Back to the Old Days....

Even though stop-motion (or puppet) animation developed alongside traditional 2D animation back in the early 20th century, the famous 'Principles of Animation' are largely credited to being pushed and overtly defined by hand-drawn animators (Disney Studios claiming a lot of the credit). For this reason I think it's worth trying to learn these principles through hand-drawn animation before applying it to the digital forms. And that's what I've been doing a bit of lately.

I don't have a proper 2D setup yet, but I have managed to strategically tilt and tape my light box so that it's at a comfortable angle for drawing. By not having one, I can already see the benefit of having an animation disc. Still keen to make that happen when budget and source are sorted. Even though John from RKA did lend me an acme peg bar, I've been using my home made toothpicks-tacked-to-a-ruler 'peg bar' and cheap note pad a4 paper for now just 'cos I don't want to feel precious about these early day exercises, and I only have an a4 scanner which I want to use to play it back in real time. Unfortunately I don't have a camera tripod, so can't do it that way at present. I think I'll both get a tripod and a3 scanner later on when budget allows.

Anyways, it's been kinda cool messing around with 2D. This week I didn't go to RKA 'cos I got confused by stick figure walks and that discouraged me a bit, but enthused me to try and get it at home before I go again. I've been reading a bit of Halas' 'Timing for Animation' and he made figuring out timing before you even start keying and how to chart it a lot clearer. I used his timing chart and example to animate a hand point.

I also decided to start working through Tony White's 'The Animators Workbook', and did 3 of his execises. All 4 exercises done this week have been posted here. It's really wierd, I find it easier to animate a walk when the body is drawn as solids. I think it's both the hips/weight shifting and perspective that got me confused with stick figure walks. I still need to read and play more before I'll really get that bit. And I hadn't animated a walk cycle since 2006, so I had to get the treadmill idea back into my head. Speaking of which, in addition to some helpful treadmill video reference I found on you tube, I found this really strange but actually quite interesting and cool link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINJQ5LRh-0. I encourage people to check it out. It looks kinda fun :)


Hand Point Ex:


Tony White Ex 1: Transforming Objects


Tony White Exercise 2: Head Turn


Head turn, played in reverse too


Tony White Ex 3: Standard Walk Cycle (hips down)