Animation is everywhere. In commercials and movies and on TV and in your dreams and just everywhere. Every animation needs believable characters, but how do you get there? Well, this week's article gives you fifteen ways to do just that. I'll go over a couple of them.
One way is to study the psychology of human movement. If there's one thing your character needs, it is for sure a realistic movement. Or something that loosely follows the way a real something or other moves. Every movement has a purpose to it. My hands follow a set pattern when typing that would need to be closely watched for a while to understand it. If you want to truly mimic movement you have to understand the movement and intention. You have to follow the thought behind the movement, and follow it several times. It is good to film the particular movement you are looking for and watch it until you feel a little closer to it. Or look weird in public by performing the movement yourself to understand it, much like me.
Guide with your eyes. Often times, a movement follows a sequence that starts with the eyes. The eyes move, followed by the head, the neck, the body, everything until the focus is finally set on what the eyes were leading it to. Eyes are the windows to our soul, and also the windows to our focus. They lead us where we want to go, and if you watch anyone you will notice how this movement happens. If you want something to be believable move the eyes first, let them be the guide of the animation, because that is exactly what they are.
Gravity is important. Without gravity...well I don't know what would happen without gravity but it probably wouldn't be fun. But gravity is highly important when you are animation the real world. You have to have a grasp on it so that you know when something should be floating or dropping through the floor. For example, in walking everything is different. Depending on build and weight, the walk could be different. Thin and tall people could be more light on their feet while as someone who is built a little heavier would have a heavier footfall, with more waist dipping. It might seem dumb to other people to be reminded of gravity, but it is surprisingly easy to forget it and make something move unrealistically. Like with the practice of a bowling ball and balloon, that makes you take a minute to understand the weight and the effects of gravity when you normally don't. Gravity is highly important, don't forget about it.
Anticipation, action, and reaction. The three main things to any sense of flow. Every movement can be broken into these three things. Like when a character leaps they bend their knees in anticipation. Their jump is action. And finally landing their jump is the reaction. Anything can follow the anticipation, action, and reaction rule. With typing the anticipation is finding the key to type, the action is actually pressing that key, and the reaction is the letter showing up wherever. It is important to keep in mind that this kind of principle can be used for facial animation and movement and even bring aid to exaggeration.
There is a lot you can do to improve your character animation. But nothing is going to change if you don't take given advice in mind, so always sit and think about what you were told. It can get you somewhere farther than where you currently are.
This article is helpful for anyone who struggles to animate characters properly. It gives the tips and tricks that I often follow myself. And also says some other things I didn't think about.
For one thing I didn't think to not animate every lettera character says, but now that I have read this article I realize that doing that was a little silly. Advice is always good to take, especially from people who know what they're doing.
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