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KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 12 - Walks with Personality

I’ve chosen to animate this walk cycle for the character Link from The Legend of Zelda. A strong confident character walk.

KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 10 - Character Weight Shift

When animating a weight shift its important to remember to balance the center of gravity where the mass is equal on each side. 

When shifting side to side, the hips also tilt upwards on the foot its balancing on. 

For the full body animation, the body curves into an S shape from the head to the hips. There is an overlap for the spine as the hips move.

KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 11 - Realistic Bipedal Walk

[Video Below]

Had to animate a realistic walk for two rigs, legs only and full body. The legs were made and finished in class.

For both, I tried to consider how the shapes and disposition of their bodies ‘realistically’ would make them walk.

Legs: The body is just a round sphere shape and technically has no hips that can lift the legs up as it moves. So, in this walk, the character is tilting his body opposite of the side of his legs. The rest of the walk follows the standard timing and spacing of each key frame. To add abit of realism, I added some overlap which slows out for the foot as the thighs moves forward. Adds more weight to each lift of his foot.

Video Links: https://vimeo.com/297598018 & https://vimeo.com/297598053

Space Pirate: Since she’s wearing high heels, I tried to mimic the movement of for someone wearing one. In these references of ‘how to walk in heels’, it shows that

1. The hips rotate up and down more

2. The feet land in the center of the path (tight rope)

3. Each contact of the foot to the ground starts from the heels, meaning that there is an extra ‘mini-contact’ before the soles fully cover the ground.

4. Wearers seem to ‘glide’ a bit longer and have shorter moments of lowering their height.

5. The feet moving forward goes faster than backwards(between after contact and before lift)

6. The balance shifts abit more back towards the heels, to balance the displaced weight.

Taking these into consideration, I had to adjust the timing of the hips and the feet. For the hips, it goes down briefly between contact and the ‘mini-contact’ before being pushed back up after full contact. This is probably due to heel wearers always exerting force on the ground to keep balance as they walk.

For the feet, I made the overlap as the hips then foot move forward more noticeable, making the swing after contact to the next contact faster (.Small slow in, faster slow out)

For her upper torso, I moved the shoulders and chest opposite of the direction of swing so she faces forward. Then I added overlap and follow through to the arms like the pendulum.

KNB135 - Animation Aesthetics

Week 9 - Showing Weight and the Use of Parent Constraints

In this week we had to choose to do 2 animations in order to show weight in our animation using parent constraints. I chose to do a pickup and pulling animation using pose to pose technique. For these two, I used references that were provided. [VIDEOS BELOW]

Pickup: Firstly, I started by making a rough pose to pose using the references above. I mainly focused on splitting the animation in 2 halves, before constraint(pickup) and after. 

As seen, picking up requires alot of strength that is used in your back where it starts from your hips. As you pull it upwards, more muscle is trained upwards to compensate, which stretches to pull up the vase. This then makes it curve in backwards almost instantly due to built up tension, but not all at once, but with overlapping action from the base of the spine and follow through to the torso. Since its heavy, you would make the timing short to quickly stand upright to balance weight, which ‘squashes’ the spine as he re-balances.

The weight continues to be showed by having the character move slow, and rise upwards slower than when he makes contact with his feet. In this blocking, I focused on animating the hips and spine first before the rest. Near the end, i put a hold as he lifts it up before putting it on the table (anticipation), showing weight. 

Then, since he strains and curved his spine backward and pushes his hip upward, after releasing that energy and setting the vase down, his body shows the remainder of that energy through a follow through that makes his legs continue to push himself upwards abit, then letting go of the tension from his legs bringing him down.

Lift: This process is more straightforward, I used the pose to pose pdf and video reference for the pull animation. The video especially helped me in understanding which poses were moving holds, and how the character balances himself on his feet as he switches and moves forward. 

