ON MOVEMENT IN THE HUMAN FIGURE
Having now chronicled in a brief way the development of the
cinematographic art, particularly in its relation to animated screen
drawings, and having tried to give some notion of the fundamentals
in their making with an account of their exhibition on the screen,
it is in order now that we consider the matter of movement and its
depiction by drawings that will give the visional synthesis of life.
The very first thing that a tyro in the animating art must learn is
to draw a walk; or in other words, to become skilled in sketching the
successive phases of limb and trunk movements so that they give in
their order the appearance of walking when projected as a film.
Walking directly effected by the lower limbs calls into action
the upper limbs too. The upper limbs act, as they swing from the
shoulders, in concord with the legs, as counterpoises in maintaining
the equilibrium. An understanding of the principles underlying
locomotion in man—walking or running—is an important matter to
consider in this art. When an artist knows the basic facts of
movement in the human figure, he will more readily comprehend animal
locomotion and all other movements in general.
All forms of motion are pertinent as studies for the animator, and
the all-important study is that of the human organism.
Although we observe at once, in considering a simple walking
movement, that there is also a simultaneous activity of the arms
accompanied by a harmony of exertion in the trunk, we will at the
start dwell mainly upon the phases of action in the legs only.
Imagine now that the figure that is to serve us as a model is
walking. The trunk in the air, some thirty inches above the ground,
is moving forward. Attached to it are the nether limbs, alternately
swinging pendently and alternately supporting the trunk in its
position above the ground.
[Illustration: SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MOVEMENTS OF THE LEGS IN WALKING.
Above: Diagram to indicate the length of a stride and to show how the
head describes a “wave.”]
Further to simplify our study, we will, at first, consider the
mechanism of one limb only. As one foot swings forward and reaches
a certain place, it seems to hesitate for an instant and then come
down, heel first, on the ground. As the heel strikes, the body is
slightly jarred and the oblique line of the limb, its axis, moves
and approaches the vertical. In a moment, the limb is vertical as
it supports the trunk and the sole of the foot bears on the ground.
Then the axis of the leg changes its verticality and leans forward,
carrying with it the body. Soon the heel leaves the ground and only
the fore part of the foot—the region of the toes—remains on the
ground. But before the foot is entirely lifted from the ground, there
is a slight pause, almost immeasurable, coming immediately before the
foot gives a push, leaves the ground, and projects the body forward.
During the time of the phases of movement described above, the foot,
in a sort of way, rolls over the ground from heel to toes.
Immediately after the toes leave the ground, the knee bends slightly
and the limb swings pendulum-like forward, then, as it nears the
point directly under the centre of the trunk, it bends a little more
and lifts the foot to clear the ground. After the limb has passed
this central point under the trunk and is beginning to advance, it
straightens out ready to plant its heel on the ground again. When
it has done so it has completed the step, and the limb repeats the
series of movement phases again for the next step.
Now, the limb of the other side has gone through the same movements,
too, but the corresponding phases occurred alternately in point of
time.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING THE ACTION OF THE FOOT IN ROLLING OVER
THE GROUND.]
One of these positions of the leg, that when it is bent at the
knee so as to clear the ground as it passes from the back to its
advancing movement forward, is rarely represented by the graphic
artist in his pictures. The aspect of the limbs when they are at
their extremes—spread out—one forward and one to the back, is his
usual pictorial symbol for walking. But the position, immediately
noted above, is an important phase of movement, as it is during its
continuance that the other limb is supporting the trunk.
A movement of the trunk in walking that is to be remarked is its
turning from side to side as it swings in unison with the upper limbs
while they alternately swing forward and backward. It is a movement
that animators do not always regard, since only an accomplished
figure draftsman can imagine movement clearly enough to reproduce it.
To describe the movement better we will consider it visionally.
[Illustration: SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF MOVEMENTS IN WALKING,
ILLUSTRATING ESPECIALLY THE RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE LIMBS.]
