Friday, February 18, 2011

Week 6: Idle Cycles + Animation Madness from Blur

Your last week before MIDTERM EXAMS (moo hahahaha...) we'll delve further into the most subtle of the animation principles -- overlapping action, which is paramount to creating weight.  We'll take lots of cues from the Pixar of Game Animation, Blur Studio in California.



Idle Cycles:
We'll be working on the Rubic's cube of cycles -- the humble "Idle".  How your character behaves when he's just waiting around conveys a lot of attitude. You'll need a lot of subtle control to keep a character alive.  Too little movement and they'll just look dead, too much and they'll appear to be having a seizure. :o)

I must warn you that as simple as it may seem to make a character 'do nothing', it is most diabolical!  With great subtlety you must add some movement to every part of the character. Nothing should bump or pop, everything should have a nice smooth arc and you should not really be able to pick out where the cycle starts and stops -- it should be a loop about 1-2 seconds long.

Week 6: Action analysis, continued

Time to polish up those assignments -- they're due next class.  We'll work on them a bit in class today.
Next week: MIDTERM EXAM!  BoooooOOOoooo ...
If there's anything you're in doubt about, now's the time to speak up!

Homework:
  • Finish polishing your Action Analysis assignments.  Have the final product and your live action reference posted for MONDAY, Feb 28th.
  • Get ready for next week's midterm! Guess what it's about? the 12 Principles of Animation!  It will be based on everything you've learned so far.  Review the work you've done going back to day 1.  This will be a practical test so be sure you understand the tools such as the graph editor, setting and moving keys, adding secondary action, and working from live action reference.

This week we'll have a look at some animation from films that borrowed (without stealing) from live action reference.  We'll see how they added snap, weight, and energy to the animation using exaggeration, contrast, and little tricks like overshoot and settle.