2-: Fundamental of Animations

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction

2.1 Principles of Animation

2.2 Animation Fundamentals

2.2.1 Character Model Sheet

2.2.2 Frames

2.2.3 Cycles

2.2.4 Storyboards

2.3 Animation Techniques

2.3.1 Cel Animation

23.2 Computer Animation

2.4 Animation File Formats

2.5 Summary

2.6 Keywords

2.7 Review Questions

2.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Describe principles of animation
Explain animation fundamentals
Understand animation techniques
Describe animation file formats

Introduction

Computer animation or CGI animation is the process used for generating animated images by using
computer graphics. The more general term computer-generated imagery encompasses both static scenes
and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images.
Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics are still
used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time renderings. Sometimes the target of the animation is
the computer itself, but sometimes the target is another medium, such as film.
Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to the stop motion techniques used in traditional
animation with 3D models and frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. Computer generated
animations are more controllable than other more physically based
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processes, such as constructing miniatures for effects shots or hiring extras for crowd scenes, and because
it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other technology. It can also allow a
single graphic artist to produce such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or props.

2.1 Principles of Animation

These principles of animation became the generally accepted techniques according to Don Graham who
worked with Walt Disney in founding the industry that you see today. Classes for his animators were set
up under the instruction of Graham. There is no short cut for skills and knowledge. Each technique was
named and they became known as the fundamental principles of animation that are listed below:

1. Squash and Stretch

This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves. Also squash and
stretch is useful in animating dialogue and doing facial expressions. How extreme the use of squash
and stretch is, depends on what is required in animating the scene. Usually it’s broader in a short
style of picture and subtler in a feature. It is used in all forms of character animation from a bouncing
ball to the body weight of a person walking. This is the most important element you will be required
to master and will be used often.

Example: If a rubber ball bounces and hits the ground it will tend to flatten when it hits. This is the
squash principle. As it starts to bounce up it will stretch in the direction it is going. Squash and stretch was
also initially done to prevent strobing due to lack of motion blur.

2. Anticipation

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Notes This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump
or change expression. A dancer does not just leap off the floor. A backwards motion occurs before
the forward action is executed. The backward motion is the anticipation. A comic effect can be done
by not using anticipation after a series of gags that used anticipation. Almost all real action has major
or minor anticipation such as a pitcher’s wind-up or a golfers’ back swing. Feature animation is
often less broad than short animation unless a scene requires it to develop a characters personality.

Example: A character zips off screen leaving a puff of smoke. Usually just before the zip,
there is a pose where the characters raises a leg and bends both arms as if he’s about to run. That is the
anticipation pose for the off screen run.
3. Staging

A pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of
the character as it relates to the story and continuity of the story line. The effective use of long,
medium, or close up shots, as well as camera angles also helps in telling the story. There is a limited
amount of time in a film, so each sequence, scene and frame of film must relate to the overall story.
Do not confuse the audience with too many actions at once. Use one action clearly stated to get the
idea across, unless you are animating a scene that is to depict clutter and confusion. Staging directs
the audience’s attention to the story or idea being told. Care must be taken in background design so
it isn’t obscuring the animation or competing with it due to excess detail behind the animation.
Background and animation should work together as a pictorial unit in a scene.

Example: If you are staging a sad pose you may have the character hunched over with his
arms hanging at his sides and a high camera angle... but if you give him this big grin on his face it would
not fit with the rest of the pose.
4. Straight Ahead and Pose-To-Pose Animation

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 Straight ahead animation starts at the first drawing and works drawing to drawing to the end of a Notes
scene. You can lose size, volume, and proportions with this method, but it does have spontaneity
and freshness. Fast, wild action scenes are done this way. Pose-to-Pose is more planned out and
charted with key drawings done at intervals throughout the scene. Size, volumes, and proportions
are controlled better this way, as is the action. The lead animator will turn charting and keys over to
his assistant. An assistant can be better used with this method so that the animator doesn’t have to
draw every drawing in a scene. An animator can do more scenes this way and concentrate on the
planning of the animation. Many scenes use a bit of both methods of animation.

