Imagery - Case Pikku Kakkonen - Sofi-Ilona Löhönen BACHELOR'S THESIS - Theseus
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Creating Animated Stickers for Social Media Platforms Using Brand-Based Imagery – Case Pikku Kakkonen Sofi-Ilona Löhönen BACHELOR’S THESIS April 2020 Degree Programme in Media and Arts Fine Art
2 ABSTRACT Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Media and Arts Fine Art LÖHÖNEN, SOFI-ILONA: Creating Animated Stickers for Social Media Platforms Using Brand-Based Imagery Case Pikku Kakkonen Bachelor's thesis of 67 pages April 2020 Animation is an adaptable medium. In digital media, animation can be detected for example in the form of GIF. Today GIFs are used in multiple ways, such as a decorative, promotional and artistic elements, as well as communicational tools – for example as animated stickers – on personal messaging platforms. The purpose of this thesis was to create animated stickers, and two animated shorts for Pikku Kakkonen, which were set to be used in social media platforms as decorative elements and updates. Pikku Kakkonen is a magazine-styled Finnish children’s program. The program’s Art Director Elli Murtonen had a vision to add elements into Pikku Kakkonen’s Instagram by launching a set of stickers using the brand’s visual brand imagery. The research was carried out in order to study how animation, its principles and production works, and how it is being adapted as a medium. The thesis also explored the history and the technical functionality of the GIF, and how the format was used in social media. These findings were aimed at being utilized in the thesis project, focusing on important matters when creating animations using Pikku Kakkonen’s vector graphics, while simultaneously aiming to adapt the animation principles. An additional question was what to take into consideration when creating an animation project, and to describe the project and its outcome, as well as personal thoughts concerning the process. The project was created using data from the research, and by following Pikku Kakkonen’s Art Director’s directions. Key words: animation, principles, project, GIF, sticker, brand-based imagery
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CONTENTS
1 GLOSSARY .......................................................................................... 4
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 5
2 WHAT IS ANIMATION .......................................................................... 7
2.1 Description of the history of animation ............................................ 8
2.2 Principles of animation ................................................................. 14
2.2.1 Disney’s principles of animation ......................................... 14
2.2.2 Additional foundations of animation .................................... 18
2.3 The technical execution of animation ........................................... 22
2.3.1. Genres of animation ........................................................... 23
2.3.2. Pixel based graphics .......................................................... 25
2.3.3. Vector based graphics ........................................................ 26
3 ANIMATION AS A MEDIUM ............................................................. 27
3.1 Adaptation of storytelling in animation.......................................... 28
3.1.1 Animation and visual arts ................................................... 28
3.2 Aims of production ....................................................................... 29
4 ADAPTING THE GRAPHIC INTERCHANGE FORMAT ..................... 31
4.1 History .......................................................................................... 31
4.2 Technique and the limits of it........................................................ 32
4.3 Adapting GIF animation................................................................ 33
4.3.1 Social media ....................................................................... 34
4.3.2 GIF in use of brands ........................................................... 34
4.3.3 GIF and visual arts ............................................................. 36
4.3.4 Emotions............................................................................. 36
5 THE BRAND ....................................................................................... 38
6 THE PROJECT ................................................................................... 40
6.1 Description of the process ............................................................ 42
6.2 Final Thoughts ............................................................................. 53
7 PRODUCTION .................................................................................... 63
8 CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 64
REFERENCES ........................................................................................ 65
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GLOSSARY
traditional animation hand-drawn animation, originally on physical paper and
later see-through film
animation principles guidelines for creating lively animation and motion-work
frame a singular image out of an image sequence in animation
keyframe frames in animation, showing the most important frames
of the movement
rig a skeleton of a digital character or puppet, making it
more practical to control
rigging creating the rig for a digital character
GIF short for the graphic interchange format, a file format
designed originally for images, later also for short,
looping and soundless moving image
sticker in the context of the thesis a still or moving digital
image, used for communication and personalization in
social media
emoji a pictorial symbol used for communication in
messaging servers and social media
emoticon a presentation of a facial expression using keyboard
characters
app application, a program for smart devices
direct messaging a messaging system designed for private conversations
composition a space in software providing timeline for the layers
and their content, essentially a place for an individual
project
5 1 INTRODUCTION Communication is part of human life. When speech and textual communication turn out to be deficient – for example because of linguistic or emotional reasons – we can use images as a form of communication. Images have an ability to depict information and emotion regardless of the viewer’s personal background, such as age or language. Some of this imagery is used in digital communication in forms of emojis, stickers and GIFs. In addition to emojis, animated stickers – or GIFs – are also used in direct messaging. The GIF was originally created for images to be compressed into a format which would not take up much of the computer’s memory. Later the GIF gained the ability to loop soundless moving image without requiring any separate playback system, which made it possible for the format to be spread moving images over the evolving World Wide Web. Today GIFs can be commonly found in smartphone applications, and are a form of direct messaging and personalization, as well as decorative and commercial elements on the internet. The thesis project is an animation project produced for Pikku Kakkonen, which is a Finnish, magazine-styled children’s program. The program’s running time is roughly an hour, and it is broadcasted twice per day from Monday through Friday, and on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The project was started to fulfil the idea for expanding Pikku Kakkonen’s brand by launching a set of stickers and animated shorts, which were executed by using the programs brand-based imagery. The stickers were used in a social media platform called Instagram – precisely in its Stories feature – as decorative and infographic elements. The animated shorts were published as Pikku Kakkonen’s Facebook and Instagram updates in order to advertise the stickers on the days of their launch. To dive into the matters concerning the project, the historical use of animation is being studied in the beginning of the thesis. Afterwards the principles of animation, as well as the additional foundations of animation are explained, in order to support describing the animating process. Animation as a medium is also researched to better understand its extensive functionality, and how it is being
6 utilized. The GIF is also studied as a concept throughout its history, and how it functions as a vehicle from technical point of view. This was also done in order to support describing the projects contents in more detail. The very meaning of images is also briefly researched and contemplated to address their meaning as communicative elements. The research question of the thesis was to unwrap what to take into consideration when starting an animation project from the described baseline, and to document and describe how an animation project was formed precisely for Pikku Kakkonen, when using vector graphics from its brand-based imagery. The aim was also to describe the project’s production and workflow in detail, and to narrate how the project turned out and felt like in general from a young animator’s point of view. An additional question was also how the principles of animation, and the additional foundations of animation were able to be adapted while using Pikku Kakkonen’s vector graphics. Additional research was done in order to immerse oneself more into the topics at hand, and to help understand the project and everything that went in it in more detail.
