Animating Animals: Tips and Tricks to Animating Believable Animal Characters in a Live Action Feature

Animating Animals: Tips and Tricks to Animating Believable Animal Characters in a Live Action Feature(click)

BBC Motion Gallery

I always wonder where can I get a good reference. Sometimes you can't really shoot a good reference for yourself. Besides finding clips on Youtube, there is another choice "BBC Motion Gallery". There are more things I can dig into now. Enjoy animating!

[project] Last Dance

This is the animatic I submit for my midpoint review. The story is about a janitor dancing alone while mopping on the stage. The dance reflects his demonic love toward his victim.

Above is the character design for the janitor. He is an ordinary guy but bears a dark secret.

For this project, I still need to develop the dance. Since the dance is the most important part of the whole animation, a choreographer is needed.

Sometimes when I look others doing so many amazing work, I gaze upon myself and sigh at the things I achieve now. But hey, all the masters spend time to perfect their skill and perspective. The thing I should do is to practice and practice. Give myself other small assignment other then school work. Talk to friends and teachers. My dream will come true one day.

Bouncing Ball

This is my first attempt to do the bouncing ball without the tail.

In this one, it is the first time I really dive into graph editor and get a basic understanding about how different tangents work and what kind of mess it will create if you don't key your frame properly. The lighter ball in this one is trying to simulate the real ball bouncing in reality. Somehow, when it strikes the ground, it seems a little bit "sticky."

From this practice, I learn that to create a real mass in the animated word it all depends on "timing." How fast the ball going to change the shape and how fast it falls all create a sense of mass and gravity. When the momentum decrease, how would it affect the relative project (when the ball hit the box, the could just sway a little bit or be knocked off, it all counts on how much momentum the ball brings to.)


This is my second attempt to animate the ball, but this time with tail and more characteristic.

The alive ball it's easier to do, in my opinion. It doesn't have to follow a certain decrease by the law of gravity. We can define its every movement. The only thing is we have to give it enough "energy" to fight against the gravity. Before the ball take a big jump, it has to crouch longer to gather enough energy.

The tail is to show the overlapping actions. When body move, tail follows. It this film I only realize the "overlapping" aspect. Actually, in my opinion, tail has to aspects, one is "overlapping" and the other one is "balancing."   Tail follows the major movement, that is correct, but there is a time when the body stays in the same place or when landing tries to buffer the impact force.

There are so many things to learn in animation, and a pair of fresh eyes are needed. Don't be shy to ask others to comment your works.


Jellyfruit

12 principles for animation

1. squash and stretch
-show the gravity when impacts and traveling

2. anticipation
-telling the audience to pay attention to sth going to happen

3. staging
-how everything relates within frame

4. straight ahead, pose to pose

5. follow through/ overlapping

6. ease in/ out
-to create a sense of weight, mass

7. arcs
-it's just our organic design, the way we supposed to move

8. secondary action
-smaller actions that support whole large action

9. timing
-shows speed between pose to pose, creates emotions

10. exaggeration
-makes animation easier to understanding

11. solid drawing
-posing, silhouette, line of action

12. appeal
-visually interesting, charisma of the art piece
http://www.soundonsight.org/20-greatest-classic-disney-villians/
see how the design of these villains grab audience's eyes


A good animator should always have this list on the place where you can see it. It reminds every aspects you need to check and pay attention, and polishes your animation better!