Disney remains to be the most popular name in animation, and not without reasons. Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas (two of Disney’s Nine Old Men), in 1981, introduced animators to the 12 basic principles of animation in their book, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Although animation has evolved much over the years, these twelve concepts will not be outdated, and continue to be taught in popular animation institutes around the world.
Let us look at the first six principles in this first part.
Squash & Stretch
Squash and stretch remains to be the foundation of animation. It is the technique used to convey weight, emphasise movement, and enhance a character’s flexibility. From a person walking to a dog jumping, there are enough examples of squash & stretch in real life. However, in animation, these actions are exaggerated. The easiest way to understand how squash and stretch work is to look at a bouncing ball or a man walking at a regular pace.
Image courtesy: www.download.autodesk.com
Here is another excellent example of the use of this technique in 2D animation. The man in the front appears to be lighter and walking fast. With an accentuated squash and stretch, the character walking behind appears heavy and slow.
You may not have noticed it, but this technique is commonly used in your favourite 3D animation movies. Remember Murray from Hotel Transylvania? That is a lot of squash and stretch!
GIF courtesy: Sony Pictures Animation
Timing
Timing in animation refers to the number of drawings or frames that complete a given action. It determines the speed of the action. In simple terms, if there are more drawings between two poses, the action will be slow & smooth. But fewer drawings make the action fast. The below image will help you understand this better.
Image courtesy: www.evl.uic.edu
Anticipation
Anticipation is the preparation for an action. Some of the most common examples in real life include a golfer swinging his club backward before hitting the ball or a bowler waiting for a second before starting to run. In animation, humour is usually created when the movement of anticipation happens in the opposite direction of the main action. Any action that requires greater strength will have a bigger moment of anticipation. See Red smiling? Did you see this coming?
As any object or person starts to move, there will be acceleration. When they come to a halt there must be deceleration. Otherwise, the movements become robotic. Imagine that a car starts and reaches full speed in an instant or comes to a halt from 100km/hr in the blink of an eye. Such movements are unnatural. Slow in – Slow out or Ease in – ease out make such actions more life-like. In animation, the closer the drawings/frames are, the slower the animation will be. The farther apart they are, the faster the animation will be. A swinging pendulum is a classic example of this principle.
GIF Courtesy: Katie Bayman
Follow Through & Overlapping Action
These two closely related principles of animation help animators create realistic scenes. They simply follow the laws of physics. Follow-through is the idea that certain appendages and body parts continue to move even after the person/object stops moving. If a superhero character wearing a cape runs and stops abruptly, the cape will fly forward past the body, then fall back where the character stopped. If a car halts suddenly, the antenna on top of it will keep moving for another second.
Overlapping action explains the idea that different parts of a body will move at different rates. For example, when the superhero character walks, his arms will move at a different speed than his head.
GIF Courtesy: Dsource Ekalpa India via YouTube
Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose Animation
Have you ever created a stick-figure flipbook animation on the corners of your notebook? If yes, then chances are you didn’t plan it out with preparatory sketches. This is straight ahead animation, which involves creating frame-by-frame from start to finish. While most classic Disney movies were made using this technique, it is not much in use lately.
Most computerized animation uses the pose-to-pose animation. In this, you set the main poses first and insert the in-between poses later to get the timing right. In top animation studios, the key poses are often set by the lead animators while the rest of the frames are set by the newbies on the team.
Image courtesy: www.pluralsight.com
Now armed with these first six basic principles of animation, start practicing, and notice the difference in your animation, be it 2D or 3D. Bookmark this post and check back often so that you can brush up on the basics whenever required.
Watch this space for the remaining six basic principles of animation.
Interested in a career in animation? Click here and take a look at animation career courses that can help you get the right skill sets.
The 7 Best Animated Characters of All Time Who Never Speak
The most memorable animated characters on the screen are often the ones who say nothing at all. These characters have quite vivid emotions and you could easily tell what is going on with them emotionally.
Sometimes the character don’t have the ability to speak, such as animals like Snoopy and Pluto and sometimes they aren’t given vocals at all.
Here’s a list of impressive non-speaking animated characters.
