Live streaming 9 on discord | 20220917 (Patreon)

Today's topic is about how to make turn around animations. It is called Furimuki/振り向き in Japanese anime production. I explained Japanese method that I was taught when I was a beginner.

I put notes that you must pay attention to learn. It is quite difficult to explain the method even if I try to explain it for Japanese animator beginners.

I hope it would help you.

The working process in actual time

Hava : https://youtu.be/JY0P6TvcTSg

Wato : https://youtu.be/WaT89uzKNGY

-NOTES-

• Kidou/軌道(Orbit) 

A line that follows from one position to the next and it is the most important element in creating movement (An arc)

• Nose apex and face angle

Use the apex of the nose as a guide. Divide the angle of the face line with NAKAWARI

• Tsume

Pay attention to the position of the head and ears when rotating

• Naka me-pachi 

It is called naka me-pachi when the me-pachi is inserted in the middle of a movement. The guide's standard is "opened eyes"

(About me-pachi: https://www.patreon.com/posts/live-streaming-2-64460244?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator )

• A rule

About a special example

First of all, we basically can make Furimuki animation with 2 sheets (or 3) of Genga

1, Kidou/軌道(Orbit)

The technique of NAKAWARI, called dessin-wari, must be done with an awareness of space. It is probably what is called an arc in the West.
We Japanese animators call this an orbit = 軌道/kidou. 

The orbit is a line that follows from one position to the next and is the most important element in creating movement. So, let's get started and look at the orbit of the nose.

2, Nose apex and face angle

The tip of the nose protrudes from the surface of the face, right? If you didn't have a nose, you wouldn't have this difficulty.

Therefore, the orbit of the nose is curved in an arc.

It is easy to see this from above.

After recognizing the space, when you turn the character's head around, the middle position is actually here.

So, when you draw a guide, you make a dot the middle point here.

You already know what I mean. Since this is the center of the image, this middle section should 

be drawn by tsume (closing) it to the genga A1. This is Tsume one of NAKAWARI technique 

that I draw the picture like this position.

(About Tsume : https://www.patreon.com/posts/japanese-anime-3-67542910?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator )

Tsume

Let's pay attention to the head.

In fact, the shape of the human head, when viewed from the side, is broad, but when viewed from the front, it appears to be a sphere.

In order to draw a three-dimensional rotating head, both sides must be done with Tsume. Like this.

Simply splitting the middle part of a picture in Furimuki aniamtion tends to make the picture stiff and lacking in warmth, like a robot. Therefore, the skill that compensates for this is your pictorial sense. In my demonstrations, I also adjust the picture by inverting it, and this is for this reason. Certainly, animation is just a series of pictures that pass in an instant, but hopefully, I want it to be of high quality.

Naka me-pachi

I would like to talk about the me-patch that is put in for Furimuki aniamtion.

When drawing the eyes in a turn-around animation, we will do NAKAWARI based on the opened eye (Akime/開き目).

A rule

About this rule, please watch the streaming. It is very interesting topic because I could know that there is a rule similar to Japan in western animation production.   

I talked about Son Goku of Dragon Ball as an example.

I will include the script I wrote for streaming.

On next streaming (Next month), I’m going to talk and show some examples about Dessin wari and try to explain complicated Japanese anime words more politely.

For instance, Nakawari(中割り), Tap wari(タップ割り), Sen wari(線割り), Dessin  wari(デッサン割り), Man Naka wari(真ん中割り), Ippatsu wari(一発割り)… etc.

-------------------

A script

Furimuki animation 17/09/2022 mochoko_film 

Today I would like to talk about how to create turning or rotating animation. We call this  Furimuki in Japanese animation production. 

Furimuki is the most commonly used movement, followed by walking / Aruki and running /  Hashiri. Basically, two original drawings are enough. The standard pattern is to start from a side angle and turn straight forward. I will explain this using an animation I have created before. 

As I mentioned before, we animators first learn how to do the clinching (clean-up) and Senwari, which is one of the first steps in the animation process. 

We use tap-holes to create the picture between the first genga and the next genga according to the tsume-shiji / instructions. Here is how we did it. 

Connect the vertices of the genga and the genga, draw a line, and if it is in the middle, make a guide by making a dot in the middle, align the tap to it, and do NAKAWARI (in this cse,  mannaka-wari). The same method is used for Furimuki animation. However, here is the mistake beginners make. 

The apex of the nose is the most basic guide. This is because the position of the apex of the nose does not change no matter where you turn. The apex of the nose is connected straight, and a dot is placed in the middle. However, this becomes a mistake if it is turned around.

The technique of NAKAWARI, called dessin-wari, must be done with an awareness of space. It is probably what is called an arc in the West. We Japanese animators call this an orbit = 軌道/kidou. 

The orbit is a line that follows from one position to the next and is the most important element in creating movement. So, let's get started and look at the orbit of the nose. 

The tip of the nose protrudes from the surface of the face, right? If you didn't have a nose, you wouldn't have this difficulty. Therefore, the orbit of the nose is curved in an arc. It is easy to see this from above. 

