Narrative Freedom in Abstraction: breaking through narrative structure in mainstream media
Symbolism and Association: Symbolism conveys abstract ideas through concrete imagery, allowing viewers to interpret the work from multiple perspectives. Association places different images side by side, encouraging viewers to connect or contrast them, which sparks new thoughts. These methods allow creators to express the themes of animation metaphorically while inviting viewers to engage with the content through their personal interpretations, making their insights and feelings part of the experience.
Metropolis special effects
Background Panning Technique: In this film, due to the limited conditions and equipment of the time, the camera could not perform panning movements. Instead, the creators moved the background images in front of the camera to achieve the effect.
Real-Time Projection Method: In the film, when capturing a phone call scene where another person’s real-time reaction appears on the phone screen, two cameras were connected. This setup allowed the image of the person on the other end of the line to be projected in real time onto the center of the phone screen.
Cardboard Model: The scene was built using a cardboard model, with lighting changes captured frame by frame. They photographed 24 images per second to achieve smooth animation.
the scraped area
Mirror trick method: A mirror was placed at a 45-degree angle to the camera, with a portion of its surface scraped away. This scraped section allowed the camera to capture the image of the people behind the mirror, while the remaining reflective portion displayed the miniature model of the background. As a result, the mirror could reflect the stationary background model, while the scraped area revealed the moving figures behind it.
Multi exposure – shoot in the camera on the same reel
Non-Dialogued Films
Charlie Chaplin – Flower Girl Sequence – City Lights
He encounter a flower girl.
The blind flower girl hands him the flowers, but they fall to the ground.
He picks up the flowers.
The blind girl doesn’t realize he has picked up the flowers and begins to crouch down to feel around on the ground.
Since the blind girl can’t find the flowers, she asks, “Did you pick it up, sir?”
He gave the money to the girl.
The blind girl senses his position through touch and pins the flowers to his cloth.
At that moment, someone drives away, and the blind girl hears the sound, mistakenly believing that the protagonist has left.
The blind girl wanted to give changes back to the protagonist.
The blind girl wanted to give changes back to the protagonist.
The protagonist looked at the car that driven away.
In this week, I plan to research more information and academic references about my topic and write a small draft.
Next week I developed topic with Jibaro, and this week I choose my main topic as:
The visual design and symbolic analysis in the short film Jibaro
The reason I choose the topic:
“The visual design and symbolic analysis in the short film Jibaro.”
As a short animation without dialogue, Jibaro has unique and impressive design aesthetics and animation aesthetics. I personally feel that the missing information in the dialogue, such as the culture background of the story, and all the narrative is presented in the visual language, which puts a high demand on the director and animator, who need to use design, camera movemnet and charactor actions to show the plot, rather than relying on narration or dialogue to explain what happened.
Therefore, as a dialogue-free short film, Jibaro’s visual design and metaphor are worthy of further study. My topic would like to study how the director presents the theme and symbolism of the whole story through visual elements.
Netflix’s official interview with Alberto Mielgo, director of Jibaro
I also like another work of the director, that he combines 2d strokes with 3d model, and use film style to shot the animation.
Oscar Winner Animated Short Film 2022 | The Windshield Wiper by Alberto Mielgo
At the beginning of the research, I need to search the historical background of Jibaro, with the historical background, it is easy to distinguish the forces and characters in the position and motivation, and how they use visual language to express these.
Culture background – Latin America was colonized by the Spanish period of great maritime history
Three main forces/characters:
1.The Siren – Naturally, native Latin Americans with wealth and rich resources
There is only one Siren in the story, but various metaphors point to her representing a native Latin American or a mountain spirit.
Outsiders would hear her singing and dance and walk into the middle of the lake to drown
2.Spanish knights, who come to Latin America to conquer and colonize, are shown in the film coveting the Sirens’ jewels and eventually drowning.
There are gold armor and silver armor knights in the film, this indicate that they have a strict hierarchies. Their bodies are decorated with tattoos.
3.The missionaries, they viewed the native peoples as souls to be saved, but in reality, many of these efforts resulted in the suppression of native beliefs and societal structures.
In the short film, they pay the price for their greed and drown in the lake.
