Grade 12 Animation NCII

1. Traditional animation can also be referred to as cell animation. This type of animation requires the animator to draw every single frame by hand to create an animated scene. This is usually done on a light table that allows the artists to see the previous drawing through the top layer of paper. Well-known companies like Disney are known for using this type of animation.  

Cel animation is the art of creating 2D animation by hand on sheets of transparent plastic called “cels”. Following a planning process, animators transfer draft drawings onto transparent sheets of plastic called cels. Each cel features one drawing with an outline on one side of the plastic and the color is filled in on the other. These ‘cels’ are then placed over a background and photographed in sequence. When played back at a speed of 12 or 24 frames they create the illusion of movement. It’s rare for traditional cel animation to be used in modern productions since everything is digital now.

2. Computer animation - 2D, 3D: The famous Mickey Mouse animation was created using the 2d animation technique.The first 2D animation was called Fantasmagorie, it's a short cartoon made by Emile Cohl. It's shot entirely in black and white, the cartoon is all about a simple stick man in live action. The cartoon is 75 seconds long and it took about 700 different drawings to create. This historic animation was released in 1908. During the 1960s many popular cartoons like the Jetsons and the Flintstones were created using 2d animation. 

2D animation refers to vector-based animations similar to the ones used in Flash. This style of animation has been growing in popularity because the technology is so accessible. Although artists have the option of editing frame by frame, vector-based animation gives the artist the option to create rigs for the characters and move single body parts at a time rather than constantly redrawing the characters. It gives more flexibility to beginners in animation because they don’t have to rely so heavily on drawing skills. 

3D animation is also known as computer animation and it is currently the most commonly used form of animation. The process of 3D animation is very different from the traditional style but they both require the artist to share the same principles of movement and composition in animation. 3D animation has less to do with drawing and more to do with moving a character in a program. The National Science Foundation emphasizes how heavily 3D animators must rely on physics to create realistic animations. The animator creates keyframes or specific movements and lets the computer fill in the rest.

3. Stop motion animation is very similar to traditional animation because it combines a series of still images that are slightly different to show movement. The largest difference is that stop motion uses photography and captures real objects. With stop motion, the artists take a photo of an object or scene and slightly moves the objects before taking another photo. The artist repeats this process until the scene is completed and uses each photo as a frame in the animation. It’s similar to a flipbook with photos.

Types of stop motion animation

• Object-Motion — moving or animating objects

• Claymation — moving clay

• Pixilation — moving or animating people

• Cutout-Motion — moving paper/2D material

• Puppet Animation — moving puppets

• Silhouette Animation — backlighting cutouts

4. Motion Graphics Animation. Unlike the previously mentioned types of animation, motion graphics are not driven by characters or storylines. This art form focuses on the ability to move graphic elements, shapes, and text. This process is commonly used for things like television promotions, explainer videos, and animated logos. The skillset necessary for the other types of animation doesn’t apply to motion graphics because there’s no need to mimic body movement or facial expressions. Advertisements rely heavily on motion graphics and present plenty of career opportunities.

These are two different ways to animate an action. 

The straight-ahead technique means to animate your action from drawing 1 to the end in sequence order. 

Straight ahead animation is drawn from the first position to the last in a linear sequence. There is very little planning in this methodology, and where the character ends up and how it gets there can be a surprise for both the audience and the animator. While this approach is a lot more spontaneous and creative, it can create inaccurate results.

The pose-to-pose technique is a bit more intricate as it means to draw the key poses first (often the beginning and end drawing of the action and some other key moment between. Once the key poses are done, the breakdown and in-between drawings are added to fill the rest of the animation

Pose-to-pose animation is characterized by the process of first drawing your key poses at significant points in the action, refining the key drawings, and then doing the in-betweens. This process gives the creator more control and ensures the accuracy of the final result. This is how you worked when you created the pendulum animation. You started by creating your key poses!

1. Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch makes an illusion of character's elasticity, volume and flexibility. Squash and stretch is also helpful in facial animation. The extent of squash and stretch depends on scene requirements and animation stylistics. More often squash and stretch is extremely strong in animation films and feeble in feature films when realistic characters are used. Squash and stretch is used in all kinds of character animation from bouncing ball to moving person.

2. Arcs

Motions of all living beings (people, animals, birds, fish, etc.) and many other objects do not happen in straight lines, but in arcs. Imagine a pendulum, its motion reflects an exact arc. The same applies to hands, legs, head and body as a whole. A perfect example is walking. Pay attention to how you move your feet. You simultaneously start to raise and move the foot and end up with lowering and a full stop. Your foot made an arc motion. Your pelvis moved in arcs as well. You may try moving your feet in a straight line for that you just need to drag them without lifting from the ground. Your pelvis most probably will further continue to move in arcs. When throwing a ball your arm will move along in an arc and flying ball will also make the same arc motion. In animation arc motion will appear more natural and appealing.

3. Secondary Action

Secondary actions are intended to complement and intensify the main action or with intent to distract or direct spectator's attention to other actions so enriching the animation and making it more appealing and solid. Imagine a student reaching for a test paper during examination, he is viewing them with uncertainty, shifting from foot to foot in doubt, his eyes wondering - this is the main action. Now imagine the same scene when a schoolboy is fidgeting with a pen, what is a secondary action. This makes the whole scene deeper and more attractive. Other examples:

pushing a car (main action) and at the same time whisking off a fly from the nose (secondary action), preparing a meal and at the same time watching TV, talking to each other and at the same time scratching your head. Secondary actions may become main actions. In an example with a schoolboy we can switch spectator's attention from the main action. For instance if the schoolboy unintentionally bends the pen and breaks it, so our secondary action becomes the main action because the spectator switches his attention from test-papers to reaction to a broken pen. So secondary action becomes the main action.

4. Exaggeration

Animation is limitless and allows showing things as we want them to show different from reality. By means of exaggeration we can achieve greater expression, precision, more dynamic poses and motions. Not only primary lines of a character can be exaggerated, but also his personal traits, his behavior, condition, his motions, etc. Let us compare two boxing punches. First example is a realistic one when during the swing the character makes a slight turn taking his body into a "charge". In animation this motion will not be dynamic enough and appealing. Another example is animation with exaggeration when during a swing our character turns his body to 3/4 of a circle - what is a powerful charge, dynamic and appealing pose.

5. Anticipation

This motion prepares a viewer for the main action, which the character intends to do. For instance, starting to run, jump or make a dash. To jump up, first you need to squat - this is preparation or anticipation. Comic effect can be achieved without preparation or anticipation after you used it several times. Virtually all real motions to a greater or lesser extent contain preparation or anticipation - a sweeping motion with the bandy before a strike, squat before a jump, swinging your arm back before throwing a stone, etc.

6. Staging

7. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

Poses and actions, arrangement of cameras, background and stage elements shall clearly demonstrate character's temper, reaction, character's attitude to a story and continuity of the plotline. Effective use of close-ups, medium shots and master shots as well as camera angles help to narrate the story. Film duration is limited therefore each succession, each scene, each film frame shall be relevant to the whole story. Do not confuse the viewer with too many simultaneous actions, use one clear action at a time to convey the idea. Exceptions are the cases when you really need to show the turmoil or confusion. Staginess directs viewer’s attention towards the story being told. Chosen background shall neither distract the viewer from the story or a character nor attract his attention by too many details. Foreground, character and background shall complement each other and work as a whole in the course of storytelling.

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

Straight ahead animation starts with the first picture (in hand-drawn animation) or character pose (in 3D animation) and gradually picture by picture (or pose by pose) is brought to the end of the scene. Using this method you may lose the size, volume and proportions of the character. This method helps to achieve more spontaneity in animation, but makes it difficult to control its duration. It is more often used in hand-drawn animation creating quick chaotic scenes.

