curriculum of extract sample - toon boom...

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Contents

Your Art Curriculum.............................................................................................11

About Toon Boom Studio ...............................................................................................12About The Art Curriculum ...............................................................................................13Lesson Breakdown ..........................................................................................................14

What’s in Each Lesson? .............................................................................................14What are the Lessons About? ...................................................................................15What Are the Required Tools? .................................................................................16Where Can I Find More Information? .......................................................................16

Will There Be Homework? ...............................................................................................16

Lesson 1: Introduction to Animation and Animating Basic Shapes..............................................................................................................................17

Lesson Objectives ...........................................................................................................18Total Lesson Time:- One class ..................................................................................18

Lecture Notes ..................................................................................................................19Introduction to Animation ........................................................................................19

History of Traditional Animation ........................................................................19The Production Process .....................................................................................19Digital Animation ...............................................................................................20

Persistence of Vision .................................................................................................20Animating Basic Shapes ............................................................................................21Further Reading ........................................................................................................21

Activity: Drawing and Manipulating Basic Shapes ..........................................................22Material Provided for this Lesson .............................................................................22Exercise: Drawing Basic Shapes ...............................................................................22

Lesson 2: Timing.....................................................................................................25Lesson Objectives ...........................................................................................................26

Total Lesson Time:- One class ..................................................................................26Lecture Notes ..................................................................................................................27

The Importance of Timing in Animation ...................................................................27Arcs and Path of Action ............................................................................................27Laws of Motion and Easing .......................................................................................27Keyframes, In-betweens and Timing ........................................................................28Further Reading ........................................................................................................28Further Viewing .........................................................................................................28

Activity 1: Experiment with Space = Time ......................................................................29Material Provided for this Lesson .............................................................................29Exercise: Experiment with Space = Time .................................................................29

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Toon Boom Studio Art Curriculum

Activity 2: Drawing the Pendulum .................................................................................. 31Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 31Exercise: Drawing the Pendulum ............................................................................. 31

Lesson 3: Squash and Stretch (The Bouncing Ball).............................................................................................. 33

Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 34Total Lesson Time:- One class .................................................................................. 34

Lecture Notes ................................................................................................................. 35Squash and Stretch .................................................................................................. 35Pose-to-pose vs. Straight-ahead Animation ............................................................ 35Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 35Further Viewing ........................................................................................................ 35

Activity: Drawing a Bouncing Basketball and Bowling Ball ............................................ 36Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 36Exercise: Drawing a Bouncing Basketball and Bowling Ball .................................... 36

Lesson 4: Anticipation, Drag and Overlapping Action....... 37Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 38

Total Lesson Time:- One class .................................................................................. 38Lecture Notes ................................................................................................................. 39

Anticipation .............................................................................................................. 39Drag and Overlapping Action .................................................................................. 39Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 39

Activity: Drawing a Bouncing Ball with a Tail ................................................................. 40Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 40Exercise: Drawing a Bouncing Ball with a Tail ......................................................... 40

Lesson 5: Character Construction Sheet ......................................... 43Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 44


Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 45Activity: Drawing a Character Construction Sheet ......................................................... 46

Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 46Exercise: Designing a Character .............................................................................. 46

Lesson 6: Animating a Jumping Character.................................... 49Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 50

Total Lesson Time:- Two classes .............................................................................. 50Sample

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Lecture Notes ..................................................................................................................51Further Reading ........................................................................................................51

Activity: Making Your Character Jump ...........................................................................52Material Provided for this Lesson .............................................................................52Exercise: Making Your Character Jump ...................................................................52

Lesson 7: Animating a Walk Cycle .........................................................55Lesson Objectives ...........................................................................................................56

Total Lesson Time:- Two classes ...............................................................................56Lecture Notes ..................................................................................................................57

Analyzing the Walk ...................................................................................................57Walk Cycles ...............................................................................................................57Deconstructing a Walk Cycle ....................................................................................58Further Reading ........................................................................................................60Further Viewing .........................................................................................................60

Activity: Making Your Character Walk ............................................................................61Material Provided for this Lesson .............................................................................61Exercise: Making Your Character Walk ....................................................................61

Lesson 8: Breaking Down a Character and Animating It...63Lesson Objectives ...........................................................................................................64


