This week in class we started working on developing our basic animation skills.
I have done some simple animation in the past along with Richard Williams’ Animator’s Survival Kit but I was new to Krita, the software we received lecture demos from. I actually found this a fun process, the timeline and layer system was very easy to use and with a simple add-on I could export directly to an mp4 or export as an image sequence.
The first practice we did here was on spacing, using a coin/ball travelling in a straight line. For this I animated on 2s and created the first animation with equal spacing, creating this very robotic movement. Then I played with the spacing, following along with what I remembered from the Animator’s Survival Kit, having my earlier frames clump at the start and increasing the distance between each frame’s circles to create the illusion of speed (and then reversing this so I got both easing in and easing out). This creates the illusion of gaining and losing momentum despite the frames laying on the exact same frame number.
Then to create some more dynamic looking movement by adding some squash and stretch to the middle frames. This creates the illusion of a quicker pace as the coin moves through the center and slows down to ease out, this adds more appeal to the movement and generally has a more interesting action.
Then we moved onto the bouncing ball example. For this we were given a spacing and timing chart to follow, and I tried to stick with this best I could. The first things I started with for this was my contact points and the mid point of the action, where the ball hangs in the air.
From this I then duplicated my circle and adjusted the spacing of it to fit what I thought looked right and from the guide, and after added my squash and stretch circles after and checked the movement, repeating this until all of my arcs were completed. Then I just duplicated frames and adjusted them towards the end to create the rolling effect, I did have to go back and adjust this because initially I was incorrect in my use of spacing and timing so the roll had too much momentum, but Alec pointed this out to me and I quickly fixed it. I am actually really happy with how this turned out.
To finish these short excersises I went and made a new bouncing ball and this time added some puddles on a layer beneath just to give it a bit more character. For this I redrew every circle, so it is a bit inconsistent with the volumes but it does appear to gain speed as it bounces off frame and I can see myself practing these principles more for character animation as they entirely transform the idea of weight and movement in a simple way.