Principles of traditional

animation

Presenter: Yuliya Akkuzhyna

Supervisor: Dr. Alexis Heloir

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History

• late 20’s -30’s at the Walt Disney Studio:

fundamental principles

• 90’s - computer animation

1982 film Tron

Toy Story by Pixar Animation Studios in

1995

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The principles of animation� Squash and Stretch

• Anticipation

• Staging

• Exaggeration

� Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

• Follow Through and Overlapping

Action

� Slow In and Slow Out

• Timing

� Arcs

• Secondary Action

� Appeal

� Different application in 3D

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Squash and Stretch

Shape expresses the action.

Volume is preserved.

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Squash and Stretch

• Softness of material

• the relationship of between the parts of the

face. The entire face moving with the

mouth motion.

• if the motion is too fast, stretch the object

to retain the overlap and smooth motion

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Squash and Stretch

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Squash and Stretch in 3D

• Stretch in x – Squash in y and z.

• Stretch direction = Motion direction, othw.

rotation is required.

� Tip: The Face Is One Cohesive Unit

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Anticipation

• Prepare the audience for the nextmovement.

• Preceding the major action with the movethat make clear what is going to happennext.

• Anatomical motivation: a muscle must extend before it can contract.

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Staging

� Present the idea completely and unmistakably

clear.

� Each scene and frame help to make a „Story

point“.

Spooky feeling - bright flower is out of place.

� Tip: operative words

� Tip: Expression Changes Get Lost in Movement

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Staging

�Tip: work in silhouette.

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Exaggeration

To make the film more realistic, while making

it entertaining

Varying the scale of some parts of the figure

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Exaggeration

• Exaggeration can work with any

component but not in isolation

• The exaggeration of the various

components should be balanced

• Some elements must stay natural

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Straight Ahead Action and Pose to

Pose

• SAA

get new ideas as proceeding. No plan,

only „story point“.

• PtP

Planned related key drawings

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Pros and Cons

SAA

+ good for wild, scrambling actions

- doesn‘t match layout or perspective

PtP

+ action is the sequence of poses, timing is

important

- actions are tedious and predictable

- need support of stronger poses, Timing,

Secondary Action, the Moving Hold

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Pose to Pose in 3D

• Object has a hierarchical structre

• Different parts of hierarchy transformed at

different keyframes

Jump

1) 2 keyframes in X: start and landing ~ time

2) 1 keyframe in Z: height of the hop

3) Arms and legs rotation

4) Base and shade rotation

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Follow Through and Overlapping

Action

Follow Through

gradual termination of the action

Overlapping

start the next action before the previous is finished.

Gains smooth and natural acting.

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Follow Through

Action seldom come to an abrupt stop

Physical motivation: inertia

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Follow Through

• Appendages (tail, coat) continue to move

after the figure has stopped.

• As one part of the body stops, others may

still be mooving.

• The loose flesh on a figure moves slower

than a skeleton.

• Completion of the action tells about the

personality.

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Slow In and Slow Out

"slow out" of one extreme and "slow in" to

the next extreme.

• Mathematically, second- and third-order

continuity of motion.

• Spirited result

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Timing

The speed of an action

• reflects the weight and size of an object

a heavy body is slower to accelerate and

decelerate

• can carry emotional meaning

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Timing. Emotional meaning

0 has been hit by a strong force and

its head almost snapped off

4 is giving a crisp order “Get going”

8 searches for the peanut butter on

the shelf

10 is stretching a sore muscle

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Slow In and Slow Out in 3D

• Inbetweening by spline interpolation

tension

direction or bias

continuity

Problem

Large extremes values‘ difference, small# of frames

-overshooting at extremes

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Arcs

The trajectory is the arc.

Involve natural motion, all about a arcs.

3D: a timeline view using splines.

Linear Interpolation

� Tip: ACTIVELY studying the world around.

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Secondary Action

• Entailed from the primary action

• Subordinate and not compete with primary

action

Examples

• The body –primary action, the facial expression-

secondary one.

• The trailing cord of Luxury Jr.

�Tip: thumbnails - little exlporatory sketches

�Tip: blinks have meaning

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Appeal

• make form „plastic“ opposed to „static“

• avoid mirror symmetry

�Tip: study favorite actors

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Ratatouille

• Simple shape and silhouette

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Ratatouille

Directing eyes with lips

Squash and Stretch

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Ratatouille

• Framing teeth with lips

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Summary

• Motion in 3D

set keyframe poses, interpolate

inbetweens.

• Physical characteristics of the action have

new application in 3D.

• Devices of the theater stay the same.

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References1. Hardtke, Ines, and Bartels, Richard. "Kinetics for Key-Frame

interpolation", unpublished

2. Franck Thomas and Ollie Johnson (1981) The illusion of Life, Disney animation, chapter 3. "The principles of animation".

3. Lasseter (1987) Principles Of Traditional Animation Applied To 3d Computer Animation

4. Shawn Kelly (2008) Animation tips and tricks

5. Sonoko Konishi, Michael Venturini (2007) Articulating the Appeal

6. http://home.ca.rr.com/harrymott/principles2-8.html

7. http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation.htm