Principles of Motion Mastering the Art of Animation Dvd

"By their skillful utilise the animator gives life, meaning, grapheme and spirit to no affair what subject." – Norman McLaren

Established during the 1930s by the nine main animators working at Disney, the 12 principles of animation are an excellent guide for animation creators looking for a few sure-burn techniques to make their work leap to life.

Though not essential to the animation process, when followed these principles can assist yous create images that seem to obey the laws of physics and will announced far more lifelike to the viewer equally a upshot. Some of these principles explore the more conceptual components of animation, such as emotional timing and character entreatment. Depending on what you are trying to achieve with your animation, you might use all or none of these, but they are valuable none the less.

The aim of this weblog is to suspension down the components of each principle and explain their importance through examples and visuals. Once you proceeds an understanding of each one, the best style to comprise them is by attempting to create the basic bouncing ball animated sequence, in which many of the principles can be applied. To avoid getting too overwhelmed, consider starting off past focussing on one principle at a time. And if you lot'd similar to further your noesis of animation, The Animator'due south Survival Kit: A Transmission of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Cease Movement and Net Animators is a dandy resource to refer to.

Squash and Stretch

The squash and stretch principle, considered to be the most of import of the 12, is applied to give animated objects the illusion of gravity, weight, mass, and flexibility. An animated billowy ball whose shape becomes somewhat squashed when it comes into contact with a surface and then stretched when it travels at high speed (becoming aerodynamic) seems to capture the dynamics of move in a more realistic way, fifty-fifty though its features are exaggerated. It is, withal, of import to ensure that the object's book stays the same throughout its trajectory.

Anticipation

The use of this principle alerts the viewer to some activity that is most to take place, creating a sense of expectation (e.g., a character crouches only earlier leaping). Preparing the viewer helps the animator clarify the information existence expressed. A clever way to put the anticipation principle into practice is to have your character react to something off-screen, triggering the expectation that something is about to happen.

Staging

Staging is used to isolate or highlight the almost important element in a frame, whether it exist some event or action that is about to occur, a grapheme, or a mood. This can be achieved through the selection of background, focusing the photographic camera on one detail character, or zooming in for a close-up then that what you're trying to limited won't exist missed. Knowledge of composition is useful when applying this principle.

Directly-Alee and Pose-to-Pose Blitheness

This principle describes ii processes that can exist used in blitheness. Directly-ahead animation involves animating frame past frame, in sequence from start to finish. Pose-to-pose animation entails creating your first, last and middle frames (these are called the key frames), spacing them out as desired, and so filling in the frames in between (called in-betweening). The pose-to-pose technique is ideal for creating animation with a strong sense of timing and composition, while straight-alee animation is often more fluid, containing more than natural movements that give it a realistic wait. Note that you practice not have to stick with just one or the other; you can apply both, even in the same scene.

Follow-Throught and Overlapping

Getting back to the laws of physics and making blitheness appear realistic… this principle refers to the elements that react to or follow a main action, e.g., a parachute settling to the footing after your character has landed, or long hair that continues to move later someone abruptly stops running. Substantially, this principle focuses on secondary parts or components whose rate of motion or direction differs from that of the chief object. You should devote a few frames to animating these secondary components to emphasize the effects of gravity or move.

Tedious-in and Slow-out

"The virtually important thing in film is motion and move, no matter what it is you are moving, whether information technology'southward people or objects or drawings." – Norman McLaren

This principle is accomplished by adding extra frames at the first or terminate of a motility to show acceleration or deceleration. Showing accelerating and decelerating motion helps convey the effects of gravity on objects, e.g., a bouncing ball should boring down as it approaches the height of its arc. The many variations of this principle will requite the animated object realistic and complex gestures (i.eastward., a poke, a button, a cautious impact, or a thrust). Information technology can also help convey the weight of an object: a rolling ball that comes to a terminate very gradually will announced to be calorie-free, like a Ping-Pong ball; a ball that'due south travelling fast and comes to a stop fairly quickly, on the other hand, volition seem to be heavy.

Arcs of Motion

Yet another principle related to the laws of physics, arcs of motion deals with the fluidity of movement (for instance, when thrown, a ball sails through the air in an arc due to gravity). Arcs are also important when animating characters, as limbs motility in an arc, pivoting on their joints. Composite motion is where 2 of the categories of motion occur simultaneously in i action, such as when the upper and lower office of an arm both move in an arc.

Secondary Action

 "It's the picayune matter later the big thing that is the most interesting." – Cordell Barker

Secondary action gives a scene more life. For example, a graphic symbol's natural reaction to something, such as dusting themselves off after falling down, would be considered a secondary activity. It can also be something as simple as a facial expression, fidgeting, scratching or breathing. It should not be so noticeable, though, that it takes too much attention away from the rest of the scene.

Timing

 "The size of the move is the animator'south chief business concern." – Norman McLaren

Timing is primal to different aspects of movement that are essential to the animator'southward art. The position of an object from frame to frame volition determine whether it appears to motility fast or slow. As previously mentioned, the speed an object moves at can limited its weight and mass (i.e., a falling anvil travels much faster than a falling embankment ball). Also, taking a few frames to bear witness a pause tin express a lot—the emotion of a character or scene. In improver, timing tin can help make a movement look more than realistic and believable.

Exaggeration

Using the principle of exaggeration in your animation can make it seem very expressive and assist convey a mood, feeling or emotion. It also prevents the work from being too realistic—which could make it somewhat boring—and may add a humorous touch likewise, which can impact the likeability of your characters and the viewer's ability to empathize with them. For example, a character who feels similar they have the weight of the globe on their shoulders can exist drawn as if something really were weighing them downwardly… alternately, if they are feeling happy and free this can be exaggerated by having them movement about as if they were light equally a feather.

Solid Drawing

Solid drawing can be divers equally skillful drawing. Consider all the factors that go into making a adept drawing: realistic trunk anatomy, shadows, highlights, perspective and attending to details. These assistance give weight, balance and depth to your animation.

Entreatment

The objective of this principle is to give your grapheme charisma and enough magnetism to depict the viewer'south attention and evoke emotion. The goal is to make the main character likeable and appealing to the audience. The more lifelike they are, the easier it will be to reach this principle, then applying all the other principles will help you pull this i off too.

"For McLaren, the purest kind of cinema is one that communicates ideas and emotions through motion. For him, pic animation is non a continuation of static art forms such as drawing or painting, but rather an art close to dance. Thus McLaren declares that what matters most in animation is non what happens in the frame, but what happens betwixt the frames." – Excerpt from The Art of Motion, from the Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition box set

All animations examples were made using the NFB StopMo Studio app.

For more information and videos on blitheness, visit the NFB Stop-Motion Animation Workshop

Also, check out these two award-winning NFB animation apps:

StopMo Studio

McLaren's Workshop

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Source: https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2015/03/20/12-principles-animation/

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