ANIMATION IN GAMES A BRIEF LOOK AT A

ANIMATION IN GAMES A BRIEF LOOK AT A HUGE FIELD

2/15 THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION – A REMINDER 1. Squash & stretch 2. Anticipation 3. Staging 4. Straight ahead & Pose to Pose 5. Follow through & overlapping action 6. Slow in – slow out 7. Arcs 8. Secondary action 9. Timing 10. Exaggeration 11. Solid Drawing 12. Appeal Disney's Twelve Basic Principles of Animation were introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

3/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – SQUASH & STRETCH • Mega man - character entry • Jak & Daxter (courtesy of Extra Play on youtube) The most important principle is "squash and stretch", it gives a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or the musculature of a human face. In realistic animation, the most important aspect of this principle is the fact that an object's volume does not change when squashed or stretched.

BOUNCING BALL EXERCISE • Animate a ball that falls onto an imaginary surface • The ball is to squash and stretch when falling and when hitting the surface • Exercise time: 30 minutes

BOUNCING BALL EXERCISE • Problems? • Tech? • Are you happy with your animation? • Would you care to share?

4/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES - ANTICIPATION • Prince of Persia • Dark souls 3 – Boss fights Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic. A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first.

5/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES - STAGING • Bioshock Infinite ingame trailer • Assasins Creed Syndicate This principle is akin to staging in theatre, as it is known in theatre and film. Its purpose is to direct the audience's attention, and make it clear what is of greatest importance in a scene

6/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – STRAIGHT AHEAD & POSE TO POSE • Is a technique principle, and as such is hard to find examples of visible in a game. However most sprite sheet animations are done in a Straight ahead manner:

7/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – STRAIGHT AHEAD & POSE TO POSE • And most animations done within an animation software uses Pose to Pose techniques (using keyframe animations and tweening; automatic creation of transitional frames): • Example of animation with skeleton structure using a 2 D sprite

8/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – FOLLOW THROUGH & OVERLAPPING ACTIONS • Donkey Kongs tie (Follow through) • FIFA 16 hair animation (Overlapping action) "Follow through" means that loosely tied parts of a body should continue moving after the character has stopped "Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates (an arm will move on different timing of the head and so on).

9/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – SLOW IN, SLOW OUT & ARCS • Dark souls 3 • 3 Dmotive. HD youtuber Animation looks more realistic if it has more drawings near the beginning and end of an action, emphasizing the extreme poses, and fewer in the middle. Most natural action tends to follow an arched trajectory, and animation should adhere to this principle by following implied "arcs" for greater realism.

11/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES - TIMING • Shadow of the colossus (Extra Credits youtuber) Timing refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film. On a purely physical level, correct timing makes objects appear to obey the laws of physics; for instance, an object's weight determines how it reacts to an impetus, like a push.

PENDULUM ANIMATION EXERCISE • Create an animation of a pendulum going back and forth, once in a loopable manner • 24 fps, duration to be at least one second for one playthrough • The ARC of the pendulum lines up with the center of gravity • The pendulum operates under a normal gravitational influence • When the pendulum swings it should swing either realistically or in an exhaggerated way • REMEMBER: a pendulum has it’s highest velocity when in the middle of movement and is actually still at the two extreme points of the trajectory • You have one hour to create this animation

SUMMARY • To create a speed increase you increase the distance an object moves between two frames (spacing) • At the ends of an arc a pendulum even stands still for a very brief moment

THIS IS THE BASIC MOVEMENT NEEDED TO ANIMATE ANY SWINGING THING • Arms • Hair • Ropes • Etc. • All things swing slightly different but the basic principle is the same.

PENDULUM WITH A TAIL • Your pendulum is to get a bit of character • Add a tail to the pendulum • As the pendulum swings, the tail should drag behind and follow through • You have 15 minutes to add the tail

PENDULUM WITH A TAIL

BOUNCING BALL EXERCISE 2 • Yet again create a bouncing ball. • This time the ball should bounce several times, from high velocity to stationary • In other words you should animate the ball coming to a stop • Think about the timing and the squash and stretch • Exercise time: 40 minutes

10/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES - SECONDARY ACTION • The last guardian (notice how arms move when running down stairs in conrast to when running on flat surface and the creatures stomping with it’s feet) A person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets, speak or whistle, or express emotions through facial expressions.

12/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES - EXAGGERATION • 3 Dmotive. HD youtuber on exaggeration • Invisible Inc. Exaggeration is an effect especially useful for animation, as perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull in cartoons. The level of exaggeration depends on whether one seeks realism or a particular style, like a caricature or the style of a specific artist.

13/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – SOLID DRAWING • Don’t starve (properly understood spatial relations The principle of solid drawing means in turnaround animations) taking into account forms in • SIMS 4 character creation (breaking symmetry by three-dimensional space, or giving them volume and small details) weight. One thing in particular that Johnston and Thomas warned against was creating "twins": characters whose left and right sides mirrored each other, and looked lifeless.

14/15 EXAMPLES IN GAMES – APPEAL Super Mario Characters Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor. A character who is appealing is not necessarily sympathetic – villains or monsters can also be appealing – the important thing is that the viewer feels the character is real and interesting.

THE WALK CYCLE • In a walk cycle a lot of things are going on at once • The two arms are swinging in the pendulum way • The body bonces up and down with the gait • The legs extend and bend • Some squash and stretch is going on in the different parts

THE WALK CYCLE

THE WALK CYCLE

THE WALK CYCLE

THE WALK CYCLE (WORKSHOP ON THURSDAY)

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE COURSE • Please write on a piece of paper: • What is your oppinion on the workload of the course • Are you able to apply theories that are introduced during lectures • Relevance of content (scale 1 -5; 1 is irrelevant, 5 is very relevant) • Something I should do more of? • Something I should do less of? • Something you should do more of? • Something you should do less of?

15/15 THANK YOU! • QUESTIONS • REFLECTIONS