7 2 WHAT IS ANIMATION Animation is the illusion of movement that appears when still images – or frames – are being showed in prompt speed (Computer Hope 2019). Animation is formed by making physical changes to something, such as a picture or a three- dimensional figure. These changes are recorded via camera or computer, and by repeating the images they create an illusion where the content of them seems to be moving. PICTURE 1. Creating animation using the stop-motion technique (New York Film Academy 2015) When comparing animation to video, the main difference is how the movement is formed. Video is ongoing recorded movement, which breaks down into separate frames. Animation on the other hand is formed by first creating separate frames, which – after putting together – create the illusion of movement. (Beal n.d.) Animation is used – for example – in fields of entertainment, marketing and education. In entertainment, animation can be seen in animated series and movies, games and simulations and mobile applications. The medium is also used in visual arts. Marketing uses animation to visualize information, which in some cases can be more appealing or interesting than still imagery. Animation in education works in a similar principal, which is to capture attention and help the memorability of the studied material. The aim of animation is often to communicate something, whether it be a story, information or something that is left suggestive.
8 2.1 Description of the history of animation Animation has evolved to be a widely used tool for narration and visual communication. Before animation was yet to be evolved to a cinematic level, optical illusions and short animation loops were already displayed through different devices. Some of these devices allowed the viewing of the animation for one person at a time. However, the history of animation reaches back over 30,000 years, when the first cave paintings picturing movement are estimated being made (Zorich 2016). Primitive imagery that is referential to animation can be seen in some Stone Age cave paintings. A researcher called Marc Azéma has studied cave art from the Palaeolithic age, specifically the Chauvet Cave located in France, which contains the oldest discovered cave painting. Cave paintings in Palaeolithic age were supposedly created to deliver both movement and narrative. (Azéma & Rivère 2011, 317-318) In Chauvet Cave a group of animals is painted running in herd resembling manner. The animals occur having multiple heads, limbs and tails, which can be interpreted as movement. In these cave paintings two different techniques of portraying movement have been recognized. One technique – split-action – is the overlaying of the main keyframes of the movement. This way the animal appears to be drawn having multiple limbs. It was common in this technique to leave some of the limbs or heads drawn more suggestive and lighter, and some more prominent. The second approach was to draw the main keyframes in a juxtapositioned setting. This way there appears to be multiple animals next to each other facing the same direction, having alterations in their limbs. (Azéma & Rivère 2011, 318-320) However, it deserves to be mentioned that other interpretations concerning Stone Age cave paintings have also been made.
9 PICTURE 2. Detail from Chauvet Cave (Archaeology 2016) In the 17th century a device called magic lantern was invented, which was a gadget used for reflecting still images on the wall. A light source – such as a candle – was set into the device to reflect the image that was placed in front of it. In the 18th century a magic lantern was commonly used for education purposes, as well as entertainment. (About Magic Lanterns n.d.) PICTURE 3. Early illustration of an advert for the magic lantern (The Weekly Screw 2009) In 1832 the phenakistoscope – also known as the Magic Wheel – was invented. The phenakistoscope was a device resembling a disc which was made from cardboard. Images were drawn around the disc, usually containing people and animals doing movements like dancing or jumping. By spinning the disc and looking at it from a mirror through incisions in the disc, the drawings of the disc formed an illusion of movement. The phenakistoscope was used as a toy, and usually marketed towards children. (The Public Domain Review n.d.)
