A Proposition for How Musical Competencies Could Benefit 3D Character Animators When Synchronising Performances to Pre-Recorded Music Using Khumba As a Case Study
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A Proposition for How Musical Competencies Could Benefit 3D Character Animators When Synchronising Performances to Pre-recorded Music Using Khumba as a Case Study Carelize Johani Jacobs Research Report Master of Arts in Digital Animation (Coursework and Research Report) University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Humanities The Wits School of Arts Supervisor: Bronwyn Horne Co-Supervisor: Dr Christopher Letcher June 2017 Declaration I declare that this research report is my own unaided work. It is submitted in partial fulfilment for the Master of Arts degree in the field of Digital Animation by Coursework and Research Report at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. This report has not been previously submitted for any degree or examination at any other university or institution of higher learning. _____________________________ Carelize Jacobs On this 5th day of June 2017. Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my research supervisors Bronwyn Horne from the Department of Digital Animation and Dr Christopher Letcher from the Department of Music at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Arts. Ms Horne and Dr Letcher always went out of their way to assist me. They consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right direction whenever they thought I needed it. I am truly grateful for their never-ending attention to detail, valuable feedback and for inspiring me through the enthusiastic sharing of their invaluable knowledge. I would also like to express my profound gratitude towards Triggerfish Animation Studios for allowing me to use their film Khumba as a case study, and to the Khumba and other animators who were involved in the interviews for this research project. These were Daniel Snaddon (Lead Khumba animator), Matthew Lowry (Lead Khumba animator), Harold Courchay, Kane Croudace, Samantha Cutler, Paul Lombard (all who worked on Khumba), as well as Nadia Darries, Annike Pienaar and Nico Venter. Without their passionate participation and valuable input, the research would not have been possible. To my parents, Carel and Hannelize Jacobs, a sincere thank you for your continuous support. I am especially thankful to my mother for encouraging me to take on a study which combines both my love for animation and music, for her ideas, and for understanding when I was immensely frustrated with the process. My parents always believed in me and my ability to complete the research the best I could. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you to the rest of my family and friends for their unfailing support and encouragement throughout the process of researching and writing this report. Also, to Suzanne Basson for her input and knowledge on ballet. Finally, I want to thank Beth Amato for her invaluable contribution to the editing of the report. Candidate: Carelize Jacobs (Student No.: 1477890) Supervisor: Bronwyn Horne Lecturer in Digital Animation at the Wits School of Arts Co-Supervisor: Dr Christopher Letcher Head of Music at the Wits School of Arts Course: MA in Digital Animation by Coursework and Research Report Subject: WSOA 7036 Research Report Date: March 2017 Title: A Proposition for How Musical Competencies Could Benefit 3D Character Animators When Synchronising Performances to Pre-recorded Music Using Khumba as a Case Study CONTENTS Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..… 1 Chapter 1: The evolution of integrating music and animation…………………….………..…………………………………....9 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….………………..….. 9 1.2 The dawn of a new language: integrating music and animation…………….………….………..…... 10 1.3 Developments in animating-to-music during and after the Golden Age…………………..………. 17 1.4 Treading new ground in integrating music and animation – the ultimate goal………..…....… 29 1.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………..….. 30 Chapter 2: Musical competencies for character animators……………………………………………………………………..…. 31 2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… 31 2.2 The value of having musical knowledge from the perspective of past and present day animators……………..................................................................................................................33 2.3 An exploration of the ideal musical competencies for character animators…………………….. 36 2.3.1 Musical aspects of sound: pitch, duration, loudness, melody, harmony, texture and timbre…………………………………………………………................................................... 36 2.3.2 Fundamental rhythmic aspects for animators...…………………………………………….……. 37 2.3.3 Musical terminology…………………………………………………………………………………..…….. 39 2.3.4 Basic music notation of pitch and duration………………………………………………...