ready set animate: 2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Animation + Morphing = Sweet Sweet Love

Morphing is a tool often used in 2D and object animation. You start with one thing, and turn it into another. We will be using it to practice tweening (making frames smooth) , timing (how fast or slow an animation goes), and to practice setting up a basic stop motion set.

Cleveland School of the Arts PSA
Kritin Lepore
Deadline Post Its
Pearler Beads (a few morphs but they are awesome)
Cube
Change

Basic Types of Animation and Examples

What is Animation?

The rapid display of a sequence of images to create the illusion of movement
2D, 3D or stopmotion
Each individual picture (or frame as we call them in animation) changes a little bit
Our eye helps blend them together- known as the persistence of vision!

Persistence of Vision is what makes animation work.

The human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it.

If one image is followed by another slightly different image then movement will appear to happen. In a film you are seeing a series of still images shown in very fast succession, at 24 frames per second, which tricks your eyes into seeing fluid movement.

Types of Animation

Stop Motion Animation:
Using a camera to photograph movement frame by frame. After every picture things move a little bit and are rephotographed. There are many types:

Claymation:
Adam Benjamin Elliot- Cousin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6njuCt5-U4

Object Animation:
Western Spaghetti

Michel Gondry

Adri Wichert's Salty Snacks

Paper Cutout Animation:
Lotte Reininger- Cinderella

Girl From the Sky

Fedorenko and Newlove Villiage of Idiots

Pixillation:
Sledgehammer
Her Morning Elegance- Ori Lavie
T-Shirt War
Cupcake Prince starring Adri Wichert

2D Animation:
There are 2 Major Types of 2D Animation: Flash animation and Hand Drawn

Flash Animation
Pros:

Can work relatively quickly once you get used to it

With experience, can create storyboards, animatics and final animation right inside Flash

Can import sound into Flash, which makes timing animating to dialogue and sounds much easier. Allows you to adjust as you go
WORKS very well for bubbly, cartoony, fast moving styles of animation, although it can be used for others too.
Able to repeat cycles of animations using symbols

Cons:

Getting used to working on a tablet has a learning curve
Flash automatically "changes" your drawing style a little bit to smooth lines
Can be difficult to get away from a very graphic, flat style in Flash

Mika Lollipop music video

Animator versus animation
Simon's cat

Hand Drawn Animation
Pros:

You can draw freely, no tablet or computer restrictions!!!!
Allows very gestural, natural style
Appropriate for many different styles of animation

Cons:

Extra work (shooting pictures with camera, uploading)
Sometimes it can be hard to track progress to see if your results are working
Timing takes longer (need to use stop watches and X sheets)

Squetch Disney Demo Reel as opposed to his later Flash work here.
BLU: Muto
Don Hertzfelt: Rejected

Composited:
Animation that combines the use of 2D, 3D and/or stop motion techniques.

Melancholy Hill