Tuesday, May 8, 2012

CLASS 1: Modeling and Animation II: Animation Principles, Part 1 - Flipbooks!

Welcome to "Intro to Animation"!

Make sure you sign in, read your outline and ask me any questions you may have about your course.
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Over the next 14 weeks, we'll be studying the Principles of Animation in detail - first in 2D using Flash, then in 3D using Maya.

Reminder: Please BRING YOUR TABLET PENS to all classes for the rest of the term.

Availability survey results show the best times to reschedule make-up classes are 3-6 Tues-Fri. Thanks for letting me know!

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Intro to Animation Principles
2D animation, also called traditional or hand-drawn animation, is drawn frame-by-frame with pencil & paper or digital drawing tools.

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. 
For nearly a century animators in all media have used the "Twelve Basic Principles of Animation" to bring life to their animation. These 12 principles, pioneered by Disney's 'Nine Old Men', were  documented by Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

I highly recommend reading the lengthy and beautifully illustrated chapter on the Principles of Animation, "The Illusion of Life" Chapter 3, from p 47.

We'll be studying the 12 Principles of Animation in detail in the coming weeks. Here's a brief overview of the 12 Principles with the concepts we're highlighting today, well, highlighted:

1 Squash and stretch
2 Anticipation
3 Staging
4 Straight ahead action and pose to pose
5 Follow through and overlapping action
6 Slow in and slow out
7 Arcs
8 Secondary action
9 Timing
10 Exaggeration
11 Solid drawing
12 Appeal

Bouncing Ball:
The very first exercise assigned to aspiring animators is usually the bouncing ball exercise. There is no better tool for teaching animation timing. This is such an important assignment that we'll be visiting this 3 times over the term.

We'll talk about how to show the effects of gravity using just a few simple concepts.

First we'll try some flip-book animation. Flip-books are one of the few things in this world that are FAST, CHEAP, and GOOD -- see how insanely fun these can be to create watching this awesome flipbook tribute film: "(notes on) biology" 


 "Robot Elephant" - hero of "(notes on) biology". Also my hero. 
Try a few different weights and styles as you can. We'll go over the rubric in class.

In-class exercise: Bouncing Balls Flip books
Animate at least 2 contrasted bouncing balls showing as many of the principles of animation as you can.
Assigned: May 9th
Due: May 9th in class
Total Value: 5%
Rubric and marking form here:
http://bit.ly/BallFilpBook