Composition and Perspective (Week 3)

This week was learning the compositions and perspectives which we could draw our work and methods that have been used by animator’s and directors for many years. We learned that composition is the artistic arrangement of ones animation and that perspective is creating a illusion of three dimension. I found this topic quite difficult to understand as I have never studied the ways which a film may be shot or a animation may be drawn, however I was intrigued to see how this new skill could benefit my work and present my animation in a much more professional manner. This lesson was a really interesting insight into the beginning of creating an animation which I have never studied before and it was interesting to be taught something new such as the ‘Perspective Point’ and ‘Horizon Line’ which can have such an impact on how the animation is shot and also viewed by the audience.

May it be the characters themselves or the scenery which they stand, drawing a professional composition and a correct perspective view point can provide the animation to look realistic and present it in a correct manner showing depth and distance to view. I have always struggled drawing characters or components within landscapes to scale and the correct perspective and point to which they look like they are standing correctly or within a interesting camera shot to keep the audience intrigued and visually interested. I had also struggled to correctly position and create the landscapes and scenery which my characters story was set within. I had never thought about creating depth and dimension by paying attention to the view points of perhaps the characters and audience and how including light or shadows can really create the landscape to look further back, positioned to the side or bring it forward and more in focus.

Learning about how to position your line of action in order to find the best composition was a lesson that has since helped developed my work and was something that was worth learning. In order to begin a professional composition for a animation and to have it drawn at the most professional and accurate lighting it is best to position the animation horizon line, it is always best to position this line near the middle or top of the camera, as this is were the line of view point will usually be. This will lead for a more visually appealing view for the audience and camera shot and will also give the depth of the drawing may it be a long alley way or within a house interior, by the help of a accurate and structured inclusion of a horizon line. I had also learnt that before beginning to create any composition of a drawing it is best the find and arrange the perspective point you would like to create your animation in. There is a number of different viewing points which you can create, such as from the right or left side, birds eye view or even from under the characters view. These two helpful starting points will make for a more varied story boarding and animation sequence, will show a more professional story and motion capture and will be sure to impress the audience. Having the viewing of the animation appear realistic to real life and drawing the viewer into the world of animation.

This was the first time I was learning about how to correctly position the drawing within a camera shot for animation and it was one of the most helpful lectures I have received. I think being aware of these two techniques will make me more confident in my drawings, have them appear more of a higher quality and give me better range and retrospection for my art. In order to then further practice what we had just learned in class, we were to use this knowledge to create an array of thumbnails for our world ‘Snail Dyansty’ and produce a wide variety of simple, line drawings showing off our ability to include a ‘Horizon Line’ and ‘Perspective Point’.

In order to give ourselves an idea of what both a composition of a ‘Horizon Line’ and ‘Perspective Line’ may look like, we created an example of a template on Adobe Animate. This photo is an example of me creating a thick black horizon line within the middle of my page and then showing another layer, I included two different perspective viewpoints, one from the left and one from the right. This is just a mock design template to what the beginning of a animation composition may look like and can show how a well thought out and structured set up, can really benefit a successful animation outcome.

To further help us in designing an animation with the help of a ‘Perspective Point’ and ‘Horizon Line’, we were tasked to practice our composition but to also use it within helping us to draw landscapes or characters to match up within the perspective viewing point which we have chosen. I have always thought drawing 3D perspective was difficult, but with the previous lessons of breaking characters down to simple form and shapes of circles, squares and rectangles and creating a template which clearly lined out the perspective you want to draw within. The practice task of drawing 3D shapes from different perspective view points was made easier and more efficient. Altogether this topic was a really beneficial technique to learn and help me within my animation, however will be a lesson I will need to regularly practice and draw to perfect, as I still find drawing and creating anything 3D and to a realistic approach quite difficult but hopefully an interesting journey.

One of our tasks from homework was to choose a animation of our choice that preferences the element of using two different perspective points and a horizon line and to task ourselves with the ability to draw and accurately represent were we think we might be correct in positioning the animations horizon line and their perspective point. The three animations I had chosen was a outdoor scenery in ‘Over the Garden Wall’ which is a animation television show, a outdoor market scene from a animated video game called ‘Professor Layton’ and a scene of a room and a favourite stop motion film of mine called ‘Coraline. The scene for ‘Over The Garden Wall’ I thought was a great example of a opened world outside scene and I was able to point out a middle positioned horizon line and a two point perspective, of one ranging from the left and one from the right. The scene within ‘Professor Layton’ was a great example of a out door market scene using again a middle horizon line and then a perspective point from the left and a perspective point from the right looking up. The last interior scene from ‘Coraline’ was a great representation of a close quarter of two perspective lines and were also criss-crossing from the perspective of left and right from opposite corners of the room. This was a interesting task and showed great examples of how horizon lines can be used within a joint perspective view point and how its shows within a animation.

Our next task was to find scenes again from animations, but this time that only used one perspective point and a horizon line, the animations I choose were a closeup behind scene of a character from the movie ‘Tinkerbell’, a birds eye view of the game ‘Professor Layton’ and lastly a front, slightly under view of the main character from ‘Coraline’. For the first two examples which I had choose both ‘Tinkerbell’ and ‘Coraline’ the horizon lines for these scenes were very similar as they chose to shoot the animation from low to high, creating a very towering illusion. However they had both decided upon different perspective lines which created a different feeling throughout both movies, ‘Tinkerbell’ had a perspective point of the century of the shot and this showed Tinkerbell with her back to us and a close to wide shot of her, her wings and the scenery around her. The shot for ‘Coraline’ was a different approach of a front viewing point and from a slightly lower from middle perspective point. This positioned Coraline as the main focus and closer to the viewer, but has the dark and eerie background of a warped tunnel and to be getting longer and more extreme as it went on. The perspective point for ‘Professor Layton’ was vastly different and made for an almost within scene experience and intriguing view from birds eye view and was ironically looking down upon Mr Layton, as a bird of prey character soared above him hoping to capture him. This view point was a really great example of how a great combo of a ‘Horizon Line’ and ‘Perspective Point’ can make the reader sense the context of the scene with no dialogue and have there view almost matching to what the characters within the animation view themselves.

Our next and final task was to create thirty thumbnails of our world ‘Snail World’ and to draw them within a number of compositional perspective points. The lesson on the topic of composition and perspective really helped when creating these thumbnails and it was a beneficial task in order to help us practice creating our own professional animations in a more successful and creative way. I had drawn a couple of thumbnails before and having the knowledge of perspective points really made my world come to life and show more depth and intriguing sides to how ‘Snail World’ can be viewed. I created a array of thumbnails showing the snails home town in front, left perspectives, some interior home shots of bottom right perspectives and a behind perspective. I also included some town life, royal characters,a outer space shot including two point perspectives, low perspective, close up, top left, birds eye and even a middle point perspective viewing all the snail planets within the galaxy.

Some other thumbnails of my own ‘Snail World’ perspective points included many front and back close up shoots of snail characters and leaders, some two perspective shots of different rural parts of snail world, allowing the viewer a wide viewing of the planet and a couple of shots looking within a snails house, behind a first generation snail/slug and some corner to right shots of the snail rebellion. This task of creating our own compositions of different perspective points in our world, really helped me practice the different ways I could draw up my animation and show the different designs within ‘Snail World’. I think this lesson will benefit me throughout my course and allow me to develop my animating skills, creating more in depth concepts and having anymore up and coming animations to have a varied and more professional compositional layout.