About Cut-out Puppets ............................................................................................65Character Selection ..................................................................................................65About the Breakdown ...............................................................................................66Further Reading ........................................................................................................67Further Viewing .........................................................................................................67

Activity: Breaking Down a Character ..............................................................................68Material Provided for this Lesson .............................................................................68Exercise: Breaking Down a Character ......................................................................68

Activity: Animating a Cut-out Character .........................................................................70Material Provided for this Lesson .............................................................................70Exercise: Animating a Cut-out Character .................................................................70

Lesson 9: Stop-motion Animation..........................................................71Lesson Objectives ...........................................................................................................72


What is Stop-motion Animation ...............................................................................73Gathering Your Characters .......................................................................................74Setting Up Your Background ....................................................................................74

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Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 75Further Viewing ........................................................................................................ 75

Activity: Animating Figurines .......................................................................................... 76Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 76Exercise: Animating a Figurine ................................................................................. 76

Lesson 10: Basic Multiplaning and Sceneplanning................. 79Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 80


Creating Motion and Depth Before Computers ...................................................... 81Computerized Multiplaning ..................................................................................... 81Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 81Further Viewing ........................................................................................................ 81

Activity: Moving Your Character in 3D Space ................................................................ 82Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 82Exercise: Moving Your Character in 3D Space ........................................................ 82

Lesson 11: The Take........................................................................................... 83Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 84


Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 85Further Viewing ........................................................................................................ 85

Activity: Draw a “Take” Shot .......................................................................................... 86Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 86Exercise: Draw a “Take” Shot .................................................................................. 86

Lesson 12: Visual Break-Down and Lip-sync................................. 87Lesson Objectives ........................................................................................................... 88


Visual Breakdown ..................................................................................................... 89Phrasing and Lip-sync ............................................................................................... 91Further Reading ....................................................................................................... 91

Activity: Breakdown and Lip-sync ................................................................................... 92Material Provided for this Lesson ............................................................................. 92Exercise: Breakdown and Lip-sync ........................................................................... 92Sam

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Lesson 13: Storyboard and Staging......................................................95Lesson Objectives ...........................................................................................................96Lecture Notes ..................................................................................................................97

Storyboarding ...........................................................................................................97Staging ......................................................................................................................97Creating a Good Storyboard ....................................................................................98

Bad Storyboarding .............................................................................................98Good Storyboarding ........................................................................................101

Further Reading ......................................................................................................104Activity: Storyboard Your Dream Scene .......................................................................105

Exercise: Storyboard Your Dream Scene ................................................................105

Appendix 1: Glossary and References...............................................................................107

Glossary .........................................................................................................................108The Terms ...............................................................................................................108

Alpha Channel ..................................................................................................108Animate ............................................................................................................108Animatic ...........................................................................................................108Animation .........................................................................................................108Anime ...............................................................................................................108Arc ....................................................................................................................108Aspect Ratio .....................................................................................................109Auto-feed .........................................................................................................109Automatic Lip-sync Detection ..........................................................................109Axis ...................................................................................................................109Background ......................................................................................................109Backlight ...........................................................................................................109Bezier ................................................................................................................110Bibliography .....................................................................................................110Bitmap ..............................................................................................................110Breakdown .......................................................................................................110Camera Shake ..................................................................................................111Caption .............................................................................................................111Cel ....................................................................................................................111Character Design ..............................................................................................111Clean up ...........................................................................................................111Closest Similar Shape - Morphing Rules ..........................................................111CMYK ...............................................................................................................111Colour Art to Colour Art - Morphing Rules ......................................................111Colour Card ......................................................................................................112Colour Model / Model .....................................................................................112Colour-Override effect .....................................................................................112Colour Swatch to Same Colour Swatch - Morphing Rules ...............................112Colour Wheel ...................................................................................................112Composite ........................................................................................................112Compositing .....................................................................................................112Cross Dissolve ..................................................................................................112Cut ....................................................................................................................113

