Advanced Animation -LECTURES & EXERCISE

Advanced Animation

22.04.2025 - 16.05.2025 | Week 1 - Week 4

Jia Wenbing /0365436/

Design principles/Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

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INSTRUCTIONS

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LECTURES

WEEK 1

In the first class, Mr. Kamal simply introduced the learning module and prepared for the subsequent work, and asked us to find similar dynamic graphics that we like.

WEEK 2

Timing

• The number of drawings required for an action determines how long the action lasts on the screen
• More drawings = slower action
• Fewer drawings = faster action
• Timing affects mood and expressiveness:
• Example: For the same head action, different inbetween numbers (tween frames) convey different meanings, such as:
•     No tween frames = a strong impact
•     4 tween frames = a quick command
•     10 tween frames = stretching a sore muscle

Spacing

• The distance between each frame of the action
• Slow in / Slow out: Natural actions are usually slower at the beginning and end, and faster in the middle.
• The distance between frames determines the "feel" of the action: speed, sense of gravity, rhythm, etc.

Timing Chart

• Visualizes the distribution of frames of an action on the timeline, helping to balance spacing and timing

Arc

• Natural actions usually follow arc trajectories (such as arm swings, jumping paths, etc.)
• Understanding and using arcs can make animations more realistic and natural
• Even subtle facial expressions (such as moving the corners of the mouth) often show arc changes.

WEEK 3&4

Elasticity and Flexibility

    1.The Animation Style

Animation styles are divided into:

• Realistic
• Cartoony
• Semi-Realistic

Common animation principles in cartoon style:

• Squash & Stretch
• Exaggeration

    2.Elasticity Principle: Squash and Stretch

It is one of the most basic and important principles in animation

Brought three visual feelings:

• Elasticity of material
• Flexibility of action
• Life of animation

Application examples include jumping, bouncing, impacting and other actions, which increase the "weight" and "plasticity" of objects.

    3. Flexibility Principle: Drag, Follow Through, Overlapping

These three actions constitute the key to the flexible dynamics of the character:

• Drag: Part of the body or object moves after the main action
• Follow Through: After the main action is over, part of it continues to move
• Overlapping Action (overlapping action): There are time differences and layers between different parts of the body

These principles help the action to be more natural and realistic, simulating inertia and soft materials.

    4. Animation Methods

1. Pose to Pose

• First set the key poses (Key Poses)
• Then add the extreme poses (Extreme)
• Then add the transition poses (Breakdown)
• Finally complete the intermediate frame (Inbetween)

2. Straight Ahead

Draw directly from the first frame to the last frame in sequence, suitable for expressing natural, dynamic, unpredictable actions (such as smoke, water, hair)

The secret of flexibility lies in: Breakdown Pose

• Breakdown is the bridge between key poses
• It controls the path, strength, elasticity and rhythm of the action
• Flexibility is reflected through breakdown pose

WEEK 5

Clarity in Animation

• Definition: Keep the picture clean and the actions concise and clear, so that the audience can easily understand the character's actions.
• Purpose: Regardless of the animation style, the most important thing is to express clearly and ensure that the audience will not get lost in the picture.

Clarity in Staging

• Concept: The presentation of any plot, character, and emotion must be clear and easy to understand.
• The most important thing is to emphasize the Story Point.
• Including multiple levels such as environment, character, action, camera angle, light and shadow, and composition.
• Examples of emotional expression (such as "Toy Story" and "Up"):
• Use character expressions, tones, lighting, and composition to enhance the audience's emotional resonance.
• Camera techniques:
• Angles: such as high angles (to show weakness), low angles (to show strength), Dutch angles (to show anxiety).
• Composition: Use the rule of thirds, depth of field, clear focus, etc. to emphasize the visual center.
• Camera movement: such as push-pull, panning, handheld shots, etc. to enhance emotions or sense of space.

