ANI172 - Week 4

Session 1

• every motion has a path of action - i.e. an arc 

• most things in nature move in arcs 

• arcs are used to make a movement much smoother and less sharp/unnatural e.g.  the trajectory of a bouncing ball 

• all head turns, limb movements and even eye movements are executed on arcs 

• when the head moves, it tends to lift or drop slightly 

• eyes move very fast and thus have fewer frames in between 

  • you can create unnatural-looking eyes by having the blink happen one eye at a time 

• joint 'breaking' makes actions more flexible and limber/fluid 

  • always remember what moves first (which joint?) 

• this not only creates more believable arcs, but also smoother overlapping actions 

• in arm movements, the shoulder leads first, then the elbow, then wrist and then the hand is last 

• when something has a ripple-like movement (e.g. a whip, grass in the wind, hair, cloth, tail, seaweed etc.) it has C and S curves 

  • this is also sometimes referred to as the Wave Principle 

Session 2