Animation

A. Rahman
(E&C Engineer)
 Straight Ahead Action
and
Pose-To-Pose Action

Straight Ahead Action

Straight ahead action is so called because an animator literally works straight
ahead from the first drawing in the scene. This process usually produces
drawings and action that have a fresh and slightly zany look, because the whole
process is kept very creative.

Straight ahead action is used for wild, scrambling actions where spontaneity is
important.

Pose-To-Pose Action
In pose-to-pose animation, the animator plans his action, figuring out just what
drawings will be needed to animate the scene. Pose-to-pose is used for
animation that requires good acting, where poses and timing are important.
Relevance in CGI
Pose-to-pose action is an important tool in computer animation. Objects are built
in a hierarchy, where each layer of the hierarchy has an associated
transformation. Animation is then built up one transformation at a time from one
pose to the next. For example, when animating a person walking, you would first
set the pose position for the hips at the start of the motion, then you would adjust
the hip translation for the end of the action. Then building upon this original pose,
you would transform other objects in the model, until you had traversed the
hierarchy.

All of your actions must be well thought out, and the timing and poses planned so
that even in the early stages, the action is clear.

Abstract

Lasseter (1987) wrote, "Whether it is generated by hand or

by computer, the first goal of the animator is to entertain. The
animator must have two things: a clear concept of exactly
what twill entertains the audience; and the tools and skills to
put those ideas across clearly. Tools, in the sense of hardware
and software, are simply not enough." The principles
discussed in this paper are tools as well...just as important as
the computers we work with.
 The Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch

Rigidity
The most important animation principle is called squash and stretch. When an
object moves, its movement indicates the rigidity of the object. Many real world
objects have little flexibility, such as furniture, however most organic objects have
some level of flexibility in their shape.

Take for example a bouncing ball. A rubber ball bounces higher and squash
more upon impact than a hard league ball. The ease with which an object squash
and stretches defines the rigidity of the material making up an object.

Volume
When a person smiles, the shape of the face is determined by the movement of muscles
underneath a layer of skin. During a smile, though the head seems to increase in size,
with the widening of the mouth and jaw, it does not. The object is simply displacing its
matter into the stretched shape. The most important rule to squash and stretch is that no
matter how squashed or stretched out an object gets, its volume remains constant.
Guidelines
The squashed position depicts the form either flattened out by an external pressure or
constricted by its own power. The stretched position always shows the same form in a
very extended condition.
 2. Timing

Timing, or the speed of an action, is an important principle because it gives

meaning to movement. The speed of an action defines how well the idea will be
read to the audience.

Weight
Timing can also defines the weight of an object. Two similar objects can appear
to be vastly different weights by manipulating timing alone.

For example, if you were to hit a croquet ball and a balloon with a mallet, the
result would be two different actions. The croquet ball would require more force
to place it into motion, would go farther, and need more force to stop it. On the
other hand, the balloon would require far less force to send it flying, and because
of it's low mass and weight, it wouldn't travel as far, and would require less force
to stop it.

Scaling Properties
Timing can also contribute to size and scale of an object or character. A larger
character has more mass, more weight and more inertia than a tiny character,
therefore it moves slower. In contrast, a tiny character has less mass, weight,
and inertia, therefore its movements are quicker.
Determining Emotion
Timing plays an essential role in illustrating the emotional state of an object or
character. It is the varying speed of the characters movements that indicate
whether a character is lethargic, excited, nervous, or relaxed.
 3. Anticipation

An action occurs in three parts: the preparation for the action, the action itself,
and the termination of the action. Anticipation is the preparation for the action.
Anticipation is an effective tool for indicating what is about to happen.

Indicating Speed
Take the swing of a bat. If the bat is swung far back, one expects the ball to fly far and
away upon contact, or the batter to fall over from the power of the swing. If the bat is
only pulled slightly back, we expect a ground ball, or a pop fly with very little distance.
The amount of anticipation used considerably affects the speed of the action, which
follows it. If the audience isn't properly prepared for a fast action, they may miss it
completely. The anticipating action must be made larger or the action slower.
Directing Attention
Anticipation can also be used to direct the audiences’ attention. A character looking off
screen and reacting provides the audience with a cue to where an important action is
about to happen.

Revealing
In addition, Anticipation could be used to indicate what a character is about to do. When
a person is about to steal something, their eyes shift up and down the grocery aisle,
looking for security, and then at the item they wish to take. This action gives the audience
an opportunity to see what the thief will take before he acts.

