Fuck You, I Want to Animate!
A short animation taking inspiration from our animation history. Making use of the stylistic visual and dynamic choices of well loved eras like the early and mid 20th century.
Truly a love note to not only animation, and the animators who make them, but also to one group of animators in particular. The animation class which started together at WDKA in 2019.
Our Cast
About this Project
What are we looking at?
Fuck you I want to Animate is the graduation project of Jennifer Kimberly de Ruiter. It is a short gag based animation which borrows many of its references from well known animation study material and animations from the early to mid 20th century. It is a piece that's made to amuse animators and those within the animation industry as a whole with a special focus on the WDKA animation class that started in 2019.
This project doubles as a portfolio piece or even a project that could provide a similar function to an animation reel by being an introduction of the artist to the animation industry. A project that says:
"Hello world. This is me".
Jennifer Kimberly de Ruiter
Is an artist with skills in both 2D and 3D mediums related to the animated film industry. She has a particular affinity with animals and of those squirrels, cats and raccoon are her favourite. This affinity extends to the way these creatures move and behave as well as the personalities, characteristics and associations that they bring to the table on a more conceptual level.
She has a fond interest in the portrayal of internal emotional experiences in an external manner, the negative ones especially so; making sure that an audience can read a character its internal experience through movement and expressions.
Process
Original Concept
The original concept of this project was to make a short animation about a character going through 'animation shenanigans' as it attempts to escape an old animation book. The focus was intended to be on the animation and movement rather than the narrative or story behind the visuals.
Target Audience
The target audience includes animators and others engaged in the animation industry, employers and recruiters, my original animation classmates, and also myself.
Having myself as a primary target helped ensure that the project sufficiently represented myself as an artist.
Cinema vs TV
Though cinema and tv are closely related both categories come with their own unique details. The expression of this difference can clearly be seen in the below video of the Miraculous Ladybug tv show which was re-animated by the animators from the movie of the same franchise.
The differences in how these 2 types of animation are created, makes the difference between a believable performance and a doll like one. Whereas the tv version has a very straight forward way of communicating, the movie version shows multiple emotional layers and depth, expressing itself more by making her internal experience shown externally through subtext.
Going for a process more in tune with those of tv shows allows for larger projects in less time but at the cost of nuance and detail. Whereas a process more in tune with that of film allows for incredible visuals at the cost of the scope of the project or time. For my intended purposes the latter options made the most sense while the first option did not at all.
Inspiration
The most influential early inspiration is a short made by Mònica Eggert. An animation with both 2D and 3D animation, that uses comedy to keep the viewer engaged and functions as a business card of the creator.
This short sells itself to us by showcasing impressive animation skills and funny jokes rather than a deep narrative. This is the opposite of what I usually see and therefor what I originally felt I had to do too. This short functioned as a gateway to finding more projects with this structure and showed me a new path and options.
Such shorts turned out to be commonplace in the early to mid 20th century where we had Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, The Looney Tunes and also life action actors like Charlie Chaplin.
Retro Style
In order to reach the target audience as many choices as possible had to be clear, and they had to be recognizable. Of all the different eras and phases within animation, none is as easy to recognise as the early era of black and white animation shorts.
Disney's Mickey Mouse has done a remarkable job at creating familiarity with the style and making it possible for both young and old to pinpoint what this visual style references.
Gag Based Writing
Matching the retro visual style, the retro way of writing animation shorts was much more focused on gags and humour. The stories weren't much more than a way to lead the character from gag A to gag B and so forth.
The shift from a narrative focussed story to a gag based one allowed me to focus more on playing around with fun and creative visuals without needing to logically explain all things through narrative. This also ended up bringing the fun back into the project for me as an animator.
Western vs Japanese Animation
Japan has its own animation industry that developed separate from the western one. It has distinctly different visual language which brings its own inside jokes, references and recognizable symbols.
The inclusion of these tropes ended up being rejected from this project its concept as it would muddy its direction too much and change the overall feeling of the project in a way that wasn't desired.
A narrower goal was created of making use of the feel and connectinon with a certain era of animation in the western animation sphere as this would better align with the intended audience.
12 Principles
One of the cornerstones of the western animation world is the 12 principles of animation. This means that there are few better topics to visit when creating a project intended to connect with those in the animation industry.