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Cut-out Animation ........................................................................................... 113Cycle ................................................................................................................ 113Dialogue ........................................................................................................... 113Dope Sheet ...................................................................................................... 113Doping ............................................................................................................. 113Double Bounce Walk ....................................................................................... 113DPI ................................................................................................................... 113Drag ................................................................................................................. 114Drawing Element ............................................................................................. 114Ease/Velocity ................................................................................................... 114Ease and Bezier Function ................................................................................. 114Ease-in .............................................................................................................. 114Ease-out ........................................................................................................... 114eLearning ......................................................................................................... 114Establishing Shot ............................................................................................. 115Exposure .......................................................................................................... 115Exposure Sheet (Xsheet) .................................................................................. 115Fade In/Fade Out ............................................................................................ 115Fast-in .............................................................................................................. 115Fast-out ............................................................................................................ 115Field ................................................................................................................. 115Field Chart ....................................................................................................... 116Fill Shape to Fill Shape - Morphing Rules ........................................................ 116film-1.33 ........................................................................................................... 116film-1.66 ........................................................................................................... 116Flipping ............................................................................................................ 116Follow-through ................................................................................................ 116Forum ............................................................................................................... 116Forward Kinematics ......................................................................................... 116Frame ............................................................................................................... 117Frame Rate ....................................................................................................... 117Function ........................................................................................................... 117Gamut .............................................................................................................. 117Glow effect ...................................................................................................... 117Glue ................................................................................................................. 117HDTV ................................................................................................................ 117Hints ................................................................................................................. 118Hold ................................................................................................................. 118HSV .................................................................................................................. 118Icon .................................................................................................................. 118In-between ....................................................................................................... 118Ink and Paint .................................................................................................... 118Interpolation .................................................................................................... 118Inverse Kinematics ........................................................................................... 118Jump Cut ......................................................................................................... 119Key Pose .......................................................................................................... 119Keyboard Shortcuts ......................................................................................... 119Keyframe .......................................................................................................... 119Layer ................................................................................................................ 119Layout .............................................................................................................. 119Layout and Posing process .............................................................................. 120Layout Artist ..................................................................................................... 120Library .............................................................................................................. 120

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Light Table ........................................................................................................120Line Art to Line Art - Morphing Rules ..............................................................120Line of Action ...................................................................................................120Lip-Sync ............................................................................................................120Low resolution ..................................................................................................120Manual Lip-Sync Detection ..............................................................................121Master Palette ..................................................................................................121Model / Colour Mode ......................................................................................121Morphing ..........................................................................................................121Morphing Rules ................................................................................................121Motion Keyframe ..............................................................................................122Mouth Chart .....................................................................................................122Multiplane ........................................................................................................122Network........................................................................................................... I 122NTSC ................................................................................................................122Nudge ..............................................................................................................122Onion Skin ........................................................................................................122Overlay .............................................................................................................122PAL ...................................................................................................................123Palette / Master Palette ...................................................................................123Palette Style .....................................................................................................123Pan ....................................................................................................................123Panel .................................................................................................................123Paperless Animation .........................................................................................123Passing Position............................................................................................... I 123Patch Articulation .............................................................................................123Path - 3DPath .................................................................................................. I 124Path of Action ...................................................................................................124Peg ...................................................................................................................124Pencil Line to Pencil Line - Morphing Rules .....................................................124Phoneme ..........................................................................................................124Pivot .................................................................................................................124Pixel ..................................................................................................................124Pose to Pose Animation ...................................................................................124Pose-to-pose ....................................................................................................125Quadmap layer .................................................................................................125Rendering .........................................................................................................125Resolution .........................................................................................................125RGB ..................................................................................................................125Rigging .............................................................................................................125Rotary Table .....................................................................................................125Rotoscoping .....................................................................................................125Roughs ..............................................................................................................126Safety Area .......................................................................................................126Scene ................................................................................................................126Script ................................................................................................................126SCSI ..................................................................................................................126Sequence ..........................................................................................................126Shot ..................................................................................................................126Showcase ..........................................................................................................126Slow-in ..............................................................................................................127Slow-out ...........................................................................................................127Slugging ...........................................................................................................127