Rules are made...

Anticipation could also be used to mislead the audience. When a person goes to
lift a large object, their body bends over more and they widen their stance. The
anticipated action would be a struggle to raise the object off the ground, however
the action could result in the objects flying off of the ground and the person falling
over from the miscalculation.
 4. Staging

Staging is the presentation of an idea so that it is completely and unmistakably

clear.

Readability
An action is staged so that it is understood. To stage an idea clearly, the
audience's eye must be led to exactly where it needs to be at the right moment. It
is important that when staging an action, that only one idea be seen by the
audience at a time.

For example, in a scene with plenty of action, the audience's eye will be drawn to an
object at rest. Conversely, in a still shot, the eye will be drawn to the item in motion. The
animator is saying, in effect, "Look at this, now look at this, and now look at this.
Personality
A personality is staged so that it is recognizable; an expression so that it can be seen. A
shy child would turn their eyes down, and slightly rotate their upper body away for the
gaze of another child. The child's actions reveal the fact that he is shy. When staging a
personality, it is useful to use characteristics that clearly define the character.

Mood
A mood is staged so that it will affect the audience. The tight composition of dark
trees in a dense forest, leaning in toward a scared youth; eyes glowing from
within the thick; hurried breathing filling the air; the Childs eye wide open. All of
these elements have been clearly staged to inspire fear
 5. Follow Through
and
Overlapping Action

Follow Through
While anticipation is the preparation of an action, follow through is the termination
of an action. Actions rarely come to a sudden and complete stop, but are
generally carried past their termination point.

Initiation
In figure movement, actions of the parts are not simultaneous, some parts initiate
moves, while others follow. For example, the wrist leads the hand and fingers in
a gesture.

Weight and Drag

Appendages or loose parts of a character or object will drag behind the leading part of the
object. Then as the object comes to a stop, the looser parts continue to move taking
longer to settle down and stop.

Weight of the appendages dictates the speed with which they follow the lead,
heavier objects drag farther behind. The lighter the object the smaller the drag
and the quicker the stop.
Overlapping Action
Slight variations in the timing and speed of loose parts makes objects seem more
natural. This overlapping action makes the objects and movement more
interesting.

An action should never be brought to a complete stop before starting another

action. Overlapping maintains a continual flow between whole phrases of actions.
 6. Slow In and Out
or
Eases

Slow in and out deals with the spacing of the in between drawings between the
extreme poses.

Interpolation
By default, interpolation of an objects in between positions between extreme poses are
evenly spaced, and graphed as a straight line from one value to another. "Slowing
out"(ease out) of one pose, then "slowing in" to the next pose generate in betweens
clustered on either end of the distance between the extremes, with less in betweens
toward the center. When graphed, ease in and out is graphed as a saline from one pose to
the next.

Speed
Eases can be used to create acceleration and deceleration. As a ball bounces, it
accelerates and decelerates. When you drop the ball, it gains speed as it approaches the
ground. After the impact on the ground it bounces and begins to loose speed as it reaches
the apex of its bounce. The graph of the balls acceleration would show an increasing
distance between the balls positions as it came closer to the ground. Similarly, the graph
of the balls bounce off the ground would indicate a decreasing distance between the balls
positions as it reaches the apex.
Tangency
With this type of spine interpolation, it is common to have spine overshooting at
extreme poses when there is a large change in value between them over a small
number of frames. Tangency handles can be used to manipulate the tension of
the spine, reducing the overshooting and achieving the desired in between.
 7. Arcs

Expressive Motion
The visual path of action from one extreme to another is always described by an
arc. In nature, arcs are the most economical routes by which a form can move
from one position to another.

Such arcs are used extensively in animation, since they create motion that is
more expressive and less stiff than action along a straight path.

Relevance in CGI
In Computer Animation, motion is usually represented in a timeline view using
spines (arcs). The arcs represent the values of objects parameters at a specific
moment in time. The method used for calculating interpolated key frame values
determines the characteristic of the arc (motion).

A linear interpolation creates motion that is rather dull and stiff. While a spine
interpolation creates motion that is more expressive.
 8. Exaggeration

Exaggeration can be used in animation with great results.

Essence
However the key to proper use of exaggeration lies in exploring the essence of
the action or idea, understanding the reason for it, so that the audience will also
understand it. If a character is sad, make him sadder; if he is bright, make him
shine; worried, make him fret.