When writing the jokes, these principles made for easy ideas for gags that would be recognizable to the target audience. The 12 principles were still being refined in the earlier years of the black and white animation era but I opted to make use of this movement language as it is generally much more well known and widely considered to be nostalgic to people.
But a clean execution of these principles was also important for the execution of the animation. This made it all the more important that I had more than a baseline understanding of these principles. I can't represent it if I don't understand it. Intentional technical choices were made that would ensure I was properly able to practice and apply this knowledge such as by making the project frame by frame rather than using digital interpolation.
Learning more about the principles ended up being especially useful at times when translating guidelines written with hand drawn animation in mind to the digital 3D animation tools which come with their own specifics and technical hurdles.
Meta Humour
In between my story telling tool being gags, and my audience being animators, plenty of room was created for self-referential jokes. This included references to the pendulum and walk cycle exercises which are among the first exercises animators will dabble in. A walk cycle tutorial from The Animators Survival Kit, one of the most well known animation books. And the secondary main character, Samuel Squirrel, borrowing its design choices from classic characters like Mickey Mouse.
Additional references that specifically target my previous class includes the use of walk cycles specifically created by classmates at the start of their second year. This includes characters that are sometimes still in use today and can easily be recognised by members of this group.
The main character being one such example.
2D & 3D Animation Combined
With the project being a way to introduce myself, it was hard to justify not considering making use of both of my skillsets.
But narratively there are reasons for this choice as well. Especially when considering earlier versions of the script, in which the raccoon very clearly gets dragged into an animation book. The raccoon is supposed to look and feel different from anything that actually belongs in the book. This difference also invites the contrast between more modern animation and classic animations.
With the secondary main character being a reference to both an older era of animation, and the example drawings that appear in animation books, it was important that his visuals clearly connected him to this background. Making hand drawn animation the obvious choice.
Frame by Frame 3D
All the movements of the 3D assets were animated by hand without the use of digital interpolation for in-betweening. The use of less smooth 3D animation has become increasingly popular in projects like Into the Spiderverse, but for this project the idea stemmed from an earlier discovery during the creation of an animation test. Here it was highlighted what the differences were when rendering the otherwise exact same animation on 30 fps instead of the original 24 fps.
Though not incredibly obvious, the differences can still be felt. This theory connects to that of the difference between Japanese and western walk cycles where a strength from the Japanese method comes from its stronger poses making the animation read more clearly. Turns out there's a lot of strength to be found in longer holds.
Choosing to animate each frame by hand was also done to allow for a much more conscious practice of one of the more challenging animation principles; timing.
Now that I had to set each frame by hand I was in a situation in which all my choices had to be made consciously instead of getting lost in the technical aspects and tools provided by 3D software. It put all control in my hands which means all choices had to consciously be made by me.
Having less smoothing allowed for actions with very explosive energy as well as creative choices when making the character move to the beat of the music.
Of all choices I've made in this and any other project to date, this has been my most educative choice yet.
Once it was discovered a render camera could also be made orthographic it was a very quick and easy choice to move towards this option.
Opting for an orthographic camera allowed the 3D character to feel more at home within the flat world he resided in and less like an image stuck on top of the rest. It also helped avoid any difficulties with accidental depth causing things to be higher or lower than they should be.
But more importantly.
Choosing the orthographic camera allowed me to make full use of the advice I had been given by Remi Tjon Ajong which is that at the end of the day, no matter the medium, when we look at the finished project, all we'll see is a flat 2D image.
Combined with what I learned from feedback by Wip Vernooij, I knew that the only thing that mattered is if the resulting image was what I needed it to be. To achieve this we should fully embrace possibly having to break a few things within the 3D space.
Since the orthographic view hides it when you move something much further or closer to the camera I could now make images the way I would have chosen to do them if I had been making a hand drawn animation instead.
Future Plans
With this project now done it feels like I finally have the key with which I can open the future I've always hoped I would have after my study at WDKA.
Application plans
I now have work to show off that includes my primary topics of interest; animals and acting. This means I can be more targeted when and make myself look more appealing for the jobs I'll actually want. I will primarily be on the lookout for 3D movie projects but I'll also extent my search to tv to help increase my chances and options.
