2D Digital Graphics

WEEK 1

03/10/22: 2D Motion Graphics Workshop

Today I was introduced more to what I will be doing this term within my course, for this term I will be with Jess Mountfield and studying 2D animation. Within today’s session I was introduced to the 12 rules of animation, making extensive notes that I will include within this post. Alongside this I was introduced to Adobe and its functions and basic workings of the software, we were asked to create an animation of a bouncing ball, one a heavy weighted ball and the other a soft, lighter ball. I felt today was much more complicated and intensive, using the software was somewhat difficult and something I need to do practise on outside of college. The homework set for this Wednesday was to finish animating the ball sequences within Adobe. Overall, today I learnt much more about the factual side of animation through understanding the 12 principles of animation, this will something I do further research on outside of college. 

Notes from Workshop: 

Structure of Week 1: 

Monday: Learning the 12 principles and an After Effects walk-through 

Tuesday: Work on your bouncing ball homework – 2x exercises

Wednesday: Hand-drawn overlapping action exercise in Photoshop

Thursday: Time to finish up all the exercises you’ve been given so far

Friday: A fun and free straight-ahead morph animation in Photoshop as a Friday treat

12 Rules of Animation: 

From the ‘illusion of life animation’ – you need to learn these rules to have a foundation 

1. Squash & Stretch
2. Gives the impression of weight and volume
3. The amount of squash and stretch depends on the action related to it. I.e. if your character falls off a tall building, there will be more stretch and squash than if it falls off the sofa. Also depends on your style!
4. The mass of the character should stay more or less the same
5. Giving your characters a sense of plasticity with squash and stretch will make their movements more dynamic and believable. They’re also much more fun to animate.

Notes from class on Squash & Stretch: Take a character and squash them into a circle – having same form and changing the shape – gives impression of weight and volume – the mass of the character needs to stay the same (same volume but changed shape) – need to have squash and stretch to make characters more believable – can use for facial expressions 

• Anticipation
• Anticipation tells the viewer to get ready because a big action is about to take place. 
• E.g. if your character is going to kick a ball (action) first they bring their foot back (anticipation) and then after they’ve kicked the ball their leg will continue on the same trajectory (follow through)
• Again, really important for dynamic movement, and it’s fun to play with!

Notes from class on anticipation: anticipation tells the viewer to get ready – when character bringing their foot back before moving it shows anticipation (dramatic thing before we do the thing) – really important for dynamic movement – the more dramatic the action is the more anticipation

• Staging
• Staging applies to the movement and placement of the camera and how it directs the eye of the viewer.
• Keep the focus with the most important elements of the scene. Everything else should have less movement so that the viewer doesn’t get distracted from the important action.
• It also connects to the idea that each pose should convey the character’s mood/intention

Notes from class on Staging: Applies to the movement and staging of the character – think about the most import  ant thing in the scene and how everything else supports it

• Straight ahead
• In straight ahead animation we just draw the frames in order, going from the beginning to the end of the shot in order. This can result in volumes and design changing through the shot (this is not usually considered a good thing).
• Straight ahead works really well for things like fire, wind, smoke etc.
• Stop motion and cut out are straight ahead as well as lots of more experimental practices.

Notes from class on Straight Ahead: drawing frames one after the other (use straight ahead for experimental or effects animation – fire/wind/smoke)

• Pose to Pose (Keyframes)
• Pose to pose is where we draw our ‘keyframes’ first. These are the main poses of action or emotion of the character (think about what you might see in a storyboard, or comic book frames). We start with these, make sure they look ‘on model’ (like the character)
• Then we can add ‘breakdowns’ which are drawings that show how we get from one key to another.
• Finally we add ‘in-betweens’ which is where we fill in all the missing frames between the breakdowns and keys.

Notes from class on Pose to Pose: where we draw our keyframes first – main poses of character – have breakdowns, anticipations, in-betweens

• Follow through and overlapping action
• When an action stops there are often elements that continue moving like hair, clothes, wobbly bits etc. 
• The momentum of the action may also be extended past the main action. E.g. if a character punches another character, their fist won’t just stop upon impact, it will follow through before coming to a rest.

