Forces for Courses
OK, so read this and then come back:
Carlos Baena's Website - Don Graham Notes
Did that make your head spin? It did mine. I'll have to be honest, it sounds like the intellectualisation of something inherent in the normal animation process to me. A good animator will always consider the forces motivating and motivated by the body in motion. I can see the differences in the bouncing ball diagram, but did Tytla really draw like that? I have a hard time picturing it, and it's certainly nothing like the roughs I've seen from his Disney stuff. Maybe I'm just not understanding the whole concept!
On my last shot, the character was heavily influenced by the external forces acting on him. Actually this was the point of the whole shot! So by planning out what parts of the body had the most inertia, what would move where, and where the centre of gravity was and all that jive, the right poses kind of made themselves simply by thinking about stuff logically. I never draw super fancy thumbnails (I couldn't if I tried anyway), but my little pics usually have lines showing where the masses are going. It just makes sense to think about where bits are flying off to and why, right?
I suppose this essay may have more application in 2D where the artist has much more control over volume than those of us with pre-designed rigs. If anything though, I hope it makes all of us put a bit more thought into planning movements out. I promise I will!
Carlos Baena's Website - Don Graham Notes
Did that make your head spin? It did mine. I'll have to be honest, it sounds like the intellectualisation of something inherent in the normal animation process to me. A good animator will always consider the forces motivating and motivated by the body in motion. I can see the differences in the bouncing ball diagram, but did Tytla really draw like that? I have a hard time picturing it, and it's certainly nothing like the roughs I've seen from his Disney stuff. Maybe I'm just not understanding the whole concept!
On my last shot, the character was heavily influenced by the external forces acting on him. Actually this was the point of the whole shot! So by planning out what parts of the body had the most inertia, what would move where, and where the centre of gravity was and all that jive, the right poses kind of made themselves simply by thinking about stuff logically. I never draw super fancy thumbnails (I couldn't if I tried anyway), but my little pics usually have lines showing where the masses are going. It just makes sense to think about where bits are flying off to and why, right?
I suppose this essay may have more application in 2D where the artist has much more control over volume than those of us with pre-designed rigs. If anything though, I hope it makes all of us put a bit more thought into planning movements out. I promise I will!
posted by Kevan at
9/08/2005 02:18:00 PM
1 Comments:
I personally think that bouncing ball drawing doesn't represent it really well, and that Tytla didn't draw that way (I may be wrong though, just basing this on thoughts, not facts). I think he rather animated in a blown-up thumbnail style, that showed the forces, showed where the volumes were, what the facial expressions were, etc. And then his cleanup gave it the details, connected some lines, and so on.
And he states that it's actually a philosophy. I believe it works in 3D as well, but differently. In 3D, thinking of forces will help you get it more right than it would be if you were just thinking of moving forms. But there won't be anything like the 2 drawings that are exactly the same, but the forces one has more vitality to it than the forms one. In 2D, that would be because of how the pencil was pushed. It's amazing how much a line can say about your thoughts at the time of drawing.
I think it's got lots to do with getting into your character. If you actually get into it, and feel the movements, you'll think about forces naturally. Cause when you're running, or punching someone, or screaming, or anything, you're not thinking "oh, I should tilt my head this way, move my arm that way, curve my spine that way to keep balance", you're just thinking about the emotion inside of you. And that will naturally bring force to it. If you really place yourself in the character, I think the force will come naturally. You'll actually be taking snapshots of a movement, instead of placing a form here, then next frame a bit further, then the other frame another bit further, to get movement out of it. I guess it might all come down to this: you've got to transform movement into still drawings that will transform themselves into movement. You musn't just transform drawings into movement.
Does that make any sense?
- Benjamin
By
Benjamin De Schrijver, at 4:25 PM
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