The Acting before the Performance: The Pre-production of the Short Animation Bunny Escaped

A Thesis Submitted to

the Graduate Faculty of the Division of the Dramatic Media

in Candidacy for the Degree of

Master of Fine Arts

Department of Theatre and Film Studies

University of Georgia

Athens, Georgia

July 2020

Introduction:

Bunny Escaped is planned to be a 3D short animated film about a rabbit-shaped bun coming to life in a factory and trying to escape from the destiny of being packed, shipped, and eaten. It is the thesis project of my M.F.A. program in Dramatic Media. I have finished the pre-production of the animation, including the story creation, storyboard, the designs, models and rigs of the characters and sets, and the previz of the production. This project is a conclusion of my three-year study in the field of computer animation. It is also a new starting point for my future as an animator and a researcher.

In his book Shadow of a Mouse, Donald Crafton investigates the theory of performance in and of animation.[1] He argues there are two aspects of the performativity of animation: one represents the performance in animation, the behaviors, actions, and expressivity of the characters, and everything in the animated world. The other, performance of animation, is what Crafton calls the conditional performance. The performance is not complete until it’s projected to its viewers. Though the animated characters do not possess human bodies in the real world, we recognize them as human, whether they are mice or rabbits, children or adults. They are the actors on the screen, whose acting styles are defined and characterized by the animators.

The performance may not be completed until its screening. The acting, however, has started far earlier before that. This leads to the first objective of my thesis project. By addressing each step of the pre-production of Bunny Escapes, I investigate how acting happens in story creation, designing, modeling, rigging, and the previz in animation production. Animators’ acting in the production and animating stages might be easiest to observe when Mickey Mouse conducts the broom and fill the water bucket; or when Buzz sings the lonely song and fails to fly out of the window. It may not be as obvious, but the acting of the characters starts much earlier before they can “move.” When writing the script, the characters begin performing in the directors’ minds. When planning out the storyboard, the animators figure out the stage and movements and dialogues for the characters. Further, modelers and riggers pose the characters to “rehearse” for the final performance – the production of the animation.

Another objective of this project is to provide some tools and tips in the pre-production that can be applied by other designers, modelers, and riggers. Before this project, I have worked on several animation projects for class assignments and departmental theatre productions. Nevertheless, it is not until I worked on this project independently that I understood better the fun and the pain of creating animation and realized the strength and weaknesses I have as an animator. Collaborating with others is a good way to learn. Working on a project independently, however, makes me clearly realize the knowledge I have understood and the skills I have not yet mastered at various stages of the process. In order to provide some insights into the pre-production of an animated film, in this paper, I present the tools and resources that I have researched and my reflections at each stage while I was working on the project.

The pre-production of the short can be divided into five stages. I will address each part in five individual chapters: story creation and designing, storyboarding, modeling, rigging, and making the previz. For each stage, I followed a rough pattern of providing story/ideas, researching, and re-working the story/ideas. But each stage of the production was not entirely independent from each other; sometimes they overlap. For example, while I was working on the storyboard, I already started modeling the characters and sets. After discussing the storyboard with my committee, we realized some unrealistic settings in the scene. To correct the settings, I re-did part of the set model and added some new elements of the factory building. In this paper, I also include these experiences and reflections to give the readers some insight into the process.

There are many works contributing to the field of animation production. Tutorials related to the animation-making process can be divided into several categories. Some practitioners focus on walking through 3D animation software, including Autodesk Maya,[2] Cinema 4D,[3] and Blender.[4] The authors provide detailed instructions on each production stage, from modeling, rigging, animating, to rendering and special effects. They introduce the tools, for example, the insert edge loop in Autodesk Maya, with how-to examples and explanations of the functions of the tools.[5] Some specialists contribute to the field based on the stage of the process. Tutorials cover the topics of writing the screenplay,[6] storyboarding,[7] the animation techniques,[8] timing for animation,[9] and special effects.[10] They break down the phases of each subcategory, working through the basic concepts and supplying useful techniques, tools, and resources with online access. For instance, to introduce the timing for animation, Sito starts with explaining the basic physics concept of Newton’s laws of motion.[11] He gives several examples of the timing changes of moving objects in different scenarios. The timing of objects thrown through the air differs from that of inanimate objects.[12] He also covers the techniques of timing for organic animation, including facial expressions and body movements.[13] Romain Caudron and Nicq,[14] M. D. McCallum,[15] and Roland Hess[16] choose a different strategy. By showcasing each step of creating the storyboard, designing characters and settings, rigging and animating objects, rendering with lighting, and adding sound, the authors explain how to use the software, either Blender or iClone, and create an actual animation with it. Though they have different strategies in specific steps, overall they offer applicable processes of making short films.

Unlike the works that I mentioned above, this project is more than a tutorial-based paper. It also applies the animation theory in practice. Through the reflections of each stage of the pre-production, I unfold the relation between animation and acting in detail. Moreover, I recorded the experiences and the mistakes I made in the process. In that way, the future animators can use this paper to map out their project at the early stage of the production and avoid the same mistakes that I have made to save some effort and time.

The biggest limitation of the project is that I could not finish the final production and post-production version of the short film because of underestimating the time required and my demanding schedule. However, this paper is not the end of the project. After finishing the degree, I will continue working on the project and finish the production. I believe the experiences and reflections of the pre-production will help me plan and carry out the final production efficiently.

[1] Donald Crafton, Shadow of a Mouse: Performance, Belief, and World-Making in Animation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013). [2] Todd Palamar, Mastering Autodesk Maya 2016 (Sybex, a Wiley brand, 2016). [3] Jen Rizzo, Cinema 4D Beginner’s Guide. [Electronic Resource] (Packt Publishing, 2012). [4] Tony Mullen, Mastering Blender. [Electronic Resource], 2nd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013). [5] Palamar, Mastering Maya, 144. [6] Jeremy Robinson and Tom Mungovan, Screenplay Workbook: The Writing Before the Writing, 1st edition (Lone Eagle, 2010). [7] Nancy Beiman, Prepare to Board!: Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts / Nancy Beiman. (Amsterdam; Boston: Focal Press, 2007). [8] Richard Williams, The Animator’s Survival Kit. (London: Faber, 2001). [9] Tom Sito, Timing for Animation, 2 edition (Routledge, 2013). [10] Todd Palamar, Maya Studio Projects: Dynamics, 1 edition (Hoboken, N.J: Sybex, 2009). [11] Sito, Timing, 31. [12] Ibid, 33-35. [13] Ibid, 97-125. [14] Romain Caudron and Pierre-Armand Nicq, Blender 3D By Example, Community Experience Distilled (Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing, 2015). [15] M. D. McCallum, IClone 4.31 3D Animation: Beginner’s Guide (Birmingham [England]: iClone 4.31 3D Animation Beginner’s Guide, 2011). [16] Roland Hess, Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish (Burlington: Routledge, 2008)