There are significant overlaps as he anticipates to pull the 2nd time. This is where he moves his hips a bit backwards and starts to straighten his spine from the base. The overlap occurs in the next pose(anticipation) after he puts his right foot forward and rotates his hips back as the spine follows. 

The 12 Principles of Animation by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston is a universal guide used by animators to understand the rules of motion on screen, frame by frame.

1) Timing

Timing is the decision of when certain key poses happen within a time. It is a crucial principal that can affect many elements in an action and even the properties or personality of the subject. For example, a bowling ball would stop bouncing faster compared to a rubber ball.

2) Squash & Stretch

Squash and Stretch is used to show the flexibility and volume of an object, affected by its gravity and weight. however, squash and stretch should be not be used too much so that it keeps its volume and shape.

3) Pose to Pose & Straight Ahead

These are two techniques of animating actions. Pose to Pose requires the planning of key ‘storytelling’ poses in an action in a set timeline. It gives more ‘clarity’ when animating these poses.

Straight ahead is where the animator starts animating in every single frame from frame 1 till the end. It can be used to explore in animating certain movements but can be time-consuming.

4) Arcs

Arcs show the path of an action can make it look ‘organic’ and interesting. It can sometimes show ‘strength’ of an action. An example, would be the arc of an arrow compared to the path of a bullet, both traveling a long distance.

5) Overlap & Follow through

Are used to identify the delayed movements of certain parts of the main moving body. It is a ‘result’ of the main action, because not everything stops at the same time. For example, when the ball is landing downwards, the tail is being dragged behind it, this is overlapping action. After landing, the ball has stopped moving, but the tail continues the path downwards, this is follow through.

6) Exaggeration

This principle takes advantage of animation’s ability to go outside the bounds of reality. It pushes a subjects flexibility and makes the animation dynamic. In this example, the character’s lower body is delayed as its upper moves upward for the jump, causing him to stretch. He also stays in the air a bit longer.

7) Anticipation

Anticipation are actions before most main actions, where it helps the character and audience to prepare for an action ,and is almost always in the opposite direction of the main action. It enhances and adds realism to an animation. 

8) Staging

It keeps important ideas as the focus in a scene on screen. It is planning and placing of objects to maintain clarity through clear silhouettes, or through the use of camera.

9) Slow in & Out

Slow in & Out are ways to animate movement and adds realism and avoids it from being ‘robotic’. This is because it mimics acceleration and deceleration and conveys weight and force.

10) Secondary Action

An extra action by the character which supports the main action. In acting, it can be used to convey a character’s personality or emotion through movement. For example, a dog wagging it’s tail, while it is running, excited to see its owner.

11) Solid Drawing

This means giving the look of volume, weight, solidity and three dimensions to the subject while it is in motion, providing visual consistency in the animation.

12) Appeal

When combining said principles, it is important to maintain appeal so that it is interesting and engaging. This can be done through the movement of the character or to the quality of the artwork and design.

In conclusion, the 12 principles of animation is significant in helping animators quickly grasp the concepts of movement and convey it in the best way possible.

References: 

FilmIsNow Movie Bloopers & Extras. 2016. "Go Behind the Scenes of Kubo and the Two Strings | stop-motion and voice production YouTube video, Oct 15, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHyTYL1Z1aM.

Williams, R.E . 2001. The Animator's Survival Kit. London: Faber and Faber

Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie . 2003. "309. Of Fox and Hounds (1940)" Accessed August 19, 2017. http://likelylooneymostlymerrie.blogspot.com/2013/11/309-of-fox-and-hounds-1940.html

Blender. 2017. "The Principles of Animation" YouTube video, Oct 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJeoPAGbfY&t=354s.

Entertainment. 2015. "The Illusion of Life | Principle of Animation | 12 Basic Principle of Animation" YouTube video, Oct 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGY0qiy8fY

Jukin Media. 2017. "Bull Terrier Excited to See Owner" YouTube video, Oct 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6dUYWUyIBU