If he is angry, make him furious.

Balance
A scene has many components to it including design, action, objects and
emotion. Exaggeration of every element in a scene creates a feeling of
uneasiness in your audience. Everything is distorted and unrealistic. Find a
balance in your scene. Allow your audience grounds for comparison of the
exaggeration and by so doing, the whole scene will remain very realistic to them.
 9. Secondary Action

A secondary action is an action that results directly from another action.

Secondary actions are important in heightening interest and adding a realistic
complexity to the animation.

The secondary action of Lox Jar’s forward motion is the rippling of his power cord.

Conflict
If a secondary action conflicts with, becomes more interesting, or dominates in
any way, it is either the wrong choice or is staged improperly.

Facial Animation Dangers

Generally, in facial animation, the movement is a secondary action, subordinate
to the bodies’ movement. The danger with facial animation isn't that it will
dominate the scene, but that it will not be seen. The change in expression should
happen before or after a move, changes in the middle of a major move will
mostly likely go unnoticed.
 10. Appeal

Where the live action actor has charisma, the animated character has appeal.

Quality
Audiences like to see a quality of charm, pleasing design, simplicity,
communication, or magnetism. A weak drawing or design lacks appeal. A design
that is complicated or hard to read lacks appeal. Clumsy shapes and awkward
moves all have low appeal.

The image on the left is not an appealing design, while the characters on the right rock.

Posing
In creating an appealing pose for a character, one thing to avoid is called "twins",
where both arms and both legs are in the same position, doing the same thing.
This creates a stiff pose that is unappealing. Vary the parts of the body a bit,
including the facial features, makes a character more appealing.
 Body Language in Animations

Introduction

The intention of this research was to take a close look at some animations and see if I
could identify the gestures and expressions used to give character to the models. I started
off by looking at some standard body language cues from a non-verbal dictionary on the
web.

Then I went through two Gromit and Wallace movies: "The Grand Day Out" and "The
Wrong Trousers", and identified all the major gestures and cues.

This web page contains images taken from the above web page, the Gromit and Wallace
movies and a few other images I scanned in. There are also a few animations where static
images do not correctly convey the information. Most of the descriptions of the gestures
are taken from the non-verbal dictionary.

Also note that this does not in any way cover all the possible body poses. It only features
poses I could identify in the movies I looked at.

Body Angle

The angle of the body, particularly the shoulder, relative to others reveals how we relate
to them. In this image from "the wrong trousers", Gromit is distancing himself from
Wallace. This positioning of the model gives it more character than if Gromit's upper
body was actually aimed in the same direction as his head.
 Clenched Fist

The clenched fist reveals a state of anger, excitement or fear. Nick Park uses a shaking
clenched fist frequently to show an excited Wallace.
Palm-up
The uplifted palm suggests a non-aggressive pose where the character is making an
appeal. The jaguar who keeps complaining about lack of space in "creature comforts"
continuously uses this gesture. The meaning of the dialogue would have changed
drastically if the model were animated using a palm-down, which is an aggressive pose.
 Adam's Apple Jump

Usually the Adam's apple jump is a sign of anxiety. It's also used to show swallowing or
gulping. In the animations that I looked at I found it being used frequently to show
Wallace swallowing something.
 Self-touch

Self-touch is used when emotions are running high, to comfort, relieve or release stress.
These gestures include touching the lips, massaging a hand, etc. Nick park uses these
useful gestures to emphasize pauses between dialogues or to tell us that the character is
getting ready to do something.
 Body-shift

Body-shifts are cues, which show an unspoken feeling or mood. In this scene from "the
grand day out" Wallace keeps shifting his legs around, telling us that he is getting
impatient.
 Precision-Grip and Power-Grip

The Power-Grip is used to grasp an object tightly with a closed fist. It’s used as a gesture
of anger, fear or determination, as in the scene where the penguin is behind bars or when
an angry Gromit is confronting the penguin.
The Precision-Grip is used as a symbol of sophistication and thoughtfulness. Since it
requires the use of opposable thumbs, it is a gesture used by higher primates. The fingers
which are not used for grasping can be flexed to give more character.
 Gaze-down

The Gaze-down conveys a defeated attitude. It can also denote guilt or shame. Gromit
frequently uses this expression to convey a feeling of hopelessness.