After recognizing the space, when you turn the character's head around, the middle position is actually here. So, when you draw a guide, you make a dot the middle point here. 

You already know what I mean. Since this is the center of the image, this middle section should be drawn by tsume (closing) it to the genga A1. This is Tsume one of NAKAWARI technique that I draw the picture like this position. 

And one more thing.
Let's pay attention to the head. In fact, the shape of the human head, when viewed from the side, is broad, but when viewed from the front, it appears to be a sphere. A simplified drawing of the head would look like this. The middle part of the head is here, so the head's NAKAWARI must also be close to one side. 

How about the ears? Actually, I think the split here is close to the middle split / Mannaka-wari. Remember that the orbit is an arc.

It is very difficult to do NAKAWARI of the eye in the middle.
The most important thing to pay attention to is the angle.
I roughly estimate the angle and try to find the middle angle, again in the manner of dividing the eye in the middle. (Like doing NAKAWARI)
Please watch my demonstration again later. 

So, the picture that falls in the middle of these two genga will be this one. You may remember this as a pattern.
If you don't want to settle for dropping quality of Furimuki animation, you may want to do NAKARAWI yourself and use this as the genga. As I have said many times, the number of animators who can accurately do this AKAWARI is really decreasing nowadays. I am sure that there are many genga man who cannot do this NAKAWARI.

I don't want that to happen to you, so I want to share this technique with you as much as I can. 

Simply splitting the middle part of a picture in Furimuki aniamtion tends to make the picture stiff and lacking in warmth, like a robot.
Therefore, the skill that compensates for this is your pictorial sense. 

In my demonstrations, I also adjust the picture by inverting it, and this is for this reason. Certainly, animation is just a series of pictures that pass in an instant, but hopefully, I want it to be of high quality. 

The most important picture in the turnaround will be this picture in the middle. Once this picture is drawn, we can then divide the middle as usual. (Mannaka-wari) The instructions for Furimuki aniamtions are often used Tsume technique. Therefore, please follow the instructions for the NAKAWARI.

For timing, if you want to make them turn around slowly, you can put NAKAWARI Douga 5 to 7 sheets. If you want to make them turn around fast, you can use 2 or 3 sheets. Rather, the moment when people turn around is very early than I except. Try timing yourself and find your own timing. 

--------------------------------- 

Next, let me talk about a special example.
This character WATO has a symmetrical design when viewed from the front. So, there is nothing special to worry about, but let's look at the hair of that national character, Son Goku of Dragon Ball. 

From the front, the hair is tilted to one side or the other. When creating an animation of such a character with this kind of swept back look, there are a few things that you there is a picture that should never be drawn. It is this one. 

How does it look? It looks strange, doesn't it?
So, we don't draw this kind of picture. When turning around, the hair must be drawn with the hair style on one side or the other of the genga.
This should be drawn in the guide called "sakuga-tyuui-jikou" that is created for each work.  These guidelines are a compilation of detailed notes for animation production.
The "Notes on Animation (we call it sakuga-tyuui-jikou)" guide is a compilation of such detailed notes on the creation of the animation. 

A few words on character design.
Non-symmetrical designs are not preferred in animation. This is because it leads to more mistakes. The more mistakes you make, the more time and money you spend correcting them. Character design work is about how simple the design can be. The job of character design is to make the design simple, easy to remember, and easy to draw. 

For example, the hair. What part of the hair is the front view and what part is the back view? We symbolize what part of the hair is where.
If the genga man does not understand this, the douga man will not be able to create NAKAWARI Douga.
In other words, it is not possible to do NAKAWARI. The genga man must always draw with the idea of turning it into Douga man in mind. 

-------------------------------- 

Lastly, I would like to talk about the me-patch that is put in for Furimuki aniamtion. There is also a mouthpiece called a "kuchi-paku," but I won't mention it today. 

It is called naka me-pachi when the me-pachi is inserted in the middle of a movement. For example, in the tsume-shiji, you have to write the detailed instructions for naka/中 me-pachi.  
The same information must also be drawn on the time sheet. If the drawing is facing, with an akime /開き目(opening eyes) at the beginning and an akime at the end as well, there will often be a closed eye in the middle split.
One reason for this is to reduce the cost of drawing. It is easier to draw a closed eye than an open eye. 

It also takes less time. Since turning around, itself is difficult, it is quite challenging to put  akime (onening eyes) in it.
Another reason is that humans are surprisingly constantly blinking their eyes. So, it looks more natural to put closed eyes in.
I think it also serves as a switch from one movement to the next. 

However, there are of course cases in which we dare to put in an akime when it is necessary for a performance.
In that case, though.
When a human being notices a noise behind him or her and immediately turns around, the black eyes move first. It is the fastest movement of the eyes.
Try it now. Next, the movement of the head catches up. The line of sight is a split second. Next are the shoulders, and finally the body.
A great example of this turning around is this lupine. 

Once you understand how the body moves, you will be able to create exactly what you envision in the genga.
But the basics are the beginning and end of the movement. Then, it is like adding the missing pictures. 

That was the content of this streaming. Please review and try it!
Thank you! 

See you soon.