Animation Fundamentals-----lecture &excerise

on
Week 1 - Week 4 

 23Apr 2025 - 18May2025

QIULIHUA/0365036

Animation Fundamentals / Bachelor of Design (Honours)in Creative Media

lecture &excerise——Animation Fundamentals


INSTRUCTION


LECTURE

WEEK 1 ：
In this class, Mr. Kamal introduced us to the specific courses that we need to take in order to major in digital animation, as well as the historical background of animation and the production process, and also the frame rate.And also recommend us a few animation-related learning resources to get a better understanding of animation

Fig1.0 classroom notebook

Pre-production
  • Modeling (Models)
  • Texturing/Shading
  • Binding (Rigging)

Animation Production Stage
  • Character Animation
  • Motion Splitting
  • Posing
  • Key Animator
  • Intermediate Frame Drawing (Inbetweener)
  • Background
  • Cleanup
  • Ink lines/strokes (Inking)
WEEK 2：
Animation Principles-"Fluid and Flow"

1.Frame rate:

Frame rate (expressed in frames per second or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed

Fig 1.1 Frame rate

2.Timing 

  • Definition：
The number of drawings used in any move determines the amount of time that action will take on the screen
Fig1.2 Timing


  • (Fast vs Slow)
The number of drawings used in any move determines the amount of time that action will take on the screen.

Fig 1.3 fast vs slow


  • Timing and Meaning
3.Spacing:
Fig 1.4 Spacing

The ball overlaps itself when it's at the slow part of its arc, but when it drops fast, it's spacedfurther apart, That's the spacing. The spacing is how close or far apart those clusters are. That'sit, lt's simple, but it's important. The spacing is the tricky part, Good animation spacing is a rarecommodity.

  • Timing & Spacing
Fig 1.5Timing & Spacing



  • Timing Chart
Fig 1.6 Timing Chart



4.Arc
The visual path of an object or action is called an “arc”. 
Fig 1.7 Arc


WEEK 3:
Animation Principles："Elasticity & Flexibility in Animation"

The Animation Style:
  • Realistics
  • Semi-Realistics
  • Cartoony
Squash and Stretch
Squash and Stretch gives the illusion of :
1. Elasticity of the material
2. Flexibility of motion
3. Life

Elasticity and body deformation
Basic mechanical movements

  • Squash: When pushed by an external force, the shape will become flat, indicating weight and impact.
  • Stretch: When pulled by an external force, the shape will lengthen, indicating speed and kinetic energy.

Key concepts：

Shape changes: Deformation conveys "flesh" and enhances the vitality of the character.

"In Action" example: Shows the different stages of a ball in a jump, including stretching (take-off), compression (contacting the ground), and stretching again (rebound).

2. Flexible action principle
Bone drive ：

Use bone structure to drive soft movements, such as dragging and twisting of arms and legs to express natural movements.

Action effects：

  • Anticipation: Prepare for the main action to make the action more natural.
  • Motion Blur (motion blur): indicates fast movement and enhances the sense of speed.
  • Life (vitality): makes the character look more dynamic through flexibility and deformation.

3.Follow Through & Overlapping Principles

Example: swinging flowers

1. Anticipation: preparatory action before animation.

2. Main path of action (Drag): drag effect during object movement.

3. Follow Through & Overlapping: the chain/bone structure of the flower continues to move after the action is completed, showing inertia and softness.

Fig 1.8 swinging flowers

WEEK 5：
ANIMATION PRINCIPLES

SOLID DRAWING：
Line of Action

A line of action is the imaginary line running through a character that describes the direction and motion of his body and is the leading force of a character's action.


A strong line of action goes through the whole body, illustrates the force of the action, unifies the pose, and makes a clear statement.

  • DYNAMIC POSE

  • PUSH THE POSES

  • HOW FAR CAN YOU PUSH IT?

  • ANIMATING CONTRAST
  • DYNAMIC POSE

Silhouette：
  • Clear Silhouette

  • Negative Space
Negative space, or the empty space around your character, is very important to your posing.