Clarity in Secondary Action

• Definition: Secondary actions enhance primary actions and emotions, but they cannot dominate the main action.
• Function: Enhance the character's personality or psychological state, making the action more realistic and rich.

Clarity in Exaggeration

• Definition: Reasonably exaggerate the character's actions or emotions, not distort, but "enhance reality".
• Principle: Make the audience more emotionally engaged by making the character more "sad", more "excited", more "tense", etc.
• Maintain credibility without affecting the "realism" of the character.

Clarity in Anticipation & Follow Through

• Anticipation: Small movements before the main action to guide the audience's attention.
• Follow Through: Inertial reaction after the main action is completed to enhance the sense of reality.
• Function: Make the animation more natural, the rhythm clearer, and reduce visual confusion.

Clarity in Solid Drawing

• Purpose: Make each pose both expressive and clear and readable.
• Line of Action: The dominant direction of the character's movement, conveying the force of the action.
• Silhouette Clarity: The character's pose should be recognizable even in black and white silhouettes, emphasizing space and action.
• Negative Space: Pay attention to the gap between hands and feet to enhance the dynamic effect.
• Avoid symmetry (Twinning): Don't make the left and right movements exactly the same, which will easily appear stiff.
• Contrapposto: Natural body twisting posture.
• Basic shape (Bean / Robo Bean): Simplify the character's torso and understand the center of gravity of the movement.
• Foreshortening: Add spatial depth and realism.
• Weight & Balance: The character's posture needs to have a sense of support and center of gravity.

WEEK 6

"Walking" is one of the most important actions.

• Richard Williams emphasized that walking is the basic skill of character animation, just like sculpture in painting.
• Different ways of walking can express the character's personality, expression, age, gender, emotion, and even the state of the plot.

Standard walking cycle: 8 key poses

• A standard walking cycle walks 8 frames (in 12 fps or 24 fps):
• Contact (contact) x2
• Down (sinking)
• Passing position (passing)
• Up (rising)
• Then the second foot repeats the above action
• Every frame is very important and indispensable.
• The character's walking is "the process of falling and regaining balance"
• The physical essence of walking is actually a process of constantly "falling" forward and then "holding up" yourself with the other foot.
• This gives the action in the animation real momentum, rather than a rigid "dragging foot movement".

Coordination of body parts:

• Head: usually remain relatively stable
• Stairs and handrails: produce alternating rotations to enhance realism
• Arms: swing naturally left and right, which is the opposite of twisting action (left leg front → right arm front)
• Foot action:
• Slide the sole of the foot close to the ground → toes off the ground → heels touch the ground → repeat
• Pay attention to the angle and time difference of the sole of the foot landing, which is the key to making walking natural

Walking rhythm and style:

• Some people walk lightly, some people land heavily, which will affect the rhythm (timing) and spacing (spacing) of the action
• Each character should have its own unique "walking signature", which is conducive to character training

WEEK 7

Action segmentation (Anticipation → Take-off → Airborne → Landing → Settle)

• Anticipation (preparation) bend the knees and gather the body
• Take-off (take-off) shows the body's strength and center of gravity
• Airborne (in the air) the body forms an arc in the air, the movement slows down, and the trailing line appears
• Landing (landing) the reaction of the force, the feet touch the ground first → the body sinks to absorb shock
• Settle (stabilization) restore balance, the body returns to the standing position, and there may be rebound adjustment movements

Arcs

• The path of the character's jump is not a straight line, but a parabolic arc.
• Richard Williams emphasized that "actions must follow natural arcs (arc)" in animation, otherwise it will look stiff.

Timing 

• The preparation and landing of the jump take up more frames to highlight the "weight".
• The air time is slightly longer than reality, and exaggerated delays are used to make the jump look more powerful or more funny.

Character jump style: Different characters have different jumping styles, for example:

• Soldiers jump neatly and accurately;
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• Children jump briskly and casually;
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• Elephants jump clumsily and with delay.
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• Therefore, jumping is not just "up and down", but a way to express the character's personality.

