How to create Good animation, for beginners! Animation Cheat Sheet included!

How to create Good animation, for beginners! Animation Cheat Sheet included!

by | Nov 28, 2013 | Animation

What makes a good animation? The word, good, itself is too vague to begin with. As a beginner, although we are happy to see that we can make something move, that is not what we want and definitely not where we end. We want our animation to look good, look great or even WOW! So let us start with understanding our definition of the word good.   Great animation has several contributing factors. As a beginner, maybe 12 principle of animation is too much to digest, so let us take baby steps and look at a non organic animation such as bouncing ball. How do we consider an animation to be wow for a bouncing ball? It has to bounce realistically and moves like a real ball. However, your perception and my perception of the word, realistic, might not differ quite a bit. You might say a realistic ball will look like a basketball bouncing while I will say that a tennis ball bounces more realistically. No matter which kind of ball, identifying the ball is probably the first step before you even animate. Set yourself a target by deciding your subject and its action.   Once we have our target, then we will need to know how realistic the motion should be. I do not think we can describe the realism of a motion well enough, so the fastest way is to search on YouTube and look for a recording of a real ball bouncing. By looking at the video, we can be sure that we are on the same page for our realistic perception.   Animation can...
5 basic tips to creating realistic animations

5 basic tips to creating realistic animations

by | Jun 23, 2013 | Animation

Realistic animations are what fascinates the viewer. The audience is able to fully enjoy the content and the story behind the animation because the motion is believable. One way to make our animations realistic is by adding force in the movement. Applying appropriate timing gives a realistic indication of the object's speed. When an object is going to travel 1 meter, the time it requires to reach from point A to point B indicates how fast the object moving. If the object takes 1 minute to travel from A to B, that object might be a snail. If the object moves from point A to B within 1 second, it feels like a fast rolling ball. When we animate, we think about what exactly do we want this object to be. If someone animates a bullet flying across the room using 30 seconds, that might look like we are watching The Matrix.      If an object starts to move from stationary, it takes time for the object to travel fast. A car that moves on green light will move from slow speed to a fast speed because the car needs to accelerate. A heavy truck will take more time to speed up while a racing car takes a split second to be traveling fast. Take a moment today to observe when you are on the road today. Observe the difference between the picking up speed for different cars. When an objects is coming to a stop, it takes time to slow down too. For example, when someone switches off the fan, it does not stop immediately. The fan's blade...

Need help in animation?

Step By Step Checklist To Realistic Animation (Printable Version)

Use this cheat sheet to help you monitor your animation progress. I've also included check points to help you apply principle of animation which will make your animation looks realistic.

Need help in animation?

Step By Step Checklist To Realistic Animation (Printable Version)

Use this cheat sheet to help you monitor your animation progress. I've also included check points to help you apply principle of animation which will make your animation looks realistic.