Please upload your completed project as a quicktime movie, converted using H.264 here.
"It is not necessary for an animator to take a character to one point, complete that action completely, and then turn to the following action as if he had never given it a thought until after completing the first action. When a character knows what he is going to do he doesn't have to stop before each individual action and think to do it. He has it planned in advance in his mind."
-Walt Disney (describing follow through and overlapping action)
12 Principles:
1. Timing-have observed somewhat, will cover as we go on. We have selected frame rates, but somewhat arbitrarily. We will continue to learn that certain things work better under different frame rates. Frame rate is related to speed and spacing. It is also important to consider in terms of production time. For this week's exercise, you will work with 2 different frame rates, 12fps and 24 fps in 3 separate files you will edit together at the end. At 12fps, your action will appear more slow, which is desirable in this animation at the beginning and end, as you will see. During the actual action itself, 24fps will be used to achieve smooth animated results.
2. Ease In and Out (or Slow In and Out) - The concept that an action can have varying speeds at beginning and end of an action, often used in conjunction with anticipation and other principles, we will cover in this week's assignment. Most important is to know when and how to use it. For this week's assignment, you will use slow in/out at the beginning and end of your animation by using different frame rates. 12fps/24fps.
3. Arcs-will cover in this week's assignment (somewhat observed this in bouncing ball arcs). The idea that arcs provide a guide for realistic movement. You will create a path as a guide for your animation this week. You may use arcs to simulate smooth back and forth flow.
4. Anticipation-will apply in this week's assignment, have discussed. This week you will apply anticipation at the beginning of your animation. You will apply the anticipation during the slow-in process, at a frame rate of 12fps, to slow the action. The spacing of your object will be further apart at the beginning as well, as we will see.
5. Exaggeration-will cover in future lessons
6. Squash and Stretch-covered with ball and character, you should now apply whenever you can! You are required to apply stretch and squash in this week's assignment as your object reacts to gravity on the upward and downward swings.
7. Secondary Action-will cover in walk/run future lessons
8. Follow Through and Overlapping Action-will apply in this week's assignment. Follow through is normally seen at the end of an action, may be thought of as the opposite of anticipation. The idea is that an object may go beyond its final resting point at the end of the action, and then loop or snap back to its intended final resting point, resolving the action. Overlapping action is when a character's parts react independently throughout an action, but come together at the end, often using follow through. For example, an animal's ears may move at a different rate, the animal may come to an abrupt stop, the ears might continue to move forward and then snap back.
9. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-To-Pose Action-concept introduced this week. You will decide of these two processes, which to use for your work this week. Most animators agree that it is a combination that yields the best results.
10. Staging-future lessons
11. Appeal-future lessons
12. Personality-future lessons
Assignments for week of December 2nd
1. Falling leaf
Create a single leaf that loosens from its branch and falls to the ground. We will follow this leaf as if it is a character taking a journey, running into an obstacle, overcoming the obstacle, and finally, finding a place on the ground, either in a pile of leaves, or in a private spot on the ground.
You will demonstrate anticipation at the beginning of the animation as the leaf decides whether it will make the journey or not and at the point it decides to make its break! Remember, often we see anticipation played out as the character moves in the opposite direction of the action at first, like a baseball pitcher winding up to throw a pitch, he may step and lean backward before moving forward and releasing the ball to the batter.
In your Photoshop file, you will have a layer that plots the arc of movement or the path the leaf will follow. This should be a well thought out path that will provide you guidance for the action.
At some point during the pathway down, your leaf will confront an obstacle (natural forces such as wind, extreme heat, rain, breezes, windsheer) that will cause a reaction through which your leaf must propel forward using stretch and squash.
You will use slow in, slow out, meaning that your speed will start slow during the anticipation, speed up during the normal flow of the action, then decrease at the end. You will do this by making files with different frame rates. Normal action could be handled at 12fps, while you may wish to perform slow in and slow out at a reduced frame rate. You will then export these files, and edit them together in final cut (this should be 3 quicktime movie files-beginning, action, end).
Finally, your leaf will float to the ground and settle in its final position for the action. If your leaf drops into a pile of leaves, and some other leaves rattle up as a result, you could then animate the leaf bouncing a bit up from the pile, this would be a secondary action, or even follow through. But you do not have to take that final step, but if you have time, you should for more practice.
Total time: 16 seconds, 24fps for major pathway action, 12fps for anticipation and landing.
Must begin with sketchbook observational drawing of trees, branches, leaves, and scale of drawing.
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