Contemplation

Using the hands to cover the mouth and lower part of the face is used as a gesture
denoting contemplation. Wallace uses the gesture when he's thinking hard about
something. As he strikes this pose he'll in most cases drum his fingers on the cheeks. At
the same time he gazes off in an extreme angle.
 Satisfaction

After consuming his favorite cheese, Wallace usually rests his hands on his stomach as a
gesture of satisfaction. Another cue of satisfaction often used is to partially close the
eyes. In many cases when Wallace is eating or drinking, his upper and lower eyelids
come close together revealing only a tiny part of his eyes.

I don't have images from the animations for the next three gestures, but I was able to
identify them in a few scenes.

Shoulder-shrug
Shoulder-shrugs are signs of resignation. Gromit usually uses this gesture to dismiss a
comment from Wallace.

Hand-behind-head

This is usually a sign of frustration or disagreement. However a variation of this is to put

the hand on top of the head. Now it becomes a sign of uncertainty or puzzlement. The
creature on the moon in "the grand day out" uses this gesture when it gets active for the
first time.

Hands-on-Hips

This is a gesture showing that the character is ready to take steps. When Wallace first
sees the creature on the moon, he walks over and stands in front of it with his hands on
his hips, conveying the idea that he feels superior to the creature and that he's about to do
something with it.
 Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action
----------------------------------------------------
Straight Ahead Action in hand drawn animation is when the
animator starts at the first drawing in a scene and then draws all of the
subsequent frames until he reaches the end of the scene. This creates very
spontaneous and zany looking animation and is used for wild, scrambling action.

Pose-to-Pose Action is when the animator carefully plans out the

animation, draws a sequence of poses, i.e., the initial, some in-between, and the
final poses and then draws all the in-between frames (or another artist or the
computer draws the in between frames). This is used when the scene requires
more thought and the poses and timing are important.
This is similar to key framing with computer graphics but it must be modified
slightly since the in betweens may be too unpredictable. For example, objects or
parts of objects may intersect one another. Computer key framing can take
advantage of the hierarchical model structure of a complex object. Different parts
of the hierarchy can be transformed at different key frames. For example, in a
jump, translation key frames can be set for the entire model in the X and Z
directions. Then other rotation or translation key frames can be set for portions of
the model, e.g., the legs and arms.

Tricks to Animating Characters with a Computer

____________________________________

ABSTRACT
When I presented the first animation I had created with a computer, "The Adventures of
André and Wally B.," at Siggraph ‘84, a number of people asked me what cool new
software I had used to achieve such believable characters. I explained to them that the
software was a key frame animation system, not much different in theory than other
systems that were around then. What was different was that I was using basic animation
principles that I had learned as a traditional animator. It was not the software that gave
life to the characters; it was these principles of animation, these tricks of the trade that
animators had developed over fifty years ago. I was surprised at how few people in the
computer animation community were aware of these principles.
Traditional animation is basically one trick after another. Whatever it takes to get it
working right on the screen is fair game. It should be the same in computer animation. At
Pixar, we constantly use tricks, old and new, to get what we need on the screen. In this
talk, I will give away a few trade secrets that will be useful to anyone attempting to
animate characters with computers, regardless of the software they are using.

KEYFRAMES
Most commercially available computer animation systems are based on animating with
key frames. At first, this seems like the same thing as key frames in traditional hand-
drawn animation, but it is slightly different, and therefore, you should approach your
animation differently. In hand-drawn animation, you work on the basic poses of the scene
first; drawing poses of the entire character so the timing and acting can be worked out
with a minimum of drawings created. Once the poses are finalized, then the in between
drawings are created to complete the action. With computer animation, key frames are
values at certain frames for the articulation controls of a model, which are usually set up
in a hierarchy. The computer calculates the in betweens values based on a spline curve
connecting the key frame values.
When I first began animating with a computer, I was used to hand-drawn animation and
thought a key frame in one medium was the same as the other. So I worked on one
complete pose, went ahead a few frames and then worked on the next pose. Well, the in
betweens produced by the computer were completely useless. I ended up having a key
frame at every frame to get the results I desired.
With computer animation, I learned to work down the hierarchy of the model, and as I
went, created separate key frames for the different controls at each level of the hierarchy.
I found that controls at some levels needed only a few key frames where some at other
levels needed key frames on practically every frame. I also found that I used far fewer
key frames overall and the in between values that the computer would interpolate for me
were far more useful. The important thing with this approach is to have a clear idea of the
action you want to achieve before you start. Plan out the action with thumbnail sketches
and plot timing ideas on an exposure sheet. Have these next to you as you block out the
basic animation. You will find that you will always refer back to these.