As aristocrats, they often lost their teeth due to sugar intake, which showed their indulgence and greed.
In-class notes:
Critical Report Structure
Title: Subtitle
Acknowledgements – Optional
Abstract – is really important
Key Words
Contents Page
Introduction
Literature Review – critical part – how these book comment, categorize these ideas and support my report – a critical and analytical approach
Main Body of Text
Conclusion
Bibliography
Image List
Eassy draft
(I used the outline of essay structure and paragraph tips uploaded by the teacher in ual moodle):
main topic: The visual design and symbolic analysis in the short film Jibaro
1.Introduction, statement on the Issue, topic to be investigated and purpose of report (200 words)
Introduction the main topic: The visual design and symbolic analysis in the short film Jibaro. And the reason chose this theme: has an impressive artistic style and is very metaphorical
2.Critical Review a of literature or gathering of evidence. Critical appraisal of research undertaken and how you used your sources to investigate the topic and achieve objectives or answer the question (250 words)
History of Spanish Colonization
Origin of the Word “Jíbaro
Analysis of Visual and Symbolic Meanings in Jibaro
Official Interview with Director Alberto Mielgo
Different Perspectives on Jibaro’s Visual Design
3.Investigation of options based on evidence. Main discussion and findings with citations. Sub- headings are recommended (800 words)
In-class notes, initial topic and research for 1500 words essay
In-class notes:
Reserch blog: write 1 blog per week, total 12 blogs, demonstrate research process, group works and individual exercises, how the topic and research developed.
Critical report: This is an academic study of one specific topic that demonstrate research, analysis, critical thinking, evaluation, reference and citation skills. It is important to analyze statements and ideas from other people with different perspectives, and critic their thoughts.
Research presentation: shot a video presentation with visual contents. It can be presented in a more visual way. Instead of reading the content of the report directly, I can add pictures and videos to the powerpoint.
Tips in researching topics:
Primary or original resources. Like a poem, a photograph, the records of an insititution, a dress, a interview…
Secondary or interpretative sources. Like papers, articlaes,books,text….
Choose authors in different standpoints and critic their ideas, do not blindly agree with all people’s opinions, as some ideas have limitations of time, environment, gender, and occupation.
Critical Report Structure
Title: Subtitle
Acknowledgements-Optional
Abstract
Key Words
Contents Page
Introduction
Literature Review
Main Body of Text
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices
Initial research:
Since I really like the short film “Jibaro” in Love, Death and Robot, I wanted to research the information related to this short film, and I used Pureref to summarize and organize my information.
Auteur Theory – a film demonstrate the director’s personal creative version
Auteur theory originated with French critics of Cahiers du Cinema, who believed that the director is the “author” of a film. It focused on how a director’s personal vision shapes the final product. The director plays an important role in film, even in collaborative media like film industry. Their choices in style, theme, and character development give the film its authorship.
Film can be very personal and artistic, not just entertaining.
Alfred Hitchcock – Famous British Film Director
Film can be very personal and artistic, not just entertaining.
The Iconic Shower Scene | Psycho (1960) – by Alfred Hitchcock:
Serious, suspenseful, tense, coherent shots.
Then another close-up of the shower shot, the water and showerhead connect the whole shot. Later, the camera turned to the ground, the lady was bleeding into the drain, the camera gradually zooms down the water mouth. Finally, it switches to her eye, which is long shot connected by circular elements.
A strong visual style is created from the showerhead to the water to the eyes. These elements smoothly transition from calm – shower to violence – assault. The water flows down the drain, followed by a close-up of the eyes. The camera pulls in close to her lifeless eyes, shows that her life like the water, has run out. The showerhead is a metaphor for her vulnerable situation. She is enclosed in the shower and the circular elements around her trap her in this vulnerable state. Hitchcock’s camera focuses on the circular shower head and moves downward toward her.
Andrew Sarris’ Three Circles of Auteurism Modle in 1962
– influenced by Auteur Theory
Technique: The technical skill that director shows in the film.
Personal Style: A director’s recurrent themes and visual style, and the specific thinking ways across different films.
Interior Meaning: The core, deeper, symbolic things behind the film.
