspect of animation skills in animation industry. And I hope I can go deep into the field of rigging in the future. My internship content will also be related to these, which is about modeling, texturing and rigging. I hope my FMP project can be based on my project experience in this semester, combined with the skills I gained during my internship, and have a new improvement in animation production.
Considering that I have decided the topic of my FMP and thesis project, so in order to show my personal project more completely, and quickly integrate this project into my internship project. I decided to shelve the animation part of my narrative animation and complete a general FMP setting first.
I was inspired by these ironic cartoons. On the whole, I’ve come up with some shots. So I hope to draw some atmosphere maps, simple scenes and sketches of characters.
script
Compared with ordinary animation, the characteristics of irony animation are as follows:
Exaggeration of characters and scenes
The contrast of the picture
Create atmosphere through light, shadow or material
The contrast of music
Uncomplicated and repetitive movements
I found some references for obese characters and claustrophobic rooms
Characters
Scenes
Because this character will become a pile of rotten meat from a normal person, so I hope the image after eating fat will be particularly exaggerated. Then it can be felt that he’s trapped in these takeout boxes, like being trapped and imprisoned.
I know that in the process of creating a model, I will face a huge challenge, that is, the two characters must be able to see that they are caused by one person’s constant eating, which means that it seems that the two characters are the same person. In the process of modeling, the fusion and deformation of characters may be a very difficult technical point.
Sketches
Part2 Conclusion
In fact, compared with the previous internship projects in the role of hand-painted scenes, I can clearly feel the improvement of my painting ability, can be said to be more natural and easy to draw some pictures. I feel that sometimes it’s not to complete a painting completely or neatly, but to bring an emotion or feeling to the painting, that’s enough. Compared with the neat picture, I think it’s a bit messy, but exaggerated painting is more suitable for the expression of animation form. This may be the difference between ironic animation and ordinary animation, which can be very exaggerated or slovenly. As long as it can convey a certain sense of atmosphere, it’s very good.
What I am more satisfied with is that I have also learned to express the atmosphere with light and shadow, and I find that it is really very important to create an atmosphere. Moreover, compared with before, I slowly began to choose some other angles, such as elevation and depression, instead of blindly looking at the picture head up. This method will add a lot of details to the picture, make the composition look more meaningful and more conducive to the expression of the content.
After the completion of the previous part of the scene, I still feel a little empty, so I added some other small objects, such as skateboard helmets, which are more boys oriented.
Then I rearranged the things in the room. They looked messy, because I wanted to create a feeling that the room was full of things.
General layout of the room
Part2 Scene Material
Image converted using ifftoany
Image converted using ifftoany
Part3 Lighting
I added a fog effect to increase the feel of the morning sun.
After rendering, I actually feel that there are too many colors, and some of them are difficult to distinguish between boys and girls. I don’t know if it’s not obvious if the character is put in, because the saturation of objects in this room is very high, and there are almost any colors, so I began to want to give it a unified tone or use ambient light to give it a unified feeling illuminated by a certain color of light.
Color matching
Part4 Conclusion
I still spent a lot of time on this scene, because the first time I finished the scene, I thought it was a little empty, and these materials had to be modified through painting, so it took a lot of time. Generally speaking, I have more experience in making cartoon scenes. The main thing is to grasp the distance between objects, and then the gap between proportions should not be too large. Try to make the size of these objects closer, choose a smooth object will make the object look more lovely and cartoon.
In addition, I didn’t think about the color of furniture at first, because I didn’t draw a specific atmosphere map. Later, it was a bit troublesome to modify it after all the materials were finished. But I also know that this kind of cartoon room actually needs a complete tone. Even in the cartoon style, some high saturation colors can be used, But also need to try to be in a tone, otherwise it will appear a bit messy.
Investigation and Practice on the Form and Content of Irony Animation
Research
Outline
What is irony animation
The characteristics of irony
The forms of irony
What does irony animation emphasize
Irony Examples in Disney and Pixar Animaions
Specific analysis of several irony animations I like
Inspired satire illustration
Part1 What is irony animation
Irony means the opposite meaning of what you intend, it is something that is different or opposite from what is expected. Using an animation to show a social phenomenon. The art of irony is widely used in literary works, but in film and television animation. The art of irony brings a lot of dramatic plots to animated films, and uses the way of mutual contrast to deepen the touch of the audience’s heart.
Irony is the difference between the ways things are and the way things should be, or the way things are expected to be. Animators often use irony to express their opinion on an issue. When you look at an animation, see if you can find any irony in the situation the animation depicts.
