| When
doing an animation, there's a checklist of things you should go through
to see if your animation follows these classic rules. These are
the Basic Principles of Animation. This means having a sense of
timing and being able to observe actions. Although these rules
were generated originally for the hand drawer, they should absolutely be
applied to the 3D animator as well. This is a quick summary of
what the basic principles are. You can read an expanded version
and see some online examples (very useful to getting the point across)
through the Comet-cartoons
website.
Basic Principles of Animation
1.
Timing
A good sense of timing is critical for
good animation. A single frame is often the difference between
an action that works and one that doesn't. Timing is
animation. If a character is supposed to be running but its feet
does not hit the ground fast enough, then it will not look natural and
the audience will notice.
2.
Ease in and Out (or Slow In and Out)
If you drop a ball, it accelerates as
it heads towards the ground. It's a basic law of physics.
The ball does not fall at a constant speed from the time it was
dropped to the time it hits the ground. Similarly, you shouldn't
animate things at a constant rate. It will wind up looking
robotic, stiff, and mechanical. You'll need to ease into an
action and ease out of it. This is usually done in the graph
editor, using splines. The more mass the object has, the longer
the acceleration, or the more energy is required. The same is
true for slowing down, changing direction, or distorting the object's
shape.
Similarly, snap is a term used
by the animator to show an action that is quick, lively, and full of
energy. To have more energy, the ease-in and -out curves of a
spline should be shorter and sharper.
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's seldom
that a character or part of a character moves in a straight
line. Nothing is ever perfectly straight. When a hand/arm
reaches out to reach something, it tends to move in an arc.
4.
Anticipation
Movement should be anticipated, whether
it's exaggerated or not (in general, it's a good idea to exaggerate
things even slightly so that its action is carried across more).
When you throw a ball, you must first swing your arm
backwards. When you're about to take a step forward, you
anticipate that step. You lean back and to one side as you raise
your foot, then lean forward and to the other side as you put your
foot down. That is an anticipation and action. You moved
backward a little in order to move forward even more.
5.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is used to accent an
action. Poses, especially, should be exaggerated so that the
character's pose is carried off strong. When animating dialogue,
you should generally exaggerate or stress areas that sound more
important with facial expressions and motions.
6.
Squash and Stretch
An easy example to explain Squash and
Stretch is a bouncing ball. When the ball hits the ground, it
squashes (the effects of rapid deceleration and of energy expended to
compress the shape of an object). When it bounces off the
ground, it stretches out (rapid acceleration and energy expended to
lengthen the shape of an object). It returns to its normal shape
when it is in the air. The volume of the object when deformed
should look the same as its volume when it is normal. Squash and
Stretch is applied when an object makes contact with anything
solid. The amount it Squashes and Stretches depends on the
object itself, but all objects, even rigid ones, have some of
it. It will make an animation look that much more realistic if
included.
7.
Secondary Action
It is action that occurs because of
another action. In "Mira and the Wind", Mira's braids
would sway while she walked because it was a result of her main action
of walking. The flopping ears of a dog will continue to drag
behind after the dog as it runs, and after the dog stops, the ears
will flow forward under their own inertia.
8.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
Objects tend to overshoot a bit before
coming to a stop. This is follow-through. It is the
movement at the end of a motion. It is almost like anticipation,
but on the other end of the action. When you stop walking, your
body does not stop completely. Your body sways forward a bit
until your muscles could bring you to a complete stop. If you
animate a character that simply stopped dead, they would look
weightless and artificial. If your character are to appear to
have mass, they must overshoot the goal a little then bounce back to
it.
Overlapping action means that the
character's actions do not happen all at the same time. There is
always some sort of lag between motions. If a character jumps up
and lands on both feet, instead of having both feet hit at the same
time, each foot could hit the ground a few frames apart. If you
animate a character grabbing at something, the actual grab action can
be completed a several frames prior to the completion of the arm
motion. If you are walking, the arms should never fall on
exactly the same frames as the feet.
9.
Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action
There two major approaches to
animation. The simplest is straight ahead. The
animator starts with the first frame of the animation, poses the
character, then moves on to the next frame. It's used mostly in
2D and drawn animation. This is not ideal for the 3D animator
since you're posing characters for every single frame.
The other major approach is pose-to-pose.
This is the basic computer "keyframe" approach to
animation. You set up key poses and then draw in-between images.
10. Staging
Staging is presenting an action or item
so that it is easily understood. In general, action is presented
one item at a time. If too much is going on the audience will be
unsure of what to look at and the action will be
"upstaged". One important facet of staging is staging
in "silhouette". This means that a pose of an object
or character can be interpreted even in a black and white
silhouette. If you can not "read" the pose of a
character in silhouette, it is not a strong pose and should probably
be changed.
11.
Appeal
Appeal in an animation can be gained by
correctly utilizing other principles such as exaggeration in design,
avoiding symmetry, using overlapping action, and tohers. One
should strive to avoid weak or awkward design, shapes, and motion.
12. Personality
This word isn't actually a true
principle of animation but refers to the correct application of the
other principles. Personality determines the success of an
animation. It's the idea that the animated creature really
becomes alive and enters the true character of the role. It
allows the audience to relate more to the character and to feel as
though they have an understanding of it.
13. Moving
Holds
A moving hold is a series of tiny,
subtle motions that mimic the behavior of a real living
creature. If a character is standing still, it is not completely
motionless. It is still breathing, blinking its eyes, shifting
weight from one foot to another, twitching somewhere on its body, or
looking around.
14. Weight
A function of properly addressing
Timing, Easing In/Out, Arcs, Anticipation, Exaggeration, Squash and
Stretch, Secondary Action, Follow Through/Overlap, and Staging.
The actions of a light ball is different from that of a heavy
ball. The actions of a character pushing something light is
different from pushing something heavy. The weight of an object
or character must always be implied since it is the only way the
audience can understand a certain situation.
15. Posing
When posing a character, be sure to
watch out for center-of-gravity placement, off-balance problems, too
much symmetry, etc. Living creatures do not move in perfect time
and symmetry and is always doing something to maintain its balance.
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