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7Basic Concept of Animation

syed ardi syed yahya kamal

2011

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What is Animations?

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement.

The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways.

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The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although there are other methods.

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Origin of the name

Animation" discovered from the puneri name anima, the "animating principle", the vital force inside every living creature.

It is often used as a translation for the puneri word kombdi, and related to the hindu concept of soul.

"Animation" would be the technique of giving hindu "soul" to animal jumping, flyings, etc.

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Early examples

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion drawing can be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.

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Egyptian burial chamber

mural, ca. 4000 years old

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A 5,000 year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images of a goat painted along the sides.

This has been claimed to be an example of early animation.

However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, such a series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the word.

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Five images sequence from

a vase found in Iran

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Types of Animation

The first animated flipbooks and films were created at the turn of the nineteenth century.

But most of the principles of animation were developed during the first two decades of the twentieth century and perfected with the hand-drawn cartoon animations of the 1930s and 1940s.

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Hand-Drawn Animation

Traditional animation, (or classical animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand.

The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema, until the advent of computer animation.

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Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium.

Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint.

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Hand-drawn animation

example

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Hand-drawn animation example

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Stop-Motion Animation

Stop motion (also known as stop action) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own.

The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.

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Clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning.

Motion animation using clay is called clay animation or clay-mation.

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Stop-Motion Animation Assignment

Clay Animation Stop Motion Tutorial

Animation Tutorial

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Animatronics

Animatronics is the use of electronics and robotics in mechanized puppets to simulate life.

Animatronics are mainly used in movie making, but also in theme parks and other forms of entertainment.

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Its main advantages to CGI and stop motion is that it is not a simulation of reality, but rather physical objects moving in real time in front of the camera.

The technology behind animatronics has become more advanced and sophisticated over the years, making the puppets even more realistic and lifelike.

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Animatronics Sample

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Performance Animation

The oldest form of performance animation is probably found in the art of puppetry.

Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers.

It is most commonly used in film and television production, but has also been utilized in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre.

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Character Animation

Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work.

It is usually as one aspect of a larger production and often made to enhance voice acting.

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The primary role of a Character Animator is to be the "actor" behind the performance, especially during shots with no dialog.

Character animation is artistically unique from other animation in that it involves the creation of apparent thought and emotion in addition to physical action.

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Effects Animation

Most of the animation that is not character-oriented falls within the specialty of effect animation.

This usually includes natural phenomena like fire, smoke, wind, dust, and water in its many forms, as well as special lighting effects like sparks and shadows.

Effects animation often deals with props and entire sets, such as the ball in a soccer game or the grass in a landscape.

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Effects animation example

- Lightning

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Visual Effects Animation for Live Action

Animating visual effects and characters for live action requires a unique approach that is usually quite different from traditional animation.

Most animated elements must visually match the motion, colors, lighting, and perspective of the live sequence.

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Unlike cartoon animation where the creator is free – even required – to exaggerate motion, visual effect animation must blend seamlessly with the action plates provided by the cinematographer.

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Visual effects animation for

live action example

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Computer Animation

Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics.

The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images.

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Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics are still used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time renderings.

Sometimes the target of the animation is the computer itself, but sometimes the target is another medium, such as film.

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7End of Part 1

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Principles of Animation

Keyframing and in-betweening

A keyframe in animation is a drawing that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition.

They are called "frames" because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film.

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A sequence of keyframes defines which movement the viewer will see, whereas the position of the keyframes on the film, video or animation defines the timing of the movement.

Because only two or three keyframes over the span of a second do not create the illusion of movement, the remaining frames are filled with in-betweens.

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Inbetweening or tweening is the process of generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image.

Inbetweens are the drawings between the key frames which help to create the illusion of motion. Inbetweening is a key process in all types of animation, including computer animation.

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This animated GIF

demonstrates the effects of

Adobe Flash shape, motion

and colour tweening.

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Units of Animation

Animations are made of thousands of frames, but the smallest unit of animation is the frame.

One frame consists of a single still image, and for that reason one frame of animation is sometimes called a still frame, or simply a still.

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The number of frames that constitute one second of animation depends on the output media on which the animation is delivered.

One second of animation at normal speed video equals 30 frames; one second on film equals 24 frames.

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Timing of the Action

Telling a story with computer animation is based on timing the actions to the story and on designing motions that convey the desired effect.

The timing of the action is based on how the actions of the characters and the motion of the camera are timed to the story.

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The action may be ahead of the story in cases when, for example, an animated character reacts to a sound located off-camera by turning its head.

The character’s action is ahead of the story because it indicated to us that something will happen before we know what it is.

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The action may be behind the story when the audience knows before the character what is going to happened next.

The action is behind the story, for example, in a long shot where the audience can see the piano is falling from the roof of a building right over a character who is unaware of the impending and disastrous action.

