12 Principles

[AliAhsan]

Okay as we were discussing observation. Observation or lets say analysis of anything becomes more promissing and easier if you have an idea on what to look for. Like if a doctor want to analyse your health he will go through certain "routine" tests like taking your weight, your height, your temperature, then maybe your blood pressure etc etc. So a complex thing like health care has procedures for analysis.

Art also have certain procedures or steps for analysis, like for example in still life drawing you search for basic shapes circles, squares, triangles etc. You use techniques to measure relative size. You study effect of light on basic shapes and look for similar shading in your subject. etc

Animation is a form of art which deals with motion and to analyse motion we need some hints. Two good old animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, in the early days had to teach a lot of artists the techniques of animation. And to be able to get quality animations from everyone they developed 12 principles through which motion can be analysed and animation can produced and checked. They are the analysis tools for animation and a vocabulary through which animators talked and understood this complex form of art.

12 Principles can be read in 15 mins and cannot be mastered even in 15 years. They are not just 12 points, they are your toolbox items through which you'll analyse real life motion, transform your ideas, animate properly, check it properly, fix it properly. They can be used to measure your performance. They have the power to make you an imagineer.

12 Principles :: starting at http://www.karmatoons.com/drawing/11a.htm

Remember, they are to be kept handy if you want to survive as an animator!

In next few days first we'll do a reality check on how animation is created through illusion of motion and discuss these principles one by one.

Please participate thanks.

[usmanghias]

very informative Ali bhai yes u are right they cant be mastered in 15 years but they really make me notice alot of things ive never thought about when im working will try to keep as much as i can in my mind.
thanks for sharing and looking forward for next lesson.
Usman

[hanan]

thanks for feeding us with your knowledge on regular basis.
plugged 12 principles on cgx portal already.
it will be a good idea to practice these steps on forum to make sure we dont just read it but make full use of the knowledge.

[AliAhsan]

Okay how on this earth humans discovered animation. I would really encourage dear members to read the history @

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation

I think its important to know the history of anything, before you accept it as a miracle and start to feel like its something you cant do. Animation, in my point of view, is something humans created to fool their own brain taking advantage of how it perceives something moving. The weakness is persistence of vision. Well we all know about this, so whats the point repeating it. Sometimes we all pay less importance to something old and known. I think all of us "animators" should go back and try to create this illusion by our own hands, to develop a faith that this illusion will always be created if frames (created through any means) are flipped at a rate higher then the persistence of vision mark ie 1/30th of a second.

If you can draw just circle, boxes and lines. You can do this experiment. or if you have a camera, or a scanner they can also be used.

Make anything and submit for review. Please dont use any 3D package at this moment (hold it!) 3D Softwares will snatch away the soul from this excercise.

Just to give you some confidence I made this for you, without drawing or any animation package.

http://www.badongo.com/vid/267843

Made with webcam and 2 rupee coin and Anasazi (http://www.animateclay.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=24&page=1).

A few softwares that can help.
For Hand drawn
Flash
Mirage (http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/2D_Animation.php)
Plastic animation paper (www.plasticanimationpaper.dk/ )

Lets start!! dont hesitate, I'll review each and everyone of your submissions. Let me talk on your work, it will help me and you understand things better.

Whole next week is there for you to submit.

PS:: dont ask me how to upload work to the internet. I really dont want to answer those questions here or anywhere sorry!

[hanan]

nice example
i definately try it in lunch time or at home
thanks for rolling to wheel

[usmanghias]

nice
ive seen history of animation a week back in a mueseum ive even seen first animated scene and every thing related to how it starts was really a cool experiance for me, ill surely give stop motion animation a try lets see what i create with it i will be using plasticshine like they use to do in gumby .
Thanku for ur time Ahsan bhai
Usman

[hanan]

just to keep the ball rolling, here is my try

just bounced no rule is applied just some spacing variations on positions. dont mind its magic ball nature

http://www.2dguy.com/animation/bouncing.html

[AliAhsan]

Great! Hanan, thats the spirit man!

Okay this is on the right track dude! you have created what is required for this excercise "illusion of motion". Let me give you another step forward, since what you have created is a bouncing ball animation, lets take a real world reference and analyse it, then we do this excercise again. You do it first and then I'll guide you. Take this video and observe it and compare with your animation. As I can see you did this frame by frame, thats the right thing to do at this time, you must be asking yourself few questions as made those, in how many frames the ball should hit the ground and how much farther should I draw the next ball. Very important and key questions. See if the reference can answer these questions.

