What is Animation | Multimedia and Animations

 

What is Animation?

•          Animation is any thing that moves on your screen like a   cartoon character.

•          It is the visual art of creating the illusion of motion  through the successive display of still images with  slightly perceptible changes in positioning of images.

•          Animation is the illusion of movement.

•          Animating = making something appear to move that doesn’t move itself

•          Animation = a motion picture made from a series of drawings simulating motion by means of slight progressive changes in the drawings

•          The result of animation is a series of still images assembled together in time to give the appearance of motion

•          To animate means to give life to an inanimate object, image, or drawing

•          Anima means soul in Latin

•          Animation is the art of movement expressed with images that are not taken directly from reality

•          In animation, the illusion of movement is achieved by rapidly displaying many still images or frames in sequence.

Introduction

•          There are some principles of animation that can be consciously used in any scene.

•          We should familiarize ourselves with them for both animation and animation-cleanup.

•          The action in this scene is quite broad, making the principles easy to find, but they should be applied to subtle scenes also.

•          Rarely in a picture is a character doing nothing- absolutely nothing.

•          The purpose of studying and analyzing a scene like this is to acquaint oneself with the possibilities in the use of the principles of animation.

•          There are 28 principles, though there well may be more.

•          These are the tools of animation and should be incorporated whenever possible.

•          Some of them are accidentally stumbled upon while animating in an emotional spurt, but when the emotions are lax, knowing these principles will enable the artist to animate his scene intellectually, logically and artistically as well as emotionally.

•          Here is a list of things (principles) that appear in these drawings, most of which should appear in all scenes, for they comprise the basis for full animation

•          Pose and Mood

•          Shape and Form

•          Anatomy

•          Model or Character

•          Weight

•          Line and Silhouette

•          Action and Reaction

•          Perspective

•          Direction

•          Tension

•          Planes

•          Solidity

•          Arcs

•          Squash and Stretch

•          Beat and Rhythm

•          Depth and Volume

•          Overlap and follow thru

•          Timing

•          Working from extreme to extreme

•           Straights and Curves

•          Primary and secondary action

•          Staging and composition

•          Anticipation

•          Caricature

•          Details

•          Texture

•          Simplification

•          Positive and negative shapes

•          Between the late 1920's and the late 1930's animation grew from a novelty to an art form at the Walt Disney Studios.

•          With every picture, actions became more convincing, and characters were emerging as true personalities.

•          Audiences were enthusiastic and many of the animators were satisfied, however it was clear to Walt Disney that the level of animation and existing characters were not adequate to pursue new story lines-- characters were limited to certain types of action and audience acceptance notwithstanding, they were not appealing to the eye.

•          It was apparent to Walt Disney that no one could successfully animate a humanized figure or a life-like animal; a new drawing approach was necessary to improve the level of animation

•          Disney set up drawing classes for his animators at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles under Instructor Don Graham.

•          When the classes were started, most of the animators were drawing using the old cartoon formula of standardized shapes, sizes, actions and gestures, with little or no reference to nature.

•          Out of these classes grew a way of drawing moving human figures and animals.

•          The students studied models in motion as well as live action film, playing certain actions over and over.

•          The analysis of action became important to the development of animation.

•          Some of the animators began to apply the lessons of these classes to production animation, which became more sophisticated and realistic.

•          The animators continually searched for better ways to communicate to one another the ideas learned from these lessons.

•          Gradually, procedures were isolated and named, analyzed and perfected, and new artists were taught these practices as rules of the trade.

•          They became the fundamental principles of traditional animation è 12 principles of animation

 

12 Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch - Defining the rigidity & mass of an object by distorting its shape during an action.
2. Timing - Spacing actions to define the weight & size of objects & the personality of characters.
3. Anticipation - The preparation for an action.
4. Staging - Presenting an idea so that it is unmistakably clear.
5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action - The termination of an action & establishing its relationship to the next action.
6. Straight Ahead Action & Pose-To-Pose Action - The two contrasting approaches to the creation of movement.
7.  Slow In and Out - The spacing of in-between frames to achieve subtlety of timing & movements.
8. Arcs - The visual path of action for natural movement.
9. Exaggeration - Accentuating the essence of an idea via the design & the action.
10. Secondary Action - The Action of an object resulting from another action
11. Appeal - Creating a design or an action that the audience enjoys watching.
12. Solid Drawing - Knowing them can dramatically improve one's ability to create good, strong poses and compose them with well crafted environments.