References:

 http://download.toonboom.com/files/templates/studio/Animation_Charts_pack2_Studio
.pdf (Breakdown poses)
 http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animati
on/principles/follow_through.htm (Follow through and overlap)
 http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_pose.html (pose to pose animation)
 http://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/lessonplan/overlapping.htm (overlapping)
 http://mirioptical3d.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/planning-a-character-walk-cycle/
(character walk cycle)
 http://frankanollie.com/PhysicalAnimation.html (12 basic principles of animation)
 http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2014/en_us/index.html?url=files/CSS_I
nsert_joints.htm,topicNumber=d30e301789 (definition of joints, ik handles, rigging etc)

3D Character animation principles

Joints: Before animating your fully modelled character in

Maya you need to make a skeleton for it to add the controls
to. Bones and joints make up the skeleton. Many joints are
used in the skeletal positions where the character will twist
and bend.

Usually, individual joint chains are made for the arm, leg and
for the spine and head. The joint chains are the grouped to
make a single skeletal hierarchy.

IK handles: The joint where the IK handle begins, in the IK chain, is called the start
join. Where it ends is called the end joint. Joints
amongst the start and end joints are controlled by
the IK handle and the solver. The end effector is at
the end of the IK handle. When the IK handle is
moved the IK solver uses the end effectors location
and orientation, to rotate the joints that are in the IK
chain.

The IK handle tool is the green

line attached from one end of
the skeleton joint to the other
Rigging: Virtual skeletons, or as they are also
knows as rigs, allow the animators to move
the models body features such as the legs,
arms, facial expressions, and posture. This
allows them to make lifelike animations.
Rigging basically adds bones/skeleton to the
whole of the 3D model. The animator creates
control points that he can move, bend and
deform to make the animations. Once the
whole of the skeleton is made and attached to the model, the animator needs to
weight the rig. This is when the strength of each joint on the polygons/part of the
model changes around the area. Clothes and hair from the character can also have
controls to make them move in a realistic way.

Binding: By using the bind tool, you can choose to

connect (bind) the skeleton to the characters 3D body.
By using smooth binding, it creates influence over
different areas on the model.

Skinning: This involves working with the model for it to be changed later in the
skinning process. The skeleton and 3D
model needs to be selected as a group to
then be binded with each other. Once the
model is bound to the skeleton, the joints
and the bones are movable; the skeleton
and 3D model move together like a humans
joints. The three types of skinning are
smooth, rigid and indirect.
Smooth Skinning: Smooth effects can be created when the joints bend and move.
This technique allows many of the joints and other parts of the body that are
influenced to have different amount of influences.

Rigid Skinning: Stiff and rigid effects can be created. The technique allows only
separate joints to have an effect/influence upon the cv’s or vertex points on the
model itself.

Indirect Skinning: Deformers can be wrapped as skin on the skeleton. When this
technique is used, the bound deformers change the models skin when the skeleton is
manoeuvred and set in different poses.

Controls
Many controls are made when rigging your character model. This helps to make it
easier for the animators to select controls of each of the characters joint when
animating. The controls are clear and visible and don’t take very long to make.
Shapes are created to form the controls for the 3D model. Any movements that the
body joints can do on a human body can be performed on a fully rigged model.

Left/right foot_control: These are shapes

(rectangles) that are created at the bottom of the
feet. They control the whole of the feet
movement, such as moving it up and down, back
and forth, rotating it left to right.

Left/righ_knee_PV_Constraint: As in the name, these

controls move the knee from left to right. However not
up and down, as the human knee does not move up and
down if selected separately. If the left is moved up and
down, the knee moves with it.
Left/right_Clavicle_Control: The clavicle is a bone at the
top of the shoulder. As with the model, the shoulders
move back and forth, and up and dow n. This also
controls the whole of the arm.

Left/right_Arm_Control: The arm moves

up and down, left to right. The control can
also move the rest of the arm.

Left/right_Hand_Control: Only the rotation of the

hand moves, and nothing else. The hand moves in
the same rotation as the arm of the human body.

Hip_Control: NURB circles are created and then

attached to the body. Control of this allows
movement of the waist as a rotation and
movement from left to right, and forward and
back.
Head_Control: This allows the movement of the head.
It can move in a rotation with back and front, left to
right, up and down.

Timing
This usually refers to the actions speed in animation.
Correct timing in an animation will give off meanings of physical and emotional
messages about the movement. Care and time is needed when working on the
animation of a character because a suitable amount of time, the build up to the
action, and the reaction is important to get right. Viewers can sometimes not notice
or recognise the action if it is too quick, and even lose careness if it is too slow. How
well the idea is portrayed and read to the audience, is determined by the speed of an
action.

The weight and look of the character or object being animated needs to be taken
into consideration when animating. For example, if the character is heavy, he will
take long and greater steps when walking. Whereas, if the character is skinny and
light, they walk faster and have more of a brisk walk. To determine the effects of the
animations, changing the space or time amongst the frames between poses is
important and produces different outcomes.