…….. 41 2.3.5 Weaving the different musical aspects and terminology.………………………….……….. 44 2.3.6 Proposed ideal musical competencies for character animators……………….…………. 46 2.4 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…... 47 Chapter 3: Animating performances to music: The case of Khumba…………………………………………………..….…… 48 3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…... 48 3.2 Artistic expression through animation: background and synopsis to Khumba……................ 49 3.2.1 The synopsis of Khumba………………………………………………………………………………..……. 51 3.2.2 The inspiration behind Khumba and lessons to be learned…………….…………….….... 51 3.3 Performances ‘of’ animation: the making of Khumba…………………………………………….…….…. 52 3.3.1 Khumba’s production pipeline……………………………………………………………….…..……… 53 3.3.2 The process of animating Khumba’s musical scenes: how the actions of the characters were manipulated……………..…………………………………………………...……….. 55 3.4 Performances ‘in’ animation: Khumba’s musical scenes……………………….………………..……..… 57 3.4.1 Musical scenes in Khumba………………………………………….……………………………..…….…..58 3.4.2 Analysis of Bradley’s ‘Swan Lake’ scene………………………………………………………………. 59 3.5 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………. 68 Chapter 4: Proposition for how Khumba’s character animators could have benefited from musical competencies …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……... 70 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………..….…………. 70 4.2 Becoming the character: musical knowledge and skills of Khumba’s animators and how they use it to perform the part……………………………………………………………………..…..…….. 71 4.3 “Don’t reinvent the wheel, just attach it to a new wagon”: proposed notation for animating a musical scene………………………………………………………………………………….….….……. 73 4.4 An illustration of how Khumba’s character animators could have used the proposed notation………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..……. 78 4.4.1 Steps in using the proposed notation……………………………………………………..……...….. 80 4.4.2 Comments from character animators on the proposed notation…………………..……. 90 4.5 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….….…… 93 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 94 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 100 Appendices Appendix 1: Interview Questions Guide Appendix 2: Transcript of Interviews Appendix 3: List of Video Clips on Accompanying CD Figures Figure 1: “Turkey in the Straw” in Steamboat Willie (1928) Figure 2: The Skeleton Dance (1929) from the ‘Silly Symphonies’ series Figure 3: A page from the bar sheet of Shuffle Off To Buffalo (1933) Figure 4: The exposure sheet of the first public close-up of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie Figure 5: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Figure 6: Reused dance scene in Beauty and the Beast (1991) from Sleeping Beauty (1959) Figure 7: Reused dance scene in Robin Hood (1973) from Snow White (1937) Figure 8: Reused dance scene in Robin Hood (1973) from The Jungle Book (1967) Figure 9: Reused dance scene in Robin Hood (1973) from Aristocats (1970) Figure 10: Reused musical scene in Robin Hood (1973) from Aristocats (1970) Figure 11: Bugs in drag and the dance sequence in Herr Meets Hare (1945) Figure 12: Bugs in drag and the dance and sing sequence in What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) Figure 13: Tempo indicators on two different music sheets Figure 14: List of words and their abbreviations indicating dynamics on a music sheet Figure 15: A list of Italian musical terms describing specific moods Figure 16: The G clef, the F clef and the C clef symbols as it appears on a music sheet Figure 17: Diagrammatical explanation of some note and rest values Figure 18: Different rhythmic patterns created by using varying note lengths within a 4/4 beat Figure 19: Examples and explanation of time signatures Figure 20: ‘Allemande’ sheet music with indicators for explaining musical terms and notation Figure 21: Poster of the animation feature film Khumba (2013) Figure 22: The six musical scenes in Khumba Figure 23: Bradley gets shot and enters a dreamlike state where he believes he is the star of the show Figure 24: In the cave with the ‘spotlight’ – Bradley gracefully starts doing ballet to Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” Figure 25: Bradley does a demi-plié from side to side Figure 26: Bradley’s finishing pose as the cameras flash Figure 27: Bradley entering screen left in both Scene A (left in figure) and Scene B (right in figure) Figure 28: Bradley flips his head up in both Scene A and B Figure 29: Bradley does a demi-plié to screen left then to screen right in both Scene A and B Figure 30: Bradley in arabesque pose in Scene A and Bradley entering screen right in Scene B Figure 31: Bradley with toes together in Scene A, and Bradley only now in arabesque pose in Scene B Figure 32: Bradley in a lower position in Scene