'In the original French, mise-en-scene means 'staging an action,' and it was first applied to the practice of directing plays. Film scholars, extening the term to film direction, use the term to signify the director's control over what appears in the film frame. As you would expect from the term's theatrical origins, mise-en-scene includes those aspects of film that overlap with the art of the theatre: setting, lighting, costume, anf the behaviour of the figures. In controlling mise-en-scene, the director stages the event for the camera' - Bordwell and Thompson in Film Art.Image design: In animations, image is split into two categories: characters and backgrounds. 'Audiences generally remember characters the most, but background art greatly impacts the viewer's perception and cannot be overlooked in a discussion of image design' (66) Images can be photorealist (look like real life), iconic (clearly representative), or abstract (suggestion of form). In my own animation, the ideal rendering of images will be 'iconic,' and so look cartoonish/created, but still very obviously be an animated representation of real life. Think Disney; Cartoon Saloon. Iconic designs can be interpreted easily and identifiable with by any audience; it doesn't have to represent a specific.
'Traditions of giving human charactersistsics to animals or inanimate objects have existed since the biginning of humanity, through oracticessuch as animism (the belief that everything on earth possesses a spirit and impacts on human life) and totism (the incorporation of natural entities into ritual behaviours)' (68). My crane is semi-anthropomorphic, and displays or isimbued with animism - she can regognise the woodcutter in her bird form, and displays awareness and intellegence. Think: the dogs in 101 Dalmations.
Colour and Line: The use of colour by animators/artists tends not to adhere to any strict formula, and is instead dependent on personal instinct or inspiration, though some artists still do study colour theory and apply it to their work. 'techincally, black, white and the gradiations of gray are not colours; they are 'values'' (72). They are used to indicate a level of light. Intensity is the colour's saturation on a subject, and how affected it is by dark or light. 'Low intensity is used to describe a relatively grey, or dull colour' (73). Colours also function as warm or cool (warms including yellows, reds, oranges; cools being blue, purple, green). These can have an effect on the viewer to stimulate them or calm then, and make themood happy or sad.
Colour can be used to suggest many things in an animated work - from being light and airy then growing darker and more complex, giving a sense of danger or claustrophobia.
Bold lines tend to be used in the subjects of power and strength (75), fine lines can indicate delicacy.
Movement and Kinetics: 'Objects can move fluidly and rhythmically; in short incremental bursts; slowly and hestitantly; or in a multitude of other ways that all suggest meaning' (76). Many animators use a live-action filminc reference which they will compose drawings from. I think I might maybe try to do this way; just filming myself making some key actions on my phone camera which I can base my poses off in the animation. I don't have confidence enough in my drawing skill to draw solely from imagination. This process is similar to rotoscoping, and creates realistic images. 'Squash and stretch lend a much more cartooy look to a production' (77). This technique 'requires exaggeration' and 'relies heavily on metamorphosis.'
A 'full animation style' requires constant movement of the characters. The ability to employ this is related to economics, as it is 'time consuming and, as a result, costly to render constant movement' (79). Stillness, referred to as 'hold' is used for emphasis; because in real life living things are rarely completely still.
Reference:
Furniss, M. (1998). General concepts: Mise-en-scene. In: M. Furniss, ed., Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics, 1st ed. Sydney: John Libbey, pp.61-81.
