Meeting the Spy: An Analysis, Part 7

Ahem....Gentlemen. Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnuYi-nzE90

Fred Moore was one of Disney Studio's most imaginative and creative animators. His ability to really capture emotion and fluid movements while still giving a sense of wonder and whimsy to his characters really made him a sort of icon during his time in the studio. He was also the pioneer of the more fluid Mickey design, going from a rigid style (traced from coins) to a more pear-shaped version that allowed for much greater mobility. Truly Fred's talents put him among the best. He even had his own fourteen points of animation.

Another great animator was Bill Tytla. Famous for the devil in the "Bald Mountain" scene in Fantasia, and even more famous at the studio for Stromboli in Pinocchio, Bill was noted for his incredible ability to use lighting and extremely fluid motion to convey the deepest emotions of his characters. He actually had twelve points of his own that could be found in all of his works. In this segment of Meeting the Spy, I will list the fourteen points of Fred's animation and compare them to the Meet the Spy trailer, as well as Bill's twelve points. Some of these points have already been described and compared in Part 4 of the analysis. If so, I will still describe them but I won't detail the comparisons again.

Fred's Points:

1. Appeal in Drawing. From the original I believe this is a combination of the Solid Drawing and Appeal points. The characters should be well presented and enjoyable to look at even if they are frightening or "ugly". They should also be well drawn so that it is easy to tell what they are doing or trying to accomplish.

2. Staging. As described in point 3 of Part 4, staging means the placement of characters and objects in a scene so that the viewers have a clear understanding of what they should be focusing on and what is happening in the scene.

3. Most interesting way? [Would anyone other than your mother like to see it?]. When anybody makes something its hard for them to be able to look at it objectively, to be able to tell if other people would be interested in it. Simply put this point means that the animation should be interesting to the audience, not just the animator. Work should be done to make sure that the audience will enjoy what they're seeing. The Meet the Spy trailer was very entertaining for me, I enjoyed the humor and the character's movements. As I had described before, the way that each characters' actions conveyed their personalities and traits was very interesting and well done.

4. Is it the most entertaining way? To me this means that if a character's actions can be slightly modified to be entertaining (the goal of any animation should be to entertain to some degree) then it should be modified. Animation (especially in the case of Disney) is made to entertain, and if the animation isn't done in the most entertaining way then that goal might be met. I believe that in the context of people who play video games or even play Team Fortress 2, the animation is as entertaining as it can be. Outside of that, however, I feel that more could have been done.

5. Are you in character? It's very easy to tell if a person committed his or herself to something they made or worked on. This question asks if you invested yourself into your characters, your animation. I feel that in the trailer the animators were in their characters. The work was very well done and the animation as a whole felt like it had very invested workers behind it.

6. Are you advancing the character? This question asks if you are making sure your character doesn't get stuck into their ways. A character is more believable if they can evolve, change, grow, and learn. If a character doesn't do any of these they're more of an imprint than a character. The characters in the trailer didn't have a whole lot of time to develop but their relationship as teammates was apparent and had the tiny squabbling and clashing that long established teammates would have, giving the characters the depth of growth.

7. Is this the simplest statement of the main idea or the scene? It is possible to overly-complicate animation, when simple movements and expressions will do. It doesn't take as much work as one may think to get an idea across to the audience. The trailer as a whole had very simple animations and movements that allowed it to showcase the Spy's abilities effectively.

8. Is the story point clear? Can the audience tell what the animation is about? What the point of it all is? The trailer throughout is based around how the Spy thinks, acts, and what he is capable of. This is the focus of the animation and at no point did I feel like it was getting off track.

9. Are the secondary actions working with the main action? Like point 8 in Part 4, this point focuses on secondary action. In a more specific question, it means you should make sure the secondary actions make sense based on the main action, or that they look right. Like point 8, I wasn't able to see any truly defined main actions that took long enough to have secondary actions.

10. Is the presentation best for the medium? I had a hard time understanding this question, the best description I could come up with was this: Is your presentation style suited for animation? Or would it be better suited to painting or drawing stills or working in live television? Animation is a specific kind of medium with its own "rules" and workings. Although much of it is free and open to interpretation, certain ideas and styles of presentation would simply work better for other mediums. Being based on characters in a game (and using the same visual style that the characters are made in) I feel that the trailer's presentation could not have been better on any other medium.

11. Does it have 2 dimensional clarity? In the sense of a 2 dimensional animation is the work clear? Is there a lack of clutter and ability to clearly see everything that the audience should see? Being that this animation was a three dimensional animation, it didn't really have to worry about 2 dimensional clarity. In this case I think proper staging would be all that is needed.