Exaggeration & Weight: 

• Use follow-through to enhance the natural feeling of jumping, such as hair, hem, props shaking, etc.
• The degree of bending before taking off determines the height of the jump, which can be regarded as a power reserve.
• Pay attention to the squash action when landing to reflect weight and impact.

WEEK 8 Animation Workflow

Animation Planning

• Pre-Planning
• Learn about the character: age, background, personality, etc.
• Clarify the story goals: the character's wishes, goals, obstacles, etc.

• Sketching (Thumbnail Part 1)
• Quickly sketch the character to try different movements, compositions, and rhythms.
• Determine which ideas "read clearly" and are interesting, and which are confusing or boring.

• Video Reference
• Use self-recorded or online videos as reference for movement/emotion.
• Try to record multiple times, focusing on emotional expression rather than line accuracy.
• Sketch Analysis (Thumbnail Part 2)
• Find key poses (Key), extreme poses (Extreme), and transition poses (Breakdown) from the reference.
• Analyze the clarity of movement using the 12 animation principles (such as exaggeration, anticipation, follow-through, etc.).

Layout

• Layout Preparation
• Prepare background and character assets, check proportions and space settings.
• Camera settings and asset reference systems ensure synchronization of updates.

Composition & Clarity of Staging

• Camera
• Frame, angle, focus (rule of thirds), background does not steal the focus.
• Poses
• Minor actions, emotional expression, character attitude.
• Clear poses, key pose settings (Solid Drawing principle).
• Action arrangement
• Clear actions, pre/follow-up actions, timing connection, rhythm control.
• Maintain the audience's visual focus and use "stretch and compression" reasonably.

Animation Blocking

• Application of animation technology
• Key Pose: express the core action of the story.
• Extreme Pose: connect the transition point of key actions.
• Breakdown Pose: control the softness of the action, arc, and rhythm distribution.
• In-Between Pose: reflect the slow in/slow out effect.
• Animation method
• Pose-to-Pose: Build animation actions step by step.
• Stepped / Spline curve: Control the rhythm of the shot and the clarity of the keyframes.

Animation polishing

• Use the Straight Ahead method to increase the naturalness and flexibility of the action.
• Fix contact problems: such as the feet not being firmly on the ground, the hands touching the props, etc.
• Clean up the curve: adjust the action arc and optimize the rhythm in the graph editor.
• Prevent interpenetration: especially the deformation parts of the character.

WEEK 10

Key Pose

• Core expression of the action

Extreme Pose

• Extreme point of the action, forming the structure

Breakdown Pose

• Used to shape the rhythm and the middle point of the action arc

Arc

• Arc-shaped motion trajectory, key animation performance principle

FK (Forward Kinematics)

• Use rotation to create natural movements

IK (Inverse Kinematics)

• Use position to control precise movements

Match FK/IK

• Ensure smooth movements when switching controllers

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EXERCISES

EXERCISE 1 Bouncing Ball Animation

This exercise requires us to create animations for five different ball movements. They are:

Soccer Ball

Ping Pong Ball

Bowling Ball

Beach Ball

Squash and Stretch

In class, the teacher first taught us how to make the simplest small ball, and then let us practice ball games on our own.

Fig 1.1 Classroom Exercises

I tried to make a soccer ball myself. I modified the material of the ball in the material editor, turned the original prototype model into a soccer ball, and then began to make the soccer movement according to the characteristics of the soccer ball. During this process, I watched a lot of reference videos. The soccer ball is elastic, so there are many bounces.

Fig 1.2 Football Production

When making a bowling ball, since it is quite heavy, I wanted to give it a sense of weight, so I just made the ball jump once and then roll.

Fig 1.3 Bowling

For the beach ball, I watched a lot of reference videos and found that the beach ball is large overall and very light. When it is hit, it will rebound, so I deliberately made the process of it touching the ground and rebounding to the origin.