10 When comparing the phenakistoscope and the GIF, a clear resemblance can be seen. Similarly to GIFs, the phenakistoscope was suitable for looping short animation cycles. It can be said that back in the history GIFs were being created already long before digitalization, since the short animation loops which could be observed using a phenakistoscope are – in their essence – manually created GIFs. PICTURE 4. A Phenakistoscope disc (The Public Domain Review n.d.) Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer and filmmaker, studied the walk- and running cycles of animals in the late 19th century. His photograph sequences turned out to be meaningful for photographers as well as scientists, since before them it was impossible for the human eye to detect if all four legs of a horse get off from the ground simultaneously as it is cantering. (Biography 2014) Muybridge proved this to be true with his photograph sequences and continued studying and capturing the movement of humans and other animals. (The Art History n.d.) PICTURE 5. Muybridge’s photograph sequence; Racehorse Gallop, 1878 (The Guardian 2013)
11 Muybridge’s aim was to be able to photograph with shorter exposure times, which he succeeded by using shutters and chemicals. With his methods Muybridge was able to isolate specific moments from the movement. This was momentous for both visual artists and scientist practising zoology, as well as the development of motion picture. (The Art History n.d.) PICTURE 6. Muybridge’s photograph sequence; A Man Walking, 1887 (Welcome Collection n.d.) In 1830 the zoetrope was invented, which provided a sense of motion by spinning a series of pictures inside a wheel, which caused an illusion of movement. However, the animation could be viewed by only one person at a time (Animation Notes #3 n.d.). In 1876 Émile Reynaud invented the praxinoscope which was an additional device to be used with the zoetrope. The device operated by using mirrors that reflected the animation on the wall (Cavalier 2011, 38). This made possible for the early form of animation to have multiple viewers. PICTURE 7. An early 19th century illustration of a praxinoscope (Le Cnam n.d.) In the 19th century the flipbook was invented by John Barnes Linnett. A flipbook resembles a booklet, and it was the first form of animation using image
12 sequences in linear order. The flipbook was also known by name Kineograph, which is the Latin word for ‘moving picture’. (Fliptomania! 2014) The flipbook is used by flipping the pages of the booklet in correct speed, which creates an illusion where the contents of the pages seem to be moving. Similarly to the GIF, a flipbook is suitable for viewing short animation sequences, since the booklet cannot be physically too lengthy. The flipbook was used for displaying photography sequences - such as previously mentioned Eadweard Muybridge’s – and commonly containing material of famous people and cartoons. Flipbooks were also popularly used for displaying imagery of adult entertainment, since they were small and unnoticeable when handled. Companies like Walt Disney also used flipbooks to showcase their animated characters. In early 20th century car-, sweets- and cigarette companies used flipbooks as prices and advertisement of their products. (Marks 2015) This trend continued till around 1970’s and ended in 1990’s, when the flipbook got shadowed by digitalization. (Flippies n.d.) PICTURE 8. A set of vintage adult material flipbooks (Collectors Weekly 2015) In addition to flipbooks, a Kinora was invented in 1896. Physically the Kinora resembled a microscope, and had a flipbook attached to it. The person looking in the device rotated a wheel on the side of it, which made the images flip. The Kinora maintained its popularity as most preferred moving image device till the World War I, when the owner company’s factory burned. After the occurrence the device got replaced by cinema. (History of Science Museum n.d.)
13 In the late 19th and early 20th century the stop-motion animation technique was popularly used in films (Stop Motion Central 2018). The technique was used by creating the illusion of an object disappearing or distorting, which is also known as the stop-trick. A stop-trick is created by stopping the camera for the time of removing or distorting an object in the scene, then continuing filming without moving anything else. (TV Tropes n.d.) The early 20th century was also a time when films started using clay and puppets when using the stop-motion technique, from which King Kong (1933) works as an example. PICTURE 9. A frame from King Kong (1933) When animation started developing in the beginning of the 20th century, it slowly opened a new lane in the entertainment industry. In 1928 Walt Disney Animation Studios made a historical turning point for animation in the entertainment industry by releasing Steamboat Willie, the first animation with synchronized soundtrack (Smith n.d.). This made theatres become more active in showing animations. In 1937 the very first full-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs produced by Walt Disney was released to cinemas (Disney n.d.). For some time, hand-drawn animation stayed as the most used animation technique among the western animation studios such as Disney and Warner Bros almost till the end of the 1990’s. Even after the computer was invented, it still took time for technology to evolve enough for computer generated animation to see the light of day. In 1995 an animation studio known as Pixar released the first full- length 3D animation movie called Toy Story (Disney n.d.). The movie in question started a revolution of 3D graphic animations.
