How to Make Animated Films

Tony White's Complete Masterclass on the Traditional Principals of Animation

Tony White, Kathryn Spencer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136139338
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Become Tony White's personal animation student. Experience many of the teaching techniques of the golden era of Disney and Warner Brothers studios and beyond.all from the comfort of your own home or studio. Tony White's Animation Master Class is uniquely designed to cover the core principles of animated movement comprehensively. How to Make Animated Films offers secrets and unique approaches only a Master Animator could share. Includes hands-on Tutorials, demonstrations and final sample animations. Whether you want to become a qualified animator of 2D, 3D, Flash or any other form of animation, Tony White's foundations bring you closer to that goal. The downloadable resources are invaluable, in that readers are not only taught principles and concepts in the book, they are able to see them demonstrated in action in the movies.

PART 1

How to Be an Animator

10-Step Foundation Course

Through this 10-step foundation program you will learn the essential core principles of movement that will be the foundation of all your future work in animation, whether that animation is two dimensional (2D), three dimensional (3D), professional, enthusiastic independent filmmaker, or otherwise. As with a regular school curriculum I have broken down the key principles into 10 clearly definable master-class lessons, MC 1–MC 10. It is very important, however, that you don't jump the sequence in any way. Start with MC 1 and don't begin any other exercises until you have mastered that one first.

Note

If you want further one-on-one feedback on anything you are doing by the author, please read Appendix 2.

Either way, if you follow the lectures, guidelines, and assignments as indicated, you should find the process of learning to be an animator easier and more comprehensive.

Masterclass 1

Animation Basics

Class objective: To learn the underlying principles and disciplines of animation technique.

Equipment required: Lightbox, pencil, and paper.

Key, Breakdown, and In-Between Positions

All animation can be broken down into definable stages. In general terms, these stages are key positions, breakdown or passing positions, and in-between positions. Key positions are effectively the major positions in an action where that action ceases or changes direction in some way. The two key positions for walking, for example, will be the full-stride positions—one with the right leg forward and the other with the left leg forward.

The two key positions for walking—left leg/right arm forward and right leg/left arm forward.

A better example might be a swinging pendulum, where one key position is the highest point of one side of the swing and the other key position is the opposite high position.

The two key positions for a pendulum—drawings “1” and “17”—extreme swing to the left and an extreme swing to the right.

The breakdown position is the position precisely midway between the two key positions. In the case of the pendulum, it is the perfectly vertical position in the middle of the swing.

Drawing 9 shows the breakdown position.

Finally, the in-betweens are those secondary positions that fall between the key positions and the breakdown position.

The two sets of in-betweens—three from drawing 1 to drawing 9 and three from drawing 9 to 17.

In the case of the pendulum, we will have two key positions, one in-between position, and three in-between positions on either side, giving us nine drawings (or positions) in total for one swing.

The full set of drawings for the pendulum swing, including the key and breakdown positions, which are shaded.

Creating Key Positions

With the understanding that we need key, breakdown, and in-between positions to create a sequence of animation, we should now look at the process of in-betweening, which applies as much to the breakdown drawing as it does to the in-betweens. Let us return to our swinging pendulum and consider the way to approach it. First, using a fresh sheet of animation paper, select a fulcrum (or point) from which the pendulum will swing. The best location to place this will be along the central/vertical line of the field guide, which can be placed beneath the paper with the lightbox on. Put a single dot somewhere along this line, which will represent the point from which the pendulum will swing.

The pendulum's pivot point located on a gridded graticule.

Remember, this point needs to be in a position that allows the pendulum to swing fully left and right and still fit into the field area when it is in the vertical “passing” position.

The entire swing, showing that the pendulum safely fits into the entire required screen area.

Now take a piece of paper, lay it over the top, and using the pivotal point on the lower sheet, draw in the pendulum with its maximum swing to the left (west).

Note

When dealing with directions on the screen or on a field guide, left is described as west, up as north, right as east, and down as south. The middle of the field guide is known as center. If you are using a 10 field guide, it is termed a 10 field center, a 12 field guide is a 12 field center, and a 16 field guide is a 16 field center.

Drawing 1 is the left key drawing.

A standard 12 field guide for top pegs animation.

With the key drawing of the westward swing of the pendulum complete, it is necessary to complete the right swing. A good tip here is to place a clean sheet of paper over the previous two, trace the pivotal point as before, and then roughly trace the eastward swing angle of the pendulum to get its maximum swing in the other direction.

Drawing 17 shows the right p endulum key drawing.

Now take all the sheets of animation paper off the pegs and just work with the first key sheet and the new one you are attempting to create. With the lightbox on, put the first key sheet down and then lay the second (newer) key sheet over it, lining up the pivotal points of both and the line of the pendulum previously lightly sketched in. Now you can trace the new pendulum from the old one, guaranteeing that the length of the pendulum is the same length and size on both keys.

Tracing the second key drawing.

Note

The entire sequence that follows the key creation is demonstrated on the accompanying DVD in the Introduction to In-Betweening section.

Now put both keys together on the pegs and you will see that you have successfully completed the two keys of the action—the furthermost key position swings to the left (west) and the furthermost key position swings to the right (east).

Drawings 1 and 17 show the two extremes of the pendulum swing movement.

Creating the Breakdown Position

The breakdown position is the first in-between position between two key positions. Consequently, in our swinging pendulum it will be the pendulum seen in a perfectly vertical position.

The breakdown position is ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• PART 1: How to Be an Animator
• PART 2: How to Make an Animated Film
• APPENDIXES
• Index