⤷ Animation Skillz ୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ

WEEK 9 -

objectives:

- research into Michael Dudok De Wit

- do research into the animation principle timing

MICHAEL DUDOK DE WIT (｡ᵕ ◞ _◟)

Michael Dudok De Wit, is an animator from the Netherlands and he works in London. Apparently just as a fun fact he actually came to my university last year to talk about his animation "The Monk and the Fish". Michael is an aspiring director and animator with his most recent and award winning film "The Red Turtle" ,who he got to work on with Studio Ghilbi which is someone huge compared to just one man. He also did the film "Father and Daughter" in 2001 which I could have researched about for this essay that I had to do but I chose something different because I found the animation really sad. 

Most of his films have some sort of underlying and deep meaning to them and the way he animates is really pretty. A lot of his work is all colour based which is something I really want to get good at, so looking into his work is helping me see another animator that has become famous for the way he animates. I am still more fond of comics and illustration but I think the way he works with colour I could also take for that as I am not good at colour in moving pictures and I am not very good at it in illustration. 

Almost all of his animation wins awards or some sort of strong recognition because they just are really good in the animation industry. He also made an animation entirely out of tea in making his first films. I think his animations are really cool, always using shadows and a locked down colour scheme. The work that he produces he also teaches all across England which is why I guess he came to ARU to teach people there. 

He made his first film in college which got recognized not on a global scale but it was still good. As he continued in his career after college he just became a freelance animator animating for TV commercials and making animations that became internationally famous. 

Knowing that he is a freelance animator is really comforting because I mean I always see people having to get employed first then they go off to do their own thing, But Michael was passionate and just went for it. It sort of makes me feel like I am able to do what I want to do, I really want to just work for myself, I want to make my own things and be recognized internationally and inspire others just how others have inspired me and looking into Michael just makes me feel happy I guess. 

Like I said he won many awards including an Oscar, a Bafta and A Grand Prix in Accent, as well as just general animation awards. He won a BAA award in 2024, So quite recently, and on the website there is a little part where he got to add a little quote "Wouldn’t it be wonderful to raise the awareness of animation in the UK’s primary and secondary schools? I’m thinking of individualistic short films and features." I think that's super inspiring, I mean animation is a huge industry now and I think that it should be taught at a young age because well its not only just on Tv or in Films it is literally everywhere and a part of daily life. It could also build up the creative industry and make it even bigger!!

During Michael's time when he was just starting out as an animator he worked a year in Barcelona and his studies he did for his unique style was specifically etching that he did in Geneva and stud animation at Farnham. I haven't looked into his art properly but I will underneath this but from what I have seen in his art work within websites I looked at his style is definitely inspired by etching. 

one of the websites I looked at for researching

another website I looked at for researching

last website I looked at for researching

So looking into his animations, I already have said that the animations are all based on colours and a tight colour scheme as well as the etching that he did I feel like really comes through. The animations I watched are "The aroma of tea", "The red sea turtle", "The Monk and the Fish" (because I watched it in class with my class) and considering I didn't research it last time and I now have an extra chance to research it "Father and Daughter" (even if I think its sad I will explain why, it is all to do with the subject matter and colours, I get super sad over certain animations). 

The first film that I watched was "The aroma of tea" I wanted to watch 4 animations that where all different because I think his work is really cool. This animation is all to do with visuals and sound, with the music controlling the movement of what is happening. Compared to all of his other animations this one is quite abstract but from what I can gather it is all to do with union?? I am not sure, originally I thought it was just about how tea smells and that the dot of tea was depicting the smells that you go through when smelling a drink or just by when drinking it. I felt a bit confused but the ending gave it away with this dot of tea hesitating creating this human emotion within just a dot and it perseveres to get to this ball of light. I watched it again, and focused more on the feelings that the tea dot was going through and it seems to follow the idea of union. 

Union in that you will get support from others throughout your journey to your goal and they eventually will leave or stop helping in a way that you need because after all your goal is your own. I think in terms of skill this animation is generally crazy. I mean not as crazy as some other people I have researched into, but it was all done with tea which is pretty cool. I mean the animation is so smooth and clean there are no mistakes and the colour produced by the tea is a really pigmented colour and I really like the feeling of the animation. I mean it's kind of hard to explain the feeling because it's super abstract but the way the splodges of tea are used in the background and the minimal usage of things in the actually animation, with it just being a few splodges or strokes of tea and I think it shows just how determined this small dot is travelling through these scary places and following some form of path eventually making it to its goal. 