Example: The animator draws the first frame of the animation, and then draws the
second, and so on until the sequence is complete. In this way, there is one drawing or image per frame that the
animator has setup.

5. Follow through and Overlapping Action

When the main body of the character stops all other parts continue to catch up to the main mass of
the character, such as arms, long hair, clothing, coat tails or a dress, floppy ears or a long tail (these
follow the path of action). Nothing stops all at once. This is follow through. Overlapping action is
when the character changes direction while his clothes or hair continues forward. The character is
going in a new direction, to be followed, a number of frames later, by his clothes in the new direction.
“DRAG,” in animation, for example, would be when Goofy starts to run, but his head, ears, upper
body, and clothes do not keep up with his legs. In features, this type of action is done more subtly.

Example: When Snow White starts to dance, her dress does not begin to move with her
immediately but catches up a few frames later. Long hair and animal tail will also be handled in the same
manner. Timing becomes critical to the effectiveness of drag and the overlapping action.
6. Slow-out and Slow-in

As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more
drawings near the next pose. Fewer drawings make the action faster and more

Example: A character is angrily walking toward another character. The walk is forceful,
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aggressive, and forward leaning. The leg action is just short of a stomping walk. The secondary action is a few
strong gestures of the arms working with the walk.
Also, the possibility of dialogue being delivered at the same time with tilts and turns of the head to
accentuate the walk and dialogue, but not so much as to distract from the walk action. All of these
actions should work together in support of one another. Think of the walk as the primary action and
arm swings, head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action. A
moving hold is the idea that a character is never completely still, they blink or shift weight, etc.
9. Timing

Expertise in timing comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the trial and
error method in refining technique. The basics are: more drawings between poses slow and smooth
the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow and fast timing
within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Most animation is done on twos (one
drawing photographed on two frames of film) or on ones (one drawing photographed on each frame
of film). Twos are used most of the time, and ones are used during camera moves such as trucks,
pans and occasionally for subtle and quick dialogue animation. Also, there is timing in the acting of
a character to establish mood, emotion, and reaction to another character or to a situation. Studying
movement of actors and performers on stage and in films is useful when animating human or animal
characters. This frame-by-frame examination of film footage will aid you in understanding timing
for animation. This is a great way to learn from the others.
10. Exaggeration

Exaggeration is not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time.
It’s like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from
live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical. In feature animation, a character must
move more broadly to look natural. The same is true of facial expressions, but the action should not
be as broad as in a short cartoon style. Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head
turn will give your film more appeal. Use

Notes good taste and common sense to keep from becoming too theatrical and excessively animated

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11. Solid Drawing

The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimensions
apply to animation as it does to academic drawing. The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the
classical sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life. You transform these into
color and movement giving the characters the illusion of three-and four-dimensional life. Three-
dimensional is movement in space. The fourth dimension is movement in time.
12. Appeal

A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not
mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic,
villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing,
and personality development that will capture and involve the audience’s interest. Early cartoons
were basically a series of gags strung together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have
learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a
higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story-telling, the feature
has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye.

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8. This action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation,
supplementing and/or re-enforcing the main action.
(a) Appeal (b) Secondary Action

(c) Timing (d) Slow-out and Slow-in

9. Expertise in ………………… comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the
trial and error method in refining technique.
(a) Timing (b) Solid Drawing

(c) Exaggeration (d) Squash and Stretch

10. This is not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time. It’s like a
caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions.
(a) Appeal (b) Solid Drawing

(c) Exaggeration (d) Squash and Stretch

11. The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimensions
apply to animation as it does to academic drawing.
(a) Appeal (b) Solid Drawing

(c) Exaggeration (d) Squash and Stretch

12. A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not
mean just being cute and cuddly.
(a) Secondary Action (b) Timing
(c) Appeal (d) Slow-out and Slow-in
2.2 Animation Fundamentals

