Emotion: John Lasseter

John Lasseter
"The personality of a charcter is conveyed through emotion and emotion is the best indicator as to how fast an action should be".

Whilst researching for this project and for my report I came across a website that focused on the principles of animation and was called Tricks to Animating Characters with a Computer by John Lasseter. On this website he comments on how the timing of a charcter is effected by thier current emotional state, he chose to use Luxo Jr as an example of how timing can be used in animation to get the best from your charcters, to keep the audiences attention and to help convey the emotion of a character

The Movements of Luxo Jr
"When he is chasing the ball, he is very excited and happy with all his thoughts on the ball. His head is up looking at the ball, the timing of his hops are fast as there is very little time spent on the ground between hops because he can’t wait to get to the ball. After he pops the ball, however, his hop changes drastically, reflecting his sadness that the object of all his thoughts and energy just a moment ago is now dead. As he hops off, his head is down, the timing of each hop is slower, with much more time on the ground between hops. Before, he had a direction and a purpose to his hop. Now he is just hopping off to nowhere." Looking at Luxo Jr as referance for my project you can clearly tell, despite the fact that the is no dialogue and that the characters are objects rather then people, what the charcters want and how they feel, this is why timing is so important especially to an animation like this where the movements and actions of the character are the entire focus of the story.

The Personality
"A simple way to distinguish the personalities of your characters is through contrast of movement." In animation it is important that the personality of a character sets them apart from other characters on the screen, if the peronality of contrasting characters are the same then the story will be less exciting for the audience as the movements, actions and emotions of the charcter are likely to be enacted in the same way as all these points add to the personality of a charcter. "Both Dad and Jr. bat the ball with their heads. Yet Dad, who is larger and older, leans over the ball and uses only his shade to bat it. Jr., however, is smaller, younger, and full of energy, he whacks the ball with his whole shade, putting his whole body into it." This shows the way in which the personality and movements of a charcter will be effected depending on who the charcter is and what thier purpose is, it is likely that younger charcters will be full of energy and that older charcters will prefer to remain calm and relaxed, however this isn't always the case but many animations will use a standard stereotype to find out how their character would react in this situation.

The Thinking Character
Making sure that your character looks as though they are thinking about the movements will help to make the animation more realistic as it is the same way as humans would react. Walt Disney said, "In most instances, the driving forces behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character—or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them." The thoughts of a charcter have to come before the movement and if the character isn't thinking anything then the is less likely to be any movement from the character and the thinking of a movement depends on the personality of a charcter and will differ depending on the different types of charcters that you have "To convey the idea that the thoughts of a character are driving its actions, a simple trick is in the anticipation".

Timing & Anticipation
John Lasseter refered to these two principles together as he believes that they are closely related when an animator is animating, as anticipation is a build up over time and spare time in an animation is sometimes used when the audience are anticipating something, these two principles help to make an animation more realistic and as John Lasseter said these are "critical to making ideas readable". "It is important to spend enough time (but no more) preparing the audience for: the anticipation of an action; the action itself; and the reaction to the action (the follow through). If too much time is spent on any of these, the audience’s attention will wander. If too little time is spent, the movement may be finished before the audience notices it, thus wasting the idea". If the movement of a charcter is not timed or anticipated by the charcter properlly then the audience may miss read the action and not be able to follow the story.

Staging
Staging is important as it is needed in animation to focuse the audiences attention and help certain aspects of a scene stand out from other parts of the scene. "The object of interest should be significantly contrasted against the rest of the scene. In a still scene, the eye will be attracted to movement. In a very busy scene, the eye will be attracted to something that is still." Once again here we are looking at how movement of charcters are used in animation to help focus the audiences attention, whether the charcter is moving or standing still, if the audience can read the actions of a character then they should be able to follow the story.

"In Luxo Jr., it was very important that the audience was looking in the right place at the right time, because the story, acting and emotion was being put across with movement alone, in pantomime, and sometimes the movement was very subtle. If the audience missed an action, an emotion would be missed, and the story would suffer. So the action had to be timed and paced so that only Dad or Jr. was doing an important action at any one time, never both. In the beginning of the film, Dad is on-screen alone and your eye is on him. But as soon as Jr. hops on-screen, he is moving faster than Dad; therefore the audience’s eye immediately goes to him and stays there, Dad’s actions are timed to be very subtle, so the attention of the audience is always on Jr. where most of the story was being told. If Dad’s actions were important, Jr.’s actions were toned down and Dad’s movements were emphasized then the attention of the audience would transfer to Dad. For example, when Jr. looks up to Dad after he’s popped the ball and Dad shakes his head, all eyes are on Jr." Luxo Jr is a great example how these principles of animation are used within an animation the timing and actions of the charcater had to be right so that the attention of the audience was always in the right place at the right time as John Lasseter said this is important so that the audience do not miss an action ottherwise they may not be able to follow what was happening on screen and the animation would suffer due to this.