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Sound Layer ..................................................................................................... 127Sound Scrubbing ............................................................................................. 127Stop-Motion Keyframe .................................................................................... 127Storyboard ....................................................................................................... 127Straight-ahead ................................................................................................. 127Strokes ............................................................................................................. 128Studio ............................................................................................................... 128Symbols ............................................................................................................ 128Tablet/Pen ....................................................................................................... 128Template .......................................................................................................... 128Thumbnails ....................................................................................................... 128Time Code ....................................................................................................... 128Timeline ........................................................................................................... 129Tips and Tricks ................................................................................................. 129Toon Boom Animate ........................................................................................ 129Toon Boom Pencil Check Pro .......................................................................... 129Toon Boom Storyboard ................................................................................... 129Toon Boom Storyboard Pro ............................................................................. 129Toon Boom Studio ........................................................................................... 129Trace and Paint ................................................................................................ 130Track Breakdown ............................................................................................. 130Traditional Animation ...................................................................................... 130Trajectory ......................................................................................................... 130Transition ......................................................................................................... 130Underlay ........................................................................................................... 130Units Aspect Ratio ........................................................................................... 130Vanishing and Appearing - Morphing Rules .................................................... 130Vector ............................................................................................................... 131Velobased Functions ........................................................................................ 131Velocity/Ease ................................................................................................... 131Walk Cycles ...................................................................................................... 131Workout Series ................................................................................................ 131Workspace ....................................................................................................... 131Xsheet (Exposure Sheet) .................................................................................. 132Zone ................................................................................................................. 132

Useful References ......................................................................................................... 133Books ...................................................................................................................... 133Films ....................................................................................................................... 133Websites ................................................................................................................. 133

Appendix 2: Toon Boom Educational Products...................... 135

Toon Boom Animation Learning Curriculums .............................................................. 136Storyboard Learning Curriculum ............................................................................ 137

About the Product ........................................................................................... 137Storyboard Pro Learning Curriculum ..................................................................... 138

About the Product ........................................................................................... 138Pencil Check Pro Learning Curriculum ................................................................... 139

About the Product ........................................................................................... 139Animate Learning Curriculum ................................................................................ 140

About the Product ........................................................................................... 140Sam

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Your Art Curriculum

This chapter includes the following sections:

• About Toon Boom Studio, on page 12

• About The Art Curriculum, on page 13

• Lesson Breakdown, on page 14• Will There Be Homework?, on page 16

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About Toon Boom StudioToon Boom Animation has many years of experience developing tools for animators. Vector technology, a deep understanding of the animation process, and a commitment to the needs of animators are the backbone of our products.

Toon Boom Studio represents the culmination of years of research and development to create a desktop tool that animators can learn and use with ease to produce broadcast quality animation.

Toon Boom Studio embodies the workflow of the animation studio and provides tools that parallel those used in a traditional environment. Students of animation trained on Toon Boom Studio will feel perfectly confident transitioning to either a traditional or digital studio environment.

Here’s a shot of the Toon Boom Studio interface. This is the Default Workspace, where you can animate, draw, set your timing, create effects, do your compositing and paint.

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About The Art Curriculum The Toon Boom Studio Art Curriculum is an outline of a basic animation course. It includes lessons with notes and activities. The notes included in the lessons are introductory.

Although it is not a professional animation training course, at the end of this course your students will:

• Have enough experience in animation processes and techniques to know if animation is an area that they want to explore more.

• Be ready to move into a traditional or digital animation environment.

This course guides you through the basics of animation using Toon Boom Studio. It is not meant to teach you or your students how to use the software. For detailed instruction on how to use Toon Boom Studio, we highly recommend that you consult the User Guide, Online Help, and assorted tutorials (all available from our website).

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Lesson Breakdown“Our work must have a foundation of fact in order to have sincerity. The most hilarious comedy is always based on things actual.”

—Walt Disney, The Illusion of Life

Animation is all about the analysis and breaking down, or deconstruction, of movement. All of the concepts discussed in these lessons have evolved from the analysis of movement that started with the early days of animation and continues today.

Each lesson builds on the previous one to provide greater insight into the nature of movement and how it can be captured in animation.

What’s in Each Lesson?Each Student lesson includes the following sections:

• Lesson ObjectivesWith this list of objectives, you can understand the point of the lesson, and what we want you to focus on for its duration. Review this list again when you finish the lesson to see if you have absorbed the key ideas.

