Steve Roberts
'A Fantastic Practical Guide to Character Animation'
Andrew Lindsay, Senior Animator, Lionhead Studios
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK
30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA
First published 2004
Second edition 2007
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK
30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA
First published 2004
Second edition 2007
 |
| Character Animation 2D Skills for Better 3D Second Edition |
Animators are fortunate, not for them the limitations of the theatrical stage or the many hazards
of a live action film location shoot! Their only limitations are their imaginations and the
size of their chequebooks. With the cosmos at their disposal plus all the colours and sounds
in the universe, animation can be a daunting prospect! Small wonder, some takeup gardening
or D.I.Y. Steve Roberts (the first time I saw him was at Farnham’s Animation course – he
was remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a satire) is not easily daunted. He has
written and illustrated a remarkable book that actually makes animation easy to understand.
Using simple illustrations, he takes the reader through every situation they are likely to come
across in their progress towards believable animation. The key to this book is SIMPLICITY.
Keep it simple! Keep it simple – parting the red sea is for Cecil. B. De. Mille.
Bob Godfrey,
Oscar-winning animation director
Of course this book would not have been possible without the following people:
Dee Honeybun for going through my unintelligible notes and turning them into something worth reading.
Marie Hooper for commissioning the book in the first place and putting up with every missed deadline.
Christina Donaldson for all the stupid questions I’ve asked her and all the things she’s had to do to put this book together. Margaret Denley for putting up with so many different versions of this acknowledgements page and all the little corrections. Paul Temme, Georgia Kennedy and Lisa Jones for commisioning and overseeing the second edition of the book. Claudia Lester for being my ‘best man’ and persuading me that function curves are my friends. Kevin Rowe for help with Maya and Acting.
Birgitta Hosea for making time for me. Bob Godfrey for getting me into animation in the first place – I was bought his book The Do It Yourself Film Animation Book at the age of ten.
Paul Stone and Mal Hartley for being my animated best mates.
Central St Martins College of Art and Design for their support and the use of SoftImage XSI
and Maya. Cavendish College for their support and the use of 3d studio max.
Kent Braun for the use of DigiCel FlipBook.
Nick Manning of Autodesk Inc and Raj Dehil of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry for the loan of Maya
and 3D Studio Max. Screen shots and models with permission of Autodesk Inc.
preface
This book is the culmination of almost 10 years of teaching drawn animation techniques to
You may think, ‘why on earth does a 3D computer animator need to learn how to do drawn
animation?’ The answer to this question is that the basics of animation are all the same and
often you can get an idea of the movement far more quickly using pencil and paper. A computer
can take a lot of the drudgery out of animating, but you can end up doing a piece of
animation without quite understanding how it happened and whether it works or not.
One of the most valuable things I have learnt over the past 25 years of animating is to keep things simple!
The main value of an animation teacher is somebody who can cut to the chase and tell you
the fundamental things that you need to know. You can then elaborate on top of this in your own way.
I have kept the examples and the animation exercises in this book as simple as possible, so
that you are able to build a firm foundation of skills on which you can develop your animation further.
The form of the book is as follows. In each chapter I will go through the fundamentals of a
given topic. Then there will be a drawn animation exercise to complete. Then and only then
can an identical animation exercise be attempted using the software package of your choice.
The fundamentals, the drawn animation exercise and an overview of how to do the same
exercise in 3D will be in the book. On the CD-ROM at the back of the book there will be specific
.pdf files where you can follow how to do these exercises in 3D Studio Max, LightWave,
Maya and SoftImage XSI. There are also 20 models on the CD-ROM, all fully rigged and
ready for you to load onto your computer and to do the exercises.
Although this book is specifically about animation there is also a section of the CD-ROM that
shows how to build each of these models in each specific program. Software developers are
always improving their products, so for up-to-date models and exercises have a look at
www.characteranimationin3d.com, the website that accompanies this book.
I have been in love with animation since the age of seven when my mother took me to see
Disney’s Sleeping Beauty at the cinema. Compared to the little Murphy black and white television
we had at home I found the colours, the huge size of the screen and the wonderful
sound almost overwhelming. I still always think of an animated film as something special.
I became obsessed with becoming an animator at the age of 10 when I saw a TV show
called The Do It Yourself Film Animation Show presented by Bob Godfrey. If there is anybody
to thank (or blame) for my being involved with animation it’s Bob. It’s wonderful to have
worked with him and to be regarded by him as a friend. Other great inspirations to me have
been Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. My favourite cartoon characters as a kid were Screwy
Squirrel and Droopy (both Tex Avery creations) closely followed by Daffy Duck and Bugs
Bunny (generally the incarnations of these characters in Chuck Jones’s films).
The list of animators I’m in awe of is almost endless. John Lasseter, Joanna Quinn, Hayao
Miyazaki, Nick Park, Brad Bird, Jan Svankmajer, … I could go on and on.
Hopefully this book will inspire you.