14 However, it is mainly a phenomenon affecting the western animation companies to go almost entirely three-dimensional with their animations. It deserves to be mentioned that Japanese animation - also known as anime - has taken a trend like rise outside of Asia since the beginning of the 21st century. At this point many anime series have at least some three-dimensional or other digital elements in them, but the commercial mainstream anime is still often hand-drawn (Washi 2011). 2.2 Principles of animation The principles of animation are a set of guidelines which are being used while creating animation to bring vitality into the movement. The term was developed in Disney’s animation studios, where new animators where taught this set of guidelines to maintain the company’s animation style (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 47). Even though Disney was the first know animation studio to invent the concept of principles of animation – and the first studio to practice them in a systematic manner – today Disney’s 12 initial principles are not the only ones being recognized. Due to technical development and growing amount of animation techniques and studios, the usage and importance of these principles vary in great depth depending on the desired feeling, visual feel and the communicational aim of the created animation. 2.2.1 Disney’s principles of animation In the year 1981 Disney’s animators Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas published a book called The Illusion of Life. In the book they present the 12 animation principles which were – and still are – used in Disney’s animations. Because of the thesis project it is crucial to mention and study these principles. The first principle is “Stretch and Squash”, which Johnson and Thomas describe to be the most important principle. It means for the animated object to change its shape by basically stretching and squashing, which gives it an illusion of mass, gravity, weight and stretch ability. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 47-51)
15 PICTURE 10. Norm Ferguson’s demonstration of Stretch and Squash animation principle (The Illusion of Life 1981) The second principle is called “Anticipation”, which is used for preparing the viewer for the next action. A character getting ready to jump up can be used as an example. When the character is building up the jump it crouches down a bit before the actual jumping movement. Anticipation does not really tell exactly why the character is jumping, but it builds up the expectation for the jump and a question of what is going to happen next. This makes it more meaningful to follow the animation. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 51-53) PICTURE 11. Demonstration of the Anticipation animation principle (Animation Mentor 2017) “Staging”, the third principle is a method that has been used in theatre arts as well. Like the title predicts it is used to stage the composition and character in the animation in a way which makes it able for the viewer to tell what the character is communicating at any given point. This involves how the character is staged in the composition, its body language and pose. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 53-56)
16 The fourth principle “Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose” is a blanket for two different animation styles which are often unified. Straight ahead makes possible a more unpredictable dynamic looking movement, which in traditional animation is formed by drawing every frame after each other from start to finish. In Pose to pose technique the first and last frames of the movement are drawn first, after which the in-between frames are drawn between them. With this technique it is easier to have total control over the movement. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 56- 58) The fifth principle, “Follow Through and Overlapping Action” is used to enliven the movement in the animation. For example, if a character with long rabbit-like ears is jumping, the ears continue the movement for a moment even if the motion of the body stops. This creates looseness and solidity for the character, which is important when creating a vital animation. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 59-62) PICTURE 12. Demonstration of the Follow through and Overlapping action animation principle (Animation Concepts 2011) The sixth principle is most easy to understand by picturing a car that is about to start moving; it builds up the speed slowly before getting to a faster rate. The same happens in reverse while the car starts to hit the brake. This principle is called “Slow in and Slow Out”, and it is also meant to liven up the animation. In traditional animation this is gained by adding frames in the beginning and end of the animation. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 62) The seventh principle “Arcs” means following trajectories, and it is used to make the movement seem more natural. The principle can be used in an example were a character is walking. During walking, the head of the character is getting up and down in a wave like movement as it takes more steps. This wave follows an arc. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 62-63)
17 PICTURE 13. Demonstration of the Arcs animation principle (The Illusion of Life 1981) The eight principle “Secondary Action” depicts a movement, which is used to enhance another movement. The timing in secondary action is very important, so the viewer understands where to focus. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 63-64) The ninth principle is called “Timing”. With timing it is possible to follow the laws of physics in animation, which enhances the feel of weight and mass. For example, if a character is trying to push forward a heavy object, the movement of it can be slow and almost non-existent to create a mental image that the object is almost too heavy to move. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 64-65) The 10th principle “Exaggeration” is possibly the most applicable out of all 12 principles, depending on how realistic the characters and their movement are in the animation. Through exaggeration the animation can be made more dynamic and visually more ambitious, while simultaneously the principle applies to almost every aspect of animation. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 65-66) PICTURE 14. Demonstration of the Exaggeration animation principle (Neil Pirie 2012)
18 “Solid Drawing”, the 11th principle means the importance for the animator to be able to understand a three-dimensional drawing. For example, when animating a character, it is important to understand how it looks three-dimensionally, so it can be drawn correctly from all angles. However, sometimes the desired visual look of the animation also needs distorted perspectives. If this looks is desired, then the distortion of the perspective is encouraged to last through the whole animation. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 66-68) PICTURE 15. Demonstration of the Solid drawing animation principle (John Hannimation Blog 2015) And lastly to list the 12 th principle which is called “Appeal”. By this Johnson and Thomas mean the visual likability of the animation, meaning its characters and world to keep the viewer’s interest alive. (Thomas & Johnson 1995, 68-69) 2.2.2 Additional foundations of animation Despite the fame Disney animations have gained on the field of cinematic animation, the 12 principles of animation are not the only ones being recognized as guidelines for creating lively animation. The additional foundations of animation add guidelines to Disney’s principles, and have been written about, for example, by John Halas and Tony White. These foundations are also worthy of mentioning in order to help describe the animating process. For the thesis the
19 additional foundations of animation are referenced from Dermot O’Connor’s Angry Animator blog. The first addition is a foundation of “Strong Design”. The foundation indicates the likability of a character’s visual design. In his blog, O’Connor claims big-eyed and cute characters do often attract the viewer visually, but he doesn’t mean to always design characters to be cute per se. He means that a good character design consists of strong visual shapes which makes them interesting to look at. (O’Connor 2018). This foundation can be considered to be a more elaborating version of the appeal principle. “Keys and Breakdowns” is also an additional foundation. This foundation points to strengthening of the key-positions by adding frames between them making it visually more interesting and vital. (O’Connor 2018) PICTURE 16. Demonstration of the Keys and Breakdowns foundation Another addition is a foundation called “Thumbnails and Planning”, which means sketching out the animation with drawings before starting animating. This sketching can be focused on drawing the main keyframes of the movement such as the first and the last, or it can mean sketching roughly every frame. This makes it easier to animated particularly complex movements. (O’Connor 2018) In the book The Illusion of Life Johnson and Thomas also claim that it is majorly important to study the animated movement and basically everything that is included in the animation, even though they do not count it as an individual principle. As another addition the foundation of “Silhouette” is listed, which indicates it to be ideal to recognize what the character is doing from only their silhouette alone. (O’Connor 2018) This could also be contrasted with the principle of staging, since
20 the two overlap in sense of highlighting the importance of how the character is positioned and presented. PICTURE 17. Demonstration of the Staging animation principle (The Illusion of Life 1981) Another addition is the “Line of Action and Reversals” foundation. This means for the pose of the character to be planned in a C or S -like curve, which makes the animation more dynamic. When an animator masters the adaptation of line of action in animation, the reversals bring elasticity to it. (O’Connor 2018). “Follow Through” is a principle of animation which is also recognized by Johnson and Thomas, but the additional foundations add “Overshoot and Settle” into the principle. Overshoot means an additional frame which is used to highlight the last settling frame by continuing the movement before the keyframe. This way the viewer has more time to read the movement. (O’Connor 2018) “Opposing Action” is a foundation which is founded into the idea of when a body is moving, parts of it usually move into the opposite direction. This way the body and the movement stay in balance. (O’Connor 2018) For example, when an animated character quickly points at something, its head can slightly tilt at the opposite direction at the moment of the point.
