Learning from Animation

1
Learning from Animation
2

• Ninjai the little ninja
• www.ninjai.com
• Bugsbunny
• http//looneytunes.warnerbros.com/web/toons/toons_
  detail.jsp?idtoons_halloween_drmoron

3
cool things about animation

• Provide natural properties to a media without a
  shape
• The screen is no more than a field of pixels
• Animation evokes association to things in the
  physical world
• Time and space
• Physics
• Behavior

4

• Beware! Pitfalls of over-animated designs
• The flash intro trap
• Compromise on the core values of the web medium
• Losing sight on the fundamentals of color and
  composition

5

• Animation Cycles
• constant motion to keep things alive
• Could be subtle

6
A basic walk cycle
Simple Flash walk cycle by Tom Franks
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
A gesture cycle
Rocco by Tom Franks
10

• environmental cycle

11

• application of cycles in games

12

• Other principles of animation
• Anticipation
• Coil up before a run
• Stretch and squash
• Exaggeration

13

• Object-oriented approach
• compose your design based on characters
• Break up your design into independent entities
  that interact with each other
• Hierarchical structures to contain these
  objects
• For example
• time summer
• weather hot
• people thirsty
• swimming pool full
• Example
• http//www.shine02.org/fis/fis.html

14

• Careful Use of Repetition
• Fertco
• http//www.wired.com/animation/collection/nina_pa
  ley/fertco/

15
Clones in bulky costumes, from classic Star Wars
Battle Scenes with model space ships
16
a scene from Star Wars Phantom Menace game
Repetition is cheap in the information age. Star
Wars did not translate its old magic into the new
medium
17

• Applications in User Interface
• Looney Tunes
• http//looneytunes.warnerbros.com/web/homepage/hom
  epage.jsp
• Monkey Studio
• http//www.themonkey.it/index2.html
• Cartoonnetworks
• http//www.cartoonnetwork.com
• Fujifilm
• http//www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/digit
  alShowcase.jsp