Sarris argued that a true auteur must align with all three areas. While a director might be technically skilled, they may lack a personal style or deeper meaning. The combination of these 3 elements creates an auteur.
These three circles are interrelated. Directors must have technical skills (outer circle) in order to successfully express their personal style (middle circle) and through that personal style convey deeper inner meanings (inner circle).
Pauline Kael’s Critique of Auteur Theory
Pauline Kael criticizes Sarris’s interpretation of the theory of authorship in her essay Circles and Squares. She argues that focusing too much on a director’s personal style tends to overlook other key aspects of filmmaking.
She argues that technical skill and originality should be given over a director’s recurring style.
Her critique is in opposition to Sarris’, focusing on the importance of continuous innovation. She argues that a director’s growth and evolution is more important than simply repeating his or her personal style.
Paul Wells’ Auteurism in Animation
Paul Wells challenged the director-cantered theory of Auteur Theory. He applied these ideas to animation production, demonstrating that even in large-scale collaborative productions, like Disney, autochthony can still emerge through strong creative leadership.
Studio Auteurism:
In some cases, a studio itself can be seen as the auteur, especially when it has a strong creative identity that shapes its output.Studios such as Studio Ghibli, Disney, and Pixar have unique aesthetics, recurring themes, and narrative approaches that extend beyond individual films or directors. Welles’ ideas about collective homemaking resonate with the idea that these studios operate like self-made individuals, even though there are many individual contributions to each project.
In – class question: what is that makes Hayao Miyazai an auteur?
I prefer to discuss this question with the film: The Boy and the Heron (2023).
This movie is in view of a young boy who has lost his mother, and tells the story of his strange adventure in his mother’s old house during the war. This was Hayao Miyazaki’s last work and explores the growth and choices young people make.
Grief and Healing: The protagonist, Mahito, is a young boy who loses his mother in a fire.
A few years later, his father marries his mother’s sister and her stepmother was pregnant. He feels deeply saddened because everyone else was moving forward, and his father won’t staying in the past due to his mother’s death.
As a result of the war, they move to his mother’s former house, Being from a wealthy family, his appearance was different from the other children in the village, making it difficult for him to fit into the new group. He faces the dilemmas that everyone faces when growing up.
And by chance, he discovers a heron and magical towers. In that fantastical world, Mahito is forced to confront the issues he has been avoiding, such as deciding what kind of person he wants to become, accepting his stepmother and her child, coming to terms with the loss of his mother, and repairing the relationship between himself and his father.
Style and characters:
His movie style is still 2D, although the main characters in the films are usually teenagers or young girls, they have more sincere feelings and delicate hearts than adults, and they grow up during the adventures.
And the roles of adults in movies are usually very stereotypical or even fixed. They are just a collection of some key words that plays in specific roles in plot.
For example. The parents in Spirited Away turn into pigs because they are greedy and eat the food of the gods. The protagonist, on the other hand, is wary and advises the parents to leave quickly.
Children, as natural individuals, possess more sensitivity and are more malleable than adults. This is also why the protagonists in Hayao Miyazaki’s films are almost always boys and girls.
Moreover, he has a unique style of dedicating extensive scenes to seemingly insignificant actions. One scene that left a deep impression on me is when Mahito, completely exhausted, lies down on a soft bed. Every movement, including the bed’s deformation, is drawn in detail. Typically, other directors might skip these details to save time, using a near-static shot to convey the moment. However, this sequence of actions plays an important role. Mahito has just arrived at his stepmother’s house, so he is being cautious in every aspect, feeling like he doesn’t belong. Even when lying down, he keeps his body half-curled, rather than stretching out fully and relaxing. These detailed actions portray the protagonist as a sensitive and introspective person, conveying more powerfully than an internal monologue could.
So, I think the emphasis on actions over monologues and dialogue is an important style in Miyazaki’s films.
Themes and ideology:
Growth: Like many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, this one tells the story of a protagonist on the verge of maturity, grappling with the challenges of growing up. In fact, I personally think the Japanese and Chinese translations of the film’s title better reflect the theme: “What kind of life do you want to live?” This question, posed by the uncle to the protagonist in the film, is also a question for us. Everyone must navigate the troubles brought by family, relationships, and the social environment during their growth. In the film, each door represents a different time and space, corresponding to a different choice. In the fantasy world, Mahito encounters his mother, who is still a young girl. Even though she knows that becoming Mahito’s mother will lead to her death in the fire, she still chooses that path.