21 When following the human walk cycle it can be noticed that shoulders and pelvis usually turn in the opposite directions. This is called “Counter Pose”. The counter pose increases the dynamic in the actual animation, but also to character’s pose when it is not moving. (O’Connor 2018) This is a technique that has been used in visual arts from the time of renaissance and is recognised as Contrapposto (The Editors of Encyclopaedia… 2014). PICTURE 18. The Contrapposto demonstrated by Michelangelo’s David sculpture (Accademia n.d.) “Leading Action” is also a noteworthy addition as a foundation for animation. It means the practice of leading the movement by a specific part of the body. It makes a major difference in the movement and emotion of the character to consider which part of the body is leading the movement. (O’Connor 2018) “Breaking Joints” foundation means the figurative and practically quick breaking of the character’s joint when it is moving, which can add smoothness into the animation. (O’Connor 2018) The foundation of “Overlapping and Following Through” is similar to the principle of Secondary Action listed by Johnson and Thomas, yet slightly different. This foundation points to the possible secondary actions which are following the main action and underlines the mass and elasticity of the movement. This means that the speed, elasticity and weight of the object moving as a secondary movement should be able to be seen from the animation. (O’Connor 2018)
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The last addition is the foundation of “Accents”. This is an important principle to
take in count especially when animating dialogue. It should be made able to read
from the movement of the character which word has the most weight in its
speech. (O’Connor 2018)
While comparing the 21 foundations of animation and the 12 principles of
Disney’s animation a lot of similarities can be seen, when some of them resemble
– or practically match – one another. However, all principles of animation can be
considered dependent on the used animation technique which they are being
applied to. For example, some classic cartoon style animations – for example
Looney Tunes – seem to live from exaggeration of character’s physical
appearance, while in clay animation – like Wallace and Gromit – it would take too
much time to mould the character into exaggerated state, or it can be even
completely impossible. The principles are also tied – to some extend – into the
length of the animation, which turned out to be a considerable matter while
working with vector graphics and short animation loops.
2.3 The technical execution of animation
When thinking about the technical execution of animation, some initial thoughts
often include a long and tedious working process, a massive production team,
and an enormous financial cost for the production. This is true when considering
an animated feature film. However, due to development of the animating
software, animating today is more accessible for independent animators, while
the internet serves as the distribution channel. Some animation programs are
Adobe Animate, OpenToonz, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and Blender, to
name few.
Adobe Animate is a suitable animating software for traditional animation, but also
for digital cut-out animation. Adobe Animate – while it was still known as Flash -
was also the first animation software to gain popularity among independent and
hobbyist animators. OpenToonz is likewise a suitable software for traditional
animation, and it’s also free for anyone to download, which makes it highly23 accessible. Adobe After Effects is suitable for editing videos and adding visual effects, but it is also used for animating motion graphics. Photoshop can also be used for animating graphics, while also having a frame-animation feature. Blender is an open-source 3D-animation software which can be also used for video editing and 2D animation. While Adobe provides a variety of programs that can be potentially used for animating, they do not come without cost. At the moment Adobe’s programs cost over 700 euros for an independent customer per year if they choose to get them all (Adobe 2019). Having an ability to work with Adobe’s programs is beneficial for independent artists looking for jobs in animation or game studios, since all companies use them. However, the development of free animating programs is also a benefit for creators who cannot or choose not to pay money for the software they are using. This makes it possible for especially starting animators to learn how to animate and work with digital media. Animation is also rarely composed entirely from start to finish using one software. Programs suitable for composing, such as Nuke and previously mentioned After Effects can be used for editing, for example adding effects and audio into the composition. The thesis project was produced entirely by using Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. In hindsight, the choosing of the used software could have been made after more precise evaluation, which is being discussed later in the thesis. 2.3.1 Genres of animation Like other cinematic and artistic outputs, animation can also be divided into different genres and sub-genres. Animation genres are usually divided by the technique they are executed with. Classic cartoon animation is seen as the most traditional genre of animation. Originally traditional animation was drawn on paper, which was then flipped through to observe. Afterwards paper got replaced by see-through film. Today traditional animation is usually produced using drawing-tablets and suitable software, which creates the frames and flips through the animation. It is often required to be a skilled drawer and have commendable
