MOVEMENT AND MOTION
In this exercise, my group and i are to follow the principle of animations to video the actions that are introduced in there.
Anticipation
The anticipation movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump or change expression. This video shows that the person is ready to throw the ball. A backwards motion occurs before the forward action is executed. The backward motion of the person throwing the ball is the anticipation.
Creating holds
This video shows that the person is picking up the ball, while collecting the ball, the person needs to bend down and then collect the ball from the floor and before putting it the object to another spot.
Follow through
Follow through is when the main body of the character stops all other parts and continue to catch up to the main mass of the character, such as arms, long hair, clothing, coat tails or a dress, floppy ears or even a long tail. No animation would stop the actions all at once. Hence, this video shows a person jumping and her scarf moves along with her. Her scarf is considered the follow through.
Squash and stretch
This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves. Squash and stretch is useful in animating facial expression, ball bouncing or even jumps. This video shows that the person is jumping up when the person is squatting. The squat is the squash and the jumping up is the stretch.
Strong line of actions
This action adds to and enriches the main action. This action allow the action made by the character to add more dimension to the animation, supplementing or re-enforcing the main action. Example: a character is walking angrily towards another character. The walk must be forceful, aggressive and forward leaning. Hence, in this video, it shows that the person is angry and making her to throw the ball harder. The backward motion and forward motion is critical in order to create the mood which is angry.
Through this lab, i've learned that all these principles are important in creating a more realistic animation. We need to apply these principles in order to get a more smoothing animation, these make the character in the animation to have a more convincing and a natural movements to convey what they want to tell the audience.
MECHANIC ARM
During this lab, i've learned alot of things that are related in animating this mechanic arm. Before this lab, i've been taught that i can animate the primitives shapes frame by frame. However, through this lab, we've learn how to make a parent constrain as well as how to connect the primitives shape together and control it to make an animation. By making a parent constrain to another, we can control it together without keep selecting on the individual. Besides, this make it an easier job for the animator as it is not tedious as what the frame by frame animation can do.
When or How do you use parent constrain?
We can use parent constrain to control an object when we have a character interacting with an object like pushing, pulling or lifting. It is an advantage to use parenting as a way of locking the character to the object. Parenting can work well if the character is in constant contact with the object. However, it can fail if the object is shared between two characters or even if the character were to walk away from the object because parenting is permanent. It cannot be animated on and off. However, in Maya, there is a tool that allow us to animate the parenting on and off and even animate the switching of parents, if we want to.
I've also done a research on how to create a parenting object
LINK: http://download.novedge.com/Brands/Alias/Helps/Maya6.5/en_US/CharSetup/createaparentconstraint.html
Exercise 4:
1) Apart from their different sizes, it is
obvious from Luxo Jr. that the big lamp is “older” and that the small lamp is
“younger”.
How is this communicated by the animation? Give at least THREE examples.
As from the video, i can recognize the big lamp is the older and the small lamp is younger because:
First, the animator make the bigger lamp's standing position firmly and not bending it exaggeratedly like the small lamp does. Besides, the movement of the older lamp is slowed down, while the smaller lamp's movement is more energetic. The animator also make the younger lamp's jump higher and more exaggerated and the older lamp's didn't jump at all.
Secondly, when the ball rolled towards the older lamp, the lamp doesn't have much reaction to it. It just simply rolled it back with his head and remained relax and gave a "i don't care" reaction to it. Besides, the older lamp didn't pay much attention to the ball. However, the younger lamp came in jumping excitedly to play with the ball. The younger lamp was really energetic and it seems to be very excited to play with the ball.
Thirdly, the small lamp is the younger lamp as it jumps on the ball and when the ball is flatten by the smaller lamp, it when to flip the ball over and over curiously. This shows that the smaller lamp is the younger one as many young kids show their curiosity by this kind of actions.
All of these points above convinced me that the smaller lamp is the younger lamp while the bigger lamp is the older lamp.
2) Give an example from Luxo Jr of how timing is used for comic effect. Explain how the timing decisions contribute to the humour.
The timing is a crucial part in making the animation that creates the comic effects. To create comic effects, we need to have the exact timing. To find out the exact timing, we need to use the trial and error method. Besides, the movement of the big lamp is slow and with calm reaction, since the movement is slow and firm, i can conclude that more scenes is needed in order to make this effect. While the smaller lamp has faster reactions, the scenes are lesser. The timing also help in the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion and reaction to another character or to a situation.
Secondly, when the ball rolled towards the older lamp, the lamp doesn't have much reaction to it. It just simply rolled it back with his head and remained relax and gave a "i don't care" reaction to it. Besides, the older lamp didn't pay much attention to the ball. However, the younger lamp came in jumping excitedly to play with the ball. The younger lamp was really energetic and it seems to be very excited to play with the ball.
Thirdly, the small lamp is the younger lamp as it jumps on the ball and when the ball is flatten by the smaller lamp, it when to flip the ball over and over curiously. This shows that the smaller lamp is the younger one as many young kids show their curiosity by this kind of actions.
All of these points above convinced me that the smaller lamp is the younger lamp while the bigger lamp is the older lamp.
2) Give an example from Luxo Jr of how timing is used for comic effect. Explain how the timing decisions contribute to the humour.
The timing is a crucial part in making the animation that creates the comic effects. To create comic effects, we need to have the exact timing. To find out the exact timing, we need to use the trial and error method. Besides, the movement of the big lamp is slow and with calm reaction, since the movement is slow and firm, i can conclude that more scenes is needed in order to make this effect. While the smaller lamp has faster reactions, the scenes are lesser. The timing also help in the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion and reaction to another character or to a situation.
3) When you create a joint chain, these form a
hierarchy, with the first joint at the top and the last joint at the bottom.
Explain why this is necessary for the joints to work properly.
The joint must be connected properly in order to make the animation smoothly, and also to make the animation a more realistic one. Besides, the connection must be there to make the object to move naturally.