Using appropriate software and techniques, you can animate visual images in many ways. The simplest
animations occur in two-dimensional (2-D) space; more complicated animations occur in an intermediate
“2½-D” space where shadowing, highlights, and forced perspective provide an illusion of depth, the third
dimension); and the most realistic animations occur in three-dimensional (3-D) space.
In 2-D space, the visual changes that bring an image alive occur on the flat Cartesian x and y axes of the
screen. A blinking word, a color-cycling logo (where the colors of an image are rapidly altered according
to a formula), a cel animation, or a button or tab that changes state on mouse rollover to let a user know it
2-D animations. These are simple and static, is active are all examples of not changing their position on the
screen. Path animation in 2-D space increases the complexity of an animation and provides motion,
changing the location of an image along a predetermined path (position) during a specified amount of time
(speed). Authoring and presentation software such as Flash or PowerPoint provide user-friendly tools to
compute position changes and redraw an image in a new location, allowing you to generate a bouncing ball
or slide a corporate mascot onto the screen. Combining changes in an image with changes in its position
allows you to “walk” your corporate mascot onto the stage. Changing its size from small to large as it walks
on stage will give you a 3-D perception of distance.
In 2½-D animation, an illusion of depth (the z axis) is added to an image through shadowing and
highlighting, but the image itself still rests on the flat x and y axes in two dimensions. Embossing,
shadowing, beveling, and highlighting provide a sense of depth by raising an image or cutting it into a
background. Zaxwerks’ 3D Invigorator (www.zaxwerks.com), for example, provides 3-D effects for text
and images and, while calling itself “3D,” works within the 2-D space of image editors and drawing
programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, and After Effects.
In 3-D animation, software creates a virtual realm in three dimensions, and changes (motion) are calculated
along all three axes (x, y, and z), allowing an image or object that itself is created with a front, back, sides,
top, and bottom to move toward or away from the viewer, or, in this virtual space of light sources and
points of view, allowing the viewer to wander around and get a look at all the object’s parts from all angles.
Such animations are typically rendered frame by frame by high-end 3-D animation programs such as
NewTek’s Lightwave or AutoDesk’s Maya.

Did u know? Today, computers have taken the handwork out of the animation and rendering process,
and commercial films such as Shrek, Coraline, Toy Story, and Avatar have utilized the power of
computers.

Notes Before we had full-motion moving pictures, there was flipbooks. Flipbooks were small books
with pages where small caricatures were drawn. As you flipped the books from front to back, the
drawings looked as though they were animated. Some flipbooks came empty, and you could add
your own drawings. Flipbooks gave the illusion that the cartoon character in the pages was actually
moving before our eyes. This illusion is the cornerstone of animation.

8.2.1 Character Model Sheet

When designing a character for any particular animated medium (2D or 3D), the designer must consider
what their design will look like from all angles and from all points of view. Although traditionally drawn
animation essentially views everything with a two-dimensional view, one look at the very best of 2D
character animation reveals that it is necessary to understand the character from numerous viewpoints, even
for something as simple as an animated take or head turn. To ensure that the designer, the director, and the
team of animators understand the full structure and nature of a particular character from all possible angles
and perspectives, a character model sheet is created.
A model sheet is the blueprint of a character, defining its size, construction, and proportions. The model
sheet traditionally must show the character from the three fundamental viewpoints— front, profile, and
rear view—with sometimes a front three-quarter and a rear three-quarter view thrown in for good measure.
A good model sheet will also define the head-height formula for that character and may even include close-
up details of the character’s features, such as hands, mouth, and feet. There can often be more than one
model sheet per character, depending on the amount of construction detail required by the production team.
Additional model sheets might also show specific attitude poses of the character, its relative size to other
featured characters, and even mouth positions for vowels and consonants if lip-sync dialogue is anticipated.
With Hollywood-level movie productions, if might also be advisable to create 3D clay models of the main
characters, so animators can pick them up and view their shape and form from every conceivable angle.
Anything that familiarizes the animator with the character is valuable when designing an animation
character.
Below is a Model Rotation – its purpose to show the character from all sides.
Observe how the character is drawing in the front, profile (side), 3/4 and back views. This is called a
Character Rotation. For this, we use a simple shaped character. A simple shaped character uses one basic
shape or FORM for the main body of character.