Themes and ideology:
Growth:
Like many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, this one tells the story of a protagonist on the verge of maturity, grappling with the challenges of growing up.
In fact, I personally think the Japanese and Chinese translations of the film’s title better reflect the theme:
“What kind of life do you want to live?”
This question, posed by the uncle to the protagonist in the film, is also a question for us.
Everyone must navigate the troubles brought by family, relationships, and the social environment during their growth.
In the film, each door represents a different time and space, corresponding to a different choice.
In the fantasy world, Mahito encounters his mother, who is still a young girl. Even though she knows that becoming Mahito’s mother will lead to her death in the fire, she still chooses that path.
The door on the left stands with his stepmother, representing the present family issues he is facing.
The door in the middle is his mother, symbolizing the pain of the past.
The door on the right leads to the creator of the magical world, who is also the one posing the question, representing future challenges. It asks, “What kind of person do you want to become in the future?”
This week, I’m going to refine my idea and put it into practice.
Storyboard
In the storyboard, I determine the duration of each shot, the action of the protagonist, the layout of the scene, the overall atmosphere, and the sound effects. This is not final plan, there will be some adjustments when I operate in ue5. But the story revolves around outsiders breaking into caves and encountering the spirit of nature.
The story is divided into three main stages.
Stage 1: The protagonist walks slowly on the cliff. He walks down the road. It is said that the cave contains the spirit of nature. He needs its power to save his starving homeland. However, the road had not been used for a long time, and the rocks loosened and cracked, and he fell.
Stage 2: He awoke at the bottom of the cave and found himself at what seemed to be the entrance to the cave. He rose from the ground and went deeper.
Stage 3: He went into the depths and found an open space where the spirit of nature was sitting there. The Spirit of nature stands up slowly.
Stage 1: The protagonist walks slowly on the cliff. He walks down the road. It is said that the cave contains the spirit of nature. He needs its power to save his starving homeland. However, the road had not been used for a long time, and the rocks loosened and cracked, and he fell.
Stage 2: He awoke at the bottom of the cave and found himself at what seemed to be the entrance to the cave. He rose from the ground and went deeper.
Stage 3: He went into the depths and found an open space where the spirit of nature was sitting there. The Spirit of nature stands up slowly.
Model
To get everything on the scheduel and well preperared, I made a semester plan:
In the third week, I need a preliminary model for the sculpture in the scene,and craft a mid-model for the boss model.
The stone sculpture in the scene I have a reference, it is China’s Tang Dynasty bronze sitting dragon, which was unearthed from the Tang Shi Siming tomb in 1966. Its shape is very unique.
I uploaded my video on YouTube, this is just my progress for this week, I will continue to update my progress in next weeks.
And I also made basic model of dragon boss. To quickly master the large shapes, I started with the human and dog models that contained by Zbrush. The first step is to determine the proportion of the limbs. And then I started carving the muscle. Because the design of everything is based on muscle, such as the decoration behind, the vine, the trend of the branches is built on the correct muscle structures, this part is quite boring, because I have to make sure that all the structure is correct, but not too much carving details.
In week 1, I have developed my idea and do some research, and I decide to make a scene about a people who from outside place encountered with an ancient forest god in a dark cave. So I collect some reference pictures for the main character, the scene ( the style, the tone, the landscape, decorations like sculptures or stones), and I summarized them in Pureref.（Since the blog can only upload images no larger than 10mb, the images are a bit blurry）
I wanted to make a dragon boss with natural powers, so I also found some references for tree spirit.
My sketch of the main scene:
Story and character settings:
Character 1: 1. Protagonist: The main character wants to save their famine-stricken homeland and start a journey to find the Spirit of Nature. In the end, the protagonist find it and want to kill the Spirit of Nature to obtain its power, to make the poor land in hometown can grow crops again.