• Lecture NotesWe have provided some key ideas about animation for the students to keep in mind that relate directly to the lesson they are following. These points are well-known and are often well-documented, but it is better to have it all in one place while they are learning them.

Further Reading At the end of each section, we have suggested some relevant chapters of animation books where the students can learn more about the concepts introduced in that section.Further Viewing If the students have some animation movies at home, or a cartoon specialty channel, they should watch with an analytical eye to see how each animation uses the concepts outlined in the lesson. In some lessons, we have suggested notable examples that are easy to acquire, rent or loan from the library.

• Activities Each lesson is incomplete without applying some of the new ideas they have learned. They should learn by doing to get a good grasp of these concepts.

Material Provided for this Lesson We’ve included animation projects the students can do in Toon Boom Studio, packaged specifically for use with these lessons.Sam

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What are the Lessons About?The Toon Boom Studio Art Curriculum includes the following lessons:

Lesson 1. Introduction to Animation and Animating Basic Shapes, on page 17

An overview of the history and development of animation, as well as instruction on drawing and deforming basic shapes.

Lesson 2. Timing, on page 25

An introduction to the importance of timing in animation, including how manipulating exposure time can change the timing and feel of an animation.

Lesson 3. Squash and Stretch (The Bouncing Ball), on page 33

An introduction to a basic animation technique.

Lesson 4. Anticipation, Drag and Overlapping Action, on page 37

In this lesson, learn how to make your audience think about what a character will do before it acts.

Lesson 5. Character Construction Sheet, on page 43

Re-examine the basics of character construction and breakdown. This lesson is meant as a review of previous chapters—a bit of a fun break—that will lead into the last lessons.

Lesson 6. Animating a Jumping Character, on page 49

Get a character to jump using all of the concepts already covered and get warmed up for more complicated animation tasks.

Lesson 7. Animating a Walk Cycle, on page 55

The title says it all. In this lesson, the students will make the characters walk.

Lesson 8. Breaking Down a Character and Animating It, on page 63

Break a character down into several pieces to rig it and animate it as a puppet.

Lesson 9. Stop-motion Animation, on page 71

Gather your favourite toys and figurines to animate them frame-by-frame using a webcam or camera. In this lesson, the students will learn to break down the movement of objects.

Lesson 10. Basic Multiplaning and Sceneplanning, on page 79

Discover the basics of sceneplanning and multiplaning, which has evolved from huge camera stands and complicated lighting into a simple process in digital animation, producing interesting visual effects.

Lesson 11. The Take, on page 83

This lesson takes another look at acting in animation, as the students will start to think about how they can convince their viewers that their characters have a personality.

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Lesson 12. Visual Break-Down and Lip-sync, on page 87

Lip-synching is a difficult art to master, but the students can review the basics of breaking down sentences, as well as lip assignment. This labor intensive process is facilitated by features in Toon Boom Studio.

Lesson 13. Storyboard and Staging, on page 95

This lesson describes how to set up and plan shots and scenes in a storyboard.

What Are the Required Tools?The students will need a copy of Toon Boom Studio and the sample material package. They will be able to do most of the exercises using the mouse, but for the drawing exercises it is recommended to use a pen tablet.

Where Can I Find More Information?We suggest that if you and your students want to learn more about animation concepts and techniques presented in the notes that you consult one of the many books and websites on the topic.

We have also included an Appendix 1: Glossary and References, on page 107. The appendix includes the titles and details of the books and animation mentioned in each lesson are also included, so that you and your students can do more research.

There is a list of suggested resources in the section, Appendix 1: Glossary and References, on page 107.

Information about our other educational curriculums can be found in Appendix 2: Toon Boom Educational Products, on page 135.

Will There Be Homework?Animation requires practice, lots and lots of practice. We haven’t designed each lesson with the thought of assigning follow-up activities, but it would probably be impossible for your students to completely absorb the basic concepts and create quality work in a short lesson.

Will there be homework? Well, that’s up to how you structure your teaching and what you want your students to achieve by learning about animation. Should there be follow-up activities? Well, yes, if you really want your students to improve their animation skills.