We are looking at the walker from the side and see the trunk in
profile—exactly in profile, of course, when the arms are at the
middle position. As the near-side arm moves forward we see a slight
three-quarter back view of the upper part of the trunk, then when the
arm swings back we see the profile again, and with the arm moving
still farther back, the corresponding side of the shoulder moves
with it and the upper part of the trunk is seen in three-quarter
front view. If the artist shows, in a walk, these particulars: (1) A
three-quarter view from the front; (2) profile; (3) a three-quarter
view from the back, and then carries them back and forth, he will
add to the effectiveness of the screen representation. It gives to
a figure, when slightly exaggerated in a humorous picture, a very
laughable swaggering gait.
The arms were mentioned as swinging in a walk so as to help maintain
the equilibrium. It will not be difficult to understand the phases
through which they go if it is remembered that an arm moves in unison
with the lower limb of the opposite side. This can be observed if
one looks from an upper window down on the passers-by. It will
then be noted how one arm as it hinges and oscillates from the
shoulder-joint, follows the lower limb of the opposite side as it
hinges and swings from the hip-joint.
[Illustration: PHASES OF MOVEMENT OF A QUICK WALK.
Four phases complete a step.]
Contemplating the arms only, it will be perceived that they keep
up a constant alternate swinging back and forth. The point where
they pass each other will be when they both have approached their
respective sides of the trunk. This particular moment when the arms
are opposite one another and close to the trunk, or at least near the
vertical line of the body, is coincident with the phases of the lower
limb movements when one is nearly rigid as it supports the body and
the other is at its median phase of the swinging movement.
These middle positions of the four limbs—the lower near to each
other, and the upper close to the body—is a characteristic that
should be taken note of by the artist. It illustrates, in connection
with the extreme positions, certain peculiarities of motion in living
things, in general. This is a sort of opening movement following by
a closing one. These reciprocal changes, expansion and retraction in
organic forms, symbolize the activity of life.
In the human body, for instance, during action, there are certain
times when the limbs are close to the trunk and at other times when
they are stretched out or extended. This is adequately made plain in
jumping. Specifically: in the preliminary position before the actual
jump, the appendicular members bend and lie close to the trunk.
The entire body is compact and repressed like a spring. Then when
the jump takes place, there is a sudden opening as the limbs fling
themselves outward.
A rower in a shell plying his sculls exemplifies this phenomenon
of a spring-like closing and expansion. In this case there is also
a typical example of reciprocal compensating movements in the two
pairs of limbs. When the rower leans forward and the arms are
extended ready to pull on his sculls, the lower limbs are flexed and
in contact with the front of his trunk. Then when the sculls have
been pulled back and he has reached the other extreme position, the
arms are flexed and close to his chest, while the lower limbs are
stretched out straight.
[Illustration: A SUCCESSION OF ALTERNATE CONTRACTIONS AND EXPANSIONS
CHARACTERIZES MOTION.]
If the animator is planning to walk a figure across the field
of the screen, there is one matter in the representation that he
punctiliously takes heed of. It is this: to have the trunk rise as it
is in turn supported upon one rigid leg and then upon the other, and
to show that it falls slightly when the two limbs are outstretched
at their extreme positions. In this alternating rise and fall of the
trunk in walking, the head can be observed as describing a wave. The
highest point of the wave is when the trunk is supported on the rigid
leg and the lowest point when both limbs are stretched out as if
flying from the vertical of the body.
(_For the following few paragraphs, see illustrations on pages 112
and 113._)
In scheming out the positions for a walk, the artist first draws one
of the extreme outstretched positions (_A_). (It is supposed that
we are drawing a figure that is going from left to right.) Then on
another sheet of paper the following outstretched position (_B_),
but placed one step in advance. These drawings are now placed over
the tracing glass of the drawing-board. All the following drawings
of this walk are to be traced over this glass, and they will be kept
in register by the two pegs in the board. As now placed, the two
drawings (_A_ and _B_) cover the distance of two steps. A foot that
is about to fall on the ground and one that is about to leave it meet
at a central point. Here a mark is made to indicate a footprint. A
similar mark for a footprint is made on each side to indicate the
limits of the two steps.
A sheet of paper is next placed over the two drawings (_A_ and _B_),
and on the central footprint the middle position (_C_) of the legs
is drawn. In this the right limb is nearly straight and supporting
the body, while the other limb, the left, is bent at the knee and has
the foot raised to clear the ground. The next stage will be to make
the first in-between position (_D_) between the first extreme and the
middle position. It is made on a fresh sheet of paper placed over
those containing the positions just mentioned. The attitude of the
right limb in this new position would be that in which it is about
to plant its foot on the ground and the left limb is depicted as if
ready to swing into the position that it has in the middle one (_C_).
