Week 10 Lab 1 - Animation Principles

There are a total of 12 animation principles.

1) Squash and Stretch
 It is the most important principle out of the 12. It gives a sense of weight and flexibility to objects. Examples of Squash and Stretch would be a bouncing ball.

2) Anticipation
This is a movement that prepares the  audience for a big action that will be done by the main character. An example would be a person preparing to do a dive into a swimming pool.

3) Staging
This principles shows an action that is done by the character to show the mood of the scene or giving a idea of what is going to happen. It focuses on the relevant things and avoiding unnecessary detail. An example would be,  a person starts to frown and clutches his hands.

4) Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
 Straight ahead action represents the drawings of a scene frame by frame from the start to the end of it. It creates a more fluid and dynamic illusion of movement. However, it is difficult to keep and maintain exact proportions between the frames. Pose to pose represent that key frames are being drawn first. Then the frames in the intervals will be filled up which will produce realistic action sequences. Pose to pose works better for dramatic and emotional scenes where composition and relation to the surroundings are of greater importance.

5) Follow Through and Overlapping Action
These techniques provides very realistic movement and also giving the impression that characters are following the laws of physics. Follow through means parts of the characters body will still move even when it has stop in its moving. Overlapping action is the parts of the body whereby the timings of each body part will be different from the other. A third technique is called "drag". This technique actually shows that the character will move some of his body parts to catch up with the frame.

6) Slow In and Slow Out
This principle shows that the objects has to accelerate before starting to run at its top speed. And on the other hand when its slowing down, it doesn't slow down immediately but slowly decelerating frame by frame in speed.

7) Arcs
Animals and human beings normally have their actions in a arched trajectory. When animations produce their actions in a arched trajectory, their movement will be even more real. Examples of this can be applied to joints or a thrown object.

8) Secondary Action
Adding secondary actions to the main action gives a scene more life, and can help to support the main action. The important thing about secondary actions is that they emphasize, rather than take attention away from the main action.

9) 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. It can also be a device to communicate aspects of a character's personality.

10) 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.The classical definition of exaggeration, employed by Disney, was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.

11) Solid Drawing
The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight. The animator has to understand clearly the basics of 3D shapes, human or animal anatomy, weight, balance, light and shadow.

12) Appeal
Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor. Villains and monsters are very appealing, they provide the characters to be real and interesting to the audiences. This will ultimately allow the characters to connect closer to the audiences.

ALL TASKS

1. Squat down, jump as high as you can go, then land on the ground (it’s better if the person has long hair)
2. Stand some distance away, run towards camera, then come to a sudden stop just in front of the camera (with your whole body still in frame)
3. Repeat actions 1 and 2, but this time with a bag hanging from your shoulder
4. Do a robot dance or chicken dance J
5. Pretend to get really really really (!) angry, then pretend to punch your friend standing in front of you
6. Drop a ball and film it bouncing a few times
7. Throw a ball up (not too high), and film it as it goes up and down
8. Stand with a partner about 3 metres apart and throw a ball to each other a few times
9. Repeat the ball throwing action, but this time try to surprise your partner by pretending to throw the ball a few times before you actually do!
10. Repeat the ball throwing action, but this time make it bounce once on the ground before it is caught
11. Invent a few other fun actions to film

 

EXERCISES:

 

TASK

1) Squat down, jump as high as you can go, then land on the ground (it’s better if the person has long hair).

In this video, ANTICIPATION can be observed as the performer is squatting down, preparing for a jump. SQUASH and STRETCH can be seen in this video as the performer leaps into the air become squashed and stretched before landing down to the ground again. 

TASK

5) Pretend to get really really really (!) angry, then pretend to punch your friend standing in front of you.

In this video, ANTICIPATION can be seen as the performer prepares to hit the other as they stare against each other. APPEAL is also found in this video as the hitter has the expression of anger shown very clearly before he hits his victim. Also, EXAGGERATION can be observed as the victim gets hit. The victim turns around and crashes against the wall to provide a more realistic hit from the attacker.

 

TASK

8) Stand with a partner about 3 metres apart and throw a ball to each other a few times

Here, ANTICIPATION can be seen again as the performers prepare themselves to either throw or catch the paper ball. ARCS can be seen as the paper ball flies in a arc to show that its traveling in the air. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTIONS are also observed as the performers still have their arms in the air straight after they released the paper ball.

 

TASK

9) Repeat the ball throwing action, but this time try to surprise your partner by pretending to throw the ball a few times before you actually do! 

Once again, ANTICIPATION is being observed here. The performers create an action before actually throwing the paper ball itself. ARCS are seen as the ball flies in the air in an arc motion, showing speed and distance as it flies through the air. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTIONS are caught in the video as the performers continues moving even when they have thrown the paper ball. SECONDARY ACTIONS are seen too in this video, the performers pretend to throw the ball a few times before they actually really do it.

TASK

2) Stand some distance away, run towards camera, then come to a sudden stop just in front of the camera (with your whole body still in frame) 

ACTIONS is seen in this set up of the video. There are close up shots of the performer at the end of the video, it shows the mood of "Determination" when he stops and stares into space. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTIONS are found in this video as the performer is panting when he finish his climb up the flight of stairs. SECONDARY ACTIONS are found when he makes strong arm gestures when he climbs up the stairs. This action adds and enriches the main action which adds more dimension to the performer/character. APPEAL from the facial emotions of the performer gives a very strong and determined character of the character that he is acting out. There is a sense of seriousness as he pauses and stares out at the end of the video.

TASK

2) Invent a few other fun actions to film: Doing Push-Ups

ANTICIPATION is found in this video as the performer prepares himself to start doing the push-ups. STAGING can be used to describe this video. The performer is in his push-up position, and it does tell the audience what he will be doing next even without saying in words. SECONDARY ACTIONS of his arms are seen clearly as he completes the push ups. When he gets up, the performer shakes his arms to show that he relaxing his arm after completing them.