Analyse (observe) the reference, I will not dictate any workflow here since its very important that you discover that yourself.

One thing I would strongly recomend do a video reference yourself. Holding the ball in your hand feeling its weight texture, listening to its sound when it bounces is subliminal learning experience. Your brain is very clever in learning things through multiple senses. Do referencing with different balls, like basket ball, soccer, tenis, ping pong.

this reference is for you to see how I and Zubiar (my good friend and colleague ) did our referencing @ Sharpimage.

Awaiting your next submission.

http://www.mediamax.com/aliahsan/Links/5050CFAF06 :: 4MB

[Khalia]

congrats hanan u finaly did it

[hanan]

thanks a million Ali Ahsan, clip was very helpful and helped me to learn new things. i wanted to share my observation (i am sure even i am wrong, it will help myself and someone interested to get more knowledge)

1- on maximum height after bounce frame overlapping is maximum (goes up, slows down on max height ) and minmum while travelling to max or min height due to potential energy i believe.

2- each bounce height is aprox 3/4th of previous bounce

3- when bounce arc diameter is directly propertional to ball frame overlapping (lower the diameter of arc higher will be overlapping on max height, i know everybody knows it already but still )

yeah the questions on my mind was about the timing and spacing but instead of video reference i chose to go with my imagination to do this, one of the big reason was to know how big the difference between observation and imagination

also helped me to observe the actual timing on soccer ball, hope i will soon upload better bouncing ball animation

Dont miss this chance guys, really interesting and rewarding

[hanan]

congrats hanan u finaly did it

thanks Khalia, but its not me, its Ali Ahsan who is doing alot for us so dont miss the chance.
the juice is worth squeezing

[Khalia]

yaar i'm so happy atleast some one got good sence of humor.

yap yaar he is a cool teacher and higly talented person. i do respect him and keep the good work up.

i will also try to squeez the juice out of it

[AliAhsan]

Hey great! very nice analysis, you drew the whole sequence on one frame, that is very helpful in learning the whole pattern of ball bounce.

Very common thing, a simple bouncing ball have truck load of things in there. Thats the beauty of referencing always unique and enough information to kick start an animation project.

Now that you know that a sequence of flipping frames can create the illusion of motion (the play ground of every animator). Let me give you another view of those 12 principles.


Print this out and stick it over your workbench. They need to be remembered visually and mind it they are not in a sequence, each is equally important and takes time to master.

Analyse the ball bounce again and see if you can point out any part which shows any of these principles. Any motion can be described through these principles, try.

I'll start the talk on these principle in next post Inshallah.

[555]

damn i have missed so much
wait for me i am joining in..............

[hanan]

thanks Ali Alhsan for the chart, very much helpful

i am attaching image of bouncing ball and want to show some parts which i think can explain few animation principles

1- Stretch and Squash : not applied on previous animation but what i understand is we can stretch ball when it has maximum energy to reach to extreme position like just after hitting on ground and rising up, the first frame after hitting the ground will have maximum energy so we can apply max stretch here and on the frame just before hitting the ground. max Squash can be applied on ball drawing when it hits the ground and a result sudden stop will suck its energy.

2- Arc motion: is natural motion , ball is also bouncing by making arcs no going up and down in a stright line ),

3- Pose to Pose and Straight ahead : I did all this animation frame by frame so it is straight ahead, if i make its extreme up and down frames and add inbetweens to make it move in arc or just extreme keys it will be pose to mose animation.

4- Timing : no of frames it takes between two bounces is timing, it differs on each bounce because of decreasing energy resulting lower height in each bounce. on a single arc timing on going upward and coming downward is almost same i guess (it felt neglactable difference to me)

5- Slow in and Slow out : just after a bounce ball get maximum energy to each toward heighest point, this speed results in fastest motion of ball and it will slows down gradually while reaching to heighest point, so it is fast to slowing down motion so we can call it slow in (fast to slow) . while coming down this procedure gets inverse, now the energy source is gravity, ball starts moving down from 0 energy and gradually gains energy due to gravitational force so motion is slow to fast, so it is slow out. I remember this using my own logic when motion is entering in slow state it is slow in (in the slow state) and when motion is going out from slow state it is slow out (going out of slow state in to fast state)

6- Exaggeration : we can apply exaggeration on these 2 stretch and squash points. we can exaggerate these two states

I have a little understanding about rest rules of animations too but i am not clear myself how to apply these rules in thie ball so its better to ask Mr. Ali Ahsan instead of confusing many others with my confused observation