The proposal.


Kirrily Schell


Title: Improvisation in Animation


Summary:

In this paper I will investigate the possibilities and outcomes of improvisation within the context of 2D drawn animation.
In particular I will focus upon improvisation within the narrative.

I will be using comparative analysis and the trace method to research this topic.

Brief description:

Is the straight-ahead technique the same process as improvisation when animating in 2D?
What is improvisation?
What is the straight-ahead technique?
I will give brief examples of improvisation in other art-forms, draw questions related to those art-forms and address them to the idea of improvisation in animation.
For example:
In the actual event of a musical improvisation, the creation and outcome exists in the moment. All of the musician’s knowledge and experience and/or pre-production, including factors such as the musician’s personality and unique sensibility, come together intuitively. Often with other musicians. There can be a certain spirit or spiritedness to the music that is virtually impossible to recreate in a composition. If you tried to compose and capture that moment again with the same song, would it hold as rich a spirit?
With my own experience in creating comics, why does the first draft of my comic story, albeit a little messy, look so much more alive than the second draft. Is this only the case when I am improvising a comic?
How do my characters differ when I script, storyboard and draft the piece carefully?
How does this relate to my own experience with animating?

In the case of improvisation in acting and/or theatre, the improvisation process brings a certain spontaneous life to the story. (Can one “method act” through an animation?)
Can this same set of questions address the animation process?
Can these same improvisation processes be utilized when animating?
IE: Can an animator start with a concept or idea then explore this through the process of animating?







What are the different elements that can be explored through improvisation in animation?
-Visuals How the animation looks, eg: the drawn mark the animator makes.
-Movement The way the characters, objects or marks move.
-Narrative Improvising the idea or the journey of the story in the moment.

In this paper I will focus upon improvisation within the narrative. What kind of results have improvising animators achieved, and what kind of processes did they use?
Initially I will focus on the animator and cartoonist Bill Plympton.
Are his animations one great big animated flow of doodled ideas, where he knows not what next his character will do? I am thinking of one called “Hair” or “Thread”. Or does he stage it all with storyboard and other preproduction necessities?
Which brings me to the question of how to go about improvising in animation.

How does the way the preproduction process is set up reflect in and inform the quality, look and feel of the final animation?
My questions about animation have been with me for many years as they pertain also to the creation of comics.
When animating Toots my own preproduction processes varied throughout, thus the quality of the animation also varied throughout.
Preproduction is integral to the final quality, look and feel of an animation so therefore
how the preproduction is set up will inform the kind of animation created.

Can preproduction be set up in such a way so as to provide a framework for improvisation within animation to occur?

If so then what kind of results could be achieved?
Are there negative aspects to improvisation in animation?
Is it impractical?
If so what is the solution?
Computer technology offers many software animation programmes, such as Flash, and digital drawing tools such as the Wacom, thus giving new options and processes for today’s animator. Does this allow for quicker, more productive and practical creation of improvised animation? (Is the Internet a more practical realm to ‘publish’ these kinds of animations?)









Rationale:

Why would an animator choose to improvise and what are the benefits of doing so?

If preproduction is set up in such a way so as to provide a framework for improvisation within animation to occur then this would optimise the animators flow within the process, thus giving a truer sense of life to the animation.

Setting up the preproduction process in such a way would allow for spontaneous creation within the narrative, or within the movement of the subject or within the “look” or “mark making”.
The animator could then:

explore ideas visually in time, in the moment.
work intuitively.
- use the animation process in the same way an artist uses a sketchbook to spontaneously collect and create visual references and ideas.
- allow for more spontaneous development to their skill/technique/craft and artistic explorations.



Methodology:
Trace and Comparative analysis.
Survey animators.
Interviews and questionnaires.
Research documentation.
Review literature, comics, and film/video/dvd/web.
Research Webb logs.
Comparative analysis. Flash/hand drawn.
Comparative analysis: preproduction/ improvisation in comics.
A brief comparative analysis of improvisation in other art forms
Review my own production process and outcomes from animations in 2003.



Bibliography:


Books:
-Animation 2D and beyond, Jane Pilling, RotoVision SA, 2001
- Evasvankmajerjan, Slovart Publishing, Ltd., Prague, 1997
-The Animator's Survival Kit, Richard Williams, Faber and Faber Ltd, 2001
-Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, DC Comics, 1993



DVD/Video/Film:
Bill Plymton
Liquid Television/archives
Bruce Petty
Drajic. Animation, improvised. Called Diary. Masters of Animation - v. 3 USSR, Yugoslavia, Poland & Hungary.


Keywords and URLs:

Anijam

Bill Plympton
http://www.awn.com/plympton/
-31/03/04
Animation improvisation art
HYPERLINK "http://www.acmefilmworks.com/" http://www.acmefilmworks.com/
-3/04/04
HYPERLINK "http://www.bitterfilms.com/" http://www.bitterfilms.com/
-31/03/04
Straight-ahead animation
Wacom and Flash animation
HYPERLINK "http://pub51.ezboard.com/fbuddinganimatorfrm14" http://pub51.ezboard.com/fbuddinganimatorfrm14
-1/4/04
Surrealist animation
Comics
HYPERLINK "http://scott@scottmccloud.com./" http://scott@scottmccloud.com./
-31/03/04
HYPERLINK "http://scott@scottmccloud.com./links/links.html" http://scott@scottmccloud.com./links/links.html
-1/4/04
Bruce Petty
HYPERLINK "http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s614495.htm" http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s614495.htm
HYPERLINK "http://www.abc.net.au/contraptions/credits/pettyb.htm" http://www.abc.net.au/contraptions/credits/pettyb.htm
-1/4/04
Wendy Tilby
HYPERLINK "http://www.acmefilmworks.com/" http://www.acmefilmworks.com/
-1/4/04
Koji Yamamura
HYPERLINK "http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~yam/" http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~yam/
-1/4/04