The Principles
For this week’s tasks we learned about the 12 principles of animation with a focus on squash and stretching. This is a way of showing the weight of an object though stretching the proportions to create tension or show the speed at which something is traveling. The other we were looking at today were arcs, this is how things will travel throughout a scene. It is meant to help animations be more naturals because if something were to travel in a straight line it would look very unnatural but, by moving it in an arc you get this natural more human motion to it. We touched on each one briefly like slow in slow our, anticipation and staging to name a few. To practice this, we did a short exercise by animating some balls. here is the rest of the participles:
- staging: how you set up you are with perspective and camera shot.
- anticipation: to let the audience know what is going to happen before doing the actions, like having a charter look off screen when someone is arriving or focused on something they are going to do.
- squash and stretch: exaggeration of an object by stretching and changing the object to convey speed or weight or to emphasis an action but, never changing the volume of the shape.
- pose to pose: By drawing each pose then drawing the in-betweens its usually the same as straight ahead but, there used as the one technique due to how they complement each other.
- follow through: this could also be known as drag it mean that each part of the body moves at different speeds like hair being pulled backwards when a character is running forward to create a more realistic natural movement.
- overlap: this can be like follow through but like the ball test its the idea of drawing each frame slightly overlapping this helps show a path and creates the illusion that each frame is flowing into each other. this is most prominent with in slow in slow out.
- slow in slow out: it is the idea of building up motion within an action and the realize of the motion when stopping.
- arcs: this refers to the natural motion of all things because it is just very unnatural to move your own head in a straight line. instead, it would move with little dip in the middle which creates the arc.
- secondary actions: the idea is by having a second action is to create a convincing performance and or to support the primary action. like a box moving in the background and the character flicking his fingers or turning to look at it.
- exaggeration: is to really sell an idea by either really dramatizing something or over doing a simple action like pushing a box where you would try to sell the weight of the box.
- solid drawings: is drawing it 3D to really sell that the character exists within the space.
- appeal: in my words the rule of cool but, apple is making everything interning and visual exiting to watch which, interns keep the viewers’ attention.
We also learned about arcs and how they help the overall movement. Arc in the world of animation would be a more natural movement compared to animating something in a straight line. It improves the presentation and keeps the impression of the piece. I do think that the squash and stretch with the landing to really sell the impact and then a few more frames to improve it jittery nature.
Then for the homework we were tasked with animating weights with some of the techniques we learned within the class today. by adding weight of different types of balls. for the lights out of them all I did a ping pong ball which would typically have a higher and more tight arcs when it bounces. Then for the medium weight I did a football would have a more normal arc but, it has a sturdier structure so it does have some stretch to it and would have a wider arc compared to the first. The last is the heaviest being a bowling ball which as a fast fall combines with the short bounce and lands the furthest from the others. I do think having one on screen at a time would sell this because it is a bit lost in the fray.
Reflection
Overall, I do not think it is the best example of weight. where the ping pong ball falls a tad too quickly where it was meant to be a bit floatier to show how light it is. I am fond of how it starts pinging around the frame at rapped speed. Then for football I do think it is more in line with a tennis ball with its arcs but, I am happy with how it turned out. It can be fixed by shorting the arcs and reducing the stretch on them. The one I am most pleased with would be the blowing ball; its arcs are more correct to an actual bowling ball. I do think I need more practice with the squash and stretching though I do have a copy of the animator’s survival kit which I can refer to when needed but, I am happy with the result.
refernces
richared william Animators surevil kit