Pose to pose method is more planned with clearly arranged key pictures/poses throughout the whole scene. Using this method means better control of a size, volume, proportions of the character as well as his actions. Lead animator may set only key poses of animation and pass the rest of the work to be finished by assistant animators. In this case work resources are being used more efficiently as lead animator shall not worry about each animation frame, he may concentrate on acting and in turn assistant animators shall not worry about keyframes. Sometimes both Straight ahead and Pose to pose methods are used together complementing each other.

8. Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Let's have a look at a running squirrel, we will see that its tail reminds us the wave motion. Besides, when squirrel’s body goes down, the tip of its tail goes up. Or imagine a whip, the motion starts with a handle then passing to the middle part of the whip and afterwards to the end of the whip. These examples vividly demonstrate what an overlapping action is. Similar is follow through motion. An example of this motion might be a longhaired running girl wearing a dress. If she suddenly stops, her dress, hair, hands and to some extent her body will continue to move for a while. Technically follow through motion is happening when one or several body parts have stopped, and the rest of the body is still in motion. Practically nothing comes to a stop at the same time.

9. Slow-in and Slow-out

Another name for it might be speedup and slowdown. Basically nothing moves with constant speed. Imagine that you sat on a bicycle and all of a sudden you ride with a speed of 40 miles per hour. You arrived at your destination and at the same very moment your speed from 40 miles per hour drops to 0 (zero) - a full stop. Something is missing, isn't it? Well, you sat on a bicycle, then you speed up, then you reach the speed of 40 miles per hour and having reached your destination you slow down to a full stop. The same applies to almost everything - you throw a ball, start to run or jump, start driving a car, fly on a plane - abatement of start and end of the motion. Simply put, everything starts with a speed-up and ends with a slowdown.

10. Timing

This is time or number of frames you use to demonstrate an action or motion. Use less frames and your motion will be sharp and quick, use more frames and your motion will be smooth and slow. For example you are working on an animation of striking a ball. Give 4 frames for this animation and you will have a sharp and very quick strike:

1st frame - a foot is lifted up

5th frame - the foot strikes a ball

2nd, 3rd and 4th frames are in between frames, where the foot goes all the way from a swing to striking a ball.

Now let us consider the same animation but with different timing:

1st frame - a foot is lifted up

50th frame - the foot strikes a ball

In frames from the 2nd to 49th the foot goes all the way from the swing to striking a ball.

With a speed of 25 frames per second the first version will take 1/5 (one fifth) of a second while duration of the second version will be 2 seconds. Correspondingly the action in the second version will be much slower and smoother.

Timing is in charge not only for speed, but also for size, weight and even character's temper. Imagine a little ant, who within 2 seconds will run a distance of about 2 inches and make about 50 steps. And now think how many steps can an elephant make in 2 seconds? Or how long does it take for an ant and an elephant to make a U-turn? The time will not be the same - this exactly is timing.

There might be variations of quick and slow timing what gives unique rhythm and appeal to an action.

11. Solid Drawing and Solid Posing

Your character poses shall be clear and expressive, the silhouette easily read. Stick to clear shapes, watch the center of gravity, weight should be evenly distributed. Poses shall clearly express thoughts, intentions, condition, wishes and feelings of a character.

12. Appeal

Here we do not deal with cover girls or a fluffy kitten with a pink ribbon. All characters may and shall to a greater or lesser degree be appealing whether they are heroes, villains, mammoths, dinosaurs or an object. This refers to their type, nature, background and behavior. Even villain-like characters shall be charismatic and might be liked by spectators. Spectators more easily accept and understand appealing characters, they show them empathy. Even a little mouse may be so appealing that became a legend - a Mickey Mouse.

Appeal means when you really like it. For better understanding of these laws and principles they shall be read and put in practice. All laws and principles mentioned above will be studied in details and put into practice in our courses. Knowledge gained on these courses will be useful and applicable regardless of software package you use.