Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Animation Notes 3/1/90 - Sports, Dance

Here are notes from Tissa David's lecture of 3/1/1990


Above: animating a bicycle

Above: animating an oarsman rowing

Above: Clouds.  Heaviest part of the mass can lead the transformation of the action.

Swimmer: utilize water
action under water


In a walk never have your character at a 90 degree angle.  Your character must lean otherwise he'll look rigid and stiff.

In a dance [illustration]

Animate dance straight ahead.  Have character always leaning.  Every action is like a string in a bow (the stretching and bending when your foot is stretched that is your hit  -accent).
Twisting and leaning  will make your dance more dynamic.
You must have music to get your beat.  Every fourth or eighth beat your character will dance.


Above: notes on horses and animated backgrounds

3 comments:

Andy Latham said...

Thanks for posting these. I have to ask about the leaning in a walk though.....how does that work? Wouldn't the character look off-balance? And does it mean have the character leaning always to the same side? Or alternating sides for each step?

Cheers :)

roconnor said...

In this context, "leaning" means tilting the character forward a bit.

Of course, if you're animating a stuffy character -like John Cleese as a butler -you may want him perfectly erect. That would showcase his personality.

Mostly, you want your characters to be fluid. When we walk we're not perfectly upright, so the animation shouldn't be either.

Optimally you want the character's weight to sway as s/he walks so leaning from side to side is a way to show that.

Andy Latham said...

Ah right, thanks for explaining :) I though the notes were referring to leaning to the side, not forwards! It all makes sense now!