In this example, the ball that is hit and takes 1 second to move is much
lighter than the ball which is hit and takes 3 seconds. This makes the viewer
understand if the ball is heavy or not.
Breakdown Poses

Key poses: This is the main pose within an action or movement of the character. For
example, if the character getting up from the floor, the first key pose would be the
character on the floor. The second key pose is when the character is standing up.

Breakdown poses: This is the pose between two keys in the animation process.
Elbow bending, timing eases and rotation paths are defined in breakdown poses.

In-between poses: These are all the poses used between the key and breakdown
poses. The extra drawings used to make the animation smooth are the in-between
poses.

In this example, the man is falling on his

back. To indicate what the keys,
breakdowns and in-between poses are,
they are marked on this example.

Keys: Circled numbers.

Breakdowns: underlined number

No in-between poses are marked on the

example as the animator creates them.
The ‘red numbers’ would need to be
shown as they designate the in-
betweens that are created.

The in-betweens are marked as red. This shows the

animator where poses need to be added. Keys and
 Walk cycle: There are commonly 12 frames per second in a walk cycle, with the 13 th
frame being the same as the first one, however on the other side. This then leads up
to there being another 12 frames of the walk cycle, to add up to 24, with the 25
being the same frame and position as the first frame. This exact number of frames
makes it look like a smooth animation of the character walking.

1st frame 13 th frame, switched to other side 25th frame, same as first
frame

You can see each step clearly in this example of the animation walk cycle.

The character poses are spread out more, so you can clearly see each frame one by one. The
keys poses, breakdowns, and in-between poses are labelled in this example. As the character
starts to walk, you can see the shift in its momentum with the arms swinging back and forth,
and the legs alternating per step.
I have created my own animation cycle using my Knight for the flash game. As you can he is
striking his sword as if he is hitting something or someone. When he starts to lift his arm up and
then bring it down, his knee/leg bends to show he is applying some force/pressure when striking
the sword. His head and shoulders starts of at the normal height position, then when the sword
comes down, the head and shoulders do too.

Follow Through
The term refers to when one part leads the action, and another part follows after it..
For example, when a firsbee is thrown, the hand keeps moving, even after the
Frisbee has been released. Another example is when an arm is waving; the aaction
starts off with the shoulder, then the upper arm, then the forearm, and finally the
hands and then fingers. When it comes to motion within the human body, if they are
walking, the hip moves first. The leg and then the foot follow after. When the main
part of the motion (the hip) stops, the leg and foot continue a little further and
eventually come to a halt.

When the person throws the

Frisbee, the motion of the arm
carries on, even when the Frisbee
is in the air.

1 to move move: Hip

2nd to move:
Leg/knee

3rd to move:Foot
Overlap
A second action will start before the first action finishes. As there is no ‘stop time’
between the actions, there is always something going on, and does not bore the
viewers. The overlapping technique is used by animators to highlight characters
actions and moods. Character body parts will move before or at different speeds
than others. The body parts will also lead the action and even follow the main action
itself.

The use of overlapping actions is to make the animation flow better. This is usually
done with the body, hair and clothing, to follow the lead actions and movements on
a character. It is also important to calculate what part of the body makes others
move, and at what time within the action being performed.. If this is not done
correctly, it will confuse the audience and will make the animation look weird.

In this example of the character jumping

in the air and then landing, the legs start
of the action. It’s what starts the process,
which is then followed by the spine, head
and arm movements, which follows
after. The actions (spine, head, and arm)
after the legs are the overlapping, as
they keep moving, even after the legs
stop.

This shows an arm moving up and down.

When the arm is elevated, even then,
secondary actions follow the leading
action itself. The shoulder moves first,
which is followed by the elbow, then the
wrist and finally the finger/tips.

Shoulder-1st

Elbow-2nd

Wrist-3rd

Finger/tips-4th
Pose-to-Pose animation
Important positions within a characters animation, such as the key poses, describe
the vital points in the motion, or the expressions or moods. In ‘pose to pose’
animation, the animator charts out the action before the actual animation is made,
by charting the key poses on the timeline of the computers software/programme.
Using pop through allows the characters to enter the scene at a certain place and
time.

Furthermore, using the technique is helpful when certain tasks, within a certain
amount of time, or if actions need to be in line with some music or sound, from the
character need to be performed. Before the final animation is rendered, the timeline
in which the key poses are mapped out, can be checked and re-visited to make final
decisions of how it looks. Other people in the team can be given different parts of
the work as it’s broken down. Key poses in pop-through animation describe what’s
happening.

In this example, the two key poses in the animation are shows. Both poses illustrate
different expressions, in the form of the squad and stretch. Also, the character
changes emotions, form happy to sad.
12 basic principles of animation
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who were animators working for Walk Disney,
came up with 12 basic principles of animation. These important principles been used
since then to make the illusion of characters moving in a cartoon, to look as realistic
as possible.