Mr. Bean
The Mr. Bean series was broadcasted in about all the countries across the world. There doesn’t seem to be a person across the globe who cannot understand or enjoy his character and antics. Mr. Bean’s character was influenced by Jacques Tatia’s Monsieur Hulot, the infamous French silent comedy star.
Wall- E
Pixar’s garbage collecting robot has a modified Mac boot sound. His emotions and gestures were incredibly beautiful and made the character quite enjoyable.
Maggie Simpson
Despite her silent role, she has a distinct depth of character and is the main focus of a great number of episodes of The Simpsons. The baby often proves to be the most genius one in the family.
Shaun the Sheep
Mischievous sheep ‘Shaun’ was silent as creators didn’t want to waste time in lip syncing and voice acting. And that resulted in a global hit of a dialogue-free character.
Tom and Jerry
Silent comedy at its best. Their expressive faces and the physical quarrels are something that remains unmatched since decades.
Magic Carpet
The most unique in the list is the Magic Carpet from Aladdin. It not only stays silent but also doesn’t even have a face and still we get to know what it communicates with the Aladdin.
Abu
Remember the monkey from Aladdin?
Abu loyally accompanies the thief-turned-prince throughout his adventures and is in constant fight with his counterpart, the carpet.
Just because these characters are silent does not mean they don’t have anything to say. The silent animated characters communicates vividly through their gestures and expressions. To animate characters, especially the silent ones, you must not only be imaginative and creative, but also need the length and breadth of knowledge to make your creations come to life. With the right set of skills, you too can create such amazing characters! If you have the passion for animation, click here and check out this Animation Film Design course.
Who are your favourite characters who never speaks? Let us know in the comments below.
Amid Covid pandemic lockdown and disruption, Arena Animation Sayajigunj campuses, closed the final placement figures at 51 Students Placement till January 2021 end. The achievement comes at a time once industry saw mass layoffs and offer revokes. AY 2020-21 began with a bang with elite recruiters in the Graphic Designing, Motion Graphics, 3D Animation and 3D Designing.
Arena Animation Sayajigunj officials told the institution is looking forward to an aggressive hiring of 3750+ job openings for season ahead. Prospective admission seekers are requested and suggested not to lose a year and opt for admissions at the earliest to be in line with the current academic year.
Our Student Success Story – Atit Patel
Atit Patel comes from a small town called Halol after his initial attempt in the field of Engineering he realized that This is not He can Pursue as a Career Making Choice and Started Looking for Other Options. He always had an Interest in Watching Movies and was Curious about its Process keeping this in Mind He Decided to Pursue his Studies of Editing and Compositing with Arena Animation Sayajigunj.
He had no Designing study background But that wasn’t going to stop Atit. As he learned new skills, his confidence grew. Today, he is honing Editing – Compositing skills. He was Groomed and Trained from the Center for a good Job Opportunity as He was selected as Motion Graphics Artist in BYJU’s in Bengaluru and Continued to Excel and Perform as He Considered this as his dream Job and Now He Is Settled and Growing Steadily with his Profile and work. Genuine transformation isn’t easy, but Atit Patel shows us it’s possible. He Always Consider Arena Animation Sayajigunj as a Guide and Turning Point of His Career and Life.
Recruiter Testimonials
We have sourced some very good candidates from the Arena Animation Sayajigunj. We were amazed by the immense talent and skills these students possess. Not only the students we were very impressed by the quality of education and training the institute has provided them. The students were confident and very well prepared for the interviews. We wish to congratulate all the students for their future. — DipakPillai (Think Tank Advertising)
Our association with the Arena Animation Sayajigunj has been very fruitful. We have been able to pick out some very capable and confident students for our company. We are very impressed by the hard work that has been done on these students by the teachers. We would love to come back here for placements again. –ShwetaUpadhyay (Dream Foot Studio)
HBO Announces Production Start for Game of Thrones’ Prequel Series
Here there be dragons! We’ve finally gotten an update about Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon that was first teased in announcement over a year ago. The upcoming series, based on George R. R. Martin’s 2018 book”Fire & Blood,” will focus on the rise and fall of the fiery House Targaryen, and has beat out four other potential Thrones series. Now, the official Thrones Twitter account has announced a production start date alongside some fiery dragon concept art.
