ANI172 - Week 2

Straight-ahead animation: 

• considered the natural way by Richard Williams 

• Basically drawing one frame after another 

• used predominantly in early animations 

• feels natural 

• animation version of improv 

• disadvantages: 

  • can go off-model easily 

  • hard to time 

  • hard to assist 

  • time consuming 

• still has its applications, though PTP is used more often in modern animation 

• best for dynamic objects e.g. fire, smoke, cloth, hair etc 

• also used for stop-motion 

Pose-to-pose animation: 

• used for planning 

• great for storyline events 

• can also be used for animation dialogue 

• start with key poses and fill in the blanks after 

• good for timing 

• "work on twos" - means dividing a section of the animation in half to get key poses 

• there are three stages: 

  • keys - main actions 

  • breakdowns - what happens in between keys 

  • inbetweens - even more frames to make the animation smoother 

• disadvantages:

  • can feel unnatural

  • may cause issues with flow 

  • doesn't mimic real life methods of movement 

• Key poses become the story-telling frames

• "Limited animation" is based on keys only 

• keys define the extreme points in a pose, or accents in expression 

• should always have weight and balance 

• always start with thumbnail sketches first, to get the line of action and make the animation feel right 

• Breakdowns define how the animation transitions between keys

• These help define mood, timing and weight 

• Inbetweens are the frames between keys and breakdowns 

• Like a less influental version of breakdowns 

• These will tend to create arcs of movement 

• Timing and weight are more important in expressing emotion than actual expression e.g. walking slowly and heavily implies sadness more than a sad face 

• consider giving project a title and maybe credits as well - this counts toward the time total! 

• so long as the animation itself doesn't go for longer than 10s, it's fine if the whole thing goes a bit over