(WEEK 1) What Is Animation? September 16th, 2015

Animation Week 1: Brief History of Animation and Starting with the Basics


For the next eight weeks, not only will we be learning how to animate, we will also be learning about The 12 Principles of Animation!

But first, you must be wondering, what is animation?

To put it simply, the cartoons that you watch on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and other networks aimed at kids are all what you would call animation. But animation, by definition, is a series for similar images put together in a sequence to give the allusion of independent movement. Here are just a few examples from films that you may already know.









And those were all examples of traditional, or '2-D', animation. It can also be done in 3-D animation









Stop-Motion animation









Rotoscope animation, which is the technique of drawing over live footage









And various other methods.

A Brief History 

Before people were able to make pictures actually move, artists have used their painting and sculpting skill to capture movement, even on the cave walls!



 
“Unique Forms of Continuity in Space”
Umberto Boccioni

 
“Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash”
Giacomo Balla

The First Animators

The men listed below are the pioneers of what we know now as animation today. From crude chalk drawings to thousands of sheets of paper, these artists experimented with moving pictures that was able to mesmerize audiences during that time.


J. Stuart Blackton

The Enchanted Drawing 1900
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces 1906

Émile Cohl

 Fantastmagorie 1908

The Hashers Delirium 1910

Winsor McCay

Little Nemo 1911
The Sinking of the Lusitania 1918
How a Mosquito Operates 1912
 Gertie the Dinosaur 1914

Max Fleischer
 

Out of the Inkwell 1918-1929
 

What are the 12 Principles of Animation?

Well, the 12 Principles of Animation are techniques that are used when drawing a character/object/element in motion. These help in making the movement seem more 'realistic and natural while at the same time, making the audience forget that they are watching a bunch of still drawings or puppets.

The principles are as follows:

1.) Squash and Stretch
2.) Exaggeration
3.) Spacing and timing
4.) Straight ahead vs. Pose to Pose
5.) Arcs
6.) Slow In & Slow Out
7.) Follow Through and Overlapping
8.) Secondary Movement
9.) Anticipation
10.) Solid Drawing
11.) Staging
12.) Appeal

These were developed by the 9 Old Men of the early days of Disney. Their names were:

Les Clark


Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman

Eric Larson

Ward Kimball

Milt Kahl

John Mitchell Lounsbery

Marc Fraser Davis

Ollie Johnston

Frank Thomas

 
Principles for this week

This week, we are going to learn about:

Squash and Stretch

Squash and Stretch is when take a character and/or object in animation and you really push the movement by stretching that way it not only looks more realistic, but it is also easier for the audience to read the movement clearly without really thinking about it.







What you saw in the video above was that I took the kneaded eraser and Squashed and the Stretched it all the while being able to stay true to it's original shape.


Which one of these balls look better? Why is that?

Which one of these two balls look better? Why?




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