Intro to Animation

TAFTA Animation Course Slideshow 01

In this presentation:
1. What is Animation?
a. Commonly accepted definitions of animation
2. Why Animate?
a. Reasons for animating instead of real-life filming
3. Types of Animation
a. The 3 main types of animation
4. 12 Principles of Animation
a. The foundations of animation
1. What is Animation?
What is Animation?
Essentially, animation is the art and process of making inanimate objects appear
to move. Originally this was done by taking photos of drawings, puppets, people,
or objects, with a slight change between each photo; when sequenced together,
the subject of the photos would appear to move. While these techniques of
animation using physical drawing and puppets are still used, modern technology
has seen a shift toward digital animation using computer software. Within the
world of animated filmmaking, 3D animation has swiftly become the primary focus,
and it is what we will focus on learning in this course.
2. Why Animate?
Why Animate?
Animation is different from live-action* film in that it is not constrained by the
physics of real life. Once you learn the technical skills, you are only limited by your
imagination.
- Animation can be stylised in ways that live-action film typically can not.

← Robin Hood: Men

in Tights (1993)

Robin Hood (1973) →

*Live-action refers to films made using real people and objects

3. Types of Animation
Types of Animation:
It is generally accepted that there are 3 types of animation:

2D Animation, 3D Animation, and Stop Motion Animation

Another commonly accepted type of animation is Motion Graphics, however that can be
rolled into the other forms, as it is achieved using techniques from any of the 3 types.
2D Animation 3D Animation Stop Motion Animation
2D Animation
Animation created using flat images such as drawings or paintings. Within the 2D animation industry, traditional
animation using ‘cels’ (transparent sheets which would be drawn and painted over) has fallen out of favour, as it is
very expensive and time consuming to create. Digital 2D animation has been an adaptation of the process to use
computers, creating a more convenient workflow. In digital 2D animation, creators have the freedom to rework small
mistakes, and can use various software techniques to assist the animation process.

Traditional 2D Digital 2D
Commonly used 2D animation Software Include:
● TV Paint
● Toon Boom Harmony
● Adobe Creative Suite
○ (Photoshop, After Effects, and Animate)

● Krita (Free)
● Moho
● OpenToonz (Free)
3D Animation
Animation created making use of models in a virtual 3D environment. In short, this
process involves a workflow of modelling, texturing, lighting, rendering, among
other parts.

Commonly used Software Include:

● Examples
Maya, 3DSofMax,
different styles ofCinema
ZBrush, 3D animation,
4D,from stylised(Free),
Blender to realistic:
Houdini,
○ In recent times, the realtime rendering capabilities of the Unreal Engine game
development software have also seen it used for rendering animation and visual effects.
Stop-Motion Animation
Animation using real-world objects captured in a series of photographs to simulate
motion.

Commonly made using puppets with a rigid skeleton inside, known as an

armature. However, stop-motion animations can also use objects, people, paper
cutouts or really any physical thing you can photograph.

Commonly used Software Include:

● Dragonframe, Stop Motion Studio (Free)
4. 12 Principles of Animation
12 Principles
The 12 Principles of Animation were a set of rules established by Disney animators Ollie Johnston
& Frank Thomas back in 1981. These serve as core guiding principles primarily in 2D animation,
but can also be guidelines for creating animated 3D work. The principles help an animator think of
the way the things in their animation should move.

While these principles are not absolutely unbreakable, it is good practice to understand
and know how to follow these rules. Once you have a solid foundation of how to use these rules,
you can figure out where to break them.

The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams explores these principles in depth, and is often
recommended reading for new animators.
12 Principles of Animation: 1-4
➢ 1. Squash & Stretch
a. Generally items compress and expand when put under different forces. If a ball is thrown at a wall, it may stretch out
in the air due to the speed it is moving at, but then squash upon impact with the wall, before returning to its original
shape.
➢ 2. Anticipation
a. There is often a build-up before any big action. For example, if a person tries to jump up high, they might bend down
first. Bending down is the anticipation for the jump.
➢ 3. Staging
a. Establishing an effective layout of the scene. It is important to think about where things are in an environment, where
the viewer’s eye will focus, an effective camera angle for the scene, and where the various on-screen interactions
will occur within the frame.
➢ 4. Straight Ahead Action & Pose-to-Pose
a. 2 methods of animating a given action, each having their use. If animating a walk cycle, Straight Ahead would be
animating every frame of the walk from beginning to end in order. Pose-to-Pose would be planning out the body
position (the pose) at the start and at the end, then gradually filling in the poses in-between.
12 Principles of Animation: 5-8
➢ 5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action
a. Follow Through: When things move in real life they don’t stop instantly, they instead carry on their motion, taking
time to slow down.
b. Overlapping Action: Things don’t generally move one at a time, as one action occurs, another is often happening
at the same time. As a person takes a step with their legs, their arms may also be swinging back and forth.
➢ 6. Slow In and Out
a. Most things don’t instantly move at their top speed, or even at a constant speed. Things take time (however
small) to accelerate and to decelerate. This translates into animation by having movement be slower at the
beginning of an action and at the end, unless it is started or stopped by a sudden impact for example.
➢ 7. Arcs
a. Most motion contains an arc of some kind. For example, a ball thrown across a field will not go in a straight line,
instead it will fly upwards for a bit, before flying downwards and eventually hitting the ground.
➢ 8. Secondary Action
a. Motion from one action often causes motion in connected objects. For example if we have a person walking with
long hair, the hair will bounce with each step the person takes.
12 Principles of Animation: 9-12
➢ 9. Timing
a. Generally, larger objects appear to move slower than smaller objects. For example, an elephant’s steps are very slow, as
compared to a mouse, which takes very quick steps. In order to be believable, the timing of actions in your animations should
aim to reflect what is true to real life unless there is a specific reason for it not to in the context of the animation. It is also
worth noting that the time between each keyframe drawing of an animation determines how fast or smooth the motion will
appear. Over a given time interval, more drawings = smoother motion, less drawings = choppier motion.
➢ 10. Exaggeration
a. Actions in animation are generally less subtle than in real, visually it helps to exaggerate an action or it’s effects to make your
work more dynamic. For example, if you have someone shouting out in anger, rather than just standing still, their body’s pose
could be pushed to reflect that emotion, bending over with arms pulled in and clenched fists.
➢ 11. Solid Drawing
a. Not much of a factor in 3D as objects already exist in a 3D space. Solid drawing is to understand that objects are not flat, nor
do they exist on a flat plane. This means to understand that objects have height, width, and depth as you draw them.
➢ 12. Appeal
a. Difficult to summarize, but to give an animation appeal is to give it character, or flair. Essentially to make the animation
enjoyable to watch, this can be achieved through a combination of the other principles, and through other factors such as
good character design for example.
12 Principles: Video Explanations with Examples
1. The Illusion of Life | Principles of Animation
1. Examples of each of the 12 principles applied to a 3D cube.
2. 12 Principles of Animation - Alan Becker
1. A famous and widely used series of videos showing multiple examples of the 12 principles in 2D.