When writing a screenplay, we can use irony as a tool, as well as a rhetorical device, to describe what happens when someone says something or does something that is actually the opposite of what is expected.
In order to do so, we need first to understand the meaning of irony in relation to storytelling and screenplay writing. Here’s the short definition:
Irony is the existence of two ideas that are opposite to one another. In storytelling, there are three main types of irony that can be used to improve your writing and add new layers of depth, suspense, or humor to your work. They are dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony.
Part3 The characteristics of irony
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is the existence of information presented to the audience that we learn before the characters in a story do. When the audience knows something the characters don’t, dramatic irony becomes present, as the characters will act in opposite ways than they should.
Dramatic irony is actually the strongest tool out of the three that you can use to layer your plotlines and deepen your storytelling ability on screen.
Situational Irony
Situational irony is when someone does something opposite of what we expected them to do in a specific situation. Many people tend to use the word “ironic” incorrectly to describe situations that are unusual, or even coincidental.
However, a situation playing out differently than expected doesn’t make it ironic – it has to be the opposite of what is expected.
Common Examples of Situational Irony
A fire station burns down. …
A marriage counselor files for divorce. …
The police station gets robbed. …
A post on Facebook complains about how useless Facebook is. …
A traffic cop gets his license suspended because of unpaid parking tickets. …
A pilot has a fear of heights.
Part4 What does irony animation emphasize
Artistic treatment, most of them have no lines, which makes the characters more appropriate.
In technique, exaggeration and impact.
The use of colour gives people a kind of conciseness, a description of things for the purpose, rather than performance.
It is a work of art with connotation and depth to show their respective effects in art and reality. The exaggeration and irony of many plots make the viewers reflect and examine themselves.
Part5 Irony Examples in Disney and Pixar Animations
The very idea of having a Rat in a kitchen is gross to some people, so Disney making an ironic movie about a rat that just happens to be a master chef makes it one of the most ironic movies of all.
The irony in the Brad Bird directed Ratatouille is evident. Rats, considered the vilest and most disgusting of all animals, in a kitchen, where they are the most despised and unwelcome. Make that restaurant one in Paris, the food capital of the world, and well…that’s a bit self-explanatory. The message of this film is, “Anyone can cook,” which, underlying, is: “Anyone can be a great artist.” That artist is found in the rat, the thing you’d least expect to become a chef. Therein, Pixar executes its message through irony, combining story tact and profundity all at once.
• Monster’s Inc.
The entire plot of the movie is very ironic. Monster’s Inc. is a corporation run by monsters, their job being to scare children, when in reality they are the ones that are constantly afraid of the children.
Irony is most prominent in Pixar’s fourth feature film, Monster’s Inc., as most of the jokes deviate from direct reference to the premise. Monster’s Inc. is a corporation run by monsters, the local trade being the scaring of children (“We scare because we care!”), their emotions a source of fuel. Of course, there’s obvious irony in the fact that monsters are scared of children in the story (used heavily throughout). Also, the fact that the business is run by monsters, considered reckless, violent creatures of the imagination, and actually being organized enough to have created a civilized system and government is irony in its own right.
Part6 Specific analysis of several irony animations I like
Dinner for few
This is my favourite irony animation, and it gives me a lot of inspiration and ideas.
The film tells a black fable. Every dinner time, the “system” starts to work like an oiled machine. This machine is only responsible for a small group of people. These people divide up all the resources, and most of the rest are starving. In the end, resources will be exhausted, the eyes of hungry people will turn green, and a storm is inevitable. Unfortunately, the change does not bring hope, but eternal reincarnation.
The concrete contents of irony are as follows:
The furnishings in the room and the shaking of fat people are equal to resources and technology, which are created to support the capitalists and the bottom.
What fat people represent is the capitalist distribution mode. The capitalists at the top always have a big head, while the bottom is only enough. In fact, this state is extremely fragile.
Technology is stagnant, while limited resources are steadily consumed. As a result, over time, there is not enough for everyone.
A swallowed cat is a metaphor for discovering this unfair distribution and its vulnerability, which shows up in the end.
In fact, the evil of capitalists is logically negative, because their existence is legitimate, so in the end, a new wave of people appeared and started again.
When there is less food, every pig is hostile to each other, which shows that the high level of the capital society is fighting openly and secretly for the benefit of the present.
The reason for this is as follows:
The fixed allocation of limited resources is bound to complete the crisis, if not handled correctly, it will lead to the collapse of the existing system.
It’s a topic that perplexes human beings. Human beings rely on desire to go to the present, how to have a more civilized life, and no longer use war to solve problems.
