WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:02.320 --> 00:00:03.320 [laughing] 00:00:03.320 --> 00:00:04.320 Alright, okay. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:07.610 Let’s watch an animated McDonald’s commercial. 00:00:07.610 --> 00:00:12.400 Humor me. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:13.650 And that’s why I’m laughing. 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:14.650 C’mon. 00:00:14.650 --> 00:00:18.170 If you haven’t worked at McDonald’s yourself, you know somebody who has. 00:00:18.170 --> 00:00:20.380 Is this the story that they tell you? 00:00:20.380 --> 00:00:21.790 Of course not. 00:00:21.790 --> 00:00:24.190 It’s an adorable commercial. 00:00:24.190 --> 00:00:27.019 In English this style of animation is called anime. 00:00:27.019 --> 00:00:30.519 Anime originated in Japan and is a hundred years old. 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:35.080 The biggest hallmark of the style is large eyes, but there are tons of anime that use 00:00:35.080 --> 00:00:45.680 realistic eyes or even solid black dots for eyes. 00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:50.079 What sets anime apart from other cartoons is the method of storytelling. 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:54.039 It draws more on emotion and feeling than it does plot or goals. 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:57.830 Sure, the characters often work towards a goal like saving the world, but it’s the 00:00:57.830 --> 00:01:01.109 relationships between the characters that make the story. 00:01:01.109 --> 00:01:03.050 Even in this short commercial you can see that. 00:01:03.050 --> 00:01:07.660 A Western version of the commercial would show the employee training every day to become 00:01:07.660 --> 00:01:13.409 the manager, probably to solve some kind of problem like not having enough tuition money. 00:01:13.409 --> 00:01:16.280 The Western formula is problem: solution. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:21.780 The anime is about the flustered new employee and her interaction with the manager and customers. 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:23.860 Anime is about characters. 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:27.619 For that reason there are lots of popular anime that are literally about people living 00:01:27.619 --> 00:01:30.420 their everyday, normal lives, just like you and me. 00:01:30.420 --> 00:01:33.380 No magic powers, no monsters, no futuristic technology. 00:01:33.380 --> 00:01:35.960 Lucky Star is an example of that. 00:01:35.960 --> 00:01:41.409 The commercial is short so it’s more animated than a typical anime, but I can still use 00:01:41.409 --> 00:01:44.110 it to show you anime efficiency secrets. 00:01:44.110 --> 00:01:49.810 Anime is very good at cutting down on character motion and putting the saved time into backgrounds 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:59.840 and widely varied character designs. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:02.090 First is camera panning. 00:02:02.090 --> 00:02:03.770 Don’t animate anything. 00:02:03.770 --> 00:02:05.939 Just pan along a nice background. 00:02:05.939 --> 00:02:09.890 Play music or character narration or offscreen dialogue. 00:02:09.890 --> 00:02:14.230 If somebody is talking, point the camera somewhere else so that you don’t have to animate their 00:02:14.230 --> 00:02:16.720 mouth moving. 00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:21.170 Pointing the camera at somebody’s reaction to the thing being said is common. 00:02:21.170 --> 00:02:22.920 Only animate part of the character. 00:02:22.920 --> 00:02:24.870 Everything else stays still. 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:26.470 Crowd shots. 00:02:26.470 --> 00:02:28.600 Don’t animate the crowd. 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:33.730 Draw people frozen in place and only animate the character who is speaking, or only animate 00:02:33.730 --> 00:02:40.800 the main characters walking. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:47.060 In this shot, tiny animations on the still characters give the illusion of action. 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:51.230 The commercial goes the extra step to animate the hands on this guy in the background. 00:02:51.230 --> 00:02:53.400 Normally he’d be still. 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:54.990 Extreme closeups. 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:58.600 The less of the character you have to animate, the better. 00:02:58.600 --> 00:03:02.840 One thing the commercial does that anime tends not to do is reuse backgrounds. 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:07.760 And anyway, reuse of this background is done on purpose, not to save time. 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:13.480 It’s meant to show a cycle of life - how people start from one role and move to another. 00:03:13.480 --> 00:03:18.200 You’d think that considering everything else anime does to cut down on actual animation 00:03:18.200 --> 00:03:21.550 they would reuse backgrounds, but they don’t. 00:03:21.550 --> 00:03:25.900 Even if half the episode takes place in the same classroom, they redraw it from different 00:03:25.900 --> 00:03:34.510 angles, positions and perspectives. 00:03:34.510 --> 00:03:38.150 So. 00:03:38.150 --> 00:03:42.480 Which do you think is worse - working at a fast food place, or working as an animator 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:43.480 in Japan? 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:46.760 I hear the industry is cutthroat and stressful with long hours. 00:03:46.760 --> 00:03:51.260 Then again, I hear that about everything in Japan. 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:53.180 Friendship time! 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:55.560 I collected art where I’m together with others. 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:57.340 This is me and Bluescar. 00:03:57.340 --> 00:03:58.870 Sometime we have to part ways. 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:01.380 I have a few pieces of art with Scribbles and Cyn Wolf together. 00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:02.420 This one is by Talonsoficeandfire. 00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:05.200 Taking naps on dragons is always a good idea. 00:04:05.200 --> 00:04:07.680 Nightcomet doesn’t seem to mind. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:08.680 Yet. 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.370 I actually do eat raw lemons. 00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:12.350 I had one yesterday. 00:04:12.350 --> 00:04:17.000 Is that a heart tattoo on Raven Blade Kitty’s face, or is her fur just naturally like that? 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:22.320 A bunch of me’s in a bunch of styles together with Bumble Flow. 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:25.850 Start the episode with anime, end the episode with anime. 00:04:25.850 --> 00:04:34.880 Hummingbird watching with CattiMadi and DannyFox.