Once animation festivals start rolling around again I'll make sure to visit those as these have proven to be useful ways of making new contacts in the past.
Projects I have my eyes on
There are currently 2 project I've had my eyes on that I am particularly interested in. The first is Pol the Pirate Mouse by Submarine which is a 3D animated childrens tv show in a flat painterly style similar to the one used in this project.
The second and newer project that has appeared on my radar is Miss Moxy by Capybara Studio which is a 3D animated feature film starring a cat, a dog and bird in its main cast.
For Miss Moxy I've recently contacted the CG Supervisor & Lighting TD, Niels Medemblik, who I know from my time at Submarine as my internship mentor. For Pol the Pirate Mouse I've expressed interest in the past to those involved in its production and I'm currently waiting for the project to move out of its pre-production stage.
Gag Based Writing
Matching the retro visual style, the retro way of writing animation shorts was much more focused on gags and humour. The stories weren't much more than a way to lead the character from gag A to gag B and so forth.
The shift from a narrative focussed story to a gag based one allowed me to focus more on playing around with fun and creative visuals without needing to logically explain all things through narrative. This also ended up bringing the fun back into the project for me as an animator.
Western vs Japanese Animation
Japan has its own animation industry that developed separate from the western one. It has distinctly different visual language which brings its own inside jokes, references and recognizable symbols.
The inclusion of these tropes ended up being rejected from this project its concept as it would muddy its direction too much and change the overall feeling of the project in a way that wasn't desired.
A narrower goal was created of making use of the feel and connectinon with a certain era of animation in the western animation sphere as this would better align with the intended audience.
12 Principles
One of the cornerstones of the western animation world is the 12 principles of animation. This means that there are few better topics to visit when creating a project intended to connect with those in the animation industry.
When writing the jokes, these principles made for easy ideas for gags that would be recognizable to the target audience. The 12 principles were still being refined in the earlier years of the black and white animation era but I opted to make use of this movement language as it is generally much more well known and widely considered to be nostalgic to people.
But a clean execution of these principles was also important for the execution of the animation. This made it all the more important that I had more than a baseline understanding of these principles. I can't represent it if I don't understand it. Intentional technical choices were made that would ensure I was properly able to practice and apply this knowledge such as by making the project frame by frame rather than using digital interpolation.
Learning more about the principles ended up being especially useful at times when translating guidelines written with hand drawn animation in mind to the digital 3D animation tools which come with their own specifics and technical hurdles.
Meta Humour
In between my story telling tool being gags, and my audience being animators, plenty of room was created for self-referential jokes. This included references to the pendulum and walk cycle exercises which are among the first exercises animators will dabble in. A walk cycle tutorial from The Animators Survival Kit, one of the most well known animation books. And the secondary main character, Samuel Squirrel, borrowing its design choices from classic characters like Mickey Mouse.
Additional references that specifically target my previous class includes the use of walk cycles specifically created by classmates at the start of their second year. This includes characters that are sometimes still in use today and can easily be recognised by members of this group.
The main character being one such example.
2D & 3D Animation Combined
With the project being a way to introduce myself, it was hard to justify not considering making use of both of my skillsets.
But narratively there are reasons for this choice as well. Especially when considering earlier versions of the script, in which the raccoon very clearly gets dragged into an animation book. The raccoon is supposed to look and feel different from anything that actually belongs in the book. This difference also invites the contrast between more modern animation and classic animations.
With the secondary main character being a reference to both an older era of animation, and the example drawings that appear in animation books, it was important that his visuals clearly connected him to this background. Making hand drawn animation the obvious choice.
Frame by Frame 3D
All the movements of the 3D assets were animated by hand without the use of digital interpolation for in-betweening. The use of less smooth 3D animation has become increasingly popular in projects like Into the Spiderverse, but for this project the idea stemmed from an earlier discovery during the creation of an animation test. Here it was highlighted what the differences were when rendering the otherwise exact same animation on 30 fps instead of the original 24 fps.
Though not incredibly obvious, the differences can still be felt. This theory connects to that of the difference between Japanese and western walk cycles where a strength from the Japanese method comes from its stronger poses making the animation read more clearly. Turns out there's a lot of strength to be found in longer holds.
Choosing to animate each frame by hand was also done to allow for a much more conscious practice of one of the more challenging animation principles; timing.