Where I watched Aroma of Tea

The next animation that I watched was the one I watched in class and I re-watched it to refresh my memory. After everything that I have been researching in the past 9 weeks this has got to be my favourite thing. I have watched it generally and it made me giggle because I liked it so much. This animation is targeted towards 3 year olds and older i think because its super simple and easy to understand. The animation it self kike. I said in my other research that it is totally inspired by etching. Even though it looks like it was done with water colour and ink the way that it is all plated down together feels like an etch because of the way the drawings overlap the colours and also how uniform it all looks as well a the line weight that you would get by cutting into wood, plastic or lino. 

I also mentioned that his work is usually locked down by one colour scheme and the colour scheme for this animation was orange and blue. I think this colour scheme worked really well. Not only is it simple and easy on the eyes but those colours together always remind me of the beach or some sort of thing to do with fish and considering the animation is about a fish I really like the way the colour was used. MY favourite thing about this animation and something I totally want to try and use in my own work is the movement. The way the character(s) moved in this animation was so expressive and really was all rhythm based.

I really like it in animation when things aren't realistic and stretched but also feel natural and the way that the character bounces along to the music and its really fast but super smooth is so cool. That's the part that made me giggle. The character moving was just so whimsical and it really showed off the characters' expressions towards the fish really well. I also liked how it seemed to follow the same kind of theme as the tea animation because even though it was just on character most of the time it was still all about following your goals and the backgrounds were really really simple and not taking away any importance from the character. All of the different shots used for the animation as well was really cool they all felt really dynamic but they just fit perfectly, the transitions used weren't really fading or moving most of the time it was all harsh cuts but I think of something aimed at smaller children you need that constant change to keep their attention especially since there isn't a lot of colour but for the fast pacing of the music and the character the multiple camera changes I think a child would stay hooked. 

I am not entirely sure how he did the animation but it does look like it was done all with water colour and ink. I think that the backgrounds may have been done physically because they don't really move and the characters might have been done digitally?? I am not really sure but the reason I think digitally for the characters is because the colours for them are really clean as well as the lines and the movements just seem more digital like but I could be wrong. According to wikipedia I was wrong it is all traditionally done but layered up upon each other which is so cool, I love paper animation and stop motion and knowing that it is done traditionally is also cool because I want to work in traditional paper and clay animation if I chose that path instead of comic working. 

Wikapeadea I looked at

Where I watched the Monk and the Fish

The third animation I watched was "Father and daughter". I have already watched this animation about 3 times and this time making it the fourth and every time I watch it I get super sad. It is all about grief and the loss of life, it is a very beautiful short film and I can see why it won loads of awards. Now after seeing three of his animations they all seem to follow the same style, looking techy like and also using traditional media as well as music being the main contributor to the animation, not speaking just music controlling the whole thing (which kind of links with my project I am doing in animation skills right now where I am letting a sound track i have made dontroll the animation I am making). His animation is also orange and blue and I sidn;t just choose it just because it's famous and I didn't do it last time, I also chose it for the juxtaposition in the use of colour.

As I am not good at using colour the way orange and blue is used here instead of from the monk and the fish is a very drastic difference good to help me understand how colour can be used. The oranges are so melted down it almost looks grey and the blue is really the only colour used but I think it's because not only is this animation definitely for mature audiences so it's got to be different to something that is meant for children. But the subject matter doesn't call for a bit of a colour palette, more of a more impactful one with certain colours possibly meaning things or referring to other things instead of the colour just being bright and attention grabbing. 

The blue for this instead of being a fish colour I think is used more for the feeling of innocence and grief that the main female protagonist is always wearing showing she never really grew from when her father left and that innocence and hope that comes with being a child but blue is generally just a melancholic colour so grief as well as it always covers her even when he is old and just wants one last try at finding her father it's still her sure cover but other clothes maybe showing she has finally grown from it but it is always there. This animation is just generally sad from the start to the end but it is very pretty as well. I think the fact that Michael always used muted colour palettes makes it better and more impactful with the subject matter that he uses.