Cycle of plunder After the protagonist plunders the power of the Spirit of Nature, he or she may become the next target for others or forces seeking that power. This power continues to transfer between different individuals, creating a cycle. Just like the power of nature cannot truly be “owned” or “controlled,” it simply shifts from one being to another. This is similar to the Chinese idiom “怀璧其罪” , which originally means that possessing a precious gem invites disaster, and it later came to symbolize being envied and harmed due to one’s talents. So, as the second owner of this power, the protagonist may, like the first owner, bring harm or disaster to themselves or those around them.
Character 2: 2.Spirit of Nature： A dragon-like beast formed from the power contained in the staff thrown away by Kuafu before his death. It guards the primal forces that sustain the forest, serving as the balancer of the forest’s ecosystem. Its body is ancient with rough bark, vines, moss, and rocks. It has the ability to heal and drain life. After being defeated by the protagonist, its power is stripped away, causing the forest to gradually wither.
first draft
second draft
I wanted it to look like something that had happened to it before, and it’s impossible for an ancient creature to stay intact, so I wanted to design a big scar. Maybe someone else came before the main character and tried to kill him too, but maybe the person in front couldn’t handle the power and went crazy. Then the spirit of nature revived, but with a scar.
I summarized my research in figma, because I felt that in the brainstorming stage, figma layout is more flexible than blog, I can freely add or move some ideas and pictures. Feel free to check it.
some initial inspirations of culture and backgrounds research of my project 1
Inspiration 1: Kuafu Chasing the Sun – a Chinese myth from 《Shanhaijing》
Giant Kuafu wants to chase and catch the sun, in order to save people from the heat and drought brought by the sun On the way to chase the sun, he unfortunately died of exhaustion. When Kuafu died, he still concerned about his people in the tribe, so he throw out the wooden staff in his hands. The place where the wooden staff fell, suddenly gave birth to a large peach forest. This peach forest flourishes all year round, providing shade for passers-by. And his body, also turned into a mountain, called Kuafu mountain.
《Shanhaijing》
《Shanhaijing》
Kuafu Chasing the sun
Inspiration 2:
LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS – JIBARO
screen shot from JIBARO
Outsiders and predators vs. native cultures and resources
screen shot from JIBARO
The male protagonist, due to his deafness, was not enchanted by the siren’s song, leading the siren to mistakenly believe he was a good person. However, he eventually killed the siren and stole all her jewels. Afterward, the spirit of nature revived the siren (the red water flowing from a heart-shaped lake). Upon her revival, the siren used her song to lure the protagonist into the lake and finally dragged him down to the depths.
Theme: The power of nature is indestructible, Plundering of resources and wealth in a wrong way will come at a cost
Inspiration 3: Princess Mononoke
Forest Guardian / Embodiment of Nature’s Power
Mountain beast God and Huwawa
In Gilgamesh, the protagonist fights Huwawa, the guardian of the forest, to get the cedar wood. Huwawa is a half-beast god with scales, lion paws, and eagle claws, but it is said to be a great tree. It protects the plants of the cedar forest and does not allow outsiders to harm them. However, in the war, it was defeated and its head was cut off and placed in a metal bucket. There are some connections between Huwawa and the Mountain beast god, as they have many similarities.
Huwawa in Gilgamesh
In ‘Princess Mononoke,’ some people say that the head of the Mountain beast god has the power to heal all diseases. Therefore, the red-nosed monk is ordered to enter the mountains to hunt the god. However, after they cut off the god’s head, they realized the liquid from the head absorbs the life of anything it touches.
The power of nature is fundamentally sacred and uncontrollable.
During the day, the god is like a deer, while at night, it transforms into a shadow mage.
the shadow mage
the Mountain beast god
Therefore, I plan to design a story about an ancient forest guardian/god with nature power, and the protagonist as an outsider to enter to the forest, and encounter with the forest god.
Overlapping Action refers to when different parts of a character or object move at different speeds or times. The various parts of the motion don’t stop simultaneously, creating a natural sense of delay and fluidity.
Overlapping Action can prevents stiff, fully synchronized movements, adding dynamic flow and layers to the overall motion.
from ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT (p.227)
Key Principles:
Primary and secondary actions are not synchronized: The core part of the movement [ most of our body action start from hips (from ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT, p227) ] moves first, while secondary parts (like arms, legs, clothes, or hair) lag behind and follow.
