How do I Start

1
How do I Start?

• This section of slides will teach us about the
  principles of animation held dear by
  professionals in the field.

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11 Principles of Animation

• Squash and Stretch
• Timing
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-pose Action
• Slow In and Out
• Arcs
• Exaggeration
• Secondary Action
• Appeal
• Notes from ACM Computer Graphics, Volume 21,
  Number 4, July 1987

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Squash and Stretch

• Defining the rigidity and mass of an object by
  distorting it's shape during an action.
• The most important principle!
• When an object is moved, it emphasizes any
  rigidity in the object. In real life, only the
  most rigid objects remain rigid during movement
  anything composed of flesh will show a change of
  shape during movement. A standard test for
  animators is to draw a bouncing ball, represented
  by a simple circle. This test introduces the
  principles of squash and stretch as well as
  timing. The trick is to elongate the ball as it
  falls, flatten it as it hits, and return it to
  it's circular shape near the top of the next
  bounce.
• You do not need to deform all objects to show
  this principle in the case of Luxo, Jr., you
  have a hinged object that is capable of folding
  in on itself (squash) and extending itself
  (stretch).

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Squash and Stretch
Bouncing ball has a lot of flexibility Furniture
is more rigid. Expression/Facial changes These
express changes in shape, but not mass! Volume
ALWAYS remains constant!
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Timing

• Spacing actions to define the weight and size of
  objects and the personality of characters
• Gives meaning to movement!
• In order to make your idea's readable, it's
  important to spend enough (but not too much) time
  preparing the audience. This is done through
  three objectives
• Anticipation
• The action itself
• Reaction

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Timing

• Meaning to Movement
• Both Physical and Emotional
• Introducing anticipation
• Perception of Mass
• Perception of Weight

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Timing

• Timing can define the weight of an object
• Hit a heavy ball vs. hit a bouncy ball.

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Timing

• If too much time is spent on any of these, you
  loose your audience. For example, with just two
  drawings, using this principle, we can illustrate
  many different things. Let's use a head that's
  facing first one direction, then another. Each
  "in-between" drawing added between the two
  extremes changes the meaning of the scene.
• No In-betweens The character was hit with
  something that almost took his head off.
• Three In-betweens The character is dodging a
  brick or frying pan
• Five In-betweens The character is more friendly
• Six In-betweens The character sees a good
  looking girl or sports car
• Seven In-betweens The character is trying to get
  a better look at something
• Eight In-betweens The character is searching for
  something
• Nine In-betweens The character is thoughtful
• Ten In-betweens The character is stretching

9
Anticipation

• The preparation for an action.
• There are three parts to an action
• Anticipation
• The action itself
• Reaction
• Anticipation has several facets without it, the
  audience does not know what to expect and can get
  lost. Animators use this principle to direct the
  audience to the right part of the scene at the
  right time. For example, in the short "Luxo,
  Jr.", the "dad" is looking off stage and then
  reacts. This lets the audience know something is
  coming.

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Anticipation

• Direct the audiences attention
• Reveal what a character is going to do
• Shifty eyes something criminal? Lying?
• To Mislead prepare audience for one thing and
  then jump to a surprise outcome.

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Anticipation Examples

• Pulling back a foot about to kick? Runaway?
• Staring in a certain direction whats there of
  interest? Whats coming?
• Person rising from a chair if they use their
  arms, they may be heavier/older if they dont,
  lighter/younger

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Staging

• Presenting an idea so that it is unmistakably
  clear.
• The eye of the audience must be led to exactly
  where it needs to be at the exact moment so that
  they will not miss the idea.
• Only one idea should be seen by the audience at a
  time.
• The object of interest should contrast from the
  rest of the scene. (something is moving at a
  different speed something is a different color
  something makes a different sound)
• Each idea or action must be staged in the
  strongest and simplest way before going on to the
  next idea or action.
• Actions should be staged in silhouette.

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Staging

• PersonalityA personality is staged so that it is
  recognizable an expression so that it can be
  seen. A shy child would turn their eyes down,
  and slightly rotate their upper body away for the
  gaze of another child. The child's actions reveal
  the fact that he is shy. When staging a
  personality, it is useful to use characteristics
  that clearly define the character.
• MoodA mood is staged so that it will affect the
  audience. The tight composition of dark trees in
  a dense forest, leaning in toward a scared youth
  eyes glowing from within the trees hurried
  breathing filling the air the childs eye wide
  open. - OK, how do you feel? Happy, Frightened?

