| Animation
has no limits. Or better, it is limited only by animator's imagination.
When you sit in front of an empty paper, it's completely up to you
what will you "create"- will it be animal, human, maybe some fairy
tale creature? Will it be anatomic correct, caricature or abstract?
You can find all this in fine-art too… however here we add another
dimension: motion. Still, the best work derivates from real life
motion... but with a twist. |
The first animation
technique we will learn is named squash&stretch. S&S originates
in anatomic principles, however through animation we can emphasize
it and make it real useful.
Let's take a look at the example from real life. If you'll study
some of the live-action movies in slow motion, you'll be able to
see that human body actually squashes and stretches while performing
certain actions (hardly noticable, of course). When you jump, the
body first "stretches" to it's maximum point and when it lends on
the floor it "squashes". And that's the principle on which the S&S
technique is based upon. With it's help, we can liven up animation,
and make it more fluid and interesting. However, while real person
is limited by it's skeleton structure, that doesn't hold true to
cartoon characters. |
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a start let's learn basics of S&S, on the example of bouncing soft
ball (see picture1). If we study motion, we can learn that
the ball squashes&stretches by the rules of gravitation. I must
emphasis however, that it's important what mass and what material
we wish to attribute to the animated object. If the ball is lighter
and made of harder material, it will deform much less, as if it's
mass is greater. |
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click
on picture to see bigger version
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Now
we'll try to expand this rule on more concrete character. Let's
draw a rabbit. For easier understanding i simplified his structure.
He is composed more or less from circles and elipses (picture3).
If the animation of life-less object was relatively simple, we bump
in another problem while animating characters: acting. |
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Movement
of rabbit is a bit more complex, so we'll use key frames this time.
Take a look at the examples on picture 2. The animation is
composed out of 8 key frames (there are a few inbetweens missing
however...). In first step, bunny squashes a bit... That leads to
the jump, where his body stretches. As it reaches the highest point
of jump, the gravity plays it's part and body starts to return to
it's primar (non deformed) shape… and then again stretches when
it starts to fall. The landing is similar to the phases before jump,
except the squashing is even more obvious now.
Note: the un-written rule of S&S technique is, that it's more
visible with comic characters (Ren&Stimpy, 7 dwarfs in Snow
White, etc.) and less obvious with anatomic correct ones. |
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You
probably already noticed that the principle of bunny movement is
completely the same as with ball's.
However, jumping is only the most obvious example of S&S technic.
With a bit of inventiveness, we can use it practically anywhere.
If you observe you face in mirror while pronouncing vowels (A, E,
I, O, U) or just making funny faces, you'll notice, that the face
squashes and stretches as you do this. Picture 4. |
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good example are scenes with a lot of fast movement. . Typical example
is the chase of cat and mouse in Tom&Jerry. The squash and stretch
is there not just an element that adds to dynamic of the scene,
but also helps viewer to follow the action which would be normally
too fast for human eye. |
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