First day briefing - Animation

On our first day back, our briefing was focused around the 12 principles of Animation. These come from the book 'The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation' by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. We were then told to find examples of each of the 12 principles in games, and present a good and bad one for each. These 12 principles are:

1.Squash and Stretch -
Squashing and then stretching the character or object to give an over exaggerated or natural look of movement. A good example of this is a horses gallop. The horse squashes together, then stretches out.  

                                                                           Good Example- Red Dead Redemption:

 This is the squash of the horses gallop, and the horses stance and leg positioning is almost exact. The look of the muscles tensing up is also shown through the skin of the horse which gives an overall realistic portrayal.

 This is the stretch of the gallop, where the horses legs all stretch out to propel the animal forward. As you can see the muscles are also stretched out, so there is not much muscle detail on the body. 

 

This squash and stretch is very realistic to the movement of the horse in gallop, and the real stretch of the horse exaggerates the speed that the horses are running.

 

Bad Example- Assassins Creed:

 This is the squash of the gallop, and in comparison to the red dead redemption look, there is no realistic comparison. The muscle detail is almost non existent, and the leg and head placement is quite messy. In comparison, this is much more unrealistic, because of the leg placement, and the over exaggerated lift off the ground.

2. Anticipation -
The preparation for the action to make it appear more realistic. For example, a person will bend their knees before they jump.

                                                                                    Good Example- Assassins Creed:

This is a good example of anticipation as the animation is slowed in anticipation of the kill. Altair's stance is also correct as his legs are bent in mid- jump and his arms are poised in preparation for the kill.





Bad Example- Dino Crisis 1:

This games animation of jumping and attacking is somewhat unrealistic. As it is an old game, you can't expect too much from it, however the positioning of the dinosaurs legs in mid air is unusual, which makes the whole scene look unreal.









3. Staging -
Making the focus of the animation totally clear to the audience through placement, lighting etc.

Good Example - Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core:

The staging in this game is successful due to the use of lighting which focuses onto the characters, as well as the placement of the characters in scenes. The characters presence is also very strong in each scene, becoming central in every shot.






4. Straight ahead, pose to pose - 
Straight ahead action is where each frame of the animation is drawn to make the action fluid and exact. Pose to pose is where the first and last frames are drawn, and the computer is used to 'fill in the gaps'.

5. Follow through and Overlapping -
Follow through action is where animation of things such as the hair continue moving even after the character has stopped moving. This gives a realistic look to a character. Overlapping is where different parts of the body are animated at different rates of movement. For example the legs will move quicker than the arms.

Good Example - Devil May Cry 4:

In this cut scene you can see that the animation of things such as the hair and coats continues to be in motion even when the characters are still. There is also a good example of overlapping as you can see that the arms and head move slower than the legs, as well as the movement of the coats is slower than everything else.

Bad Example - Devil May Cry 1:

However, if you look at the first DMC, you can see their is no hair or clothes movement when he is still, only when moving. Also, the body movements all seem rather sped up, making the overlapping look less prevalent as well.

6. Slow in Slow Out -
This is where the drawings at the beginning of the sequence are slower, and the drawing out of the sequence are also slowed down. This emphasizes the movement, and makes the sequence look much more realistic.

7. Arcs -
This is the natural arcs that the body creates when it is moving. It can also be the joint rotating from a certain point, to make the overall movement realistic.

Good example - Fable 3:

In this opening cinematic of fable 3 , you can clearly see the natural arcs created in movement from both the people and the chicken. This creates a realistic struggle, and makes the whole scene look real.

8. Secondary Action -
Secondary actions are added to the main action to give it more realism and life. For example blinking, and the movement of the face creates realism.

Good Example - Alan Wake:

This is a good example as you can see the secondary actions to the movement are facial expressions and clothes movement as well as the water dripping off Alice's' face.

Bad Example - Kingdom Hearts:

There are some cut scenes in Kingdom Hearts where there isn't really much going on with the characters face other than the movement of the mouth and the occasional blink. In comparison to the other cut scenes where the characters eyes are looking round, the realism is lost.

9. Timing -
This is the amount of frames given to a specific action.


10. Exaggeration -
The use of exaggeration is most noticeable in cartoon animations to give a sense of comedy to an action, however exaggeration is also used to make movement look realistic.

Good Example -  Mario:

Because this game is a cartoon, each movement is exaggerated to give a comedic cartoon feel to it. For example, each jump in the game is exaggerated to show the height of the jump.


 11. Solid Drawing -
Accounting for different angles in a 3d space, for example a character has to look the same from every angle they are shown.

12. Appeal -
Creating a character that appeals to the audience, or an animation that draws the viewers attention and makes them want to watch it.

Good Example - Kingdom Hearts:

A good example of appeal is Kingdom Hearts, as it uses something everyone knows (Disney), to create a new game. The characters also very charismatic, and are each individual, which leaves the player wanting to know more about their story.





Bad Example - RAGE:

A bad example of this is RAGE. The characters in this game are not built on very much which lowers the appeal of this game to the audience. The player is left not wanting to play the game at all because they have no interest in the character.

I could not find any examples for Straight ahead pose to pose, slow in slow out, and timing.