Fundamentals of Animation

Activity 1: History of Animation and Classic Animation Activity

Key Terms of Animation

- Scenes: a sequence of pictures moving together in a group of panels

- Panels: specify's key frames

- Storyboard: a plan for animation

- Key Frame: start or end of animation

- Extreme Frames: a frame where an action escalates

- In-between Frames: frames between key frames

- Frames: an image that moves in a sequence.

- FPS: # of frames for a second

- Frame Rate: the frequency of frames displayed

- Animating on Ones Twos and Threes : the amount of time an image holds view.

- Persistence of Vision: (Quote from Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision) "refers to the optical illusion that occurs when visual perception of an object does not cease for some time after the rays of light proceeding from it have ceased to enter the eye."

- Optical Illusion: 24 Frames per second fools the human eye in an animation.

The Word "Animation" came from the latin word Anima, meaning "Breath and soul"

Flipbook Storyboard:

Flipbook Activity:

Activity 2: Storyboarding in Storyboard Pro Activity

Storyboard Pro Plan (It looks bad, but it was rough sketches):

Exported PDF Files:

Exported Video (Movie format)

Export to Toon Boom (Pictures of file structures)

Activity 3 - Animating in Harmony

Part 1 - Notes

- Key Panels: in Harmony, there are many panels; the tool panels on your left side show the tools that affect the canvas. At the bottom, there is a timeline with each square in that timeline representing cells/frames. You can adjust the frames per second and when the timeline stops and where it will begin. You can also add more layers and drawings or color cards. The tools to the right hand side represent the tool properties. It's where you can adjust the properties of the tools you select from the tool panel. For example: if you select the brush tool, you can modify the brush size and color by selecting a brush size, and choosing a color from the color wheel below.

- Hot Keys:

-Rotate light box - CMD alt

-Delete a selected drawing- Shift x

-Undo- CMD z

-Zoom in- 1

-Zoom out- 2

-Modifiy Brush - O

-Select All- CMD a

-Move around- Space

-Extend Exposure- F5

-Rotate Canvas- CTRL + alt

-Reset your Canvas view- SHIFT + M

-Paint Tools: Brush, Pencil and Bucket Icons allows you to paint on your screen. To have the same painting for multiple layers, extend exposure for the painting on that timeline.

- Cells: can also be called "frames" in a timeline.

- Exposure: how long an image/drawing lasts in a timeline.

- Frames: the number of cells in a timeline.

- Drawing Layers: you can create drawing layers by clicking on the plus sign with the multiple shapes on the timeline panel. When clicked, it displays a window where you have the option to add a layer. You can also click on the other plus sign, (the one furthest to the left), to add a color card for the background. You can use these drawings layers to overlay (to draw in front of an image), underlay (to draw behind an image), or to do Line Art before you continue to the color and cleanup part.

- Layers: different timelines in an animation. If a layer is above another, then the layer above would overlay that layer.

- Onion Skin: allows you to see the drawings on previous cells/frames.

-Light Table: makes the other drawing layers transparent except on the layer you're drawing on

Part 1 - Intro

- rolling ball animation

Part 2 - Line test (1 sec), followed by Colouring and Clean Up Animation (1 sec)

Reference Video, Key Frames, Extreme Keys and Colour Squash, and Timeline

Activity 4 – Principles of Animation

Principles of Animation Notes:

- Squash and Stretch: Objects will bend or stretch in an animation to emphasize movement, speed, impact, or weight.

- Anticipation: gives the audience a clue as to what is going to happen.

- Staging: showing the audience or presenting a clear idea as to what is going on.

- Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose: straight ahead animation is where you draw one character, then you draw its next movement, then the next, and the next. Pose to pose is when you draw the character in the beginning and end of a timeline, then going back to draw the missing frames. (Works with extreme key frames). Straight ahead is good for unpredictable animations, but pose to pose is generally better with action sequences.

- Follow Through and Overlapping Action: a technique that shows body parts or accessories continuing to move while the body is in motion and when it stops. It can also indicate how fast the object or person has moved from one point to another.

- Slow In and Slow Out: another technique that gives a moving object some more realistic features. If an object is moving from one place to another, the beginning part of an action could have multiple frames close together to show acceleration. In the middle of the action, you would have less frames to show faster movement. At the end, you could add more frames to show the deceleration of the action to its end point.

- Arcs: when animating living organisms, such as ourselves, we tend to move in arcs. Arcs can emphasize character, actions, personality, etc.

- Secondary Action: an action that supports the main action.

- Timing: this idea indicates that the more frames you put into an action, the slower the movement, but less frames indicate faster movement. In movies, the average frame rate is commonly 24 frames per second (FPS). Drawing all 24 frames is called "drawing on the ones". Drawing on every second frame is called "drawing on the twos"; drawing on ever third frame is called "drawing on the threes".

- Exaggeration: to make an action become noticed in an animation. To give an impact on the audience, and the emphasize what's going on.

- Solid Drawing - to make drawings feel like they're in a 3D environment, with their own weight and volume. Requires some knowledge in how to make 3D objects.

- Appeal: to give more personality to a character. To make them more likable because they're nice to look at.

Storyboard for Animation 1 - Timing, Slow In/Slow Out, Arc, and Squash stretch