3 Mistakes to Avoid in Action Anime
There are three mistakes that amateur animators do,
and if you spot them in videos from YouTube, then you know the animator is a
beginner, so don't be so hard on them. But be warned, people who make mistakes
don't know they are doing them, and nobody is telling them, so, how would you
know if you are doing things correctly?
Only Action with no Anticipation or Aftermath
Taking the example of the amateurish animators
posting videos on YouTube, have you noticed the problem has to do with the
unnatural movement of the characters? That happens because there is no
anticipation or aftermath
For example, a martial artist throwing a punch while
training. You can think of three key poses: clenched fists in guard position,
then the "punching arm" extended, then back to the original position.
That's what the amateur has in mind. A veteran imagines the guard position,
then the elbow going back to prepare the punch (anticipation), then the arm
extended (action), then the arm going back with the elbow up (aftermath), and
finally, the character returns to the guard position, breathing slowly. Do you
see the natural flow happening all around?
Approach every action by thinking of its
anticipation and aftermath. How do you prepare for that action and what do you
do after it?
Cluttered Timeline
Let's face it when you see the timeline full of
keyframes you feel proud of yourself, because right in front of you is all the
hard work with millions of keyframes. Well, guess what? A timeline cluttered
with a lot of keyframes can harm your animation.
The problem is not the cluttered timeline itself,
think about it, if you need to make adjustments, you are going to go through
hell and back, making little adjustments to every keyframe. A bigger problem
would be that cluttered timelines usually lead to unnatural movement: Jerky
knees, trembling elbows or weird vibrations of the head, to name a few.
The unnatural movement is generated when you make an
adjustment to the movement of the character by adding keyframes to change the
rhythm. For example, if you have a character picking up a box, maybe you need
the character to take a little longer to extend the arm, then move a little
faster to pick up the box. You can either use more keyframes (easy, but risky),
or adjust the interpolation curves (harder but safer and more natural).
Interpolation curves are the answer to the natural
flow of movement. The best timelines are the ones that have fewer keyframes and
a lot of movement of the character. It takes time but it pays off, especially
when you go back to make adjustments. For example, instead of trying to alter 5
keyframes, you only have to change one pose (one keyframe) and you are done.
Have this in mind at all times: A good curve can
defeat an army of keyframes.
Impulsive Animation, No References
Amateurs are the best practitioners of impulsive
animation. "Yeah! Finally, after all the preparation I can just go for it
and bring my character to life!" Sounds familiar? I know how tempting it
is to just go ahead and start animating, but the best way to approach it is by
having references.
What references do professional animators use when
working on big projects? Short answer: Anything that moves. It can be a leaf
floating in the air, a facial expression, a walk style, anything, even tiny
details.
If you check any behind the scenes of any animation
you will see that animators often do field work, like getting a camera to
record nature, people walking or just record themselves doing silly actions.
The trick is that if you are willing to do it,
references are the secret ingredient to get the perfect number of frames needed
for the anticipation, the action and aftermath.
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