These 12 basic principles are:

1) Squash and Stretch: This action gives a

sense of weight and flexibility to a moving
character. It also helps when the animator
works on the characters facial expressions
and dialogue. Examples of using this
technique can be used with a bouncing
ball, and when animating a person’s body
weight. The animation can look somewhat
comical, if the character is squashed or stretched to an extreme point.

2) Anticipation: This prepares an audience for

an action the character is going to perform.
This makes the action come across as being
more realistic. For example, if a baseball
pitcher throws a ball, the anticipation
leading up to the main action, is the
pitchers wind up.

3) Staging: The aim is to direct the audience’s attention to the characters

attitude, mood, reaction or idea as it relays with the story and continuousness
of the story line. The presentation of ideas
such as the action, personality, mood or
expression is what needs to be expressed
to the audience. Staging can be completed
by using character placement in the frames,
camera angles to tell the story such as long,
medium, close-up etc, use of light and
shadow. One action should be clearly
explained to the audience at a time for
 them to understand the message. Also, the background should not take over
the viewers’ attention when the animation is playing out.

4) Straight ahead and pose to pose

action: ‘Straight ahead action’ is
drawing out a scene frame by
frame from the beginning to the
end. It makes for a better
flowing, and lively impression of
movement which makes it better
if you want to produce realistic
action. However proportions,
size and volume cannot be exactly the same each frame. For example, fast
actions that look wild are made this way.

‘Pose to pose’ is planned out better, and important drawings are made within parts
of the scene to be recorded. This makes it easier to work and have a better size,
proportion, and volume. ‘Pose to pose’ is better used for dramatic or emotional
animations, with placement to the surroundings are more important.

5) Follow through and overlapping action: ‘Follow through’ is when the

characters main body stops, other parts will continue to move, but eventually
will stop as well. For example, long hair, arms, clothes, a dress. Nothing will
stop all at once in a movement. This technique is called follow through. These
techniques give the characters more of a realistic action.
Overlapping action is when the direction of the character has changed whilst the hair
or clothes keep moving in the forward direction. When the character moves in the
new direction, a few frames later, his clothes in the new direction also. To make the
use of drag and overlapping action look lifelike, timing becomes an important factor.

6) Slow-out and Slow-in: When an action plays out, there are normally more
drawings at the beginning of the start of the action, a few in the middle, and
more near the end. By using less
drawings, it makes the action
look faster, and more drawings
makes it look slower. The use of
this principle makes the action
being played, to look more
lifelike.
An example is a child on a swing,
they are slow when they are up
in the air on either end, and fast
when they are in the middle.
7) Arcs: When it comes to character actions, they always have to hollow an ‘arc’
or ‘circular path’ shape when moving. This is mostly used when it comes to
animation the human figure or animals. This makes the animation look more
realistic, and has flows more naturally.
For example, when animating a finger
pointing, all the drawings showing the
animation should have the fingertips
following an ‘arc’ shape from the start of
the frame to the end.

8) Secondary action: By including a secondary action to the main action, it gives

the scene more life, and enhances the
main action itself. An example of this
technique is, if an angry character is
walking down a road and the walk
shows aggression. A secondary action is
included that would involve strong
motions of the arms working with the
angry, forceful walk. By just simply
adding in a secondary action, it
emphasizes the main action and gives
the scene a more lifelike meaning.

9) Timing: The amount of drawings/frames there are for a given action,

determines how fast the action is. More drawings between the poses makes
for a slower yet smoother action, however less drawings makes for a more
faster yet crispier action. Using this principle adds interests to the characters
movements. Many animations are made on ‘twos’, which is just one drawing
photographed on two film frames. They can also be made on ‘ones’, which is
one drawing photographed on each film frame. The importance of timing is
used to create a characters mood, reaction, emotion, and personality.
10) Exaggeration: Characters movement should look quite broad, to make them
come across as natural in what they are doing. This is the same with facial
expressions, however the broadness used in a carton should not be used in
feature animations. By using exaggeration, presenting the characters action
to look similar to reality, however as its animation, to present it a more
extreme way. However using too much exaggeration in animation, can make
the scenes and characters come across as being too theatrical and will look
overly animated.

11) Solid drawing: This involves drawing characters

from angles to make it look believable and to
make the characters look alive. What needs to be
added in is, form weight, volume solidity and also
the illusion of 3D to animation. The drawn
animation scenes are made into colour and
movement, which gives the characters the
impression of 3D and 4D. 3D being the
movement in space, and 3d being the movement in time.

12) Appeal: All animated characters, whether they are heroic, villainous, cute
and cuddly, funny, should have appeal. Viewers will become more interested
in the animation/characters if the appeal of the characters has an easy to read
design, has a clear drawing and also a development of personalities. Examples
of making a character associate with the audience are; adding a baby-like face
for a likable character, or a screwed up face for an evil, non-likeable
character.