Fig 1.4 Beach ball spin

I found that the squash ball bounces back when it touches the wall, so I deliberately made it squeeze when it touches the edge and then bounce back to the origin.

Fig 1.5 Squash backspin

After all the exercises were done, I started rendering and exporting and then used Adobe Premiere to make the video.

Fig 1.6 Video Production

Final video

EXERCISE 2 Pendulum Animation

Use the provided rig to animate the pendulum. Make the following drags overlap and follow the arc for a smoother motion.

We only do exercises on pendulum swing. I downloaded the file, and then according to the exercises, I first canceled the key follow-up, and then adjusted the swing amplitude of each joint of the pendulum.

Fig 1.1 Add keyframes to the pendulum

After all the joints are adjusted, start modifying the keyframes, modifying the curve fluctuations, and adjusting the curves.

Fig 1.2 Adjustment Curve

After adjusting all the keyframes, I started to create the lighting atmosphere and make lighting keyframes.

Fig 1.3 Adding Lights

After everything was completed, I started rendering and exporting, and making videos. Because the video was too slow, I accelerated the video twice.

Fig 1.4 Adjust Video

Final video

EXERCISE 3 Emotion Pose

After building on the previous foundation, this time we'll begin studying character dynamics. Based on the provided model, we'll begin studying how to change the character's expressions and movements.

This exercise also required us to create character expressions, including happy, sad, angry, and frightened. I started by looking for references and then creating the expressions.

I started with the happy expression. I found some references of animated happy expressions and then began modifying the character's expression based on the reference images.

Fig 1.1 Happy expressions and references

When making a sad expression, the most difficult part is modifying the eyes of the character model. I need to adjust it manually and slowly, but I still want to make it look very sad.

Fig 1.2 Sad expressions 

I used cartoon expressions as a reference to adjust the character model's expression. I first lowered the eyebrows and made the eyes look fierce, which would make it look more angry.

Fig 1.3 Sad expressions and references

Then start with the mouth, which looks like it has teeth showing and the corners of the mouth turn down.

Fig 1.4 Sad expressions

I used cartoon scared expressions as reference to adjust the character model's expression. I first raised the eyebrows, made the eyes look wider, and opened the mouth to start looking more shocked.

Fig 1.5 Scared expressions and references

Final Png

Fig 1.6 Happy emotions

Fig 1.7 Sad emotions

Fig 1.8 Angry emotions

Fig 1.9 Scared emotions

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FEEDBACK

Week 2

• Mr.Kamal Beach ball is too fast
• Bowling has no gravity, need to add a little bounce
• Football does not need to be stretched
• Ping-pong is OK but it is best to start from the top
• Racquetball has the wrong bounce, try to stretch more.

Week 3

• Mr.Kamal thought my swinging motion was too slow.
• It looked like it was floating and had no flexibility.
• When exporting image files, check to make sure the frame rate is consistent.

Week 4

• For angry expressions, the legs should be spread wider and the shoulders can be slightly lowered without keeping balance.
• For happy expressions, the face should be smiling upwards to show more happiness.
• For sad expressions, the back should be more bent and the arms should be more folded.
• For shocked expressions, the body can be tilted a little and the center of gravity can be shifted without keeping balance.

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REFLECTION

Through these three animation exercises, I began with the most basic bouncing ball and gradually progressed to more complex movements and character performances, truly appreciating the importance of animation fundamentals. I learned how to use Timing, Spacing, Arc, and Squash & Stretch to imbue simple objects with weight and life. In Exercise 2, I added changes in direction, speed, and object interaction, learning techniques like slow in and slow out to make the movements more natural. In Exercise 3, I began to explore conveying emotion through movement, ensuring that the character's rhythm not only conforms to the laws of physics but also reflects their psychological state. Throughout this process, I discovered that all complex animations are built on a solid foundation, and that fine-tuning details—such as the degree of deformation, rhythmic changes, and weight shifts—are often the key to achieving a more realistic and natural look.