This is my first attempt at making a 3D ball bounce in Maya. I learnt a lot about the software whilst doing this exercise and a lot about the process of making things look realistic in animation. In many ways this ways easier than making the 2D ball bounce as I didn't need to worry about keeping the ball looking the same whilst drawing each frame. However in some ways it was harder to make the 3D ball bounce as it was a very technical process.
3D ball bounce
This is my first attempt at making a 3D ball bounce in Maya. I learnt a lot about the software whilst doing this exercise and a lot about the process of making things look realistic in animation. In many ways this ways easier than making the 2D ball bounce as I didn't need to worry about keeping the ball looking the same whilst drawing each frame. However in some ways it was harder to make the 3D ball bounce as it was a very technical process.
Life Drawing - Session One.
Overall I am pleased with the results of life drawing, although I need to remember to plan out the drawing so I have enough room for the whole body. I think as the session went on I got more confident and accurate with proportions, I think you can see progression in the work (drawings are posted in the order they were completed.)
Here is my first attempt at the bouncing ball animation with arcs. I think the bounces are effective but the ball travels too quickly. This is because I changed the frame rate to 24fps from 12fps but still only made enough frames for one second of animation. I can solve this problem by extending the length of the video by adding more frames overall, this will create a slower and smoother bounce.
Types of Animation
Traditional:
Howl's Moving Castle
Belleville Rendevous
Beauty and the Beast
Also called Cel or 2D animation. Made by using a series of drawings (frames) which are transferred to sheets called Cels then played at a rate of 25/24 frames per second to create an illusion of movement.
Stop Motion:
Stop motion is made by manipulating real world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time so that when played back it will create the illusion of movement. There are several types of stop motion animation usually named after the object that is manipulated.
Clay Animation (also known as Claymation)
Wallace and Gromit
Puppet Animation
Corpse Bride
Cutout Animation
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Model Animation
Jason and the Argonauts
Go Motion
Go motion is a type of model animation that uses various techniques and effects to create the illusion of motion blur. It was used by Industrial Light and Magic in the Star Wars movies and in films like Jurassic Park.
Star Wars
Computer Animation
Using similar ideas and techniques to traditional animation but using computers to generate the objects and the movement.
2 Dimensional
Like it's traditional counterpart except that the images are computer generated and not hand drawn per frame. Computer techniques such as tweening (using the computer to fill in movement) and onion skinning (being able to see previous frames while drawing) can make this process a lot quicker than doing it by hand.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
3 Dimensional
Much the same as stop motion but using computer programs to fill in the information for you instead of having to create every single frame.
Toy Story
Early forms of Animation
Zoetrope
A Zoetrope is a cylindrical device that creates the illusion of movement through rapid display of a series of images by rotating. The earliest Zoetrope dates back to around 180 AD in China, the version seen above that most people are aware of was developed in 1834 by a British mathematician.
Flip Books
Flip books are a very rudimentary version of traditional animation, instead of frames of film playing back to create movement the pages being turned quickly, each with a static image on, create the illusion of movement.
Examples of the 12 Principles of Animation
To illustrate the twelve principles of animation I'm going to be using examples from the short animation by Pixar, 'Night and Day'. I thought a short film would be good to show examples, because it is shorter the principles will be more exaggerated as the animation has less time to get the narrative across to the audience.
The film features two characters who represent night and day. The idea is very different from any other animation I have seen because all of the action takes place on the characters bodies. It is an extremely innovative piece of short animation.
1.Squash and Stretch.
This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to objects or characters in animation. By showing the way the mass of the object changes during actions this gives more realism and the ability to show the properties of each object.
In the following stills you see the character slumping downwards. The body moves down and outwards, giving the illusion of its mass being displaced as it moves.
The film features two characters who represent night and day. The idea is very different from any other animation I have seen because all of the action takes place on the characters bodies. It is an extremely innovative piece of short animation.
1.Squash and Stretch.
This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to objects or characters in animation. By showing the way the mass of the object changes during actions this gives more realism and the ability to show the properties of each object.
In the following stills you see the character slumping downwards. The body moves down and outwards, giving the illusion of its mass being displaced as it moves.
2. Anticipation
This prepares the audience for the action that is about to happen. For example before a character runs they would move backwards to accentuate the action that is about to happen.
Here you see the character preparing to run forward by raising its arms in the opposite direction.
3.Staging
Staging directs the audience to the story or idea being told. The importance is to make clear what is important in the scene whether it is an action, expression or mood. This can be the placement of the character within the frame, the use of light and shadow or the angle of the camera.
To begin with in the animation there is only one character on screen. The background is plain black in order to draw attention to the action and not confuse with what's happening on the characters. Each character represents night and day respectively and the way they interact with each other is the main focus of the film.
4.Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose Animation.
There are two different approaches to the process of animation. 'Straight Ahead' is to draw out each frame one after the other from beginning to end, 'Pose to Pose' is to decide on key frames and draw those first then fill in the gaps between the key points. 'Straight Ahead' often results in a more fluid look but it is easier for the animation to go off model. 'Pose to Pose' can have less flow but is much better at staying on model and is useful for sequences involving a lot of tricky poses/actions.
5.Follow Through and Overlapping Action.
To give the illusion of realistic movement in animation these techniques are used. Follow through is when the character or object stops moving and other parts continue to catch up to them after they have stopped, for example long hair or coat tails. Overlapping action refers to when the character or object changes direction and parts continue moving forward then after a few frames change to the new direction of the character or object.
Most of the secondary action in this animation takes place on the characters. As the characters are sort of see through and all the action happens on their bodies.
6.Slow In and Slow Out
The movement of characters and objects takes time to speed up and slow down. In a sequence and animation will often have more frames at the beginning and end.
In this sequence the characters fall off a cliff, the start of the sequence is slow with the character holding on and then slipping and at the end of the sequence when they hit the water the frame rate is increased to slow down the action.
7.Arcs
Human and animal actions occur on an arc instead of being linear. This can apply to a limb moving from a joint or a thrown object moving along a parabolic trajectory.
8.Secondary Action
This action adds to the main action, adding more dimension to the character.
The character is walking across the screen, the secondary action shown here is the exaggerated swinging of the arms. This is not necessary to the character walking but it adds depth and personality to the character and the action.
9,Timing
Timing refers to the number of frames used for an action, this changes the speed and timing of the action on film. Varied speed and timing of actions gives more personality to the characters and actions and also gives more realistic physics.
In this example the two characters have just dropped into water and float for a few minutes before travelling upwards. This shows the audience that they are under water and the physics would have changed.
10.Exaggeration
Exaggeration is the caricature of actions. Making them bigger and more emphasized on screen. This is useful in animation as just plain movements can look dull, it also helps add character to movements and actions.
Here the 'day' character is rubbing his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief. His movements are very exaggerated.
11.Solid Drawing
An animator needs to be skilled in the fundamentals of drawing and needs a solid understanding of the principles of weight,shape and form.
12.Appeal
Animated characters need to appeal to the audience. The important thing is that the audience feels the character is realistic and interesting.
I really enjoyed this animation and feel that is an excellent example of good and innovative animation and storytelling.
Bad Examples
The following videos show what happens when you don't follow the 12 principles effectively.
Kula World on PS1 is an example of bad ball bounce animation. The ball only has squash and stretch when it actually lands the shape doesn't distort on the way up and down and doesn't look convincing.
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