Animate a Weight Shift with Monty

Monty Weight Shift

We've uploaded a new tutorial to our Vimeo Tutorial Channel - How to Animate a weight shift using the free character rig "Monty", which you can download from Creative Crash.   

One of the hardest things to achieve in 3D animation is the creation a sense of weight. Weight is hard to simulate because our characters are just pixels - they have no intrinsic weight, so we have to create the illusion of weight from scratch.  

This tutorial shows how to transfer weight so that the character does not appear floaty or weightless.

Animators Need a Smooth Path of Action

Path of Action

Animators always need to keep an eye on the Path of Action in their animation. Paths of Animation, also known as Arcs, are one of the original "12 Principles of Animation" identified by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnstone in their classic work "The Illusion of Life".

A moving object should follow a smooth flowing arc, with no sudden abrupt changes of direction.

How to Animate Weight - The Box Lift

Weight lift from the Animator's Survival Kit

One of the hardest things to achieve in 3D animation is the creation of a sense of weight. Weight is hard to simulate because our characters are just pixels - they have no intrinsic weight, so we have to create it from nothing. 

One of the more tricky exercises our students have to tackle is to animate a character lifting a heavy object, such as a box. The box is just a bunch of pixels - it has no weight. So the challenge is to make it appear heavy.

To get started, take a look at the thumbnail sketches on the left, taken from the book we recommend all our students buy - The Animator's Survival Kit. 

The thumbnails show how important it is for the character to get their feet right underneath the object they are going to lift.  That way, the weight of the object falls directly over the character's heels - and the object feels heavy. 

Helicopter Airship Animation Tutorial

Airship Animation

We've uploaded a new tutorial on animating a helicopter airship in motion. 

The videos are the latest addition to our rapidly expanding Vimeo channel.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we explain how to approach the challenge of animating a helicopter/airship in motion. The airship has a flexible caboose, which must be animated so that it overlaps the main action and settles in a naturalistic and believable way.

The purpose of the tutorial is to learn the principle of flexibility and overlapping action, one of the original 12 Principles of Animation.

What are Storyboards For?

"Chess" Adams

What are storyboards for? And why do animators need them?  In this guest post, Francesca "Chess" Adams explains the purpose of storyboards, and why animators should want to master this important part of the pre-production process.

Chess is a story board artist at Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation houses.  She is a graduate of the National Film and Television School (NFTS), and her extensive TV credits include Digby Dragon and the Go Jetters.

Chess also teaches our evening classes in storyboarding, which starts on 22 January 2020.

12 Principles of Animation

We're recommending this introductory video outlining the 12 Principles of Animation.  If you're studying animation for the first time, and starting to learn the basics, then this video is a very helpful introduction to the medium.  Unlock the secrets of Squash and stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight ahead action & pose to pose, Follow through & overlapping action, Slow in and slow out, Arcs & Paths of Action, Secondary action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid drawing and Appeal.  Sounds like a long list? You don't have to memorise them all. Just be aware of the principles, and then gradually start to apply them in your animation.

Foxy Tail Overlap Tutorial

We've uploaded a new tutorial on animating overlapping action to our exanding Vimeo channel.

In this 12 minute video, I explain how to approach the challenge of animating overlapping action, using a simple bouncing ball character with  a flexible tail.

The trick is to break the process down into simple steps so that the principles can be applied easily.

Aaron Hartline Explains The Line of Action

Aaron Hartline, front row, on right

Pixar animator Aaron Hartline visited us recently, mentoring our student animators, and generally helping to make sure we're hitting the highest possible standards in the teaching of character animation.

Aaron started his day with our students talking about some of the important principles of animation, including the Line of Action - a concept first developed by Disney animator Preston Blair, who published one of the first books on animation back in the 1950s.

A Chuck Jones Animation Tutorial

In this excellent 13 minute animation tutorial, actor and director Ron Howard introduces the work of animation legend Chuck Jones, the creative master behing the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. There are other great voices here too - such as Disney animation stars Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg (the latter the author of the excellent "Character Animation Crash Course" - one of the books on our student reading list).  The video is a great introduction to the basic principles of animation, such as anticipation, squash and stretch, secondary action and overlapping action. We're recommending it to all our students.