!
Caution Please keep in mind the dimensional aspects of your drawing – in other words what appear to
be shapes are really 3D forms.

2.2.2 Frames

Before you can work with a frame, you must select it as the current frame. The contents of the current
frame appear in the document window.
In the Animation panel (Photoshop Extended CS5) or Timeline panel (CS6), the current frame is indicated
by a narrow border (inside the shaded selection highlight) around the frame thumbnail. Selected frames are
indicated by a shaded highlight around the frame thumbnails.
The frame rate that you work at is a very important factor in the final quality of your animation. The frame
rate determines how many frames per second are displayed when you playback your animation. If you set
the frame rate too high, you have to produce too many drawings. If you set it too low, your animation will
look choppy.

2.2.3 Cycles

There are lots of tricks that animators constantly use to cut down the amount of work to be done. Cycles
of repeating action are just one of these ways – and whenever animators find an opportunity to include a
cycle in a sequence, you can bet they will seize upon it.
Some of the very early cartoons were almost entirely based on cyclic actions, especially when it was
discovered that animation could echo the rhythmic patterns found in music. Walt Disney’s 1928 ‘Steamboat
Willie’ was the first sound cartoon to amaze audiences of the day with its close synchronism between image
and sound. This relationship was exploited to the hilt, (giving rise to the term ‘Mickey Mousing’ – a sound
track which follows exactly what the image is doing) as was the use of cyclic animation which took its cues
from the repeated phases and beats of the musical score.

Example: Roll over the man on the bike to the right to make him ride. There are two cycles here. A
‘resting’ pant cycle consisting of only 2 drawings with asymmetrical timing, the breath-in pose being held
slightly longer, and the riding cycle consisting of 5 drawings.
2.2.4 Storyboards

Once a concept or script is written for a film or animation, the next step is to make a storyboard. A
storyboard visually tells the story of an animation panel by panel, kind of like a comic book.
Your storyboard will should convey some of the following information:
What characters are in the frame, and how are they moving?
What are the characters saying to each other, if anything?
How much time has passed between the last frame of the storyboard and the current one?

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

13. In an intermediate …………….. space where shadowing, highlights, and forced perspective provide
an illusion of depth, the third dimension); and the most realistic animations occur in three-
dimensional (3-D) space.
14. …………………. animation in 2-D space increases the complexity of an animation and provides
motion, changing the location of an image along a predetermined path (position) during a specified
amount of time (speed).
15. In ……………. animation, software creates a virtual realm in three dimensions, and changes
(motion) are calculated along all three axes (x, y, and z), allowing an image or object that itself is
created with a front, back, sides, top, and bottom to move toward or away from the viewer, or, in
this virtual space of light sources and points of view, allowing the viewer to wander around and get
a look at all the object’s parts from all angles.

2.3 Animation Techniques

When you create an animation, organise its execution into a series of logical steps. First, gather up in your
mind all the activities you wish to provide in the animation. If it is complicated, you may wish to create a
written script with a list of activities and required objects and then create a storyboard to visualise the
animation. Choose the animation tool best suited for the job, and then build and tweak your sequences.
This may include creating objects, planning their movements, texturing their surfaces, adding lights,
experimenting with lighting effects, and positioning the camera or point of view. Allow plenty of time for
this phase when you are experimenting and testing. Finally, post-process your animation, doing any special
renderings and adding sound effects.

