Animation Fundamentals: UNPLUG!

Kellee Roeder
Sep 8, 2018 · 3 min read

The latest reading assignment from Animator’s Survival Kit included a fun cartoon by Richard Williams where he asked the chief animator of the Jungle Book, Milt Kahl, a question:

Eduardo Quintana has adapted this cartoon into a short animation using Richard Williams’ reenactment of the story. The adaption is largely faithful except for two details: Richard Williams’ design is changed, and more motions and expressions are added to go with the dialogue. The second includes hand gestures, a desk slam, and Williams reacting more dramatically.

There are three of the twelve fundamentals of animation I would like to focus on in the examination of this video: follow through/overlapping action, exaggeration, and staging.

Overlapping action is when a body has a part that is driven or follows the main action of the body. Follow through is when appendages continue their movement after the body stops. Eduardo uses follow-through in a few parts of this animation. Though the two characters of Williams and Kahl don’t have obvious appendages like capes or tails to react to their movements, Williams does have one characteristic that shows follow-through. Williams’ hair bounces with his body’s movements, but drags behind when the head moves up or down. As he is reacting to Kahl’s yelling you can see his hair moving around a beat behind the rest of his body.

The original cartoon made by Williams exaggerates Kahl’s size in the last two panels to emphasize that he is yelling, exasperated, and that Williams is intimidated by him. Eduardo uses this original exaggeration, but also adds his own. First, Williams’s character seems more nervous then his original depiction. Second, Kahl’s reaction has expanded from just turning and yelling. He drops his pen, slams the table, grabs his head, gestures, and his expressions are very warped and irate. All of these exaggerations are meant to take the cartoon to the next level in character expression.

Lastly, while the original cartoon shows staging in the placement of the characters, especially in the last two panels, Eduardo has expanded upon this with adding staged timing. The timing in the animation is designed to have the viewer bounce back and forth to the two characters at key moments. The beginning is a good example of this- Kahl fades into frame, then Williams appears from out of frame from the left. Kahl flips his papers so we realize he is animating, then Williams taps his fingers to his chin to direct us back to his side of the screen so we can watch him walk across. Another example of staging through timing is at the very end when Kahl finishes yelling and is panting, and Williams gulps so we return to looking at him for the last line of dialogue.

“I won’t do it anymore!”

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

Kellee Roeder

Written by

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

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