Screenshot
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Product details
Price
|
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|---|---|
File Size
| 12,679 KB |
Pages
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298 p |
File Type
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PDF format |
ISBN-13
ISBN-10 | 978-0-240-52054-4 0-240-52054-8 |
Copyright
| 2007, Steve Roberts. Published by Elsevier Ltd |
Contents
foreword xi
preface xiii
acknowledgements xv
chapter 1
introduction to 2D-animation working practice
how animation works the 2
basics 2
frames per second 2
what you need for your studio 3
animation paper 3
peg bar 3
light box 4
x-sheets 4
line tester 9
pencils 11
let’s get animating 11
key to key animation 11
animating straight ahead 13
flipping, flicking and rolling 13
flipping 13
flicking 14
rolling 17
how to use a line tester to help your animation 18
how this book works 19
chapter 2
matter and the animation of inanimate objects
inanimate objects 29
weight 29
environment 30
solidity 30
force 30
construction 30
how to animate inanimate objects 30
the animation of solids 31
a bowling ball 31
a soccer ball 32
a balloon 33
a water-filled balloon 33
the animation of liquids 35
a drip 35
a splash 36
object falling into water 36
chapter 3
the construction of a simple character, its articulation and balance
basic human anatomy 49
the spine 50
the rib cage 50
the pelvic girdle 51
the skull 51
the shoulders 51
joints 52
plane joints 52
pivot joints 53
hinge joints 53
ball-and-socket joints 53
saddle joints 53
condyloid joints 54
moving in arcs 54
how to design a basic human character 55
complexity 56
the graphic nature of characters 56
strong silhouettes 57
weight and balance 57
how to design a 3D character 59
planning a scene 61
animating your characters 62
how to build and rig a simple 3D character 80
skin and bones 81
child of the joint 81
first get your body parts 83
putting bones in your man 83
setting up eye controls 85
setting up the legs 85
chapter 4
timing, anticipation, overshoot, follow-through and
overlapping action with an animated character
timing 88
anticipation 90
how much anticipation 91
force 92
acting and anticipation 93
double takes! 93
speed and surprise 94
anticipation during a move 94
varying the amount of anticipation 95
other ways of using anticipation 96
follow-through 96
follow-through of inanimate objects 97
follow-through of animate (living) objects 98
overlapping action or overshoot 101
vibration 103
chapter 5
human walks and runs
walk cycles! 114
walking 115
pace 115
walking mechanics 116
the four basic positions of a walk 116
the stride positions 116
the cross over positions 117
shoulder movement 118
arm movement 120
up and down movement of the body 120
walk cycles displaying different moods 121
external influences 128
two people walking together 129
running 129
chapter 6
animal walks and runs
the four types of animal locomotion 137
construction of an animal 137
pantomime horse 137
cartoon four-legged walks 139
correct four-legged animal construction 140
animal leg and foot construction 140
animals with paws 140
a dog walk 141
a cat walk 145
animals with cloven feet 146
animals with hooves 146
flat feet 147
animal runs 148
trotting 148
cantering 149
galloping 150
transverse or rotary gallops and canters 151
chapter 7
animation of fish and snakes
fish 158
how they swim 159
drag 159
two swimming types of fish 160
schooling (shoaling) 160
swimming mammals and flatfish 161
rays 161
fins 161
snakes 162
basic movement 162
concertina movement 163
crotaline (sidewinder) movement 163
chapter 8
animation of birds
flying 170
wings – insects and humming bird 172
chapter 9
animation of acting – body language
acting 179
method acting 180
theatrical acting 180
consequence 180
emotions 181
introduction to Laban Movement theory 182
kinesphere 182
space, time, weight and flow continuums 183
eight basic efforts 183
pressing 183
flicking 183
wringing 184
dabbing 184
slashing 184
gliding 184
thrusting 184
floating 184
general body language 185
basic body postures 186
open body postures 186
closed body postures 187
forward body postures 187
back body postures 187
responsive 187
reflective 189
fugitive 190
combative 191
palm, hand, arm and leg gestures 192
palm gestures 192
hand gestures 192
arm crossing 193
leg crossing 194
acting out a scene in animation 195
the use of video footage to help your animation 198
the seven questions of character 199
the different sorts of animation acting 200
animated radio 200
pose-to-pose animation acting 201
full animation acting 201
mime 202
analysis of a character 203
building a more sophisticated character 208
chapter 10
animation of acting – facial expressions
emotions 215
the eyes 217
facial expressions 219
happiness 219
a smile 219
sadness 220
surprise 221
fear 222
anger 222
disgust and contempt 223
interest 223
pain and distress 224
combination of facial expressions 225
head angle 226
hand-to-face gestures 226
evaluation 227
deceit 227
stress 228
extreme close-ups 228
how to animate a piece of facial acting 228
how to add a simple mouth and eyebrows to your basic
3D character 238
the eyebrows 239
the mouth 239
chapter 11
animation of acting – two or more characters
two characters on screen together 241
the use of ‘beats’ to break up a scene 242
objective 242
obstacle 242
action 242
personal space 243
mirroring 244
how characters look at each other 245
two characters acting with each other while talking 246
two characters alternating from one shot to another 247
a large group of characters on screen at the same time 248
chapter 12
lip-sync
recording and breaking down a dialogue track 256
how we speak 257
acting with dialogue 259
quick from pose to pose 260
slow from pose to pose 260
erratically from pose to pose 260
mouth shapes 261
mouth shut consonants 261
the vowels 263
the quieter vowels and consonants 264
teeth 264
animating the mouth shapes early 265
creating a more sophisticated character’s face and expressions 269
eyebrow movements 270
mouth and jaw movements 271
cheek movements 273
nose movements 273
index 275
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