12. Does it have 3 dimensional solidity? In the sense of a 2 dimensional animation, does it feel like it is a real 3 dimensional world? Does it feel like a ball you see on screen is in fact a sphere and not a circle? That you could walk onto the screen and pick it up and hold it in your hands like a ball and not a disc? Being that the trailer was actually made in a three dimensional space, this point is not quite as applicable.

13. Does it have 4 dimensional drawing? [Drag and follow through]. The fourth dimension mentioned is time. That being said, does the animation actually move in time as well as space? Does the follow through make the character appear to have moved earlier? Brought up in point 5 in Part 4, follow through was well done in the trailer and time had its place in the animation as a whole.

14. Are you trying to do something that shouldn't be attempted? [Like trying to show the top of Mickey's head] In animation, there are things that, if enough effort were put into it, could be done. This doesn't necessarily mean that they should be done however. Showing the top of Mickey's head, based on his design as a character, would take a lot of thinking and clever drawing, but to what end when it'd be much easier (and more appealing) to show his face? In animation, simply put, you can do anything, but it doesn't mean you have to. In the trailer I didn't see anything in particular that felt like it shouldn't have been done.

Bill's Points:
1. Inner Feelings and Emotion. Characters need to have feeling and emotion behind their actions, otherwise they look and seem robotic (unless that's what you're going for, but in some cases that can't be true). The characters in the trailer each had their displays of emotion that felt true. The Scout's feelings were most apparent as his mother's pictures were revealed and as he and the Spy "faced off"

2. Acting with clear and definite action. Similar to the solid drawing points of Fred and the original twelve, characters' actions need to be clear and made without hesitation (even if the action is hesitating) If a character, like an actor, has "made the decision" to perform an action, then they need to appear "sure" of it. Every action of the characters in the trailer had their decisions behind them, no decision was made without feeling like some thought went behind it.

3. Character and personality. Characters should have (what else?) character! Their very existence being believed is based on them having personality and having a "life" all their own. As I stated in the Part 1, the characters in the trailer have clear personalities that are defined in everything that they do, from how they walk to how they speak and non-verbally communicate with each other.

4. Thought process through expression changes. Characters can't "think" on their own. They're shapes and drawings. They still need to appear to think, they need to have minds that process information and make decisions based on that information. To demonstrate the idea of "thought" characters can have expressions, on their face or through their body language. An excellent example of this in the trailer takes place at 0:42. When the Spy asks if anyone happened to kill a Red Spy on their way to the room, watch his expression as they all say no.

5. Ability to analyze. Characters interacting with their world is just as hard as "thought" considering it's all just drawings and shapes. A character's ability to "analyze" is similar to their thoughts, brought on through changes of expressions. Around 0:20 when the Soldier is trying to open the door with the passcode 1, 1, 1....1, the way his fingers move as he tries to figure out the last number give an idea of him trying to think of the right number.

6. Clear Staging. Just like in previous points, staging means that the characters and objects are placed in ways that make it obvious to the audience what is important and relevant to the scene.

7. Good composition. A character is a whole that is the sum of its parts. Each of those parts needs to be well made for the character as a whole to be accepted and liked. In the trailer the character's all had good composition, although I felt that the Spy's head could have had better textures or design to give a more fabric-ish feel to his balaclava.

8. Timing. Due to advances in animation technology, timing is much less an issue nowadays. The framerate multiplied by the time an animation is going to take gives you a good idea of how many frames you're going to need.

9. Solidity in drawing. Like previous points, Solid drawing means that a character's actions are easily determined through effective drawing or modeling (in computer generated work).

10. Power in drawing. Animation is powerful work. It can convey a hundred ideas and feelings without much effort. It can evoke emotions and create worlds and characters that audiences fall in love with or grow to hate, even though they're completely fictional. Maximizing this power of animation will create a very believable and true world, one that can bring tears or laughter to any who watch it. Being that the trailer was a fairly light-hearted one, I wouldn't say it was really powerful.

11. Strength in drawing. Watch just about any angry character in a Disney work. The power in each step, the strength of their stride, the expression on their face. All of these components work together to make sure you know exactly what they're thinking. A great example of power in drawing (or in this case modeling) is how the Heavy moves throughout the animation. Go through and focus on him as much as possible. Listen to him talk, watch him run and move.

12. Imagination. With all the possibilities of animation, it should go without saying that imagination plays a huge role. Being able to come up with stories, characters, worlds, and even new rules for how the world works. All of these require imagination. The world of Team Fortress 2 is simple compared to many others, but has imaginative elements all its own. The Spy's ability to turn into his enemies, the strange yet familiar of the character builds and the comically unrealistic nature of the world at large all meld to create an imaginative world that the audience can truly appreciate.

Animators, as they work, will often come up with their own ideas for what makes good animation. In many cases they are similar, and in many cases they are different. This gives us a good look at how their styles differ and how they use common elements in different ways. This also gives us perspective when we go to work on our own animations.