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Essay and Video- 12 Principles of Animation

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Essay and Video- 12 Principles of Animation https://youtu.be/XiM4VF3Eh8A In order to realistically animate 3D and 2D animations, a set of rules should be followed- these are the 12 principles of animation. They enforce what happens in real life according to gravity and natural movement. Without these principles, animations tend to look robotic and lifeless. The first principle is Squash and Stretch. Squash and Stretch gives the appearance of an object having some kind of weight to it- and gives the object a material. The easiest way to demonstrate this is through animating a bouncing ball. The ball can be light and hard- like a ping pong ball. This will have little to no squash and stretch. Something like a rubber ball will have more squash and stretch, and will continue to bounce for a longer period of time. In the world of animation, this can be exaggerated to some degree. The second principle is anticipation. This also ties in to squash and stretch, as before an ob...
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Walks With Personality

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Walks With Personality For the final animation exercise we were to take inspiration from a character that has a particular walk cycle. I took inspiration from the character Vanille, from Final Fantasy XIII. Her personality shows through the walk, having a light but energetic walk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGy9Yj1yA5g&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNHF96UpavU https://youtu.be/iCrfB6yMDss
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Bipedal Walk

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Bipedal Walk This exercise demonstrated a plain walk cycle. There isn't much personality in these, so they aren't particularly appealing to look at. But they do show a plain walk cycle. Once a walk cycle is understood, personality can be added to it. This may show more exaggeration, depending on a characters personality. https://youtu.be/1C411xgZEiM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAIfyHafPlE
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Character Weight Shift

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Character Weight Shift These two animations were designed to show a character shifting their weight from leg to leg. This gives the character the illusion of weight, making it appear more realistic. There is a slight amount of squash and stretch- though subtle, the character's leg will squash slightly when the weight is shifted to it. The other leg stretches out. This is reminiscent of video game character  creation where they have a default pose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ8NBUGp8Ac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNBEHobHRS8
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Showing Weight and the Use of Parent Constraints

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Showing Weight and the Use of Parent Constraints The next principles included in these exercise are anticipation, timing and solid drawing. The objects have weight to them, so it takes effort and time for the character to be able to move these objects.These two didn't have any particular inspiration, I had just pictured what it'd be like having to pick up a heavy ball. This would be more difficult than a shape with it's weight being distributed. The wall was reminiscent of trying to either open a heavy door, or keep it shut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdTltNk552Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEDyJMFIIA8
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Exaggeration and Cartoon Style Animation

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Exaggeration and Cartoon Style Animation Following on from last weeks exercise, we further exaggerated and turned that stepped pose into a polished jump. It could be unrealistic, so for mine i took inspiration from a Spider-Man like jump. Legs brought up high and arms out. This relates best to the principles Anticipation and Exaggeration. The character has to crouch to store energy then release, and jump in an exaggerated way. Inspiration: http://thestudents.wikia.com/wiki/File:Spiderman_Jump.jpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN5aVm8mTjk
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Realistic Movement, Using Video Reference & Anticipation

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Realistic Movement, Using Video Reference & Anticipation For this weeks topic, we were to use a reference video and import this into Maya. From this, we created a stepped jump animation. This is using the Pose to Pose method from the 12 principles of animation, mapping out the story telling frames. The other frames can later be filled in. Since this was just stepping out the frames, this was relatively easy- the most important part was nailing down those frames that tell the action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXuhJDUrAIY
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