ANIMATION TIPS AND TRICKS

KEY FRAMES:
Most commercially available computer animation systems are based on animating with keyframes. At first, this seems like the same thing as keyframes in traditional hand-drawn animation, but it is slightly different, and therefore, you should approach your animation differently. In hand-drawn animation, you work on the basic poses of the scene first, drawing poses of the entire character so the timing and acting can be worked out with a minimum of drawings created. Once the poses are finalized, then the inbetween drawings are created to complete the action. With computer animation, keyframes are values at certain frames for the articulation controls of a model, which are usually set up in a hierarchy. The computer calculates the inbetweens values based on a spline curve connecting the keyframe values.





2D V/S 3D :
One of the biggest differences between hand-drawn animation and computer animation is the fact that computer animation is truly three dimensional. Since computer animation is truly 3-D, you can re-use the animation of a scene or parts of the animation and not tell that it is the exact same motion. Many times, if you simply look at a scene of animation from a different camera angle, it will look completely different. Sometimes, it may seem too similar, so just vary the timing of the motion or change the motion of an arm or head and it will cease to resemble the original. This is great for crowd shots, where the re-use of animation is an easy way to keep the crowd alive.





WEIGHT AND SIZE :
The computer gives the ability to create images that look absolutely real. Especially with the latest techniques in rendering, texture mapping, ray tracing and radiosity, you can make an object look just like it’s made of marble or rubber or whatever you wish. But to make it look like marble or rubber when it is in motion, has very little to do with the way the object is rendered. It has everything to do with the way the object is animated. It is animation that gives an object its physical properties. More that anything else, the timing of the movement of an object defines the weight of that object.Two objects, identical in size and shape, can appear to have two vastly different weights by manipulating timing alone. The heavier an object is, the greater its mass, and the more force that is required to change its motion. A heavy body is slower to accelerate than a light one. It takes a large force to get a bowling ball moving; but once moving, it tends to keep moving at the same speed and requires some force to stop it.
When dealing with heavy objects, one must allow plenty of time and force to start, stop or change their movements, in order to make their weight look convincing. Light objects have much less resistance to change of movement and thus require much less time to start moving. The flick of a finger is enough to make a balloon accelerate away. When moving, it has little momentum and even the friction of the air quickly slows it up.
The way an object behaves on the screen, the effect of weight that it gives, depend mostly on the spacing of the poses and less on the poses themselves. Again, no matter how well rendered a bowling ball may be, it does not look like a bowling ball if it doesn’t behave like one when it is animated.
The proper timing of a motion can also contribute greatly to the feeling of size and scale of an object or character. A giant has much more weight, more mass, more inertia than a normal man; therefore he moves more slowly. Like a bowling ball, he takes more time to get started and once moving, takes more time to stop. Any changes of movement take place more slowly. Conversely, a tiny character has less inertia than normal, so his movements tend to be quicker.



WHAT THE CHARACTER THINKING:
When animating characters, every movement, every action must exist for a reason. If a character were to move about in a series of unrelated actions, it would seem obvious that the animator was moving it, not the character itself. All the movements and actions of a character are the result of its thought process. In creating a "thinking character," the animator gives life to the character by connecting its actions with a thought process. Walt Disney said, "In most instances, the driving forces behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character—or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them."
To convey the idea that the thoughts of a character are driving its actions, a simple trick is in the anticipation; always lead with the eyes or the head. If the character has eyes, the eyes should move first, locking the focus of its action a few frames before the head. The head should move next, followed a few frames later by his body and the main action. The eyes of a character are the windows to its thoughts; the character’s thoughts are conveyed throught the actions of its eyes.
If the character has no eyes, such as an inanimate object like a Luxo lamp, it is even more important to lead with the head. The number of frames to lead the eyes and head depends on how much thought precedes the main action. The animator must first understand a character’s thought process for any given action. Consider a character wanting to snatch some cheese from a mouse trap; the eyes will lead the snatch by quite a bit because this is a big decision. The character needs time to think, "...Hmm...This looks tricky, is this cheese really worth it or is it just processed American cheese food?...Oh what the heck...," he decides, and snatches the cheese.
Conversely, if the action is a character ducking to miss a low flying sheep, the anticipation of the eyes leading the action should be just a couple of frames. "What the...," and the next thing, he is spitting wool out of his mouth.
The only time that the eyes or head would not lead the action would be when an external force is driving the character’s movements, as opposed to his thought process. For example, if that character was hit in the back by the low flying sheep, the force of the impact would cause the body to move first, snapping the head back and dragging it behind the main action of the body.



MOVING HOLD:
In hand-drawn animation, it is very common to animate an action, then slow into a pose and hold the drawing of that pose for several frames, then move into action again. Being two dimensional animation, the action stays alive even with the use of held drawings. The same goes for puppet and clay animation. But in 3-D computer animation, as soon as you go into a held pose, the action dies immediately. it happen with every animator that came out of traditional animation.It must be the combination of the dimensional, realistic look and the smooth motion (usually on "ones") that makes a hold cause the motion to die. The eye picks it up immediately, it begins to look like robotic motion. To combat this, use a "moving hold." Instead of having every part of the character stop, have some part continue to move slightly in the same direction, like an arm, a head, or even have the whole body.
Even the slightest movement will keep your character alive. Sometimes an action that feels believable in traditional animation, looks too cartoony in computer animation. Because of the realistic look of computer animation, an animator need to be aware of how far to push the motion. The motion should match the design of the character and the world. Animating very cartoony motion with lots of squash and stretch on a realistic looking object may not look believable, as would realistic motion on a caricatured object.
This is the pitfall of using motion capture devices to create final animation. Motion capture from human actors will always look realistic... for a human. But apply that motion to a chicken and it will look like a human in a chicken suit. You can use the motion capture data as a starting place, tweak the timing and poses to make it more caricatured, then apply it to the chicken and the motion will match the design of the character.





EMOTION:
The personality of a character is conveyed through emotion and emotion is the best indicator as to how fast an action should be. A character would not do a particular action the same way in two different emotional states. When a character is happy, the timing of his movements will be faster. Conversely, when sadness is upon the character, the movements will be slower. To make a character’s personality seem real to an audience, he must be different than the other characters on the screen. A simple way to distinguish the personalities of your characters is through contrast of movement. No two characters would do the same action in the same way.



AUDIENCE SHOULD READ THE ACTION:
Proper timing is critical to making ideas readable. It is important to spend enough time (but no more) preparing the audience for: the anticipation of an action; the action itself; and the reaction to the action (the follow through). If too much time is spent on any of these, the audience’s attention will wander. If too little time is spent, the movement may be finished before the audience notices it, thus wasting the idea.The faster the movement, the more critical it is to make sure the audience can follow what is happening. The action must not be so fast that the audience cannot read it and understand the meaning of it.
To make sure an idea or action is unmistakably clear, the audience’s eye must be led to exactly where it needs to be at the right moment, they must not miss the idea or action. Timing, as well as staging and anticipation are all integral to directing the audience’s eye. A well-staged anticipation will be wasted if it is not timed properly.
It is important that only one idea is seen by the audience at a time. If a lot of action is happening at once, the eye does not know where to look and the main idea will be overlooked. The object of interest should be significantly contrasted against the rest of the scene. In a still scene, the eye will be attracted to movement. In a very busy scene, the eye will be attracted to something that is still. Each idea or action must be timed and staged in the strongest and simplest way before going on to the next idea or action.
In most cases, an action should not be brought to a complete stop before starting another action; the second action should overlap the first. This slight overlapping maintains a flow and continuity between whole phrases of actions.