Fundamentals of animation
History of animation activity
Key terms
Panels: singular drawings that are made up of layers
Scene: a sequence that consists of multiple panels
Storyboard: a rough animation
Key Frame: a major chance in a sequence
Extreme frames:
In Between Frames: the frames between key frames
FPS: Frames Per Second
Animating on the Ones: animating on each frame
Animating on the Twos: animating on every second frame
Persistence of Vision: looking at individual pictures fast enough to make the brain think the pictures are moving
Optical illusion: tricking the eye
Animation landmarks
The Lascaux Cave- Palaeolithic paintings found in a complex of caves in France
Cartoon (William Hogarth)- illustrations that that make fun of something in society
Thaumatrope- two drawings on opposite sides of a paper that looks like one drawing if the paper is spun fast enough
Phenakistoscope- 8 to 24 drawings on a paper that spin to make an animation
Zoetrope- strips of images in a can that spin to make an animation
Phantasmagoria- Emile Cohl comes up with the idea of recording a animated sequence
Rotoscoping- taking live video and drawing over top of it
Walt Disney-"Mickey Mousing"- Animating characters to music
Rotoscope activity
Reference video (2:40)
colour swatches
Line test
Final animation clean and coloured
Principles of animation activity
Timing-the speed of the movements
Slow In/Slow Out- starting slow at the beginning, getting faster in the middle and ending slowly
Arc-used to make actions seem more natural
Squash stretch- playing with a character’s proportions to add weight and volume
Pose to Pose- drawing the key frames first then animating in the rest after
Straight ahead- animating frame by frame right after one another
Solid Drawing-gives drawings depth
Appeal-making the art style pleasant to look at
Staging- presenting a scene clearly so it’s easy to understand
Follow through- when parts of a character continue to move after the original action has ended
Secondary action- gestures that support the main action to add more character to the animation
Anticipation- the preparation for an action
Exaggeration-making an action bigger than it would be in real life. More convincing>more distorted
Animating characters and camera activity
Parallax- moving different parts of the background and foreground at different speeds in order to create depth
X axis- width
Y axis- height
Z axis- depth
Peg Layers (Harmony)-layers that don’t contain any drawings, but instead are motion paths used to add path articulations
Maintain Size – Animation Toolbar (Harmony)- tool that keeps the outline the same thickness even with camera work
Pivot Point (Harmony)- the center of rotation
Node View Library (Harmony)- where different effects are kept
Animating characters using drawing substitutions
Parallax activity with multiplane camera
Compositing activity
Toon boom notes
Hot Keys:
1- zoom in
2-zoom out
Command + z- undo
Command + x- delete
Command + c- copy
Command + p- pasta
Exposure- how long a frame is held
Frames- individual drawings
Layers- individual parts to a frame
Onion Skin- lets you see the frame in front and frame behind the one you’re working on
Light table-lowers opacity of frames you’re not working on to see the one you’re working on clearer
applying effects to haunted house