2-D VS. 3-D

One of the biggest differences between hand-drawn animation and computer animation is
the fact that computer animation is truly three-dimensional. The first run cycle I ever
animated on the computer looked great from the side view, but when I looked at it from
the front, the arms were going through the body and the knees were bending the wrong
way. From then on I always animated with two views of my character always showing,
so that I could always tell if the animation was working from all sides.
Since computer animation is truly 3-D, you can re-use the animation of a scene or parts
of the animation and not tell that it is the exact same motion. Many times, if you simply
look at a scene of animation from a different camera angle, it will look completely
different. Sometimes, it may seem too similar, so just vary the timing of the motion or
change the motion of an arm or head and it will cease to resemble the original. This is
great for crowd shots, where the re-use of animation is an easy way to keep the crowd
alive.

WEIGHT & SIZE

The computer gives the ability to create images that look absolutely real. Especially with
the latest techniques in rendering, texture mapping, ray tracing and radiosity, you can
make an object look just like it’s made of marble or rubber or whatever you wish. But to
make it look like marble or rubber when it is in motion, has very little to do with the way
the object is rendered. It has everything to do with the way the object is animated. It is
animation that gives an object its physical properties. More that anything else, the timing
of the movement of an object defines the weight of that object.
Two objects, identical in size and shape, can appear to have two vastly different weights
by manipulating timing alone. The heavier an object is, the greater its mass, and the more
force that is required to change its motion. A heavy body is slower to accelerate than a
light one. It takes a large force to get a bowling ball moving; but once moving, it tends to
keep moving at the same speed and requires some force to stop it.
When dealing with heavy objects, one must allow plenty of time and force to start, stop
or change their movements, in order to make their weight look convincing. Light objects
have much less resistance to change of movement and thus require much less time to start
moving. The flick of a finger is enough to make a balloon accelerate away. When
moving, it has little momentum and even the friction of the air quickly slows it up.
The way an object behaves on the screen, the effect of weight that it gives, depend mostly
on the spacing of the poses and less on the poses themselves. Again, no matter how well
rendered a bowling ball may be, it does not look like a bowling ball if it doesn’t behave
like one when it is animated.
The proper timing of a motion can also contribute greatly to the feeling of size and scale
of an object or character. A giant has much more weight, more mass, more inertia than a
normal man; therefore he moves more slowly. Like a bowling ball, he takes more time to
get started and once moving, takes more time to stop. Any changes of movement take
place more slowly. Conversely, a tiny character has less inertia than normal, so his
movements tend to be quicker.

THE THINKING CHARACTER

When animating characters, every movement, every action must exist for a reason. If a
character were to move about in a series of unrelated actions, it would seem obvious that
the animator was moving it, not the character itself. All the movements and actions of a
character are the result of its thought process. In creating a "thinking character," the
animator gives life to the character by connecting its actions with a thought process. Walt
Disney said, "In most instances, the driving forces behind the action is the mood, the
personality, the attitude of the character—or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot.
We think of things before the body does them."

To convey the idea that the thoughts of a character are driving its actions, a simple trick is
in the anticipation; always lead with the eyes or the head. If the character has eyes, the
eyes should move first, locking the focus of its action a few frames before the head. The
head should move next, followed a few frames later by his body and the main action. The
eyes of a character are the windows to its thoughts; the character’s thoughts are conveyed
through the actions of its eyes.

If the character has no eyes, such as an inanimate object like a Luxo lamp, it is even more
important to lead with the head. The number of frames to lead the eyes and head depends
on how much thought precedes the main action. The animator must first understand a
character’s thought process for any given action. Consider a character wanting to snatch
some cheese from a mouse trap; the eyes will lead the snatch by quite a bit because this is
a big decision. The character needs time to think, "...Hmm.This looks tricky, is this
cheese really worth it or is it just processed American cheese food. Oh what the heck...,"
he decides, and snatches the cheese.

Conversely, if the action is a character ducking to miss a low flying sheep, the
anticipation of the eyes leading the action should be just a couple of frames. "What
the...," and the next thing, he is spitting wool out of his mouth.