2.3.1 Cel Animation

The animation techniques made famous by Disney use a series of progressively different graphics or cels
on each frame of movie film (which plays at 24 frames per second). A minute of animation may thus require
as many as 1,440 separate frames, and each frame may be composed of many layers of cels. The term cel
derives from the clear celluloid sheets that were used for drawing each frame, which have been replaced
today by layers of digital imagery. Cels of famous animated cartoons have become sought-after, suitable-
for-framing collector’s items.
Cel animation artwork begins with keyframes (the first and last frame of an action). For example, when an
animated figure of a woman walks across the screen, she balances the weight of her entire body on one
foot and then the other in a series of falls and recoveries, with the opposite foot and leg catching up to
support the body. Thus the first keyframe to portray a single step might be the woman pitching her body
weight forward off the left foot and leg, while her center of gravity shifts forward; the feet are close
together, and she appears to be falling. The last keyframe might be the right foot and leg catching the body’s
fall, with the center of gravity now centered between the outstretched stride and the left and right feet
positioned far apart. The series of frames in between the keyframes are drawn in a process called tweening.
Tweening is an action that requires calculating the number of frames between keyframes and the path the
action takes, and then actually sketching with pencil the series of progressively different outlines. As
tweening progresses, the action sequence is checked by flipping through the frames. The penciled frames
are assembled and then actually filmed as a pencil test to check smoothness, continuity, and timing.
When the pencil frames are satisfactory, they are permanently inked, photocopied onto cels, and given to
artists who use acrylic colors to paint the details for each cel. Women were often preferred for this
painstaking inking and painting work as they were deemed patient, neat, and had great eyes for detail. In
the hands of a master, cel paint applied to the back of acetate can be simply flat and perfectly even, or it
can produce beautiful and subtle effects, with feathered edges or smudges.

Example: The cels for each frame of our example of a walking woman—which may consist of a text
title, a background, foreground, characters (with perhaps separate cels for a left arm, a right arm, legs,
shoes, a body, and facial features)—are carefully registered and stacked. It is this composite that becomes
the final photographed single frame in an animated movie.
To replicate natural motion, traditional cel animators often utilized “motion capture” by photographing a
woman walking, a horse trotting, or a cat jumping to help visualize timings and movements. Today,
animators use reflective sensors applied to a person, animal, or other object whose motion is to be captured.
Cameras and computers convert the precise locations of the sensors into x, y, z coordinates and the data is
rendered into 3-D surfaces moving over time.

Task Write a brief note on Cel Animation with suitable example.

8.3.2 Computer Animation

Computer animation programs typically employ the same logic and procedural concepts as cel animation
and use the vocabulary of classic cel animation—terms such as layer, keyframe, and tweening. The primary
difference among animation software programs is in how much must be drawn by the animator and how
much is automatically generated by the software. In path-based 2-D and 2½-D animation, an animator
simply creates an object (or imports an object as clip art) and describes a path for the object to follow. The
computer software then takes over, actually creating the animation on the fly as the program is being viewed
by your user. In cel-based 2-D animation, each frame of an animation is provided by the animator, and the
frames are then composited (usually with some tweening help available from the software) into a single
file of images to be played in sequence. ULead’s GIF Animator (www.ulead.com/ga) and Alchemy’s GIF
Construction Set Pro (www.mindworkshop.com) simply string together your collection of frames.

! Caution Overuse of animation and annoying visual effects can ruin a multimedia project.
Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

16. ………………… is an action that requires calculating the number of frames between keyframes and
the path the action takes, and then actually sketching with pencil the series of progressively different
outlines.
17. Nowadays animators use ………………….. applied to a person, animal, or other object whose
motion is to be captured.
18. ………………… programs typically employ the same logic and procedural concepts as cel
animation and use the vocabulary of classic cel animation—terms such as layer, keyframe, and
tweening.