The film is a satirical animation, although only 10 minutes, but the film is short, strong irony. The pig’s head and the cat at his feet in the film represent the division of interests. Judges, capitalists and politicians are the objects of irony. The goods are replaced with food to protect the stomach. The chain under the dining table represents the chain of interests that can’t get away from. The cat who discovers the secret is used by the ruthless magic brake to cover up the dirty interests. When the interests are enough, it will fight each other to win, and the winner will go to a new field to continue the cycle.
Life Smartphone
The director presents it in the form of writing to let the audience recognize that it is a story. Then a white-collar worker with a bag, playing with a mobile phone, accidentally pulls a woman’s skirt, and then the woman becomes the main character of the story. The same way is used in the later character transformation, so that a variety of characters appear in the short film, even firefighters, Scientists, doctors, etc. These noble workers in the society have also become murderers because they bow their heads. Here, the director uses some exaggeration and satire, not to over criticize these workers, but to criticize them. Admonish these people not to live a so-called low life, so that we can really feel the urgency of the creator for this kind of social problem. He tries to use this work to appeal to people from all walks of life, which is the deep meaning of the creator and the real value of this short film.
This film takes the white brown as the background, and also slightly brings in the feeling of being worn out, such as the paper-based character narrative. The character design takes the strange appearance of big eyes and single one. This case is different from the spirit of each character. The color matching of the character’s clothing is mainly light color, which is to highlight the main body, accurately explain the development trend of things, and use the line color or black line to depict the food such as tables and chairs, which is a 2d picture to narrate The trend of the plot makes the viewers enjoy a kind of dynamic scene film with simple strokes, which is very interesting and fresh. The artistic expression of the film has a close fit. The correct use of color makes the keynote of the film humorous and relaxed, which will really make the audience like the short film more.
The employment
This short film shows the employment relationship in the society. In the film, all the characters are doing their jobs without facial expressions. Low saturation color is adopted to render a depressing atmosphere. The whole short film has no dialogue and music, only environmental sound and sound effect, which is also consistent with the unemotional employment relationship expressed by the short film.
In this magical world, all the tools are replaced by people. In the film, the protagonist, as an employer, enjoying all kinds of services provided by employee, such as clothes hanger, stool, car, traffic light, gate, elevator, etc. In the end, the protagonist also becomes a prop to serve others, revealing everyone is a small part of society, including the man who stepped on the protagonist’s body and pushed people away. To some extent, he must be an employee in different level. No one is the so-called privileged, everyone in this society only two has status, employer and employee.
The village
Every plot in the film is like the epitome of today’s society. The seemingly peaceful and harmonious village is actually a bright tide.
Seemingly hardworking women always secretly pick the fruit from the tree when sweeping the floor;
It should have represented that the holy priest was addicted to alcohol and always abused his power to do things against the holy way;
The prisoners in the dungeon pretend to be obedient, but actually plan to escape;
There was a big box of gold under the bed of the poor old man;
The fierce mob coveted the old man’s property;
The mob’s wife and the tree grower are always secretly lingering;
The boring old lady enjoys peeping into other people’s secrets every day.
People in the village are closed, selfish, greedy, idle and numb. They are hypocritical and greedy. They are aunts who steal apples, ferocious and greedy men, false and indulgent priests, and old ladies who like to spy on other people’s lives. They hide all these dark things hypocritically in their daily life. Only when they think that the glasses man is dead and people can’t participate in the execution, they show their disappointment and hypocrisy. Human society, often only choose not to spend time to think, hear what is what, lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and the pursuit of real good things.
Room Reference
Presentation
Transcript of the Presentation
Hello and I am going to do the presentation about my FMP and thesis which is related to the Investigation and Practice on the Form and Content of Irony Animation. I will divide my presentation into seven parts，including General Description, aim and Intention, Initial Research, Inspiration and Content, Methodology, Expectations and Goals, Resources and Reference.
With regard to my FMP, I will make an independent short animation for about 60 to 90 seconds. I will create a narrative irony animation by combining the first semester’s practical practice of animation principles with the study of narrative structure and film language. As for my thesis, it will be closely related to FMP, just like the theoretical basis, the main content is to investigate irony animation, understand its style, characteristics, form , film language, color, sound and other aspects. At the same time, the process of creating 3D animation based on the theory will also be recorded in the thesis paper. it is more like the feedback of my FMP, a reflection of learning and practicing. In general, the thesis paper is the process of investigating, while FMP is the process of applying theory to practice and achieving goals.