Having a variety of empty spaces between the arms and legs, as well as a nice contrast of large spaces and small spaces helps to build a dynamic silhouette and keeps the pose visually interesting.


  • Shape and Joint overlap

Avoid Twinning Pose：

Twist Pose：

Contrapposto：

The foundation of Solid Drawing:
How to make 2D drawings have a sense of 3D structure.
  • Solid Drawing
  • Starting from the model/3D structure, maintain consistency
  • Construction Drawing: Use basic shapes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, etc.
  • Neutral Pose and Action Pose
  • 2D should be drawn like 3D → Control volume, perspective, stability



Line of Action:
The action line is a "main line" that expresses the dynamic direction of the character
  • Includes body structure: shoulders, hips
  • S-curve / C-curve (curve) shows the dynamic curvature of the body
  • Body balance and contrast structure (such as diagonal lines, anti-center of gravity)
  • Weight & Balance (weight and balance), guide the sense of dynamics
  • Use lines to give life to postures and build momentum in action (Imbalance in action)

Advanced Solid Drawing Techniques:
Improve the three-dimensional quality and readability of drawings

  • 3D Perspective: Use perspective to enhance the three-dimensional sense
  • Silhouette: Clear outlines avoid overlapping and enhance the recognition of actions
  • Avoid "twinning": Avoid symmetrical movements that appear stiff
  • Avoid "parallel" limbs: Avoid parallel limbs to create depth changes
  • Negative Space: Use the spatial relationship between the character and the background to emphasize the posture
  • Foreshortening: Near objects are larger than far objects to enhance the sense of depth
  • Use 'Overlap lines' to enhance realism

EXERCISE


EXERCISE 1: BOUNCING BALL ANIMATION


1. Using Adobe Animate, you are required to animate normal weight with moderate timingof bouncing ball (Soccer ball).

2.Applying the animation principle that you have learned on Week 2, Timing, Spacing, Slowin & Slow out and Arcs is required.

3.You may refer to any bouncin ball video to get the sense of the right timing.

4.The required framerate is 24fps, 16:9 aspect ratio with resolution of 1280 x 720 (HD 720p)

5.The final animation should be animated on ‘2’ with clean up stroke and output as .mp4 format.
    We use Adobe Animate to animate the bouncing ball.It also explains the canvas size inside Adobe animation and how to use its buttons.

    Fig1.8 about Adobe animation buttons


    Mr.Kamal showed us in class how to create dynamic spheres using Adobe animate.

    Fig 1.8  Sphere animation process

    Final bouncing ball animation:


    EXERCISE 2: SQUASH AND STRETCH BALL WITH TAIL ANIMATION
    1.Using Adobe Animate, you are required to animate a bouncing ball by applying squash and stretch principles that show elasticity of the material and giving it a life as a character through pose to pose animation method. Attached to the squashy and stretchy ball is a tail which you need to show its flexibility of motion by applying the principles of Drag, Follow Through and Overlapping action through a straight ahead animation method.

    2.Applying the animation principles that you have learned on Week 2, Timing, Spacing, Slow in & Slow out and Arcs is required as part of the process.

    3.You may refer to any bouncing ball video reference to get the sense of the right timing.


    4.The required frame rate is 24fps, 16:9 aspect ratio with resolution of 1280 x 720 (HD 720p)

    5.The final animation should be animated on ‘2’ with clean up stroke and output as .mp4 video  format.

    In the sphere animation of the last practice, I added a feather to each sphere, and in the frames where the sphere landed, I first changed the shape of the sphere during the landing process, and also increased the frames where the sphere flattened due to pressure and then recovered. After changing the spheres in all frames, I added feathers behind the spheres, which changed with the movement of the spheres. In order to make the feathers look more agile, I made the amplitude of the feathers larger in the frames where the sphere landed and bounced back.

    After completing the first squash and stretch ball with tall animation, Mr. Kamal said that I needed to connect the feathers together like the bottom line track.



    Fig1.9  squash and stretch ball with tall animation

    fianl squash and stretch ball with tall animation:




















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