Rules of animation; Staging, straight ahead action and pose to pose

Staging

Staging in animation refers to the same principle as that found in film and theatre mediums. Its purpose is to direct the angle of the shot and camera, the lighting and position of the characters or objects of importance in order to direct the audience and make it clear to them what is the most important part of any scene or action. As in the scene below from Disney's Lion King, it is easy to see the primary focus of this shot.

http://www.lionking.org/~s-tlk/old/news/tlk06.20.03.htm

Straight ahead action and Pose to Pose

Straight ahead action and pose to pose are two animating techniques. Straight ahead action is the method of drawing out a scene frame by frame from start to finish, whilst the pose to pose technique uses a method of drawing keyframes and filling in the blanks later. Straight ahead action allows for more fluid animations but it is difficult to keep proportions. This makes pose to pose a faster work method. In todays animation a mixture of both is used with the help of computers.

Rules of animation; Slow in slow out, Arcs and secondary action

Slow in Slow out

Slow in slow out is the principle that the actions of an object or the actions of a human body, need time to accelerate and to slow down as well. This has meant that more realistic animations have more drawings at the beggining and the end of an action, this emphasizing the extremes of the action. This can be seen in the following image

http://www.animationbrain.com/stretch-squash-animation-principle.html

Arcs

arcs is the principle that most natural movements follow a more arched path, with more mechanical movements following a more straight paths (this being the exception to the principle). Arcs can be used to determine the speed of an object, if a ball is thrown then the straighter its arc to its target is the faster speed. A slow ball will need to be given more height so in turn will have a more curved arc.


Secondary Action

This is the process in which secondary actions are added to the animation in order to make an animation look more natural. This is applied alot to characters in cartoons where the character may whistle while walking or swing their arms, all in the hope of making a more fluid life like animation.

Rules of animation; Anticipation

Anticipation

This is the rule which refers to the actions one places before the main action. These actions are used to make sure the audience know whats happening as well as not to miss the important main action. There are many examples of this is cartoons, where you will see a character weild a club above the head of another hold it there then strike, as to assure the action is seen by the audience.


http://pacmanlolz.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/anticipation/

 This image also mentions some of the other principles of animation

Rules of animation; Squash and stretch

Squah and stretch 

  

Squash and stretch are the terms given to the types of action you can give to animations to create more natural, life like animations. It is used to mimic forces such as gravity like when you bounce a ball, the ball will squash on impact with the floor, then strech as it bounces back. This morphing will change depending on different factors, such as speed the ball is thrown and the weight and consistency of the ball. These effects are used in animation to add a life like feel to the animation.

As can be seen in this image.



http://www.epichuynh.com/2011/01/animation-notes-12-principles-of.html



Motion Design Brief

In this assignment, you will be exploring the key principles of motion design, you will design three pieces of animation which demonstrate a range of these animation principles. and you will then go on to produce one of these animations as a finished, polished piece.

You will design and storyboard 3 short (20 second) abstract animations which explore different aspects of motion design.  For example, you could vary the number of objects which are interacting on the screen from one to many across your three designs. You will develop all three into animatics which test the timing, movement and sound, and you will pitch your research, ideas, storyboard, animatic and mock up of the look and feel to the group and for discussion. 

The aim is to produce animation which is abstract and will be made from shapes rather than complex drawings or recognizable objects.  Given that the graphic objects are relatively simple drawings, the choice of colour palette and drawing style are important design concerns.  Each animatic and animation must have a suitable music or sound track of your choice. 

You will research animation/motion principles, generate ideas for animated sequences which apply to these principles, draw storyboards for three sequences, and develop these into animatics with sound. 

You will pitch your work at this point, and use the discussion to choose the one animation you will complete to a finished, polished piece by producing the artwork, sound and animation in line with storyboarding.

Deadlines

Pitch: Monday 10^th October (12.00 – 5.00)

Crit: Wednesday 19^th October (10.00 – 12.00)

Final submission:  Monday 31^st October by 12.00 midday

Sussex Lives Podcast - Update

After having filmed and edited my interview, I felt it lacked something and that it wasn't particularly working. I tried to re-work the video but it still didn't feel like it was successful. Due to this I decided that I would start again with my interview and chose somebody completely different for my video.

Due to Brighton Fringe Festival being on at the moment, I felt it would be interesting to speak to one of the performers and acts from this. I felt this would be a perfect opportunity to really get to the 'heart' of Brighton, as this festival is all about Brighton and encouraging up and coming talent. The atmosphere at the Fringe Festival is also positively buzzing and I felt that here would be a good place to base my interview, on the streets as it were, getting involved with the people. I decided to interview Doug Segal, a mind reader. Doug has performed on the BBC on New Years Eve and I felt that his skills and personality would make for a frank and honest interview, and would also be quite entertaining and something a little different.

Sussex Lives Podcast - Camera Angles

For an interview the shots necessary are generally close-ups and mid-shots, you don't tend to need long-shots as you want the interview to feel personally and the viewer to feel like they are talking to the interviewee. For this the interviewee should talk to the camera as if it was a person. The angle of the camera will stay mostly at eye-level or slightly above or below, this again to make the interview feel 'real' and the audience to feel like the interviewee is talking directly to them. (For camera shots and angles see below).