CA - Animation Methodology 1
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Animation Methodology 1 is designed to introduce students to the principles of animation, starting with no prior experience. Utilizing Autodesk Maya, students learn key concepts such as timing, spacing, weight, and emotion through exercises like the bouncing ball, pendulum, and basic character movements. The course spans 14 weeks and culminates in a final project where students animate a full-character performance, providing a solid foundation in animation principles and techniques.
To foster engagement and peer interaction, I developed a group project where students research and present the twelve principles of animation, which we consolidate into ten topics. Each week, a group presents their findings, using various media to illustrate their points. This approach helps students become comfortable with public speaking and deepens their understanding of essential animation concepts. The principles covered include Path of Action, Timing and Ease In/Ease Out, Squash and Stretch, Secondary Action, Overlap, Follow Through, and Recovery, Center of Gravity, Anticipation, Line of Action Posing, and Silhouettes. These principles are directly tied into the animation assignments, allowing students to apply their research to practical exercises and reinforce their learning through hands-on application.
This methodology ensures that students are well-prepared for more advanced courses and equips them with the skills necessary to succeed in the animation industry.
The Bouncing Ball
The Bouncing Ball exercise is an essential part of Animation Methodology 1. This classic exercise is used to introduce students to the basic principles of animation, including Squash and Stretch, arcs/paths of action, and timing. It's also a great way to get students familiar with Maya's animation tools. In this exercise, I encourage students to experiment with the environment and explore how the ball can interact with different objects and surfaces. In the past, I used a generic three-sided room for this exercise, but in more recent years, I have encouraged students to think outside the box and come up with their own unique environments for the bouncing ball. This allows for more creativity and helps students develop their problem-solving skills.
The Whip
The Whip exercise is a fundamental component of Animation Methodology 1, serving as a great follow-up to the Bouncing Ball. It allows students to further develop their skills in line of action, direction change, and overlap while exploring different movement variations. We usually start with a pendulum and then progress to the same movement through a character's body.
In addition, the clock exercise allows students to delve into the concept of post and pre-infinity. We use a cycle for the pendulum and a cycle for offset on the hands of the clock to teach this principle. Through these exercises, students gain a deeper understanding of the principles of animation and how to apply them in their work.
Jumping ahead into character animation…
Intro to the Character
As an introduction to using character rigs in may we usually go through a few short and simple in-class exercises. We start with a pall pickup. Basically, a character lifting a ball of the table. This also demonstrates how replacement animation can be utilized to get around a cumbersome setup.
Baby Steps
Students can struggle with how the body works in unison. I created a video walkthrough on how to approach subtle locomotion and the body dynamics of a character shifting weight.
The Jump
The jump can be tricky, but it’s the natural progression from the bouncing ball and whip exercises because it’s really just the two combined. I typically take the students through new concepts in a staged way. Starting with the basic moves and then layering in complexity. This can be seen in my recorded lesson and the attached video to the right.
Also, reference video becomes more and more important at this stage. This is something that I introduced a number of years ago and it has really made a difference in understanding body mechanics.
The Ball Throw
The ball throw combines everything into the final exercise of the semester. This exercise relies heavily on reference, replacement animation, all of the principles, and introduces a walking component. In the example to the right, you can see the reference including draw-overs for the initial blocking.
An exercise I was developing to ease students into full-body character animation.
This was an alternate idea I had to the ball throw that came out of discussions with Dhruv when we were coming up with our Remote Delivery plan for the 2020-2021 school year.
A lipsync process video I was developing.
A recent animation test….just to keep practicing.
Continued Development and Practice
There are several exercises I’ve developed after my last year teaching the Methodology course. Some of these (like the sit), were implemented. And some of these exercises I’ve done to keep practicing, as they say, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.”