Again I think it always seems to relate back to some form of goal like the last two animations I visited. The style is still all traditional art with ink but instead of the water colour being more of use it's more of the ink and the dark shapes that it creates. I just overall think that his animations are really beautiful and I like them a lot and totally want to take how he always uses traditional media for his own animations for my own work who says that o have to do it digitally I could do it physically then use digital as a tool to make it just look better. I just think he's super inspiring. 

Where I watched father and daughter

Finally I thought it was only right to look into his most recent animation "The red sea turtle" . This is the longest animation (it being 80 minutes) and also I had to pay for it (not that much and I also have been meaning to watch it so I mean it is worth getting it. This feature film was generally so beautiful. It doesn't have the same feeling as the other ones with music being the whole contributor, sometimes the movie was just in silence.

But I mean the movie still followed the idea of union and instead of it being helping each other out it was following along with this sea turtle that made a life with this shipwrecked man but as a human. 

Generally such a sad film and because it was all music based it made it feel more sadder?? without the use of speech and having to use colours and actions it just felt more raw. 

Once again the colours used were on a tight lock down. This film wasn't just made by Mihcael but you can tell it's his because of the way the film looks visually. Even though the lines aren't thick with ink the whole film looks as if it was done in watercolour like the rest of his work but it's clearly all digital animation.

The colours used too me where the complementary colours red and green as well as the usage of blue (for the sea) I think red and green in this case doesn't show off the Christmas vibe that is usually associated with but instead because of how muted down the greens where and the mixed browns created with the reds and greens you couldn' t really tell unless you were paying really close attention. 

I really liked how the lady in the film was originally a sea turtle and how the shipwrecked man felt anger towards it but as soon as it turned into something he could relate to he cared for it. 

I think not only did it give the underlying message of union but also care for things. Because throughout the movie all of the characters and even the background as well as the crabs and the birds in the film all had some form of needing to be looked after and through the usage of colour portraying emotions or just really big events I felt as though seeing the colour come back to things things because more vibrant made it feel like the care was used.

The red turtle did actually "die" before it turned into the woman and it was all pale, lost its colour but she turned back into the turtle she was nice and vibrant like at the beginning of the film living a cared for life and being loved made her back into the strong turtle that once could swim for miles and live a happy life in the sea. The man and the woman also have a. child and he leaves at one point with the other turtles once he became an adult because he wanted to explore more. I really liked that I felt that things changed but because of the life the man had loved with his wife and son the son leaving to go be with other turtles didn't bother anyone too much they knew that he wanted to have more in life.

I just overall really liked this film and considering it was made with multiple other creators and even Studio Ghibli you can tell the influence of all of the different animators within the film. The way the characters moved and the fact that a woman is the main drive for the film is very studio ghilbi like because most of his films have this very smooth and flowy movement as well as women always being the cool ones in the films. 

I really really really liked the colour changing to the brown and muted pale colours when something bad happened to at night time when everything was grey scale, to it being really bright i the height of the day and just colours overall changing and then having this sort of grainy effect you get from when water colour has been layered on paper which I think also helped the fact that is was on an island because the grainy feel, felt like the sand and the winds and just the overall smell of the sea and a beach to be put in the animation without actually being there. 

The movement at some points did feel like rotoscoping, not sure if they were, it just felt really real. I also like how calm it all was. Even though a lot of it was generally life threatening things it still was really calm even when the woman got hurt and blood was coming out of her it still felt calm there wasn't any harsh cuts everything went smooth and calmly. Something about the backgrounds that I thought was cool was that they barely moved? Like even where there was wind depicted the wind sort of just didn't move anything but the characters which I think helped focus more on the story, the backgrounds just felt like illustrations tat tey where apart of and it was just really cool to see when characters walking in the sand or laying down the sand wouldn't move even if it would in real life it isn't in this film but it didn't take away the real life effect. form the sounds to the actions an the course that look painted on everything about this animation felt real even when the son was a baby he moved a bit like the Monk in the monk and the fish but it didn't change the real lifeless towards everything and the feelings that were portrayed in the film. 

(I cant take any screenshots of the film because it's a film and well if I did it would be stealing!)

TIMING ദ്ദി◝ ⩊ ◜.ᐟ

Timing. Even though this seems like timing should be remembered but for me I seem to always forget it. Now it's not that I do it on purpose, it's just that I tend to animate frame by frame simply because I find it easier and I enjoy it more. So when it comes to seeing the different timings usually I animate just in the way. I think the movement should feel. 

