Tuesday, August 5, 2008

And not to my surprise he really liked it rough

There are only three shots left to animate for the new episode of Ronin Dojo Community College DX. If Matt and I can keep to this schedule, we should have it finished by September. In the meantime, check out this rough shot I finished yesterday. (You might have to hit play twice for it to work right)

It's not the best hit in the world, but it does show off some basic animation principles or techniques or whatever you want to call them. Let's take a closer look:

The 2nd frame is a good example of things that look ridiculous in still frames but work in well in animation.

First we've got Seth's head squashing together to really give some force to the hit. Squash is one half of the classic animation duo Stretch & Squash; the first thing you learn in animation classes in your rigorous hazing process of animating a bouncing ball while holding a cup of Dannon yogurt- with no hands.

There's also a smear frame in there as Mark whips away the video game case. Smears are awesome. They emulate the blurring that occurs in live action film and help move the eye along with action. If I had drawn Mark going from his position in frame 1 directly to his position in frame 3, it might have been a little jerky because it's such a big jump. Smearing his action, blending three in-between positions, helps make the jump seem more fluid, without adding more drawings.

Frames 3-5 have two instances of secondary motion going on.

In frame 3, Mark's shirt sleeve and hair lag behind due to the quick movement. As Mark's body stops moving in frame 4, the sleeve and hair continue moving forward due to their detached momentum. By frame 5, the effects of gravity and Klautenberg's Second Law of Follicular Inertia bring the sleeves and hair respectively to their resting position. Marks arms also fall down a bit- settling into the squat.

I know I'm not an awesome animator, and have no qualifications to be talking like I'm Richard Williams or some shit, I just thought I'd entertain any onlookers who aren't familiar with the animation process. If you do want to learn more about this stuff from a pro- get Richard Williams book The Animator's Survival Kit. It's got pretty much everything you'd learn in animation classes.


Arabian Knights & Robot Rights

2 comments:

R.R. said...

Splines are over rated.

Your 2D world is pretty sweet though.

Keep up the analyzing too. I'm no expert on this either, but thats how we get better.

Nice clear strong poses. And your other work too, not just this test.

I don't know where it fits in to the whole sequence, but is it possible to separate the hit, and the pulling away of the book by a few frames? Things seem to happen really fast. It might make things read a little clearer?

Plus you have internet fans, and lots of youtube views. Which is pretty sweet.

Ben said...

Thanks man. You're right separation would help, along with a couple more frames of hair settling back to it's original pose.

Dude your 3D AND 2D worlds are pretty sweet. I envy your ambidexterity in the animation world.