Topic 4 - The Principle of Arcs + Squash and Stretch

In topic 4 we were given another two tasks that apply our understanding of arcs and stretch and squash to complete. Task 1 had us create a facial animation of a character either blinking or changing facial expression. Task 2 had us animate a ball character jumping over a gap and landing. 

This week's lecture discussed the importance of animation principles such as squash and stretch, arcs and anticipation. Squash and stretch is a key animation principle that says anything composed of living flesh, no matter how bony, will show considerable movement within it's space in progressing through an action. This essentially means that a character or object, unless made of something that cannot squash or stretch, will squash and stretch when progressing through movements. This principle also applies to facial animation.

Arcs are another key animation principle as the movements of most living creatures will follow a lightly circular path. Rarely will a person moving follow a straight line, rather their movements will have a slight curve to them. This principle can also apply to inanimate objects, such as a pendulum or a ball bouncing.

This week's lecture also discussed anticipation, which is when an animation has a planned sequence of actions that lead the audience from one activity to the next. This is done by preceding major actions with specific moves that anticipate for the viewer what is about to happen. Anticipation can also build up energy and make a movement more impactful. 

Task 1:

First Extreme

Breakdown

Last Extreme

I started my animation of a character blinking by creating the three key poses, the first extreme, a breakdown and the last extreme. I made sure that the character's head was at it's most squashed at the breakdown (when the character is mid blink). I also animated the character lowering his eyebrows and head while also slightly tilting his head forward when moving into the breakdown pose and then lifting his eyebrows and head and tilting his head back when moving into the last extreme. These subtle movements add realism to the squash and stretch of the character's head as not only would the blink move his head, but also his facial features that are associated with blinking. 

Reflection:

By completing task 1 of topic 4 and animating a character blinking, I learnt how important squash and stretch can be to animation. Without squash and stretch, a character can look boring and lifeless when moving from pose to pose. When animating the character blinking, when no squash and stretch was used the character did not look like a living, breathing person as only his eyelids moved. By utilising squash and stretch you can create a much more dynamic animation.

Task 2:

When attempting task 2 I decided to use the workflow of planning, layout, blocking and animation polish. When planning my animation, I decided my character would be a light and nimble character with a lot of mobility. While planning I also planned out the beats I wanted my animation to hit, such as when my character would jump and how far. 

When moving onto layout, I set the camera position while also making sure the composition I had chosen was visually appealing and that my animation would take place within the frame. I then moved on to blocking.

To start the process of blocking, I created keyframes of where I wanted my ball to move along the x and y axis'.

I then went on to polish the animation by adjusting the tangents of the keyframes. I made sure to animate the ball with nice arcs when bouncing and moving forwards. This gave the ball smooth movement forward and believable bounces. I then moved on to adding squash and stretch to the ball.

Adding squash and stretch to the ball made the animation look much more appealing, however, the ball only squashes and stretches upwards and downwards when it should stretch upwards and to the right to follow it's movement. 

After adding the rotation of the ball the animation looks much more polished and believable. The final step is adding some movement as the ball reaches the gap to add more life into the character.

When animating the ball inspecting the gap, I ensured to give it anticipation in it's squashes and stretches. The ball now squashes slightly before stretching to inspect the gap and then squashes again before jumping across it, as if it is building up energy to make the jump. This anticipation makes it's movement more believable and can guide the audience through what is happening. 

Reflection:

After completing task 2 of topic 4 and reflecting on the application of key animation principles when animating a ball character bouncing over a gap, I learnt how necessary animation principles such as squash and stretch, arcs and anticipation are.

When animating the ball character jumping over the gap without squash and stretch, the character looked lifeless and the animation looked boring. By adding squash and stretch, the scene became much more dynamic and the character had a lot more life. Also, while the ball was not a realistic representation of a ball bouncing, adding squash and stretch made it's movement much more believable. Squash and stretch is a very important animation principle as it makes the movement of a character or object much more believable and realistic while also making the scene much more appealing.

Arcs were another major part of animating the ball character jumping over the gap. In the real world, when a ball is bouncing while moving forward, it's bounces follow the path of an arc, so an animation should reflect that. By ensuring the ball character's bounces followed the shape of an arc, it's movements were much more believable and appealing to watch.

I also learnt how anticipation can impact animation. Without anticipation, movements are sudden and hard to follow. By adding anticipation before a major movement the audience understands how the character or object got from point A to point B. Anticipation can also make character's looks less robotic and more fluid.