I know that probably isn't a good way to animate and I should plan it all but I do plan it with a storyboard . When it comes to animating I just like getting right into it. Though I do keep timing in mind I don't just do everything on ones and make it all on different types of frames. For the natural animation most of the time people do things on 2s but sometimes 1s is needed but in this video that me and my whole class watched, the guy said it's usually a preference for certain movements. Which I totally agree with, and if the preference works for the kind of style as well as if it is executed properly then it works. 

Video that everyone watched

I am aware that I need to get better at doing planning in animation but for me it just is easier for frame by frame but I mean the whole timing thing I usually end up having to go through the animation multiple times to sort out all the times by either making certain frames longer or shorter or just completely changing them. Which is probably the only drawback of frame by frame. I have learnt that throughout just doing my first trimester than planning does help alot but for some reason when I am just allowed to do what I want I just go frame by frame. I do struggle to understand timings with out frame by frame because I then end up adding too many frames or too little. But sometimes it helps which is why I think I always do multiple storyboards when doing animations because it's sort of like figuring out the timings without putting it all together. 

But to get back to timing, it is simply just the speed at which things move and if you add more frames then the movement would be slow or you could make the action longer, the action could change from being shocked to more of like suspicious looking. Depending on how many frames you add as well it could change the fluidity and make the animation feel more natural or it could make it feel more robot and jittery like. It really depends on the frames you add. A good example of the differences would be 'Spider man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)" showing the difference in swinging in the different spidermen's shows all of their different skill set just through the amount of frames used, less might mean they are good at being fast or they might be new to learning, loads of frames making it really smooth could show they are amazing at it or they are careful with what they do. 

This video (credits to the YouTuber I got it from) should better show what I am talking about with the difference in frames and timing

Spiderman "In to the Spiderverse" (2018) [Film], Dirceted by: Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Bob Perschetti, America: Sony Pictures.

I really want to get better at timing because sometimes my animation just feels wrong. I am realizing that during the time at uni even though it's only the first trimester I have learnt so many new things that I really am not good at but I have learnt things I feel more confident about as well. 

The whole timing thing that I have talked about actually links to the fact I finally started animating the final project for animation skills and of course it was done frame by frame. I actually had a different version before the one below but it crashed and didn't save butI am going to be honest I am glad it crashed because I wasn't feeling the animation but. I wanted to keep going and see if I could improve it.

The old one that crashed. I also found that the difference was the timing that I did wasn't really thought through but once it had crashed it sort of made me think about all of the different timings that do exist in all of the actions that are within my animation. I know that seems a bit stupid but always when I start an animation I just forget that things need to be thought through before you do it and people (or anthropomorphic mice in this case) would move really fast unless they intended to. So starting again even though it sucked because I lost 2 hours worth of work I felt more like the one I re started made more sense timing wise. I like how some bits are different frame rates even if it is all rough and sketchy like. I think it just shows maybe the importance of certain tasks and also showing that the sound that is coming from it is really important as this animation is meant for an audio project.

Where the animation is led by the sound and because of that when animating I think my method of frame by frame actually was beneficial this time because I just kept listening to the sound track I made along with the drawings I was doing and sure it did send me a bit crazy with the amount. of times I had to listen to it but because I was doing frame by frame I felt like the sound track doesn't have that controlling feeling that is meant for this project.

The sound has made me make certain decisions where some things are smoother than others because the sound is longer and more crisp and louder than the rest. Others are fat because it's a background noise or it just assists another action that is happening. 

Even though it isn't a part of the sound part or the timing I like my ending for the animation because the human that is stomping is how i draw myself and I think that it's kind of funny that it is me who is stomping around causing these mice all this trouble even though I am making the animation to show that maybe people should be more considerate to the smaller things in life because they are just like us trying to get by!!

The different colours are just to remind me things that move, things that are connected to others and parts that don't move :D, My next task with this animation is too line it, I would of done some of it this week but I can't go into uni and use the tablets and software as I don't have a Wacom Pro Pen I gave it back as I didn't really understand that I could actually go in to uni on the weekends. But I hopefully am going to do all of that next week (I really need to get it done considering I don't have that much time left at all - just three 3 weeks)