[Illustration: ORDER IN WHICH AN ANIMATOR MAKES THE SEQUENCE OF
POSITIONS FOR A WALK.]
[Illustration:
Illustrating how alternating series of positions are the same in
outline, differing only with respect to whether the near or the far
limb is moving forward.]
Then with the middle position (_C_) and the last extreme one (_B_)
over the glass, on another sheet of paper, the next in-between one
(_E_) is drawn. This shows the right foot leaving the ground and the
left leg somewhat forward ready to plant its heel on the ground. We
have now secured five phases or positions of a walking movement.
The two extremes (_A_ and _B_) spoken of as the outstretched ones
have the same contours but differ in that in one the right limb is
forward, and the left is directed obliquely backward, while in the
other it is the left limb that projects forward and the right has an
obliquity backward.
Now, if we make tracings, copying the outlines only, of the three
other positions (_C_, _D_, and _E_), but reversing the particular
aspects of the right and the left limbs, we shall have obtained
enough drawings to complete two steps of a walk.
[Illustration: PHASES OF MOVEMENT OF A WALK.
Six phases complete a step.]
As a better understanding of the preceding the fact should be grasped
that while one limb, the right we will say, is assuming a certain
position during a step, in the next step it is the turn of the other
limb, the left, to assume this particular position. And again in this
second step, the right limb takes the corresponding position that the
other limb had in the first step. There are always, in a walk, two
sets of drawings, used alternately. Any particular silhouette in one
set has its identical silhouette in the other set, but the attitudes
of the limbs are reversed. To explain by an example: In the drawing
of one middle position, the right leg supports the body and the left
is flexed, in its coincidental drawing, it is the left that supports
the body and the right is flexed. (See 2 and 3+, of engraving on page
113.)
From this it can be seen that the two sets of drawings differ only
in the details within their general contours. These details will be
such markings as drapery folds, stripes on trousers, indications of
the right and the left foot by little items like buttons on boots.
Heeding and taking the trouble to mark little details like these add
to the value of a screen image.
One of the most difficult actions to depict in this art is that
which the animator calls a perspective walk. By this term he means a
walk in which the figure is either coming diagonally, more or less,
toward the front of the picture or going away from it toward the
horizon. It is obvious that according to the rules of perspective, in
coming forward the figure gets larger and larger, and in travelling
in the opposite direction it gets smaller and smaller. To do this
successfully is not easy. Only after a worker has had a great deal of
experience in the art is he able to draw such a movement easily.
[Illustration: A PERSPECTIVE WALK.]
The constant changing sizes of the figures and getting them
within the perspective lines in a graduated series are perplexing
enough matters. But this is not all. There is the problem of the
foreshortened views as the limbs are beheld perspectively. Imagine,
for instance, an arm pointing toward the spectator in a foreshortened
view. Every artist would have his own individual way of drawing this.
Those with a natural feeling for form and understanding anatomy solve
problems of this kind by methods for which it is impossible to give
any recipe. Some would start with preliminary construction lines
that have the appearance of columnar solids in perspective, while
others scribble and fumble around until they find the outlines that
they want.
[Illustration: FOUR POSITIONS FOR A PERSPECTIVE RUN.
_Below_: How the drawings are placed on the separate sheets of
paper.]
[Illustration: PHASES OF MOVEMENT FOR A PERSPECTIVE RUN.
_Above_: In the last of the series—on the right—the figure has
taken a position nearly that of the first of the series.
_Below_: How the figures are placed with respect to each other when
drawn on separate sheets of paper.]
Happily in most of the occasions when a perspective walk is required
in a story it is for some humorous incident. This signifies that it
can be made into a speedy action, and that but a few drawings are
needed to complete a step.
Artists when they begin to make drawings for screen pictures find a
new interest in studying movement. In the study of art the student
gives some attention, of course, to this question of movement.
Usually, though, the study is not discriminating, nor thorough. But
to become skilled in animating involves a thoughtful and analytic
inquiry into the subject. If the artist is a real student of the
subject its consideration will be more engrossing than the more
or less slight study given to the planning of the single isolated
phases, or attitudes, of action in ordinary pictorial work.