24 understanding how three-dimensional figures work in two-dimensional setting, if a person’s goal is to be a skilled traditional animator. Stop-motion is also one of the first animations genres invented. Stop motion is formed by taking individual photographs of a three- or two-dimensional scene, while making small alterations to the animated character and scene in-between the shots. Afterwards the photos are edited into a film or video file, and while playing them through the content in the photographs seem to be moving. (Stop Motion Magazine 2019). Practically stop motion ‘stops’ the movement, but the abrupt look in the animation is considered ideal when animating using the style in question. A sub-genre for stop-motion animation is clay animation. This genre of animation is animated using stop-motion, but it uses specifically puppets in the animation which can be moulded like clay during animating. However, today these puppets are more commonly made from plastic that resembles clay. A rig is often built inside of the puppet to make even the tiniest movements more achievable. Another sub-genre of stop-motion is the cut-out -style. This animation technique is also executed as stop-motion, but instead of three-dimensional puppets it uses elements which are created out of paper and cardboard in a two-dimensional setting. The cut-out technique is also used when animating by using a computer, while the puppets are also often rigged. PICTURE 19. Cut-out -style ending credits of Pikku Kakkonen from 1983 The most recently sparked genre on animation is computer generated 3D animation. In practice three-dimensional computer graphics have been able to be
25 animated since the early 1970’s (Utterson 2011). The major reason for 3D animation to gain popularity among animation studios could simply be the slightly faster speed of creating it when compared to hand-drawn animation. 3D animation is also often adapted into acted movies owing to the realistic look that it today allows. Similarly to digital cut-out animated characters, 3D characters are also rigged and animated by using a similar method in three-dimensional setting. Today virtual reality also allows the displaying of 3D animation. Pikku Kakkonen uses sets of specific visual imageries that have been specifically created for the brand’s visual look. Therefore, when considering the thesis animation project, it was made clear that the animations would be executed using Pikku Kakkonen’s brand based imagery, specifically vector graphics. The animations of the project were created using the cut-out style, since it is a suitable technique for animating two-dimensional digital graphics. 2.3.2 Pixel based graphics All computer-generated graphics displayed on screen are rendered as pixels, and historically pixels were the first way to produce digital graphics. The ability to have graphics in different formats comes down to how the pixel is rendered. In different formats pixels act in variable ways. For example, in the GIF pixels tend to show as more defined due to compressing. This occurs because of the limited number of colours which the GIF can use. However, in PNG format the individual pixels are more difficult to see due to its lossless compression, which makes it a more ideal format for example for photographs and digital illustrations. Due to rendering compression of the GIF, it is only able to show a limited number of colours. Because of this, GIFs that have a wide colour scheme show a lot of individual pixels. The graphics used in the thesis project only use 32 different colours in total, so they were ideal for making animated GIFs, which is being discussed more later in the thesis.
26 2.3.3 Vector based graphics Vector graphics are initially pixels, which are rendered into format that does not lose its quality when scaled (TechTerms n.d.). Vector-based graphics got into hype in the early 1990’s as computer generated animation began developing and started to be used as motion graphics. For vector graphics it is usual to have clear, unified colour surfaces, which makes it ideal for example to be rendered into files with a limited colour amount, such as the GIF. Most of the modern cut-out animation is produced using vector graphics. While vector graphic animated series may look like traditional hand-drawn animation, it is not. While animating vector graphics, the character is often rigged. This way the character is animated by altering its rig and moving it in the scene. This allows occasionally a faster execution in the animating process, when compared to hand-drawn animation. PICTURE 20. Still frame from Hilda, an animated series using vector graphics (BookTrust 2018)
27 3 ANIMATION AS A MEDIUM Animation works as a vehicle when interpreting a story or other visual communication that would not be possible to visualized by using actors or sets. Hence animation is, for example, a suitable communication and storytelling tool for fantasy-based stories – which physically could not be visualized without it – or correlatively for a story which could be considered unsuitable in some way, if it would be presented by actors. Symbolism is also often used in animation, which can make the overall experience of the medium quite special, since it leaves more room for interpretation. Since the visual features are drawn, modelled or created in some other way, it gives animation the possibility to be detailed and polished on a wide range to capture the desired visual and emotional feel. In its core animation can be complementary to acted cinema. With help of animation it is possible to supply elements into movies to depict worlds and elements. As an example of complementary animation, one is Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) – a battle-movie directed by Quentin Tarantino. Most of the movie is presented through acting, but some scenes which portray violence and predatorial behaviour involving children are presented through animation. Animating the scenes might have been the only option to execute them, since carrying them out using actors would be considered inappropriate. As previously stated, executing the scenes using animation leaves distance between the viewer and the actions is the storyline. However, it deserves to be mentioned that every episode of said movie is made in different genres. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) by Robert Zemeckis can be used as another example of complementary animation. The movie consists of actors and animated characters existing simultaneously in a realistic world. Zemeckis movie was revolutionary by sparking a whole new way of utilizing animation into acted cinema. Even though Zemeckis’ movie was one of the first feature length movies combining live-action and animation, Disney created similar short live-action films already in the 1920’s (Seastrom 2019).
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PICTURE 21. Still frame from Who Framed Roger Rabbit (New York Times n.d.)
3.1 Adaptation of storytelling in animation
Animation is a versatile tool for storytelling since it does not need to follow a
physical reality, or aesthetic limits. Animation is highly adjustable to capture the
right feel, and elements in the story can be added through symbolism. At times
animation can be considered as a less confronting or head-on way of storytelling.
