Hey Everyone! Just wanted to share some exercises I found via AnimatorIsland.com. :)
http://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-master/
Showing posts with label Animation Principles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation Principles. Show all posts
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Animation Gold
Hey Everyone! Sorry for the delay between posts, I just started getting back into the groove of everything again (work, school, etc.). For this post I wanted to talk about some Animation Gold. If knowledge is power, and books are full of knowledge, than books are gold! I have plenty of animation books, but there's a set of books that I got recently that are probably the best ones I've gotten so far. They're the latest addition to the Disney Animation Archive Series: The Nine Old Men.
This set is a box of nine flip books, every one of them done by one of the nine old men. Each one of the flip books contains scenes from different classic Disney movies. Being able to flip through these is such a good resource to have. It's amazing how strong their principles are and how apparently you can see them. I HIGHLY recommend it. I ordered this in the earlier part of last year and they finally came in. This is the fifth installment of the Disney Animation Archive series. The previous books before this set are fantastic also.
You can find all these books an Amazon here. Keep that ball bouncin'!
Stephen
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Bouncin' Ball #1: Everything's a Bouncing Ball
“Everything’s a Bouncing Ball.” I wish I fully understood exactly what this meant as soon as I started. This one hit much later than I care to admit when I first went to college. It makes so much sense to me now and why we all started with the bouncing ball when learning how to animate.
The bouncing ball exercise contains all of the foundations of animation and everyone knows that, but I didn’t realize it’s full application until way later on. The bouncing ball exercise shows you how the principles are applied in animation and because the subject matter is so simple it’s so easy to understand. But, as soon as the subject get’s a little more complex, than all of what we learned quickly goes out the window. When applying those things to more complex subjects, that’s where it becomes a challenge because it’s so easy to get lost in so many other different things. The same can be said for the transition out of body mechanics to acting, but that’s another topic for another time. The ball strips ALL of that away and really forces you to see those principles in action.
It’s a little frustrating hearing from other/newbie animation students and listening to them say, “I already know how to do a bouncing ball”, and yet it’s clearly evident that they haven’t applied any of the principles in their work. What I don’t think they understand is that it isn’t about the ball, it’s the principles behind them that are so important. Those same principles are what really makes animation sing and can be applied to all aspects of animation in one way or another. It’s the foundation. You don’t bake a cake by starting with the icing. Just as the saying goes in animation, everything really is a bouncing ball. Whether its the root of a character, the wrists on an arm, the ankles on a leg, or a corner of a mouth: Everything’s a bouncing ball.
Keep that ball bouncin’!
Stephen
The bouncing ball exercise contains all of the foundations of animation and everyone knows that, but I didn’t realize it’s full application until way later on. The bouncing ball exercise shows you how the principles are applied in animation and because the subject matter is so simple it’s so easy to understand. But, as soon as the subject get’s a little more complex, than all of what we learned quickly goes out the window. When applying those things to more complex subjects, that’s where it becomes a challenge because it’s so easy to get lost in so many other different things. The same can be said for the transition out of body mechanics to acting, but that’s another topic for another time. The ball strips ALL of that away and really forces you to see those principles in action.
It’s a little frustrating hearing from other/newbie animation students and listening to them say, “I already know how to do a bouncing ball”, and yet it’s clearly evident that they haven’t applied any of the principles in their work. What I don’t think they understand is that it isn’t about the ball, it’s the principles behind them that are so important. Those same principles are what really makes animation sing and can be applied to all aspects of animation in one way or another. It’s the foundation. You don’t bake a cake by starting with the icing. Just as the saying goes in animation, everything really is a bouncing ball. Whether its the root of a character, the wrists on an arm, the ankles on a leg, or a corner of a mouth: Everything’s a bouncing ball.
Keep that ball bouncin’!
Stephen
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