Notes from class on Follow through & Overlapping Action: there is anticipation, then key pose and then the follow through which is this – when an action stops there are often more elements still moving like hair, clothes, etc. 

• Ease in and ease out

• Eases (in and out) are where we have more frames at the beginning and/or end of an action to slow the movement, with fewer frames in the middle to speed it up. 
• This makes actions seem more believable (e.g. you don’t go from standing to a full sprint in less than a second!) 
• More ease (more frames) make things look softer, whereas less eases make things start/stop moving abruptly. Think about the acceleration or deceleration of your action first, then plan your eases according to this.

Notes from class on Ease in & Out: 10 frames is faster, 20 frames is slower – more frames at end/beginning of an action to slow the movement – without them everything looks robotic (more ease = more frames to look softer – less ease makes things start and stop abruptly)

• Arcs
• This is one of the most fundamental laws of motion.
• Arcs are the principle that things move on circular paths, rather than in a straight line. 
• Without arcs, your characters will look lifeless and robotic. 
• To help you get the hang of this, it’s helpful to draw arcs on your page and make things follow your guide. Everything does this – e.g. in a walk your shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, head, knees, feet and hips are all moving in arcs. 

Notes form class on Arcs: Arcs are one of the most fundamental laws of motion – arcs are the principle that things move on circular point – before you animate draw a reference layer to make sure it follows along an arc 

1. Secondary action

• Secondary action happens in support of the main action. It adds more life to the scene, enhancing the main action. 
• It’s an intentional movement, not just a result (like with overlapping action).
• Timing and scale of these actions is important so that the viewer is not distracted from the main action

Notes from class on Secondary Action: this happens in support of the main action (character waving at someone is main action and itching their face is secondary action)

1. Timing

• Timing helps objects look realistic or stylised in their motion. It helps create the laws of physics for your universe: inertia, constant motion, action and reaction. 
• Manipulating timing allows us to create character and life.
• The basics of timing: the more frames, the slower/smoother something moves. The less frames, the faster/more punchy the action.

1. Exaggeration
2. We use exaggeration to enhance storytelling and express extreme emotions.
3. Exaggeration can look naturalistic and believable, or totally over the top and comedic.
4. Think about what you’re trying to achieve and push this as far as you want. It’s often better to push it way too far and then bring it back to where you’re comfortable. (can look relaxed or over the top)

1. Solid drawing

• This just means your characters may be drawn in 2D, but needs to look like they exist in three-dimensional space.
• How? Perspective, form and anatomy, keeping weight and volume consistent, and even using lights and shadows.

Notes from class on Solid Drawing: Just means that characters may be drawn in 2D but needs to look like their exists in a 2d space – perspective, form, anatomy, keeping weight and volume consistent and even lights and shadows 

1. Appeal

• Making things look nice! – Super important to create things that are compelling and draw the audience into the story. Thinking about colour, design, world building and character shape language (super important to think about appeal)

Keys & In-betweens:

• Remember to draw/set your keys first – the main poses. Think about this like comic book frames: the key poses that show where your character or object will be moving, and what actions they’re doing.
• This helps us plan our actions, and makes sure we are communicating well through posing before we go into all the details.

Framerate: 

• We will be working at 24 frames per second (24 fps). This means every second, we see 24 images.When we put all of these together very quickly, it tricks the brain into seeing motion. 
• However, when we’re doing hand-drawn animation, 24 frames is a lot of drawings for us poor animators! So we often work on ‘twos’ where we draw 12 drawings, and hold them for 2 frames each. Our brains still see the motion, and we save lots of time.

WEEK 2

05/10/22: 2D Motion Graphics 

During today’s workshop session we first looked at overlapping action time; to do this the teacher handed out numerous scarfs and asked us how gravity effected the scarf when it was being moved. What she wanted us to understand was that even when the scarf moved in the first instance there was also secondary movement to it that overlapped. We then were asked to open Adobe Photoshop and used the Wacoms to animate the movement of a scarf over the top of a character that was moving up and down. This was something I struggled with at first as the software was new to me when animating, however I plan to go in to college tomorrow to finish this and gain a better understanding of how to use photoshop to animate. Ultimately today I learnt more about secondary and overlapping movement in a sequence and how this effects the shot.