(Why Animation is best… 2017) This contradicts what was addressed earlier
about animation being a suitable vessel for disturbing actions, but it is important
to mention in order to highlight the previously mentioned versatility of the medium.
3.1.1 Animation and visual arts
In visual arts, animation can be seen in contemporary art. In contemporary art,
the stop-motion technique is often used and executed with puppets, clay, painting
or photographs. Animation in visual art does not necessarily follow storytelling in
a way like cinematic animation does – in fact it rarely does. In contemporary art
animation can also be suggestive, meaning that the animation does not follow
the principles of animation or a unified narrative.
In Swedish contemporary artist’s Nathalie Djurberg’s claymation video-
installation named “Tiger licking Girl’s Butt”, a tiger and a naked girl are placed in
a small room. The girl is drying herself with a towel, while the tiger sleeps on the
floor. The animal continuously gets up and licks the girl’s rear end, when the girl
turns around to look at the tiger, which after the viewer is presented a question29
“Why Do I have the Urge to Do These Things over and over again?”. The
interaction between the characters is minimal, and there is no effect – in addition
to text – happening after it. The artistic message is set to have more importance
than the technical execution of the animation, which is common in contemporary
art – the animation is not planned to follow the principles of animation and is left
suggestive, which leaves more room for interpretation considering the artwork.
PICTURE 22. Still frame from Tiger licking Girl’s Butt (2004)
3.2 Aims of production
The aim of the animation determines to an extent how it is produced. For
example, animating motion-graphics for a commercial takes a smaller number of
workers, time and money than a feature-length animated movie. Regardless of
the animation technique and the size of the production, there are some steps
which are almost always followed while producing animation, such as
scriptwriting, character design, and creating animatics. The aim of the production
is to make the process effective and result unified.
When considering the thesis project’s production, the first noticeable fact was that
the character designs – and their graphics – were previously created and in use
before the project was started. The graphics combined with the short animation
loops turned out to be a good combination considering that there would be a
single person animating the GIFs and animated shorts. Creating short animations
with readymade vector graphics made the production quick enough for the thesis
project to be executed in the premeditated time.30 One major part of planning the animated GIFs was also inventing the visual narration in them, which was executed creating animation breakdowns. This can be considered as visual scriptwriting for the short animations. Considering that the animated GIFs were set to be from one to a few seconds long, it was challenging to insert any major storyline in them, which left the narration in them quite slim. In addition to creating short looping animations, the production consisted also from a couple of composed animated shorts using audio. These shorts were set to be 10 to 15 seconds long, which made it slightly easier to create a simple plot for them. However, being myself the only animator and physical editor in the project, it turned out to be challenging to animate and edit the animated shorts in time, alongside with the GIFs. In order to save some time, in one of the animated shorts I used a formerly existing animation sequence from one of the animated GIFs. However, as the animations were created by a single animator, a unified cohesion between them was easier to maintain. The functionality of the project’s production is dissected more later in the thesis.
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4 ADAPTING THE GRAPHIC INTERCHANGE FORMAT
In its early use the GIF was used as a decorative element on websites, since it
was the only way to personalize them. When the format was again in free use
after 2004, it had a similar phase where GIFs were decorating blogs and people’s
profiles in one of the first internet-community sites called Myspace. The usage of
GIFs as decorative elements on websites decreased after web-design started
developing.
4.1 History
” It’s pronounced as JIF not GIF.” – Steve Wilhite (2013)
Steve Wilhite and his team developed the graphic interchange format in 1987,
while working for a company called CompuServe (Buck 2012). The first version
of the GIF is also known by name the name ‘87a’, and it made the animated
feature of the format possible (TechTerms 2016). GIF stands short for the graphic
interchange format, and it was the first way to create moving image without it
taking too much of the computer’s memory. Internet connection speed during the
time was also slow compared to modern day, which made it more tedious to deal
with image files. Wilhite and his team figured out how, by using a compression
algorithm and a specific count of colours, it was possible to create an image
format that was lighter for the computer to store and send. The World Wide Web
had not yet seen the light of day, so it was up to companies like CompuServe to
make it possible to transfer files, thus the invention of GIF became beneficial for
the company which Wilhite was working for. (Boissoneault 2017)
The first image published on the web was a GIF (Estes 2015). The first moving
GIFs had a flipbook styled way of looping the animation. After the GIF quickly
developed it was used as an accessory on websites, since web-design did not
exist yet in the form which it does today.32
In 1994 a company called Unisys made the usage of GIF chargeable (Buck
2012). The company owned the patent of the LZW algorithm which was used in
GIF and wanted to start profiting of it. Soon after, developers created the PNG
format, which upgraded the quality of digital images. This led to the usage of the
GIF format freezing till the year 2004, when the Unisys’ patent expired.
(Boissoneault 2017)
Today GIFs online are used for example in blogging and advertisement. GIF-
servers like GIPHY make it possible for anyone to upload a GIF online – when
following the site’s guidelines – and spread it to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat
and other social media platforms. GIFs are also possible to make by anyone who
has access to internet or specific smartphone-apps, which have a feature that
converts a video into GIF. Using an existing video clip for a GIF takes less time
and can be considered moderately simple to make, however animating the clip
will take more time and more demands some technical knowledge of animating.
