Page 139 - DCAP303_MULTIMEDIA_SYSTEMS

Unit 8: Fundamental of Animations

For example, a bouncing ball tends to have a lot of ease in and out when at the top of its bounce. notes
As it goes up, gravity affects it and slows down (Ease In), then it starts its downward motion
more and more rapidly (Ease Out), until it hits the ground.
Note that this does not mean slow movement. This really means keep the in between frames
close to each extreme.
3. arcs

In the real world, almost all action moves in an arc. When creating animation one should try to
have motion follow curved paths rather than linear ones. It is very seldom that a character or part
of a character moves in a straight line. Even gross body movements when you walk somewhere
tend not be perfectly straight. When a hand/arm reaches out to reach something, it tends to
move in an arc.
Simple example—Kicking a ball.
4. anticipation

Action in animation usually occurs in three sections—the setup for the motion, the actual action,
and then follow-through of the action. The first part is known as anticipation. In some cases
anticipation is needed physically. For example, before you can throw a ball you must first swing
your arm backwards. The backwards motion is the anticipation and the throw itself is the motion.
Anticipation is used to lead the viewers eye to prepare them for the action that follows. Longer
period of anticipation is needed for faster actions. For example, a character zips off screen leaving a
puff of smoke. Usually just before the zip, there is a pose where the characters raises a leg and bends
both arms as if he’s about to run. That is the anticipation pose for the off screen run. Generally,
for good clear animation, the viewer should know what is about happen (anticipation), what is
happening (the actual action itself) and what happened (related to follow through).
5. exaggeration
Exaggeration is used to accent an action. It should be used in a careful and balanced manner, not
arbitrarily. Figure out what the desired goal of an action or sequence is and what sections need
to be exaggerated. The result will be that the animation will seem more realistic and entertaining.
One can exaggerate motions, for example, an arm may move just a bit too far briefly in an extreme
swing. Generally when animating to dialogue, one listens to the track and picks out areas that
sound like they have more stress or importance, and then tends to exaggerate poses and motions
that fall at those times.
The key is to take something and make it more extreme in order to give it more life, but not so
much that it destroys believability. Example: exaggerating the lamp proportions to give a sense
of dad and son.
6. squash and stretch

Squash and stretch is a way of deforming an object such that it shows how rigid the object
is. For example, if a rubber ball bounces and hits the ground it will tend to flatten when it
hits. This is the squash principle. As it starts to bounce up it will stretch in the direction it is
going. Squash and stretch was also initially done to prevent strobing due to lack of motion
blur. An important note about squash and stretch is that no matter how an object deforms,
it should still appear to retain its volume. The most obvious usage in character animation is
muscles. When a muscle is contracted it will squash and when extended, it stretches. Rigid
objects can still squash and stretch in a way. Think of the lamps above. The lamp itself is a
rigid metal object but before it jumps it anticipates the action by crouching down and bending.
That bending is basically squash and stretch.

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