There are three mistakes that amateur animators do, and if you
spot them in videos from YouTube, then you know the animator is a
beginner, so don't be so hard on them. But be warned, people who make
mistakes don't know they are doing them, and nobody is telling them, so,
how would you know if you are doing things correctly?
Only Action with no Anticipation or Aftermath
Taking
the example of the amateurish animators posting videos on YouTube, have
you noticed the problem has to do with the unnatural movement of the
characters? That happens because there is no anticipation or aftermath
For
example, a martial artist throwing a punch while training. You can
think of three key poses: clenched fists in guard position, then the
"punching arm" extended, then back to the original position. That's what
the amateur has in mind. A veteran imagines the guard position, then
the elbow going back to prepare the punch (anticipation), then the arm
extended (action), then the arm going back with the elbow up
(aftermath), and finally the character returns to the guard position,
breathing slowly. Do you see the natural flow happening all around?
Approach
every action by thinking of its anticipation and aftermath. How do you
prepare for that action and what do you do after it?
Cluttered Timeline
Let's
face it, when you see the timeline full of keyframes you feel proud of
yourself, because right in front of you is all the hard work with
millions of keyframes. Well, guess what? A timeline cluttered with a lot
of keyframes can harm your animation.
The problem is not the
cluttered timeline itself, think about it, if you need to make
adjustments, you are going to go through hell and back, making little
adjustments to every keyframe. A bigger problem would be that cluttered
timelines usually lead to unnatural movement: Jerky knees, trembling
elbows or weird vibrations of the head, to name a few.
The
unnatural movement is generated when you make an adjustment to the
movement of the character by adding keyframes to change the rhythm. For
example, if you have a character picking up a box, maybe you need the
character to take a little longer to extend the arm, then move a little
faster to pick up the box. You can either use more keyframes (easy, but
risky), or adjust the interpolation curves (harder but safer and more
natural).
Interpolation curves are the answer to the natural flow
of movement. The best timelines are the ones that have fewer keyframes
and a lot of movement of the character. It takes time but it pays off,
especially when you go back to make adjustments. For example, instead of
trying to alter 5 keyframes, you only have to change one pose (one
keyframe) and you are done.
Have this in mind at all times: A good curve can defeat an army of keyframes.
Impulsive Animation, No References
Amateurs
are the best practitioners of impulsive animation. "Yeah! Finally,
after all the preparation I can just go for it and bring my character to
life!" Sounds familiar? I know how tempting it is to just go head and
start animating, but the best way to approach it, is by having
references.
What references do professional animators use when
working on big projects? Short answer: Anything that moves. It can be a
leaf floating in the air, a facial expression, a walk style, anything,
even tiny details.
If you check any behind the scenes of any
animation you will see that animators often do field work, like getting a
camera to record nature, people walking or just record themselves doing
silly actions.
The trick is that if you are willing to do it,
references are the secret ingredient to get the perfect number of frames
needed for the anticipation, the action and aftermath.
Try it
out, if you have an action in mind, record a reference first, and try to
imitate it with your animation. Do you want a tip? Search on YouTube
for "Animation References for <action>" and you will get what you
need. Trust me, it will be worth it.
See also:
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