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Staging

• In "Luxo, Jr.", the story, acting, and emotion
  were heavily dependent on this principle. The
  audience is asked to switch often from "Dad" to
  "Jr" and they do this because Jr. moves faster
  than dad (contrast from the scene).
• In "Andre and Wally B." Andre wakes up and
  scratches his SIDE, not his stomach, to help
  clarify what's happening and not confuse the
  audience (silhouette). In "Luxo, Jr." all the
  action is in silhouette the two characters are
  not overlapping each other.

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Follow Through and Overlapping Action

• The termination of an action and establishing its
  relationship to the next action.
• Just as "anticipation" is the preparation for an
  action, follow through is it's termination. In
  any movement, actions rarely come to a direct
  stop instead, they are carried past a
  termination point. For example, when hitting a
  golf ball, you don't stop your club at the moment
  of impact, but follow through the swing.
• In "Andre and Wally B." this principle was used
  extensively with Wally B., on his feet, antennae,
  and stinger. They all dragged behind him. Also,
  instead of all of his feet leaving the scene,
  they left a frame or two apart (not really
  noticeable to the naked eye, but it made the
  scene a little more believable). This is called
  overlapping action and helps the scene maintain a
  continuous flow.

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Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose Action

• Two contrasting approaches to the creation of
  movement.
• straight ahead - animator works "straight ahead"
  from the first drawing to the last, knowing where
  the scene fits into the story and what it must
  contain. He does drawing after drawing, getting
  new ideas along the way until the scene is
  concluded.
• pose to pose - animator plans his actions,
  figures out what drawings are needed to complete
  the scene and creates them, concentrating on
  poses and the relationships between the
  characters.

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Slow In and Out

• The spacing of in-between frames to achieve
  subtlety of timing and movement.
• In early animation, the action was limited to be
  either fast or slow however, as more pose to
  pose animation action came into play, animators
  wanted audiences to be able to see the poses.
  They therefore use this principle to achieve that
  goal. "Slowing out" of one pose and "slowing in"
  to another one refers to the timing of the
  in-betweens. If the in-betweens are grouped
  closer to one extreme, better results can come
  about. Animators use a "timing chart" to help
  determine where the in-between drawings should be
  placed.

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Slow in and Out

• Example A Bouncing Ball
• Typically, when animated, the bouncing ball moves
  faster as it approaches or leaves the ground and
  slower as it approaches or leaves its maximum
  position.
• Usually accomplished using arcs (or splines) to
  define the movement.

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Arcs

• The visual path of action for natural movement.
• Arcs, in nature, are the most economical routes
  for something to move from one place to another.
  In animation, arcs are used to make the movement
  more smooth.

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Exaggeration

• Accentuating the essence of an idea via the
  design and action.
• The animator must go to the heart of his scene to
  decide what the audience needs to see
  exaggerated. If the character is to be sad, make
  him sadder worried, make him fret etc. When
  using exaggeration, all the parts of the scene
  must be taken into effect the action, the
  emotion, the color, etc. If only one thing is
  exaggerated, it will seem unrealistic likewise,
  if everything is exaggerated, it will be equally
  unrealistic. The animator must find that delicate
  balance that the audience will recognize
  something that seems natural to them but becomes
  their basis of comparison. (Think about a
  caricature artist!)

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Exaggeration

• For example, in "Luxo, Jr." the lamps were
  modeled after the real luxo lamp, but "Jr.'s"
  proportions were exaggerated to give him the
  appearance of a child. The movement of the lamps
  had the feel of real physics, but was very
  exaggerated in order to accentuate it.

Children typically have a larger head in
proportion to their bodies than an adult.
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Secondary Action

• The action of an object resulting from another
  action.
• This principle brings heightened interest and
  realism. The secondary action is always kept
  subordinate to the primary action, so as not to
  draw away too much attention or conflict with the
  primary action. Examples we've seen include Wally
  B.'s feet dragging behind him and Luxo Jr.'s cord
  rippling behind him as he moves along.

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Secondary Action

• Watch the movement of the cord behind Jr. if it
  didnt move, we might not buy it!
• How about dealing with bed covers that are too
  short?

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Appeal

• Creating a design or an action that the audience
  enjoys watching.
• Appeal is really anything a person likes to see
  some charming quality or pleasing design (whether
  it be cute or evil that youre trying to
  invoke) that draws in an audience. "Luxo Jr.'s"
  feeling of a baby and parent lamp were important
  for the audience to feel.
• Also twins are unappealing to audiences -- twins
  are when both arms and legs are in the same
  position doing the same thing. This gives a very
  stiff appearance and audiences are lost. So, in
  "Andre and Wally B.", when Andre stretches, one
  arm is up and one is down at an angle his feet
  are rotated differently, and the action of his
  movements are timed such that each arm acts
  individually not at the same time. All of these
  efforts make Andre more appealing to audiences.

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Appeal