But how did the graphic interchange format survive its ‘dark period’, even when
other image formats were created which have better resolution? The answer
could lie in the format’s technical qualities. There is still no other file format which
makes the looping aspect of a video clip possible while taking as little space from
the computer’s memory. The GIF is also supported as a format by any device,
from smartphones to wristwatches. However, it deserves to be mentioned that
some social media sites do not support GIF but prefer using videos.
4.2 Technique and the limits of it
GIF can show 256 colours, either 8-bit grayscale-images or 8-bit full colour-
images (TechTerms 2016). The average GIF is from two to six seconds long,
while technically a GIF can last for several years. In fact, the longest GIF created
lasts for 1000 years (Dang 2015). However, a GIF longer than several seconds
is considered a clip. While GIF was originally developed for still images to be
compressed into a small size, today the image-quality which the file provides is
too low, for example for digital paintings or photographs to be shown as high-
definition as they can be.33
PICTURE 23. PNG (left) and GIF (right) renders of a photo
The PNG was originally developed for photographs as an alternative to JPG,
while GIF was planned as a format for still and eventually for moving image.
Compared to PNG’s ability to include over 16 million colours, it can be stated that
PNG is a better file option for photographs and other more complexly pixelized
images than GIF. GIF is suitable for looping short animations and video-clips and
can be used as a format for simple game-graphics and logos.
Today GIF animation can be created in many ways. For the beginning a short
video-clip is needed. For example, from Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Animate it
is possible to render a file as GIF. Converting a video-file into GIF is also an option
in Adobe Media Encoder. Many websites and apps like Instagram make it also
possible to convert a GIF from a video-file and additionally edit it to some extent.
What makes the GIF also a special file format is the fact that it does not require
a separate software to play its content. As previously mentioned, this
convenience can also be a part of the reason for the format to be able to stay in
use.
4.3 Adapting GIF animation
Today the adaptation of GIF animation can be seen in many forms in social
media, idle animations on websites and games, and as part of branding. GIF is
still used in blogging sites such as Tumblr as re-posted feature, where users ‘re-
blog’ existing images, GIFs and text posts to their personal blogs to express their
aesthetics and personality. GIF can also be seen to be used in visual arts,34 possibly because by some aspect it is a quite immediate piece of digital media, making it a significant medium to work with. Additionally – and most commonly – GIFs are also adapted to conversations in private messaging servers and forums. 4.3.1 Social media After the development of smartphones, applications having a direct messaging feature – such as Whatsapp and Instagram – have increased in use. In those social media apps, GIFs and stickers are used as part of personification and conversational flow. Sometimes sending the person you are talking to a dancing hot-dog just fits the mood of the conversation better – and faster - than trying to verbalise what you are thinking or feeling. Because of the project it is important to mention the term “snapping”. This term refers to Snapchat, which is an application created in 2011 (Adsoup 2018). The app’s concept is that users can chat and snap photos and videos which are only visible for 24 hours. The concept of posting temporarily to your social media feed has then attracted Instagram and Facebook, where the feature is also made possible, and the products of the thesis project take place. In these temporary posts – also called as Stories – the users can use decorative elements in their posts. These small images and GIFs – or animated stickers – are provided via Instagram and GIF-servers like GIPHY, which is being explained more later in the thesis. 4.3.2 GIF in use of brands Brands use the GIF as a promotional and interactive feature between the customer and their personal connections. As promotion a GIF can be visually more captivating, memorable and more convenient to distribute via online conversation, than a static image. This makes it an effective form of advertisement.
35 Vue is a cinema operator managing brands. On their Facebook page called Vue Cinemas, the operator uses GIFs in their posts for movie promotion (Vue n.d.). The GIFs are designed to look like a regular post when characters pop out of it, as if they would be walking over the page. This way of promotion is surprising, and cause interest for the promoted movie without the consumer feeling like they are being directly targeted with advertisement. PICTURE 24. Still of a ‘pop out’ style GIF on Vue’s Facebook page. Brands also use the format as an interactive feature by releasing animated stickers, which are focused to be used as communicational elements in the users’ personal messaging application. This way the brand can give goods for the consumer to spread as indirect advertisement, and possibly spark a positive emotional impact. PICTURE 25. My Little Pony Movie themed stickers on Facebook Messenger’s sticker menu
36 4.3.3 GIF and visual arts The GIF is commonly seen as something having humoristic purpose and lacking value in a sense that it is a piece of disposable media. However, in May 2017 in Colorado USA, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art opened a Fine Art exhibition of GIFs. The exhibition consisted of artworks from Canada, Poland, Slovakia, New York City and other places from artists who submitted their work to Ello, an art-focused social network. (Wenzel 2017). The exhibition in Boulder museum was not the only time GIFs have been seen in a gallery space. For creators it is common to search for new techniques and outlets for their art, and the GIF has been no exception among contemporary artists. GIF as a format can supply immediacy in a similar way to a video. Being a short clip of looping media, GIF provides a form of immediacy. When associating GIFs with communication, the format offers the feeling of connection, which is also something that can be searched for in art. PICTURE 26. Still from Reuben Sutherlands GIF artwork (Monsterpost 2018) 4.3.4 Emotions At times, textual content is inadequate to pass on desired emotion-based information. Since the development of digitalisation – in addition to spoken and written language – we have also started to communicate via emoticons and more recently emojis, and still and animated stickers - the communicational icons of the present era.
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