Research

Research for Animation Fundamentals Overview

search for improve animation skills and help to study animation progress

Week 1 : Disney nine old man/ The 12 principles of animation/ Cartoon vs Real - World Physics/ The 3 Laws of Motion/ Recommended Animation

Week 2 : Anticipation/ Arcs

Week 3 : Squash and Stretch/ Timing and Spacing

Week 4 : Bouncing Ball Physics/ Slow In and Slow Out

Week 5 : Follow Through and Overlapping/ Maya Graph Editor

Week 6 : Exaggeration#

Week 7 : How To 'Polish' Animation

Week 8 : Secondary Actions/Appeal

Week 9 : Walk Cycles

Week 1

Disney's nine old men

Disney's Nine Old Men were Walt Disney Productions' core animators

They created some of most favorite Disney films. All nine were present by the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). According to researcher Neal Gabler and animator Frank Thomas, a board was formed to study all possible problems affecting the company in relation to its work between 1945 and 1947.

They have created the base of Disney and also created the base of animation through their works. Their 2D animation working reflect the story vividly, the people/animal have its own style and catch the viewer's eyes and heart.

The 12 Principles of Animation

Squash and stretch
Anticipation
Staging
Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
Slow In and Slow Out
Arcs
Secondary Action
Timing
Exaggeration
Solid Drawing
Appeal

Cartoon vs Real-World Physics

Cartoon physics are usually behaving as the character and not following the real-world rules. Such as a character was trying to run as fast as he can, and while he is running, he can even run his leg as wings and run on the sky.

Real-world physics will follow the common way of object behavior. If some one runs of a cliff, this character may die or broke his legs. But in a cartoon physics, the character can even not realize that it just runs of a cliff.

Cartoon physics have more imagination and Real-world physics will reflect the true way of physics.

The 3 Laws of Motion

1) The law of inertia - if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force.

2) F = ma - a quantitative description of the changes that a force can produce on the motion of a body. It states that the time rate of change of the momentum of a body is equal in both magnitude and direction to the force imposed on it. The momentum of a body is equal to the product of its mass and its velocity.

3) The law of action and reaction - when two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

Recommended of Animation

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Japanese computer-animated film released in 2005

Amazing model and film performing in 2005, even now, the technique of computer-animated of this film is still seems great

Week 2

Anticipation

Anticipation is used in animation to set the audience up for an action that is about to happen, and is required to sell believable movements.

An easy way to think about this is before a baseball player pitches the ball, they first need to move their entire body and arm backward to gain enough energy to throw the ball forward. So, if an animated person needs to move forward, they first must move back. Or, if a character is reaching for a glass on a table, they must first move their hand back. This not only gets up their momentum, but it lets the audience know this person is about to move.

Other cases where anticipation is used include when a character looks off screen when someone is arriving, or when a character’s attention is focused on something they are about to do.

Arcs

Arcs are circular paths taken by an object or action in animation. In a mechanical device, the motion of an object or action is created by following an arc. This creates an illusion of movement, mimicking human movements. Arcs can be useful for many reasons, including creating the illusion of movement.

Week 3

Squash and Stretch

The principle is based on observation that only stiff objects remain inert during motion, while objects that are not stiff, although retaining overall volume, tend to change shape in an extent that depends on inertia and elasticity of the different parts of the moving object. To illustrate the principle, a half-filled flour sack dropped on the floor, or stretched out by its corners, was shown to be retaining its overall volume as determined by the object's Poisson's ratio.

Examples of the elasticity of the human body in motion were found in photographs the animators found in newspaper sports pages. Using these poses as reference the animators were able to start "observing (the motion) in a new way". Author Walt Stanchfield said, "A simple shape plus squash and stretch are all the anatomy you need for cartoon characters."

Timing and Spacing

Timing refers to the number of frames or drawings between two key poses, which determines how fast or slow the action is.

Spacing refers to the distance between each frame or drawing, which determines how smooth or jerky the motion is.

Week 4

Bouncing Ball Physics

The physics of a bouncing ball concerns the physical behaviour of bouncing balls, particularly its motion before, during, and after impact against the surface of another body. Several aspects of a bouncing ball's behaviour serve as an introduction to mechanics in high school or undergraduate level physics courses. However, the exact modelling of the behaviour is complex and of interest in sports engineering.

The motion of a ball is generally described by projectile motion (which can be affected by gravity, drag, the Magnus effect, and buoyancy), while its impact is usually characterized through the coefficient of restitution (which can be affected by the nature of the ball, the nature of the impacting surface, the impact velocity, rotation, and local conditions such as temperature and pressure).