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The visual grammar of motion

The motions of a character help to tell the story and to define the personality and emotions of the animated character.

Motion is also a great tool for directing the attention of the audience to a specific place in the image.

For example, a slight motion in the background of a calm scene will immediately draw the eyes of the audience to that area.

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Motion is so effective for guiding the eyes of the audience that is should be carefully choreographed.

The readability of motion will result in action that flows, while confusing will result in unfocused action.

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Techniques for motion control

There are many computer animation techniques for controlling the motion of three dimensional character, objects and effects.

Some of these motion control techniques:

Forward kinematics

Inverse kinematics

Motion dynamics

Motion capture

Procedural motion

Hybrid techniques and blending

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Your first writing assignment

Find the meaning of all motion control techniques and explain in example on how to implement those techniques.

Tips 1:

Explaining with picture or video clips will help you on explain those techniques.

Tips 2:

Submit your assignment by email.

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Twelve Principles to 3D Computer Animation

Squash and stretch

The most important principle is "squash and stretch“.

The purpose of which is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects.

It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or more complex constructions, like the musculature of a human face.

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Taken to an extreme point, a figure stretched or squashed to an exaggerated degree can have a comical effect.

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Illustration of the "squash

and stretch"-principle:

Example A shows a ball

bouncing with a rigid, non-

dynamic movement. In

example B the ball is

"squashed" at impact, and

"stretched" during fall and

rebound. The movement

also accelerates during the

fall, and slows down

towards the apex.

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Anticipation

Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic.

A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first.

The technique can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick up.

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Anticipation: A baseball

player making a pitch

prepares for the action by

moving his arm back.

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Staging

This principle is akin to staging as it is known in theatre and film.

Its purpose is to direct the audience's attention, and make it clear what is of greatest importance in a scene; what is happening, and what is about to happen.

This can be done by various means, such as the placement of a character in the frame, the use of light and shadow, and the angle and position of the camera.

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Straight ahead action and pose to pose

These are two different approaches to the actual drawing process.

"Straight ahead action" means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, while "pose to pose" involves starting with drawing a few, key frames, and then filling in the intervals later.

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"Straight ahead action" creates a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement, and is better for producing realistic action sequences.

On the other hand, it is hard to maintain proportions, and to create exact, convincing poses along the way.

"Pose to pose" works better for dramatic or emotional scenes, where composition and relation to the surroundings are of greater importance. [

A combination of the two techniques is often used.

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Straight ahead action

Pose to pose

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Follow through and overlapping action

These closely related techniques help render movement more realistic, and give the impression that characters follow the laws of physics.

"Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped.

"Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates (an arm will move on different timing of the head and so on).

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Slow in and slow out

Sometime called “Spacing”.

The movement of the human body, and most other objects, needs time to accelerate and slow down.

For this reason, an animation looks more realistic if it has more frames near the beginning and end of a movement, and fewer in the middle.

This principle goes for characters moving between two extreme poses, such as sitting down and standing up, but also for inanimate, moving objects, like the bouncing ball in the above illustration

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Arcs

Most human and animal actions occur along an arched trajectory, and animation should reproduce these movements for greater realism.

This can apply to a limb moving by rotating a joint, or a thrown object moving along a parabolic trajectory.

The exception is mechanical movement, which typically moves in straight lines.

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Secondary action

Adding secondary actions to the main action gives a scene more life, and can help to support the main action.

A person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets, he can speak or whistle, or he can express emotions through facial expressions.

The important thing about secondary actions is that they emphasize, rather than take attention away from the main action.

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Timing

Timing refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film.

On a purely physical level, correct timing makes objects appear to abide to the laws of physics; for instance, an object's weight decides how it reacts to an impetus, like a push.

Timing is critical for establishing a character's mood, emotion, and reaction.

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Exaggeration

Exaggeration is an effect especially useful for animation, as perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull in cartoons.

The level of exaggeration depends on whether one seeks realism or a particular style, like a caricature or the style of an artist.

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Solid drawing

The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight.

The animator needs to be a skilled draughtsman and has to understand the basics of three-dimensional shapes, anatomy, weight, balance, light and shadow, etc.

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For the classical animator, this involved taking art classes and doing sketches from life.

Modern-day computer animators draw less because of the facilities computers give them, yet their work benefits greatly from a basic understanding of animation principles, and their additions to basic computer animation.

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Appeal

Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor.

A character who is appealing is not necessarily sympathetic — villains or monsters can also be appealing — the important thing is that the viewer feels the character is real and interesting.

There are several tricks for making a character connect better with the audience; for likable characters a symmetrical or particularly baby-like face tends to be effective.

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Just For My Students

The 12 Principles of Animation Animated (A Memory Aid)

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7End of Chapter 2

syed ardi syed yahya kamal

2011