Gradual transmission of movement: When a motion occurs, the various parts of the body or object don’t reach their peak or stop at the same time, producing an “overlapping” effect.
e.g. like the Pendulum exercise in class:
The three balls of a Pendulum have their own hierarchy: The first ball is the first hierarchy, and will react first, and so on. The below hierarchy will not move before the top hierarchy.
Follow Through: After the main action ends, some parts of the character or object continue to move. Because of the force of inertia, objects don’t usually stop suddenly.
How to set overlapping:
Delayed and progressive movement: The timing of when different parts of the movement start and stop should set to create a delay in keyframe.
Avoid complete synchronization: Avoid setting all joints start and end at the same time.
2.Counteraction
Character naturally takes counteractionto maintain balance.
One part pushes forward, the other balances by moving backward; Or one part rises and the other balances by falling.
from ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT (p.230)
3.Breaking of joints to give flexibility
a character’s arm moving as 3 solid piece, the movement starts at the shoulder, then the elbow follows, and finally the wrist and hand catch up.
from ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT (p.239)
Shoulder – the first hierarchy The movement starts with the shoulder, which is the starting point of the entire arm movement. Before the elbow rotation, the shoulders will prepare.
Elbow – the second hierarchy After the shoulder start, the elbow will move after it, slightly lagging behind the shoulder action. The elbow is the main force that guides the movement throughout the whole process (“elbow leads throughout”), and the curve generated by the elbow movement is the most critical.
Wrist – the third hierarchy Since the wrist is the most terminal joint, it is not completed until after the shoulder and elbow movements.
3. Reference Daft
4.Drag(wave principle)
The various parts of the object will be transmitted by force, and the force will be passed from the main part to the end, like the pendulum will have the effect of dragging.
Some essential animation techniques and key points I learned while creating a bouncing ball animation in Maya.
Setting up Maya Project
Reference Function
Make Adequate Preparations
12 Principles of Animation
Bouncing ball practice – Squash and Stretch
1.Setting up a Maya Project
For each project, it’s important to create a project file and place the appropriate files in the correct folders. Before starting any project, click: File > Project Window > New, then enter the project name, check the location, and click Accept.
Scenes: This folder stores primary Maya scene files (e.g., .ma or .mb files). Any 3D model, animation, or layout. Or put reference rigging files by creating a subfolder in scene folder.
Images: This folder can store the render images.
Sourceimages: Store all textures, image of the output of materials, or some external image files of scene references.
Autosave: Maya will store autosave files in this folder if the autosave function is available.
2.Import the rigging file of ball – reference
file – reference – reference editor
3. Find suitable reference and make a plan
Find reference video to observe the rules of movement, the rhythm of movement ball reflect and hit the ground.
I referenced the first 236 frames of the video. Based on this reference video, it can be observed that after the ball is thrown, the height and distance between each bounce progressively weaken. During the motion from being thrown, hitting the ground, and bouncing back to the highest point, the ball follows a cycle of: original shape – stretch – squash – stretch – original shape. The ball itself rotates clockwise along the x-axis.
Plan sketch 1：
Playblast 1:
During the process, I encountered some challenges, such as the speed at which the ball rotates, whether the contact with the ground affects the rotation speed. And I should reserve enough frames to adjust the squash and stretch.
In my first attempt, the result was not ideal because the number of frames from the ball’s first drop to the impact with the ground was limited, which resulted in no frames to demonstrate the gradual stretching of the ball.
Therefore, I prepared a second plan to reduce the total number of times the ball hits the ground.
Plan sketch 2 – Reduce the number of hits to the ground：
Frame 1 – 50：The ball is thrown with great force, causing it to bounce very high in this phase. At this point, the ball’s movement speed is the greatest among the three stages, and then it gradually decreases.
Frame 51 – 89：The ball’s energy has significantly decreased, which causes less variation along the y-axis, meaning the bounce height becomes lower. Additionally, as the ball’s highest point gets closer to the ground, the frequency of the ball hitting the ground increases.
Frame 90 – 100：The ball no longer bounces; it gradually rolls forward and finally stops.
Playblast 2:
In my second attempt, I aimed to minimize the number of bounces for the ball to make the most of each frame.