Apparently, these overgrown reptiles are immune to COVID-19, because production is slated to start in 2021. Since the series will lead into theTargaryen civil war fondly titled the”Dance of the Dragons,” get ready for lots and lots of dragon battles.
House of the Dragon is currently set to air in 2022.
World’s First Animated COVE) Face Mask’ Short
Even though COVID-19 vaccines have finally begun to ship and reach their first recipients, people shouldn’t let down their guard when it comes to wearing masks. Given that most people will not receive their shots until late spring / summer 2021, we must continue our vigilance.
London-based advertising creative and NOMINT founder Yannis Konstantinidis has just released one of his latest projects, The World’s First Animated COVID Face Mask, delivering a dash of colour and an extra dose of hope to the idea of a face mask this holiday season. The ‘animated’ mask takes the form of a beautiful stop-motion short, made from 400 unique cloth masks, animated together to create a parade of colourful moving images.
According to the director, his film is just what Santa ordered to get viewers fired up about wearing a mask! The masks will be sold to benefit the world-renowned London-based Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Masks can be purchased and additional donations to the charity can be made on the project’s Indiegogo campaign.
Christmas Shopping in Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality can transform the online shopping experience, making it safe and frustration-free for consumers.
VR can make Christmas shopping less stressful and a whole lot safer, especially amid the global health crisis. Virtual Reality takes online shopping to a whole new level. Instead of browsing the product categories of retail websites, shoppers can explore virtual versions of brick-and-mortar stores. It tries to recreate in-store shopping experiences through 360-degree views of retail stores.
Take Dior for example. They made a virtual version of their store in Champs-Elysees, Paris. You can tour around the store, then zoom in on the products on the shelves. You can browse a wide range of products that they sell in the actual store, including perfumes, candles and scarves.
Even without a VR headset, shoppers can still take a look around from their smartphones, tablets, or PCs. It won’t, however, be as immersive.
At first look, Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom might appear quite similar. But each program is designed with a different purpose in mind, and each offers a distinct post-production photography undertaking.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the go to tool with unlimited creative possibilities. Over the years it has become synonymous with ‘photo editing’ itself. How many times have we heard, “it’s Photoshopped!”
Photoshop is used for heavy image editing purposes. You can even create images & designs using this. Even though quite popular among photographers for retouching, Photoshop today is widely used by numerous professionals including graphic designers, web designers, animators, VFX artists, publishers and architects.
Strengths of Photoshop:
Pixel-level editing – This means, you can edit even at the tiniest level
Comprehensive design & manipulation – Limitless manipulation is possible. Both raster and vector images can be created from scratch.
Layers – As this software allows you to keep different edits on separate layers, you can modify or enhance any layer independently.
Compositing – Using ‘Masking’ techniques you can protect specific parts of the photo while working on other areas.
Toolbox – There is a huge library of tools at your disposal. And more comes with every update.
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is an image editing program. But that’s not the complete picture. It’s an image management program too. Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom offers an all-in-one solution to organising, editing, and publishing your photographs.
As a database-driven image management software, it provides the user with the ability to organise and catalog their photographs according to camera type, lens type, date, location and various other criteria. This helps you make a set of basic adjustments to a group of images according to the criteria you define. Those criteria are called presets. You can either have your own preset or import presets from other photographers.
Strengths of Lightroom:
Ability to process RAW files – It accepts RAW files straight from your camera.
Image management – You can organise your images as you import them.
Easier to learn – With a simpler interface and efficient workflow, this software can be handled well even by beginners. However, you must learn Photoshop to efficiently use it.
Conclusion
In short, Photoshop is used for graphic design as well as high-end photo manipulations & edits. Meanwhile, Lightroom is used for quickly organising the entire library of images and making the basic edits to all of them at a time.
Basically, it all depends on the nature of your work, and there’s no right or wrong choice.
What software do you use for editing you pics? Do share it in the comment section below.