 

WEEK 3

WEEK 3: 2D Motion Graphics

10/10/22

Today we were given a brief in which we must make a 10 second animation that correlates to one of the four sound scapes given to us. We were asked to look at visual aesthetic principles and mood, including: composition, change (contrast), timing & anticipation, colour, mood, texture, patterns, repetition in shape language and rhythm. Out of the four sounds given I chose what felt to be the most calming and atmospheric one in which during and after the class I started to storyboard and plan out idea’s and designs for what I would create. I plan to use lighting and colour to my advantage and demonstrate numerous different actions of animation over lapping one another. 

Notes from Class: 

This week, you will take an emotion and create a 10 second 2D piece that demonstrates that emotion, considering the 12 principles. You can approach this however you’d like – with a character, or through a more abstract approach investigating shapes and movement.

(need to use one of the sound scape sounds given, however, can add more sounds to them).

Visual Aesthetic Principles & Mood

Composition: 

This week, you will take an emotion and create a 10 second 2D piece that demonstrates that emotion, considering the 12 principles. You can approach this however you’d like – with a character, or through a more abstract approach investigating shapes and movement.

Interest happens in storytelling and in visuals through CONTRAST. Where do you start, and where do you end? We want to take the viewer on a journey (think about storytelling with a beginning, middle, and end). Think about taking us into the emotion from somewhere else. Visual language can help us with create changes in many ways, here are just a few examples to get you started:

Change: 

• Dark to light
• Slow to fast
• Textured to flat
• Crowded to empty
• Wiggly / jagged to straight
• Rounded to square
• Sharp and soft

Timing & Anticipation: 

Remember to use your EASE IN and EASE OUT, as well as ANTICIPATION to help communicate your emotion. Close your eyes and picture your emotion as a blob travelling in a straight line. How fast is it going? Does it change speed or time, or keep consistent? 

Now picture your emotion going from point A to point B. Does it speed up suddenly, or take its time? Does it stop abruptly? Does it go straight to point B,  or does it not follow a direct path?

These questions help us to understand how motion can communicate emotion. Some thoughts on this:

• Eases can make things feel soft and friendlier.
• Large eases with fast motion in between can add lots of energy to your movement.
• Evenly spaced, slower movements can feel more predictable and safe.
• Rapid acceleration and pauses can feel chaotic.

Anticipation helps us feel all of these timing choices better, as it provides a little moment for the viewer to mentally prepare for the motion that’s about to happen, without just dropping us into the action.

Colour: 

Experiment with colour palettes before you begin – this can be used as a grounding technique later on to help you refocus on the core emotion if you’re getting stuck. Just come back to your colour palette to help feel what your goal was.

Always think about colours in terms of their balance – will your image use 80% of one colour, with the other colours supporting in lesser amounts? Will your colours be split to have even weighting?

Consider contrast, and value. Is your image light or dark?

Mood: 

Mood is set by your dominant and secondary colours. Identify the feeling of the core colour in your scene, and then how you can refine this feeling through secondary notes. Note the effect of saturation and contrast on the scene, and consider the time of day / light sources.

Texture:

Consider if you want to add texture to your piece. You’ll find this question easier to answer when you’ve clearly laid out your intentions for what you want to achieve.

How do you want the piece to feel? Deep and layered? Clean and simple?

Patterns & Repetition in Shape Language:

Repetition and Rhythm:

Similarly, we can create repetition and rhythm through motion. Think about things like:

• Looping motions for background elements
• Directional line and travelling shapes (e.g. rainfall, stripes)
• ‘Boiling’ shapes (drawing the same image slightly differently multiple times so it looks alive)

Always focus your decisions on what MOOD you are creating. E.g. what loops might an organised, calm piece use compared to one that’s chaotic and scary?