The Principles of Animation
Animation is the art of movement. During the past century, master animators and artists have explored the potential of this craft. Through their experiences, successes and failures, a series of time honored techniques have been developed. These Principles of Animation guide us down the turbulent waters of storytelling, character development and artistic communication.This week, we are going to be exploring the Principles of Animation and begin studying the process of animating a moving object. As you will discover, animating a long sequence requires a tremendous amount of work, persistence and attention to detail. Animators and filmmakers have, traditionally, used story boards to quickly prototype of their animated sequences and stories. Before we can jump into animating our first sequence, we need to look at the process of storytelling using storyboards. Through our conversation, we?ll discover how the principles of animation should be applied to our movements and discuss the animation production pipeline. We?ll also discuss the importance of character, performance and storytelling and how to apply these ideas into the art of animation.
The Bouncing Ball (50pts)
Project Due: Week 04
Creating an animation can be a daunting process. This week, we are going to start off by drawing our first animation in Photoshop and create a the illusion of a ball bouncing across the floor of our scene. Using the drawing tools in Photoshop, follow the bouncing ball example found on page 36 & 37 of the Animator's Survival Kit. As you work though this project pay close attention to the motion path of the ball. As you know from the lecture, all objects travel along an arc. Export your animation from Photoshop as an H.264 Quicktime video file when ou are done. Please ensure you project includes the following required elements before you complete this assignment:- Your Ball must bounce at least 3 times in the animation
- Your animation must demonstrate the correct application of the principles of Arcs and Squash and Stretch
- Please include some indication of a ground
- Animation Length: At least 40 frames
- Animation Frame Size = 1280 x 720 pixels
- Final Render File Type from Photoshop = .MOV
Examples of Successful Projects
Check out this awesome project! The animation below is an example of successful student project. Use the following animation to help guide you to your end results. Notice that the artist is applying a good sense of Squash and Strecth and Arcs! Great work!
All Finished with your Homework?
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 Bouncing Ball dropbox on D2L.
Before you upload your files to D2L, please ensure your files meet the following naming conventions:
Submit Your Assignment- lastname_gcom_400_bouncing_ball.psd
- lastname_gcom_400_bouncing_ball.mov
Screen Direction (25pts)
Project Due: Week 04
Before we can create complex animations in Photoshop, we must master the animation production process in Photoshop. Adding, drawing and animating frames in Photoshop is not difficult, but there are a number of steps we must follow.
Using the technique we learned in class, animate a simple object (of your choosing) moving from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen and then back to its original starting location. In addition to your moving object, I would also like you to include a stationary, non-moving, object in this animation. Ideally, the stationary object will serve as a background element. You can either draw this element, or leverage the power of the internet and find an appropriate background for your animation. This lab assignment was designed to get you comfortable with the entire animation pipeline before you begin to tackle more challenging projects. Remember the steps:
- Create
- Animate
- Render
Please ensure your project includes the following required elements before you complete this assignment:
- Your object must travel from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen and then back to the original starting location.
- Please include a background element that does not move
- Animation Length: At least 30 frames
- Animation Frame Size = 1280 x 720 pixels
- Final Render File Type from Photoshop = .MOV
Examples of Successful Projects
Check out this awesome project! The animation below is an example of successful student project. Use the following animation to help guide you to your end results. You don't have to draw the background by hand! You can use any photograph you want! Good times!
All Finished with your Homework?
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 Screen Direction dropbox on D2L.
Before you upload your files to D2L, please ensure your files meet the following naming conventions:
Submit Your Assignment- lastname_gcom_400_lab_screen_movement.psd
- lastname_gcom_400_lab_screen_movement.mov
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Videos
Here are some important videos for this week's learning materials. I've created these videos to help you navigate the instructional content we covered in class. Make sure you add these important assets into your personal learning library by bookmarking them!
