Animation Basics: Animation of the soul-action

Today I want to talk about the motion in animation. Writing at this time, I think it is timely, because we basically are very technical progress, no longer for modeling, bone and other problems headache. That is to say, you can start creating short films and even movies with your own wishes. I hope my full mouth Hu Yu can help everyone's busy, make it clear that this is not a standard tutorial, just a little experience of the individual.

Let's take a look at some of the general features and characteristics of the motion in animation, and then we illustrate its practical significance in the application of the classic Pixar short film, which is their logo a small two-table lamp as an example.

Here, you can go to see Disney's early films or Pixar and other European and American animation. I personally do not recommend using Japanese animation to do research examples from the beginning, in particular, the TV version, of course, except for a few well-made, because the Japanese animation in the business environment and interests driven by the serious "shrinkage" of the product, so their "screen" may be beautiful, but very pale, almost no action. Since we are "scholarly" and not "commercial", then I start with the basics.

First of all, to see how to express the authenticity of the action, although the animation of the action is exaggerated, but are derived from life, peacetime observation appears to be very important. For example, you must blink your eyes before turning your head, so try it now. It is certain that the brain is preparing for the transformation of the scene. Again, if you are looking at the head of a book, at this time someone shout your name, you must first raise your eyes again, about this point is evidence, yes, is your head pattern. Because the eye is always first movement, so your forehead skin will wrinkle up (you mm careful AH), in the animation, these are full of fun details, but also enhance the authenticity of the action.

Animation of the friends know the preparation--cushion the truth, such as I want to go to get a cup away from me, first, my eyes began to move, I saw the cup, my head began to turn to the cup, and then my hand began to lift slightly, to drive my arm, and then the arm to drive my upper body to the cup, in order to maintain balance, My feet are starting to exercise ... In this way, the beginning and end of the action must have a reason, in the animation regulation called grading. After a series of preparations, I began to take the cup. If you look closely at Pixar's films, you will find that their characters do not stop moving for a moment, even if they are acting in a subtle movement, even if they are asleep, they have breathing ups and downs. This is important, in reality, even the upright military honor guard can not be motionless. So when an action stops, we can let him in the movement of a little bit of movement, or be affected by the action of the part can continue to exercise for some time, try, this small detail can give your role to add a lot of fun. If the action stops, it is a worse situation, which we call "action death".

These purposeful movements have a common characteristic that the eyes always move first. When will the eyes be passive? is when the character is impacted by the power beyond his intent. Because too late to think, the eyes and the head of the action will lag. There are many examples of this in cat and mouse. Tom proudly drove Jerry to the corner, Tom stared at Jerry, the winner, suddenly, a bowling ball into the picture (I think it is Jerry's uncle throw), Tom's body was first smashed out of the picture, but his head is still in the picture, a blank face, Then his head flew out. This is a more exaggerated expression, in reality, you are looking at the front of things, suddenly, a prank friend on your right to push you a bit, at this time, your eyes have three stages of movement:

One, because this force is suddenly unexpected to you, so your eyes will continue to remain in the original position, because you do not have time to think, without thinking the eyes will not respond.

Two, at this time you go back to God, the eye will turn to the direction of acceptance, while driving the head of the movement, you want to see exactly what hit you. But not until you see it, the reflex triggers a third phase.

Three, already late, the gravity of the relentless pull you to the ground, at this time, your eyes will turn to the ground, see where you are going to fall, see if you can avoid pebbles or find support. These details fill your life, observe and refine them, and make your animations a step closer.

Also, performance quality is also a very important link, the greater the quality, the greater the inertia, it will require a greater force to start and stop the movement. Conversely, the quality of small, by the impact of gravity is also small, the more flexible. For example, there is this fragment, Mickey volunteered to fight with Giants, the results saw the Giants but Rush, Giant and Mickey's movements formed a very obvious difference, the former slow, powerful, large amplitude. The latter is dexterous, Swift, and small in amplitude. Different actions can reflect different quality, we can do in Maya to do physical experiments to observe, is also a collision, give different mass is what the result, and remember these laws. Because in the real animation process is not likely to use dynamic simulation (except for clothing), by the way, Pixar almost no motion capture system.

And then we'll talk about the relationship between motion and emotion, and here's a short video of the two Pixar lamps. If you have this short film on hand, may wish to find out, perceptual understanding. Some friends think emotion is animation, this is on the one hand, but the mood is more expressed by the action, Walt Disney said: "In most cases, the motivation behind the action is the mood, personality, the role of the attitude-or the combination of three." "In this short film of Pixar, it is clear that these two lamps are simply impossible to have facial expressions and are entirely emotional." We put the big lamp called Dad, small lamp called son, in the whole film, the father's overall action feeling than his son slow, range is small, appear stable. The son is comparatively small, the movement is also quick, appears very lively, first of all their character is distinguished. And in the mood change, the son's fluctuation amplitude is obviously bigger than father, also appears very childish.

At first, the son ran after the ball, ran to his father and shook his body, he jumped up high, and the ground contact time is very short, head from time to the direction of the ball look, very excited. At this time, the son's mood is high, moves quickly, also very purposeful. Later, the ball was crushed by his son, his movements slowed down, the head is also low, he jumped no longer so high, and the contact time on the ground has become longer, began to procrastinate, aimless. Then he found a bigger ball, he jumped higher than the first time, even in situ also non-stop jump, the mood of the three stages of change in his different movements are well displayed.

At the time of his son's action, our attention was on the son, because at this time dad's movements are very small. In the same picture, the role of the main action can only be one, if everyone is in action, then the audience is likely to confuse and lose the visual center, the animator intends to make the role of the movements of different proportions, in order to draw the audience's attention to the animators at this moment the role of the performance. If the audience's visual psychology is misled by a wide range of movements, then the film will not be able to properly transfer the information to the audience. For example, when the son in sports, Dad's movements are very small, your eyes will not fall on the father, and will only be attracted to the son. This is obvious, in the beginning, only the father in the picture, your eyes are watching dad, but the son ran into the picture, your eyes immediately transferred to the Son, action can guide the audience's view. The general rule is that when the picture is still, the elements of the movement are more conspicuous. When the elements of the screen are in motion, the stationary one is more conspicuous. Japan and Europe and the United States to compare the animation, the picture of Japanese animation is very beautiful, a lot of details, very engaging, why? Because of the small number of frames, the role of almost no action, the camera's movement is basically pan, in order not to create a monotonous feeling, his screen must be complex, used to deal with a few moments of a long shot. And the European and American animation, "Superman Special Attack team" for example, his scene is very simple, simple enough to learn Maya or other three-dimensional software can be built in a short time, the characters are very concise, but the action language is very rich, basically no long lens. There is such a saying, the European and American animation by the picture narration, Japanese animation relies on is the voice actor. Of course, this is only a matter of style, no matter what kind of animation, the law will not change.

We can put more energy on the action of a little, because we do is animation, action constitutes animation, "not the eyes, but a glimpse, not lips, but smile ..." Action is the soul of animation.

Thank you for your reading, as well as the great patience and self-cultivation you have shown in this process, and the tolerance for my irresponsible remarks. These are some of my usual experience, take out to rinse a rinse. If there's nothing to do, I'll be out of the brick. ）