Before research and report, I have two ideas. One is to research the real-time render in unreal in animation. The other is to research the humorous language in animation. Combining the two, I prefer to study the humorous language in animation. Because real-time render is not only a cost-saving function, but as a development tool, it is difficult to improve the quality of works from within the animation.
The main contents of the research including:
- Definition of humor
- The relationship between humor and animation
- Types of humorous language in animation
- Difficulties in using humorous language in animation
- How to overcome difficulties
Definition of humor
The word “humor” is translated from the Latin “humor”. It first appeared in the medical field and means “body fluid”. The famous ancient Greek physician Hippocrates pointed out the relationship between the secretion of fluid in the human internal organs and personality with the “four body fluid pathology theory”, laying the cornerstone of the “body fluid-temperament theory”. “Humor” was therefore originally used to refer to a person’s temperament, mood and propensity. In the 16th century, the traditional concept of humor gradually changed to modernization, and “humor” gradually moved from medicine to literature. Since then, it has expanded from the fields of poetry, novels, drama, comics, etc. to human daily language communication, becoming a common art form with distinctive cultural characteristics in human production and life. However, whether it is Aristotle and Plato, who have been paying attention to humorous techniques such as irony and comics in ancient Greece, or the artists who use humorous techniques well today, they have their own opinions on the definition of humor. As the British comedy writer Congreve said, to fully understand the meaning of humor is “an endless effort.” Humor can be either a pun and polite joke in the mouth of an English gentleman, it can be the comic in French comedy, or the absurdity of German literature. In the comprehensive art of animation, it can also be pure entertainment in American commercial blockbusters, the bitterness hidden in laughter in French art films, and the entertainment of traditional Chinese animation films. In a word, it can either express funny comics and irony (general humor) through some structural methods with aesthetic keynotes, or it can be memorable and thought-provoking meanings contained in comics and irony (narrow humor) .
The relationship between humor and animation
Humor, as a form of artistic expression with unique national cultural characteristics. It gives animation unique qualities and connotations. Since entertainment is the main function of animation, at the beginning of its development, animation was regarded as a farce to create entertainment effects, which is one of the essence of animation. In nineteen sixty, the world’s first film animation “The Humorous phases of Funny Faces”, created by the British Stewart Brackton, established an unbreakable bond between animation and humor. Today, when various commercial animations are blooming, humor has become an indispensable aesthetic technique in animation.
For animation operations, the audience is God, and entertainment is the foundation of animation. Without humor and entertainment, such animation products will only be ignored by the public. Relevant data and research have proved that the primary motivation of cartoon audiences is to demand entertainment, and the purpose of most viewers watching cartoons is to make appointments and relax. Humor and entertainment are the basis for the survival and development of cartoons. Only by allowing the audience to have real fun in them can it be possible to educate them.
Types of humorous language in animation
Character design
Divided by the kind of humor, the humorous performance of the characters in the animation can be divided into naive and romantic, funny, witty, and satirical innuendo.
In addition, if the character is the core of animation, then the sense of humor is like the soul of an animated character. The first thing the audience sees when watching an animated film is the performance of the character. The ridiculousness of the character creates joy and fully reflects the humor of the animation. The overwhelming laughter conveys the theme of the animation to the audience layer by layer. The sense of humor of the characters in the animation film can be comprehensively expressed through different methods such as exaggeration, contrast, personification, imitation (parody), repetition (superposition), inversion, allegory, pun, etc. Whether these expressions can be used flexibly and appropriately affects the final effect of the animated characters in creating a humorous atmosphere. Here we mainly introduce exaggeration, contrast, personification, and inversion.
Exaggeration: The exaggeration of an animated character is mainly reflected in the shape and action. The exaggeration in the character modeling is the purposeful enlargement or reduction of the character’s characteristics, so as to accurately show the character’s appearance and personality characteristics. The rhetorical technique of exaggeration itself gives the character a certain sense of humor. In order to emphasize the changes in movements and emotions when the characters are performing, the body presents an extremely dramatic state, and the range of body movements is exaggerated, resulting in absurd and funny visual effects, and a sense of humor naturally bursts out.
Contrast: The contrast method makes the picture very interesting, full of appeal, and can also create a humorous effect. In the animation works, when characters with obvious differences or even opposition are placed together for comparison, the characteristics of the characters are emphasized and enlarged, and the sense of contradiction between the characters is fully displayed. Contrast can also occur on individual characters, and a sense of humor is created by comparing the differences in the actions before and after the characters.
Anthropomorphism: The rich imagination makes animation art not like ordinary film and television works that are rigidly focused on telling stories around humans, but are keen to give human emotions, actions, and language to things that do not have emotions or even life, so that they can Perform on the screen like a human. The anthropomorphic approach makes the character very interesting, funny and cute.
Inversion: Generally speaking, people habitually think that small represents weakness, ugliness represents evil, and beauty is good. In nature, small animals are always at the bottom of the food chain. However, when the “rules” and “orders” that have been established in people’s hearts are deliberately reversed by the animators, and the animated characters do not follow the “regulations” in the audience’s hearts, a sense of cognitive gap and freshness will be created on the psychological level, and the audience will gain Surprise joy.
As for Anthropomorphism and Exaggeration, they often appear in American animation.
American animation has a long history of using humorous elements. The characters’ exaggerated and funny facial expressions and funny body performances created endless laughter for the animation. For example, the penguin in “Madagascar”, and the squirrel in “Ice Age” and other supporting characters are very characteristic in design. The appearance of the minions in “Despicable Me” is simple but more memorable. Minions are not restricted by animal shapes in the design, and put all their attention on the creation of “cute” shapes, which allowed the creators to refine the styling elements and create refreshing character images for the audience. Such cute characters make the story full of comedy, and it is also the biggest contributor to the success of the animation. In addition to the exaggerated humor in the character design, its unique minion language has created a humorous form that break cultural barriers. Although no one can understand their language, the audience can easily understand its meaning through body language and the talking environment. Then audience will be brought into its unique humorous environment unconsciously.
Theme
Differences in animation themes, types, and regions will make the characters’ humorous expressions different. In some cold humorous animations with absurd themes and jokes, displacement is often used to achieve the effect of contrast, and the comics of the characters are used to satirize the gloom in society.
For example, the tone of the whole film of “Zombie Bride” is very strange, but because of its weird and humorous character image, it gives the audience a novel visual experience.
In some life topics. The characters use humor to reflect their optimism and strength when they are in trouble, and win the audience’s love and sympathy. Such themes often appear in Japanese anime. Japan’s special geographical environment has created the Japanese inherently pessimistic character and their national spirit of tenacity and innovation. Therefore, Japanese anime is good at turning age and cognition differences into its unique humor. For example, “Crayon Shin-chan” “Chibi Maruko”, ” Doraemon”, “Fortune Boy”, “Dragon Ball”.
Difficulties in using humorous language in animation
- Cultural differences
- Age barriers
However, due to the different cultures and ages of the audience, their understanding of humor is also different. As Critchley pointed out that certain types of humor requires additional knowledge of specific groups, ethnicities, or cultures. If you want to understand one joke, it is not enough to just understand the language it uses. Indeed, because it crosses geographical boundaries, humor has to compromise with language and cultural factors. And these are often only typical characteristics of the source culture, so they lose the ability to entertain in the new culture. Overall, although the humorous language of animation is very common, the successful use of humorous language still needs to break through the barriers of culture and age, especially in the age of multicultural hybridization.