As you probably already know, animation principles are the backbone of professional quality character animation. How you use the principles and apply them is just as important.
When you begin to animate with computer software, especially in 3D software like Maya for example, it’s very easy to become so dazzled with how cool 3D objects and forms look on your monitor, and how simple it is to move objects from point A to point B that you can easily forget to think about and incorporate animation principles into your work.
A New Medium
3D animation software is only another medium or tool to create animation. It will not create appealing and professional quality animation for you.
Just like fine art can be done in a variety of mediums – paint, sculpting, cantay, charcoal, pastels… Animation is it’s own form of art and can be done in variety of techniques – hand drawn, stop motion(often referred to as claymation), or digitally.
It doesn’t really matter how you create animation, the principles apply to all the different techniques – including digital 3D animation and digital 2D animation.
Tips to Avoid the Trap
So don’t fall into the trap! Learn traditional animation skills and most importantly – apply them! Don’t forget them when your sitting down at a work station looking at the interface of 3D software.
While your working, use a camera view panel to make sure your character silhouettes and overall scene composition are reading nice and clearly. I have my cam view on screen constantly to make sure silhouettes and negative spaces are clear. Audiences want to sit and enjoy themselves, not struggle to make out what’s happening on screen – you don’t want objects jumbled in front of each other.
Work out all of your characters poses and timing first, think about the various principles as your doing this and how you can employ them as you go. Continue to do animation checks in your camera view until your happy with the basic posing and timing. This stage of animation is called “blocking”.
The beauty of 3D software is that you can add in overlapping action or follow through later on when your refining your work in the animation editor (called the Graph Editor in Maya).
This is my one and only frustration when working in 2D programs like Flash. There isn’t anything close to Maya’s Graph Editor. I still have fun in Flash, I just miss that ability to quickly refine animation.
While working on different Flash and Maya projects over the last several years I’ve found out a great way to strengthen your animation muscle and really solidify the principles into your mind so you can avoid straying from the principles when working in 3D. I found this really works!…
Switch from working in 3D software to 2D software. For example, if you’ve been animating in Maya for a while, switch to Flash for a few weeks, and then back to 3D again.
In 2D software you don’t have that Z axis – depth (which can be irritating if your used to 3D!) but it forces you to pay more attention to traditional principles. You only have the X and Y axis – horizontal and vertical. It’s almost like strapping on an animation training brace.
Animating in 2D brings the principles to the forefront of your mind/attention, so when you return to 3D they’re still fresh in your mind. I found this has been a really big help with my 3D character work.
What are your experiences with 2D and 3D animation….
