Overlapping Action

Creating great animation requires great attention to detail. Through the process of movement study and research, specific trends in movement begin to appear. One of these trends focuses on the idea that soft bodied objects, like the human body for example, have trailing motions associated with the primary movements. These trailing motions, in the animation industry, are achieved through Overlapping Action.

This week, we are going to explore our next Principle of Animation: Overlapping Action. With this principle in tow, our animations will illustrate the correct movements of soft bodied sections of our characters, like hats, dresses, hair, flabby skin and big bellies. In addition, Overlapping Actions allow us to communicate exaggerated movements more clearly.

Project Due: Week 07

For this assignment, you will create your first character; Goldilocks. Now don't worry, I'm not asking you to draw a fully developed character figure, but we are going to start with an object we are already comfortable with; a sphere. Yes, Goldilocks is going to be a sphere, but not just any ole sphere. Our version of Goldilocks is going to include a braid of hair on both sides of her head.

Instructions: Take some time and conceptualize your character. Use your creative talents and design a sphere with a braid of hair coming out of both sides of your sphere. In addition to designing Goldilocks, design and create an appropriate background for her animation. Is she bouncing through a forrest? In a playground? Backgrounds provide content for the movement. Our animations won't make much sense without a background.

Once you have designed your character, animate Goldilocks jumping in place three times. It is extremely difficult for human beings, or any object for that matter, to jump in the same spot every time. The motion path of Goldilock's jump should not be identical for this animation. She should be moving from side to side as she jumps. Remember to include the overlapping action on her hair. Each braid should rise and fall as she jumps, but explore the element of "drag" for this animation. Once you have finished animating Goldilocks jumping, render your animation out of Photoshop using the H.264 codec and upload your file to the dropbox on D2L. Please ensure you project includes the following required elements before you complete this assignment:

After you have saved the project file on your personal external storage device (like a thumb drive), please upload your Photoshop Document (.psd) and your rendered movie (.Mov) to the Goldilocks dropbox on D2L.

Before you upload your files to D2L, please ensure your files meet the following naming conventions:

Project Due: Week 07

In this lab assignment, we are going to learn a little bit more about the importance of overlapping action by breaking some bones! Don't worry, we're not going to break actual bones; our cartoon stunt double will be the only one harmed in the making of this animation.

Instructions: Turn to page 233 in the Animators Survival Guide and analyze the movement the author is illustrating. The goal of this exercise, is to realistically draw an arm moving up and then down. The body of your character will remain stationary and only the arm of your character will move. Notice that to communicate the movement of the arm correctly, the animator must break the elbow and wrist joints of the character. Don't worry, our stunt double won't feel a thing. Animate the arm of your character moving up and then moving back down.

Don't forget to render your video from Photoshop when you have completed your animation. Please ensure your project includes the following required elements before you complete this assignment:

After you have saved the project file on your personal external storage device (like a thumb drive), please upload your Photoshop Document (.psd) and your rendered movie (.Mov) to the Breaking Joints dropbox on D2L.

Before you upload your files to D2L, please ensure your files meet the following naming conventions: