Animation Write-Up #1

Up until this point, there has been a lot of ground covered on the animation front. There are many new things that I have learned about the mechanics of animation, the history, and tactics to make a drawing look a bit more realistic. I’m going to briefly talk about the four reading topics I found most important.

            Everything movement in nature moves along a curved path. Arcs are a big part of making animation movement look realistic. Every movement by a person or animal or even objects take a curved path. Like the arc.pdf reading says, “…the movements of most living creatures will follow a slightly circular path.” And when we slowed down the cheetah running in class, the arcs were very visible in the movement of the legs and arched back. Arcs are something I learned about that will make my animations better.

            Timing is something that I knew was important, but didn’t fully grasp before. Standard timing for animation is 24 fps, but animator’s can work in two’s at 12 fps. And I have found it difficult to take a drawing and try to plan out how many frames an action would take to evenly result with an interval of 24 frames, it is something I am practicing. Timing can add weight and emotion to the content. The reading ELEnt6_Timing.pdf states “We crowd drawings close together to create and define mood and attitude and we space them apart to give emphasis.” This is true because if a drawing is evenly spaced there is no feeling or depth to it.

            Squash and Stretch is important to make drawing movement look like it’s in motion. Overdoing squash and stretch too much can also make the animation lose realism, but it’s okay if the artist wanted to cartoon to have that look for comedic purpose. The SqshNdStrch.pdf said it well. Squash and Stretch “…is one of the strongest tools or principles used to create a fluid sense of movement and life in animation.” Every living creature has squash and stretch in movement; it can just be really subtle. Animators didn’t really practice squash and stretch in the beginning of animating, and I’m glad that they developed it. I thought squash and stretch was a good thing to practice in the bouncing ball and bouncing can assignments.

            Spacing between drawings and the reaction on the character is important. Quick actions have fewer drawings than long actions. Animation of an arm pointing out is an example in the Halas_Whitaker _01.pdf reading. The arm accelerates in the beginning and decelerates at the end. It takes about 12 frames to complete the action. The first 5 drawings are the anticipation, the actual hand shooting out takes place on drawings 6-9, and the arm following through is the final drawings. Following through at the end of a motion is important too to make the action believable. Another example from the Halas Whitaker reading was a dog’s ears reaction to movement. If the dog shakes his head back and forth, the ears will still react after the head stops moving. All good things that I’ve learned so far.