Envision

How does the Studio Habit of Mind: Envision fit in with our Fire and Smoke Cycle project?

Envision

The Studio Habit of Mind that will be explored in this unit is Envision.

To envision as animators, we must learn to picture, in our mind's eye, an idea (an aim, purpose, or concept), message (an important point or theme), feeling (an emotion or belief), or personal meaning (an intended communication of personal importance) as a visual artwork. This imagining should include symbols and metaphors as a visual representation to convey meaning through various artistic conventions. Another way artists envision their work is by imagining all of the steps in the process to create it.

Just as in all of the other Studio Habits of Mind, the ability for an artist to envision an artwork and the process of creating it takes repeated practice and time.

Animation History

Glen Keane

One of the industry's greatest animators, Keane is known for his work on classic Disney animations such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Rapunzel. Recently he directed Netflix's Over the Moon and won an academy award for his short film with Kobe Bryant Dear Basketball.

Artistic Concept

A concept is an abstract idea. Artists use different concepts to take those ideas from abstraction to reality. The concepts being explored through the lens of the Studio Habit - Envision is Conceptualization.

Conceptualization lies in an artist's ability to create "something out of nothing" by seeing it in the mind's eye. It is the practiced, abstract ability to visualize the end product and the process of creation to get there. Artists conceptualize by imagining the artwork before it is actually created.

Conceptualization

Aladdin

Treasure Planet

The Secret of Nimh

12 Principles of Animation

Exaggeration

Exaggeration in animation refers to the animator's ability to "push" an action, expression, movement, or sequence beyond how it may be seen in reality to make it more convincing and believable to the audience. This can be done in a number of ways, but most importantly should focus on enhancing the overall animation and not distracting the viewer.

Professional Examples

Visual Effects in Animation

Visual effects in animation can be defined as all of the environmental effects or magical effects that support a given scene. They could include, but aren't limited to pixie dust, rain, magic, and fire. Visual effects are meant to enhance the story of the animation and make the sequence that much more believable to the audience.

Cinderella

Treasure Planet

Beauty and the Beast

Visual Effects Unit

Project Specifics

Create an animation that cycles - meaning that it could loop endlessly with no clear beginning or end - that depicts a fire and accompanying smoke. The animation can be done in a cartoony style, but the motion of the flame and smoke should feel realistic in terms of it's timing and weight.

Student Examples

Begin with A Background

Design the background on which your animation will take place. Is it a campfire? A magical fire? A building fire? The possibilities are endless! Be creative!

Make Observations

All great animations start with observations of how things "work" in the real world.

Closely watch and record accurate observations about fire. What shape do flames take? How would you describe the motion? Is it random or precise? What is the overall motion of the whole fire? What is the overall motion of each flame? What can you observe about the timing?

Closely watch and record accurate observations about smoke. What shape does smoke take? How would you describe the motion? Is it random or precise? What is the overall motion of the whole plume? What is the overall motion of each billow? What can you observe about the timing?

The Process

The animation for this project will be created "Straight Ahead" meaning that it will not be done in key frames, but that you will work frame by frame.

The best way to start, once you've designed your background and made observations based in reality, is to plan out the main motion of the body of the flame using simple lines. Using a curved "s" shaped line, plan out the motion of your fire through all the frames of the animation. This will give you a believable, realistic feeling motion to the fire.

After you've created all of the motion guide lines for the fire, go back to each frame and draw the full shape of the fire for that individual frame. The motion guide line that you drew should be in the middle of the shape that you create for your fire.

Once your frames for your fire cycle are complete, repeat the aforementioned process for your smoke.

The smoke should be animated on an entirely new series of papers and should take double the amount of time as your fire did.

Draw a motion guide line for every frame of your smoke animation making sure that it still engulfs, or surrounds your fire.

After your motion guide lines for each frame are complete, go back and add the shape of the smoke and individual billows to each separate frame keeping your motion guide line in the middle of the shape you create.

Don't forget all of the Principles of Animation that we have learned so far in class - especially EXAGGERATION for this animation.

This video, although created digitally, is an excellent example of the process of creating a fire animation.

process video

making the movie

objectives and national standards

want to know more - exploratory animation

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