2.4 Animation File Formats

Some file formats are designed specifically to contain animations, so they can be ported among applications
and platforms with the proper translators. Those formats include Director (.dir and .dcr), AnimatorPro (.fli
and .flc), 3D Studio Max (.max), GIF89a (.gif), and Flash (.fla and .swf). Because file size is a critical
factor when downloading animations to play on web pages, file compression is an essential part of
preparing animation files for the Web. A Director’s native movie file (.dir), for example, must be
preprocessed and compressed into a proprietary Shockwave animation file (.dcr) for the Web. Compression
for Director movies is as much as 75 percent or more with this tool, turning 100K files into 25K files and
significantly speeding up download/ display times on the Internet. Flash, widely used for web-based
animation, makes extensive use of vector graphics to keep the post-compression file size at absolute
minimums. As with Director, its native .fla files must be converted to Shockwave Flash files (.swf) in order
to play on the Web. To view these animations within a web page, special plug-ins or players are required.

Did u know? Flash files are in the SWF format, traditionally called “ShockWave Flash” movies,
“Flash movies,” or “Flash applications”, usually have a “.swf” file extension, and may be used in
the form of a Web page plug-in, strictly “played” in a stand-alone Flash Player, or incorporated into
a self-executing projector movie (with the .exe extension in Microsoft Windows).
In some cases, especially with 3-D animations, the individual rendered frames of an animation are put
together into one of the standard digital video file containers, such as the Windows Audio Video Interleaved
format (.avi), QuickTime (.qt, .mov), or Motion Picture Experts Group video (.mpeg or .mpg). These can
be played using the media players shipped with computer operating systems.

Task Make a list of the various file formats used for animation.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

19. Some file formats are designed specifically to contain animations, so they can restrict being ported
among applications and platforms with the proper translators.
20. Especially with 3-D animations, the individual rendered frames of an animation are put together into
one of the standard digital video file containers.
 Case Study
Process in the Animation Industry

– By Michael Comet (In his own words)

About the Author
Michael Comet is currently a Rigger/T.D. at Blue Sky Studios in New York. Previously he worked
as Video Team Lead Rigger and a 3D/Animator/Artist at Big Idea in Lombard, IL where he was an
Animator/T.D. on the first three Penguins episodes, as well as several Veggie Tales Videos.
Previously he was lead animator at the video game company Volition, Inc., where he animated most
of the cinematic sequences for Descent: Freespace, and headed up much of the real-time character
animation and cinematics R&D for their RPG title, "Summoner".
Introduction
This article is an attempt to explain and illustrate how I usually go about my animation process, from
idea to finished animation. If you haven't read it yet, you may also all working how I want. Layout
is the first pass at this, which basically consists of me posing out the first frame, getting the set pieces
made if needed, and framing the camera.
Once I'm happy with the layout of the shot, I'm ready to actually start animating. I'll look at my
thumbnail sketches if I have any. I scrub the audio, and start putting in my key poses.
At work I've used "Step" keys. This way if I have a pose at frame 1, and then another pose at frame
20, I can just key those 2 frames. Everything "holds", there is no interpolation. At work we've termed
this "pop-thru" (once again see Keith Lango's Tutorial as well), because everything seems to "pop"
from one pose to another, because there are no in-between frames.
In MAX it's a bit of a pain to have to switch from step keys to linear keys and such, and in addition,
I wanted to kind of get a feel for the timing just a tad more, especially since it is such a subtle clip.
Therefore I opted to just use "Linear" key interpolation instead.
If I wanted a pose, once again on frame 1 and 20, what I would do is pose the first one on frame 1.
Then figure out how long to hold the pose, say maybe I want 15 frames, so I'd go to frame 15, key
all the character body parts there the exact same as on frame 1, and then go to frame 20 and key the
second different pose. That way things stay the same and don't interpolate from 1-15, then there is a
5 frame change, and then the next pose on 20.
I pretty much continue this cycle of new pose, hold pose, then new pose, hold pose, until I am done.
In some cases as shown here, I have some moving holds, because in reality the poses weren't
supposed to pop. However as you notice, it is still very rough.
The idea at this "Blocking" stage is to simply get a quick picture of what the poses are, and what is
happening in the shot to make sure it looks ok. The important aspect of this block stage are:
Very quick to do. You're just putting in the basic poses.
You can tell what is going on overall body-acting wise.
Contd....