Slow In and Slow Out

‘Slow In’ and ‘Slow Out’ – terms in animation that are used to describe an important principle: an object or a character in animated video start their movements out more slowly, then picks up speed and finishes with deceleration. The beginning and end of the movement are softened.

All types of movements start with acceleration and end with deceleration. The same goes for almost everything in real life – when you are up to throw a ball, start running, jumping, and so on. Imagine that a character gets a car in and immediately “flies” at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. Then he or she arrives at the right place and at the same moment the speed drops sharply to zero – a complete stop. This action is missing some stages – a car should accelerate to 100 km/h, and it slows down in the right place. Such animation looks more realistic, as it is the principle of our physical world as well.

Week 5

Follow Through and Overlapping

Follow Through and Overlapping Action refers to two closely related techniques which help to render movement more realistically, and help to give the impression that characters follow the laws of physics, including the principle of inertia.

Follow Through is the idea that loosely connected parts of a body or object will continue moving after the character has stopped.

Overlapping Action is a similar idea in that it describes how different parts of a body or object tend to move at different rates.

Maya Graph Editor

The Graph Editor controls how the system interpolates those in-between key values. Nearly any property of any item can be animated by keyframing the values of an item's channel. Channels are the animateable properties of any item gathered together in list form.

Generally, you interact with channels within the Channels Viewport, but since channels are so essential to the Graph Editor, the very same channels appear when an item is selected in the left-most column.

The graph area is where the actual values are manipulated. In this graph, left to right always represents time, but up and down changes depending on the channel type selected. The line that connects the individual keyframes represents the value's change over time. By default, Modo uses a smooth curve to interpolate between keyframe values, providing a nice ease-in/ease-out type of effect. There may be times when you want a very different interpolation style, or simply to apply finer control. Animation curves can only be changed by manipulating the keyframes and are very similar to working with Bezier curves in the modeling viewport. Keyframes are represented as tiny small squares along the line.

Week 6

Exaggeration

Exaggeration in animation means making things bigger, smaller, or more extreme than they would be in real life. This helps to make the animation more interesting and fun to watch. For example, a character might have really big eyes or make really exaggerated facial expressions to show how they're feeling.

Week 7

How To 'Polish' Animation

MASTER THE TIMING

ANTICIPATION:

Anticipation is a technique where the action is prepared before it actually happens. This makes the animation more believable and helps guide the viewer's attention. Let's see why anticipation can help you create smoother animations:

Directional Cue: Anticipation provides a directional cue to the viewer, preparing them for the action that's about to happen. This helps the viewer follow along with the animation, making it appear smoother.

Build-up: Anticipation can build up the momentum for the main action, which adds a certain fluidity to animation. This allows you to create a smoother and more engaging animation.

FOLLOW THROUGH:

Follow-through is the continuation of an action after the main action has stopped. It can be thought of as the aftermath of an action. Here's how follow-through can contribute to a smoother animation:

Natural Movement: Just like easing, follow-through mimics real-world movements. For example, when a person stops running, their hair and clothes continue to move for a while. By adding follow-through in animation, can imitate this natural movement, creating a smoother animation.

Visual Interest: Follow-through can also add visual interest to animation. It can make the animation feel more dynamic and engaging, thus creating a smoother and more appealing animation.

Week 8

Secondary Actions

A secondary action is an integral part of animation as it adds interest and realism to the scene. It originates from immediate action, such as when someone’s arm moves backward after throwing something forward.

Secondary actions are helpful when animating something like a walk cycle where one leg will swing forward while the other steps backward, creating balance as you go along with your motion. Hence, not all weight falls onto just one side making things look less stiff than they would otherwise be without this addition.

Appeal

Appeal is one of the animation principles, which makes the character or design stand out. Viewer feels realism and it generates further interest when appeal is added to the design. Character should be capable of creating a pull when presented. They should have charisma. Appeal is not only used for the lead characters.

Week 9

Walk Cycles

MECHANICS OF A WALK CYCLE:

Walk cycles encapsulate all of the principles of animation. They also deal with complex issues of weight and timing, in order to be convincing. Offsets, Overlap and Follow Through on every joint are what will keep the motion natural and prevent it from looking robotic.

The bouncing ball is what the fundamental motion of a walk cycle and most all natural motion is based on – arcs, spacing, timing, etc.

PERSONALITY:

Character and personality are what make the walk real and make the audience identify with it on an emotional level. Disney always said “the mind is the pilot” and that is where every motion you create must start. Before even drawing a pose, need to establish in mind where character’s head is at. The lead is one quick way to establish this through the posing of walk cycle.

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