The only time that the eyes or head would not lead the action would be when an external
force is driving the character’s movements, as opposed to his thought process. For
example, if that character was hit in the back by the low flying sheep, the force of the
impact would cause the body to move first, snapping the head back and dragging it
behind the main action of the body.

MOVING HOLDS

In hand-drawn animation, it is very common to animate an action, then slow into a pose
and hold the drawing of that pose for several frames, then move into action again. Being
two-dimensional animation, the action stays alive even with the use of held drawings.
The same goes for puppet and clay animation. But in 3-D computer animation, as soon as
you go into a held pose, the action dies immediately. I’ve seen it happen with every
animator that came out of traditional animation.

It must be the combination of the dimensional, realistic look and the smooth motion
(usually on "ones") that makes a hold cause the motion to die. The eye picks it up
immediately; it begins to look like robotic motion. To combat this, use a "moving hold."
Instead of having every part of the character stop, have some part continue to move
slightly in the same direction, like an arm, a head, or even have the whole body.

Even the slightest movement will keep your character alive. Sometimes an action that
feels believable in traditional animation looks too cartoony in computer animation.
Because of the realistic look of computer animation, an animator need to be aware of how
far to push the motion. The motion should match the design of the character and the
world. Animating very cartoony motion with lots of squash and stretch on a realistic
looking object may not look believable, as would realistic motion on a caricatured object.

This is the pitfall of using motion capture devices to create final animation. Motion
capture from human actors will always look realistic... for a human. But apply that
motion to a chicken and it will look like a human in a chicken suit. You can use the
motion capture data as a starting place, tweak the timing and poses to make it more
caricatured, then apply it to the chicken and the motion will match the design of the
character.

EMOTION

The personality of a character is conveyed through emotion and emotion is the best
indicator as to how fast an action should be. A character would not do a particular action
the same way in two different emotional states. When a character is happy, the timing of
his movements will be faster. Conversely, when sadness is upon the character, the
movements will be slower. An example of this, in Luxo Jr., is the action of Jr. hopping.
When he is chasing the ball, he is very excited and happy with all his thoughts on the
ball. His head is up looking at the ball, the timing of his hops are fast as there is very little
time spent on the ground between hops because he can’t wait to get to the ball.
After he pops the ball, however, his hop changes drastically, reflecting his sadness that
the object of all his thoughts and energy just a moment ago is now dead. As he hops off,
his head is down; the timing of each hop is slower, with much more time on the ground
between hops. Before, he had a direction and a purpose to his hop. Now he is just
hopping off to nowhere. 1

To make a character’s personality seem real to an audience, he must be different than the
other characters on the screen. A simple way to distinguish the personalities of your
characters is through contrast of movement. No two characters would do the same action
in the same way. For example, in Luxo Jr., both Dad and Jr. bat the ball with their heads.
Yet Dad, who is larger and older, leans over the ball and uses only his shade to bat it. Jr.,
however, is smaller, younger, and full of energy, he whacks the ball with his whole
shade, putting his whole body into it.

READABILITY OF ACTIONS: -Proper timing is critical to making ideas readable. It

is important to spend enough time (but no more) preparing the audience for: the
anticipation of an action; the action itself; and the reaction to the action (the follow
through). If too much time is spent on any of these, the audience’s attention will wander.
If too little time is spent, the movement may be finished before the audience notices it,
thus wasting the idea.

The faster the movement, the more critical it is to make sure the audience can follow
what is happening. The action must not be so fast that the audience cannot read it and
understand the meaning of it. 4
To make sure an idea or action is unmistakably clear, the audience’s eye must be led to
exactly where it needs to be at the right moment, they must not miss the idea or action.
Timing, as well as staging and anticipation are all integral to directing the audience’s eye.
A well-staged anticipation will be wasted if it is not timed properly. 1

It is important that only one idea is seen by the audience at a time. If a lot of action is
happening at once, the eye does not know where to look and the main idea will be
overlooked. The object of interest should be significantly contrasted against the rest of
the scene. In a still scene, the eye will be attracted to movement. In a very busy scene, the
eye will be attracted to something that is still. Each idea or action must be timed and
staged in the strongest and simplest way before going on to the next idea or action. The
animator is saying, in effect, "Look at this, now look at this, and now look at this." 3

In most cases, an action should not be brought to a complete stop before starting another
action; the second action should overlap the first. This slight overlapping maintains a
flow and continuity between whole phrases of actions.