Interpolation and timing isn't too important right now, you're just doing a first shot at it.
All parts of the body for each pose are keyed on the same frame. This makes it very easy to slide the
keys/timing around later.
Rough Animation
After I am pretty sure of my main poses, acting, and basic timing, I'll go in and start to tweak.
Everything is still kept with "Linear" keys, so that I don't have to worry about splines interpolating
wrong. At this point I'll start by adjusting the timing of the poses and their transitions.
Once I'm happy with that I'll also start to add more flourishes or sub-poses, which are really just the
same pose, with some variations in them. I'll also add anticipation and follow through as I progress.
The idea here is even with linear keys, the animation should start to look more complete. If I key more
than one part of the body, then I'll still make sure all the keys are on the same frame, i.e., there is no
offsetting. But there is more detail and refinement in the poses, timing, and details.
I usually work in blocks, of 50-100 frames or so at a time. That way I can focus on just a small chunk,
make it look good, then continue forward. Below are 3 clips of my progress through the rough stages.
Notice on the first Rough 1 movie, all I really did was start to add detail to the beginning of the clip,
since I hadn't gotten farther yet. In the Rough 2 movie, things have been fleshed out pretty well. I don't
usually do any facial animation so the face is hidden, although I did do a quick eye move to help me
read what was going on. In Rough 3, I decided to push the poses a bit more, exaggerating some of the
moves a little bit more extremely to add some variation.
The important things about the Rough stage are:
Timing gets corrected.
Poses get refined, in-between poses are added. Anticipation and follow through poses are used.
No facial animation yet.
Everything is still using Linear key interpolation.
At the end of the rough stage, the body animation should almost look as good as done, even though it has
linear keys.
Facial Animation
After pretty much finishing up the body in a Linear state, I start work on the facial animation. I'll
typically start by doing just the mouth, and making the lipsync look ok. This is the Facial 1 movie.
Then I'll go back and add some emotion into the mouth, adding more or less smile or frown around
what is going on in the lipsync. The keys are all still Linear in this stage as well.
After the mouth is done, I'll go and start the eye motion. Typically I'll animate the brows and lids for
expression as needed. All Linear keys, but with no blinks yet. Just keys for Contd....

expression poses to keep things neat and clean in my timeline. That is the Facial 2 movie. I'll also make
sure the eyes are looking where they need at this stage.
Eventually I'll be ready to tweak any lipsync and facial issues and to add blinks into the poses.
Essentially fixing up the facial animation as needed, all with Linear keys still. This is the Facial 3
movie below.
The aspects of this phase of the animation for me are:
1 Everythingis still at Linear keys, this helps to not have to worry about accidental overshoot due to
interpolation.

1 Computer animation or CGI animation is the process used for generating animated images by using
computer graphics.
 2 I tend to block in the proper lipsync mouth movement, then add emotion after.
3 At the end of this stage both the body and face have been pretty much finished, but with Linear keys.

Cleanup Animation
At the end I start my "Cleanup" phase, where I adjust my keys to be smooth. We have a tool at work
for Maya, and one I wrote at home in MAX that switches keys to "smooth", but without any extra
accidental overshoot.
This allows you to get perfect smooth motion but with no computery accidental peaks or valleys in
the interpolation. Normally you'll have to change things to spline/smooth, and then manually tweak
tangent handles to get rid of overshoot if it occurs.
I then see how it looks, and tweak things accordingly, maybe offsetting some things, making slight
adjustments etc. This is where you can offset rotati hold up when it goes to video on a bigger screen.
This phase has:
Smooth keys
Offsets of keys if desired
This is the final animation.
Final Animation

Once I'm done with the animation, I'll take care of any special lighting or rendering issues. I may or
may not tweak things a bit more if I start to notice stuff and have time.
Questions:

1. What problems did you find in the procedure followed by Michael Comet?

2. What do you think would have been a better process for the animation?
Source: http://www.comet-cartoons.com/3ddocs/animprocess/

2.5 Summary
When designing a character for any particular animated medium (2D or 3D), the designer must consider
what their design will look like from all angles and from all points of view. A model sheet is the blueprint
of a character, defining its size, construction, and proportions.
Before you can work with a frame, you must select it as the current frame. The contents of the current
frame appear in the document window.
When you create an animation, organise its execution into a series of logical steps. First, gather up in your
mind all the activities you wish to provide in the animation.
Computer animation programs typically employ the same logic and procedural concepts as cel animation
and use the vocabulary of classic cel animation—terms such as layer, keyframe, and tweening.
Some file formats are designed specifically to contain animations, so they can be ported among
applications and platforms with the proper translators. Those formats include Director (.dir and .dcr),
AnimatorPro (.fli and .flc), 3D Studio Max (.max), GIF89a (.gif), and Flash (.fla and .swf). Because

2 principles of animation became the generally accepted techniques according to Don Graham who worked
with Walt Disney in founding the industry that you see today.
3 Using appropriate software and techniques, you can animate visual images in many ways.
 file size is a critical factor when downloading animations to play on web pages, file compression is
an essential part of preparing animation files for the Web.

2.6 Keywords

Anticipation: This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform,
such as, starting to run, jump or change expression.
Arcs: All actions, with few exceptions (such as the animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or
slightly circular path.
Follow through and Overlapping Action: When the main body of the character stops all other parts
continue to catch up to the main mass of the character, such as arms, long hair, clothing, coat tails or a
dress, floppy ears or a long tail (these follow the path of action).
Slow-out and Slow-in: As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the
middle, and more drawings near the next pose.
Squash and Stretch: This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves.
Staging: A pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea
of the character as it relates to the story and continuity of the story line.
Straight Ahead and Pose-To-Pose Animation: Straight ahead animation starts at the first drawing and
works drawing to drawing to the end of a scene.
Tweening: It is an action that requires calculating the number of frames between keyframes and the path
the action takes, and then actually sketching with pencil the series of progressively different outlines.

2.7 Review Questions

1. Define Animation with example.

2. Describe principles of animation.

3. What do you understand by the following in context to animation:

(a) Squash and Stretch

(b) Pose-to-pose animation

(c) Exaggeration

4. Explain animation fundamentals.

5. Discuss animation techniques.

6. Describe animation file formats.

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (a) 2. (c)
3. (a) 4. (d)

5. (c) 6. (d)

7. (a) 8. (b)
9. (a) 10. (c)

11. (b) 12. (c)

13. “2½-D” 14. Path

15. 3-D 16. Tweening

17. Reflective Sensors 18. Computer Animation

19. False 20. True

2.8 Further Readings

Books Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Kenan Professor of Computer Science. The Mythical ManMonth: Essays
in Software Engineering. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
K. Andleigh and K. Thakkar. Multimedia System Design. PHI, PTR.
Steve Rimmer (2000). Advanced Multimedia Programming. MHI.

Online links http://books.google.co.in/books?id=1odsKtv46ZQC&lpg=PA193&ots=

muU4yj5Ab8&dq=Fundamental %20of %20Animations&pg=PA193#v=one
page&q&f=false
http://nora.lis.uiuc.edu:3030/companion/view?docId=blackwell/
9781405103213/9781405103213.xml&doc.view=print&chunk.id=ss1-2-
10&toc.depth=1&toc.id=0
http://users.mct.open.ac.uk/yr258/papers/Rogers_Scaife98.pdf
http://www.icheg.org/icheg-game-history/timeline/
http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/teaching/1611ICT/mm1alectures/l11/
Writing%20For%20Multimedia%20Great%20Moments%20In%20
Multimedia%20History.htm