First week into 2D Animation...

... and I still haven't gotten my books. =(

But the good news is that I can now animate a bouncing ball in Adobe Flash! W00T!!! The teacher's a great guy - probably in his early thirties, with shoulder-length hair and colorful striped button-down shirts that looked stolen from the 70s - but something about him just seems off. I think I felt it when he flew out the door the millisecond class was supposed to end.

Don't get me wrong, he's amazing at what he does, and one of the things he's taught us is that as an Animator, you need to me meticulous with your work. The bouncing ball example was a perfect demonstration... because it's one thing to animate like it's bouncing onto ground, but it's a whole different thing when you want to make it look realistic. That's when the detail comes in, because first of all... every frame in a moving shot is important. Here's the first rule I learned from Animation:

Frames = Time.

Roughly one second of animation takes up 24 individual frames, and it's the animator's job to determine how she wants to use the frames. You can make the object look like it's going in super slow motion, like it's in control of its own weight or completely at gravity's mercy, etc. The more realistic an object moves in an environment, the more believable it will be to the viewer. Apparently... the Laws of Physics are quite handy in the world of Animation. =)

So I created a circle. I gave it an environment (actually just a horizontal line for it to 'bounce' on) and did my fancy Adobe Flash magic to direct the circle in a straight vertical movement. I selected the 1st and 24th frames in the shot to have the ball stay "up" and then selected a Key Frame in the 12th frame. This 12th frame would direct the ball to 'land' on the horizontal line. if you put it together, the circle starts up... slowly moves down, lands on the ground... then magically goes back up to where it started! That's just the basic animation. Now comes the meticulous part... where you have to ease into the timing to make the ball go faster into the bounce, and then ease out when the ball is back up in the air like a floating balloon. And don't forget that the ball needs distortion! It goes into a flat shape when it hits the ground, then thins out as it's about to go up into the air. Hah. Physics!

It's been a great experience thus far. I'm definitely looking forward to creating my own characters... starting next week! Sketching is the best part of putting together an idea. That's what I'm doing right now!

In other animation news, I showed Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away this week to my girls, and... it sold like hotcakes. They absolutely loved it! It makes me feel good that the girls I take care of have an utter appreciation for this art. Yay!