When talking about my purpose and intention of doing this project, part of the reason is that I reviewed many previous exercises. In fact, the aim of each animation clip is to train an animation principle, but there is no strong logic and coherence. In other words, I hope that this work will have a breakthrough in creativity and connotation so that I can exercise my ability to tell stories. At the same time, I want to reflect certain situation which I have seen or experienced and arouse the audience’s resonance by using animation to express my views and thoughts. At least in my opinion, there must be creative reasons for the production of an animation. In most cases, the original intention of many animators to make animation is that they want to express an emotion or tell a truth. Just like many hot political satirical illustration, I also hope my animation has its meanings. The reason that I choose to do an independent 3d animation is to show my modeling, rigging and other 3d basic skills in animation industry.
Considering that my FMP is the summary of my personal learning and the embodiment of my professional ability, when thinking about what type of project to do, my approach is to first consider what I am good at and what I want to show. I know that the fields I like and am good at are modeling and animating, that is to say, I hope to be engaged in animation industry in the future, so I choose to do an irony narrative animation. Then I found that the problem is that I didn’t know anything about irony animation. Then I did some research, which is divided into six parts. I first looked for the definition of irony, including the interpretation of some movies. Then I watched a video called “why cartoons make great Satire” on YouTube. It read the Simpsons’ and BoJack Horseman animation works, which include some exaggerated animation performance and humorous lines. Then I found the formal classification of irony, including situational irony and dramatic irony. Then I read several articles about irony in Disney and Pixar Animation. Additionally, I found four of my favorite irony animations and did some detailed research, including the village, The employment, Life Smartphone and Dinner for few. Then I summed up some rules from the color, lens language, visual style, sound, role characteristics of these works, and I think these are very helpful for the presentation of my animation works.
After all this research, I just lack the specific content. I have a general understanding of the form of irony. When I asked myself what I wanted to convey, I thought for a long time and didn’t decide what to do. Then I stayed in front of the computer every day to play games. In fact, this state lasted for a long time. This is actually a very terrible phenomenon, that is, I was avoiding what I had to face, and then paralyzed myself by eating and playing games. Then I suddenly felt that I can express my own state in my animation. Then I began to look for some irony illustrations, similar to being addicted to the Internet and escapism. There’s no doubt that our society is plagued with problems like dependence on technology, taxes, obesity, devaluation of workers etc. But that is not the real threat. The real threat is the fact that we refuse to acknowledge these problems to justify our addiction to them. Therefore I decided that the plot of my animation is that the person who addicted to computer games finally becomes the raw material of the food he eats by constantly eating. The man’s room is full of all kinds of take away boxes. Every day, the takeaway will send him pizzas, meat and other food. He keeps eating until cannot distinguish whether he is a human or a pig. Until one day, someone came to take him away and sent him to the food processing factory, and the baked food was sent to the next customer. It’s a simple story that takes place in a room, the process of which is very similar to a cycle. I call it a new way of feeding, that is, “we become what we eat.”
In my practical planning, I will first find a lot of room reference to set the atmosphere of this animation and then draw the 2d character and scene design. Then I will draw a 2d storyboard according to the learning of film language. Then I will model a character and a scene independently, including mapping and rigging, and finally lighting and rendering. I will focus on strengthening my ability in character creation and rigging, combined with my internship learning and some tutorials. What I want to show is exaggeration and atmosphere brought by the picture, and the character’s animation will not be much and complex. I will do more preparation work in the shape of the character, including the details of the scene, because compared with some fighting animation, irony animation needs a lot of obscure but reasonable elements. The reason why I insist on this animation for my own original rather than looking for some online materials is that I hope that every setting of my animation has been specially designed and is a meaningful arrangement.
My project will be carried out at the same time with my internship in China, because the content of the internship is the in-depth study of creating character model and rigging. For fmp, I hope that through this training, the skill of modeling in my personal project can reach a higher level, so as to better show my good field in the animation industry. I want to clip this animation in my profile to show that I am involved in the whole process of animation. For the thesis, I hope to improve the ability to tell stories, and understand how to express emotions and ideas with animation. My challenge is how to use the film language and narrative structure to present the phenomenon I want to expose in an exaggerated way of 3d animation and I believe that through this animation, I will strive to achieve this.
As for references and resources, I’ll look for resources from books, papers, online articles, YouTube videos, etc . Besides, I will find some kinds of image and video websites like Pinterest and Behance for FMP reference. I will generally use Maya software, and may use some basic actions of Mocap to reduce the workload of animation. I will use PS to draw the two-dimensional part, and use PR and AE to edit and colour matching.
This is all my content. The blog link with research so far and Presentation Transcript are listed below. And I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Thank you.
