Different Materials

Whilst researching the various types of dancing I could explore further, I noticed a few animators have use different materials to express their characters dance moves. Though I am animating my film digitally, it's still possible to recreate the textures of different drawing tools, which could give my final piece a traditional, expressive look.

I would want it to still be easy to watch and be able to draw the audience into the story of the dance routine, however giving the film a rough sketchy look with realistic textures will hopefully bring the animation to life, making it more believable from the audiences perspective.

The two main examples I found are very different from each other; the first demonstrates a charcoal style that uses a loose animating style. It's a good example of how a sketchy animation can be used to ones advantage, by adding texture to the shading to really bring the movements to life.




My second example is a Disney classic; Pocahontas's 'Colours of the Wind'. This particular musical number describes how there's more to nature then what it seems. The way Disney used different textures (at 1:23-1:29 in the video below) to portray this is interesting, since it's different to their iconic "Disney style"; the combination of the brush strokes and the use of colour create a very expressive movement that allows the viewer to believe that it's wind based on the distorted lines.

A screenshot from Pocahontas

In watching these examples I have established that the use of texture to express the emotions of the characters is important, since the visual image can explain so much more than just dialogue.