A great help in comprehending the nature of movement and grasping
the character of the attitudes of active figures are the so-called
“analysis of motion” screen pictures. In these the model, generally
a muscular person going through the motions of some gymnastic or
athletic activity, is shown moving very much slower than the movement
is in actuality. This is effected by taking the pictures with a
camera so constructed that it moves its mechanism many times faster
than the normal speed.
[Illustration: RUNNING FIGURE
_Above_: Six positions complete two steps.
_Below_: Diagram to show that, considered as outlines, the six
positions resolve themselves into three silhouettes.]
The speed of the ordinary camera, as we know, moves during every
second but one foot of film and on which sixteen separate photographs
are made. Now, in one type of camera for analysis of motion
photography, eight times more film is moved with a corresponding
increase in the number of separate pictures taken on it during this
same time of one second. To take a specific movement of a model
lasting one second: the ordinary camera catches sixteen phases
of it, but the extra-rapid camera takes about one hundred and
twenty-eight separate pictures of as many corresponding separate
phases. In other words, the ordinary camera takes about as much as
our eyes appreciate, while the fast camera records on a length of
film many more attitudes during the course of the given activity
than the unaided eye can ever hope to see. When this long film of
the extra-rapid camera is run through the projecting machine at the
normal speed it shows us on the screen, in a period of eight seconds,
that which took place in reality in but one second.
[Illustration: PHASES OF MOVEMENT FOR A QUICK WALK.
Lower diagram shows how the several drawings, each on a separate
sheet of paper, are placed in advance of each other.]
[Illustration: WALKING MOVEMENTS, SOMEWHAT MECHANICAL.
Suitable for a droll theme.]
The animated drawing artist becomes, through the training of his
eye to quick observation and the studying of films of the nature
immediately noted above, an expert in depicting the varied and
connected attitudes of figures in action. Examples for study on
account of the clear-cut definitions of the actions, are the acrobats
with their tumbling and the clowns with their antics. Then in the
performances of the jugglers and in the pranks of the knock-about
comedians, the animator finds much to spur him on to creative
imagery. The pictorial artist for graphic or easel work, in any of
these cases, intending to make an illustration, is content with some
representative position that he can grasp visually, or, which is more
likely to be the case, the one that is easiest for him to draw. But
the animator must have sharp and quickly observing eyes and be able
to comprehend and remember the whole series of phases of a movement.
[Illustration: PHASES OF MOVEMENT FOR A LIVELY WALK.
Lower diagram shows how the drawings, on separate sheets of paper,
are placed with respect to each other to continue the figure across
the scene.]
A fancy dancer, especially, is a rich study. To follow the dancer
with his supple joints bending so easily and assuming unexpected
poses of body and limbs, requires attentive eyes and a lively
mental photography. The limbs do not seem to bend merely at the
articulations and there seems to be a most unnatural twisting of
arms, lower limbs, and trunk. But it is all natural. It simply means
that there is co-ordination of movement in all parts of the jointed
skeletal frame. This co-ordination—and reciprocal action—follows
definite laws of motion, and it is the business of the animator to
grasp their signification. It is, in the main, the matter already
spoken of above; namely, the alternate action of flexion or a
closing, and that of extension or an opening.
With these characteristics there is also observable in the generality
of dancing posturing a tendency of an upper limb to follow a lower
limb of the opposite side as in the cases of walking and running.
Very strongly is this to be noticed in the nimbleness of an eccentric
dancer as he cuts bizarre figures and falls into exaggerated poses.
For instance, when a lower limb swings in any particular direction,
the opposite arm oscillates in the same direction and brings its hand
close enough to touch this concurrently swinging lower limb.
[Illustration: PHASES OF MOVEMENT FOR A QUICK WALK.]
This symbolical phenomenon of the activity of living things—the
negative quality of a closing or flexion, and the positive one of
an opening or extension—is not a feature entirely confined to human
beings and animals, but is a characteristic showing in the mechanics
of many non-living things.
[Illustration: WALKING MOVEMENT VIEWED FROM ABOVE.
Illustrating how the diagonally opposite limbs move in unison.]
NOTES ON ANIMAL LOCOMOTION