In Luxo Jr., it was very important that the audience was looking in the right place at the
right time, because the story, acting and emotion was being put across with movement
alone, in pantomime, and sometimes the movement was very subtle. If the audience
missed an action, an emotion would be missed, and the story would suffer. So the action
had to be timed and paced so that only Dad or Jr. was doing an important action at any
one time, never both. In the beginning of the film, Dad is on-screen alone and your eye is
on him. But as soon as Jr. hops on-screen, he is moving faster than Dad; therefore the
audience’s eye immediately goes to him and stays there.

Most of the time Jr. is on-screen, Dad’s actions are timed to be very subtle, so the
attention of the audience is always on Jr. where most of the story was being told. If Dad’s
actions were important, Jr.’s actions were toned down and Dad’s movements were
emphasized then the attention of the audience would transfer to Dad. For example, when
Jr. looks up to Dad after he’s popped the ball and Dad shakes his head, all eyes are on Jr.
1
A STORY TRICK

In storytelling, the timing of ideas and actions is important to the audience’s

understanding of the story at any point in time. It is important that the animation be timed
to stay either slightly ahead of the audience’s understanding of what’s going on with the
story, or slightly behind. It makes the story much more interesting than staying even with
the audience. If the animation is too far ahead, the audience will be confused; if the
animation is too far behind, the audience will get bored; in either case, their attention will
wander.

Action timed to be slightly ahead of the audience adds an element of suspense and
surprise; it keeps them guessing about what will happen next. An example of this is at the
beginning of Luxo Jr. Dad is on-screen, alone and still; the audience believes they are
looking at a plain inanimate lamp. Unexpectedly, a ball comes rolling in from off-screen.
At this point, both Dad and the audience are confused. The audience’s interest is in what
is to come next.

When the action is timed to be slightly behind the audience, a story point is revealed to
the audience before it is known to the character. The entertainment comes in seeing the
character discover what the audience already knows. Another application of this is with a
dim-witted character who is always behind; the audience figures it out before he does.

Many of these tricks can be used in concert in any given scene in order to achieve the
strongest impact on an audience. At the end of the dream sequence in Red’s Dream, Red
juggles three balls and catches them with a big finish; the crowd explodes into wild
applause, and Red takes his bows. Slowly the circus ring dissolves to the interior of the
bike shop, the sound of the applause fades into the sound of rain, and Red, unaware,
continues to take his bows. At this point, the audiences has not caught on to what is
happening because the timing of the action is slightly ahead of the audience. As the room
appears, so does the large”50% OFF” tag hanging from Red’s seat. The animation of the
tag is timed to be light in weight; it flops around more actively than anything else in the
scene. This contrast of action directs the audience’s attention to the tag which is a subtle
reminder that Red is still in the bike shop. The audience is now ahead of the character and
watches Red discover where he really is. Red’s actions were timed to be slow,
accentuating his sad emotion. Timing made the story points clear, the emotion stronger,
and the character’s actions were a result of his thought process; thus, the scene has a
strong impact on the audience.

ASK WHY

In every step of the production of your animation, the story, the design, the staging, the
animation, the editing, the lighting, the sound, etc., ask yourself why? Why is this here?
Does it further the story? Does it support the whole? To create successful animation, you
must understand why an object moves before you can figure out how it should move.
Character animation isn’t the fact that an object looks like a character or has a face or
hands. Character animation is when an object moves like it is alive, when it looks like it
is thinking and all of its movements are generated by its own thought process. It is the
change of shape that shows that a character is thinking. It is the thinking that gives the
illusion of life. It is the life that gives meaning to the expression. 3 As Saint-Exupéry
wrote, “It’s not the eyes, but the glance - not the lips, but the smile...” 2

Every single movement of your character should be there for a purpose, to support the
story and the personality of your character. It is animation after all and any kind of
motion is possible, and in the world of your story any kind of rules can exist. But there
must be rules for your world to be believable. For example, if a character in your story
can’t fly and then all of a sudden he can fly for no reason, your world and story will lose
credibility with your audience. The movement of your character and the world of your
story should feel perfectly natural to the audience. As soon as something looks wrong or
out of place, your audience will pop out of your story and think about how weird that
looked and you’ve lost them. The goal is to create a personality of a character and a
storyline that will suck your audience in and keep them entertained for the length of your
film. When a film achieves this goal, the audience will lose track of time and forget about
all their worldly cares. For all that any audience truly wants is to be entertained.