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Lesson 1 Introduction to Animation and

Animating Basic Shapes

This lesson includes the following sections:

• Lesson Objectives, on page 18

• Lecture Notes, on page 19

• Persistence of Vision, on page 20• Animating Basic Shapes, on page 21

• Further Reading, on page 21

• Activity: Drawing and Manipulating Basic Shapes, on page 22

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Lesson Objectives

Total Lesson Time:- One classThis lesson introduces the basic shapes and their manipulation.

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

• Draw and deform basic three-dimensional shapes, taking into consideration the volume and the material of the object

Activity: Drawing and Manipulating Basic Shapes

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Lesson 1: Introduction to Animation and Animating Basic Shapes

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Lecture Notes

Introduction to Animation

History of Traditional Animation• Persistence of vision: from the flip book to the zoetrope

• Earl Hurd: working on cels and layering cels

• Max Fleischer: rotoscoping live-action• Walt Disney: storyboard, pencil tests, multiplane camera. Also pioneered the use

of colour and sound in animation.

The Production ProcessPre-Production

• Idea

• Bible: description of all characters, their history and personality.• Character design, prop library

• Script

• Storyboard• Background and reference drawings

• Sound track and dialogue

• Break-down of dialogue, determining timing of action (exposure sheets)• Animatic: storyboards filmed with sound

Animation

• Background production

• Key drawing• Inbetweens

• Roughs to cleans

• Line test

Ink and Paint

• Colour models

• Painting

• Shooting (for TV and film, traditional process)• Filming frame-by-frame with cameraSample

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Post-production

• Editing• Final sound recording and synchronization

• Production for TV, film, Web

Digital Animation• Different processes: scanning drawings vs. paperless drawing (digital tablets and

pens)• Simulate traditional process, but reduce labour intensive tasks, like line tests, ink

and paint.• Vector vs. bitmap technology

Persistence of Vision• When someone takes a picture of you using a camera with a flash, you can still

see an afterimage of the flash for a few seconds. This is because your eye processes the image, but your brain holds it for a longer period of time. This is called persistence of vision.

• Persistence of vision allows us to “fill” in movement from one image to the next when viewing media onscreen, which is usually filmed at 24 frames per second. In animation, it is typical for an animator to use 24 images for one second of time.

• You can use 12 frames per second when you are working in the activities we have provided.

• Start with basic shapes to create characters and objects, and then provide the detail. Basic shapes include circles, squares, rectangles, and ellipses. Use these shapes to create objects with volume, such as cylinders, cubes and spheres.

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Animating Basic Shapes• Importance in the quality of the line, drawing using your entire arm (not just

moving the wrist)• Basic shapes that compose all forms (rectangles, ellipses, lines)

• Maintaining volume as shapes change• Material affects the way a shape moves as it is modified

Further Reading• The Animation Book: Chapter 1: Basic Skills

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Activity: Drawing and Manipulating Basic Shapes

The students should draw basic constructing shapes of objects and deform them.

• Resist the urge to create scratchy lines, simple confident strokes are most important to develop.

• Visualize, then analyze how a shape may change. See it in action.

Create a new project in Toon Boom Studio and complete the exercise. The students should take this opportunity to review some of the elements of the interface, such as the exposure sheet and sceneplanning mode, which were developed based on tools found in a traditional animation studio.

Material Provided for this LessonThe Lesson 1 sample material contains drawings of the basic shapes that have been squashed, stretched, bent, and tied.

Exercise: Drawing Basic Shapes

1. Use the Brush tool to draw the basic shapes: circles, boxes, and rectangles.

Don’t cheat by using the Rectangle and Ellipse tools. You can only develop

drawing skills through practice of the basics. You might want to experiment with

different settings for variable-width thickness on the Brush tool.

2. Give your basic shapes a third dimension: draw cylinders, cubes, spheres.

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3. Squash, stretch, bend, and tie your 3D shapes! Do this manually—don’t use the automated tools in Toon Boom Studio. It is important to do this manually to develop an understanding of how volume and material affect how shapes change.

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Lesson 2 Timing

This lesson includes the following sections:

• Lesson Objectives, on page 26

• Lecture Notes, on page 27

• The Importance of Timing in Animation, on page 27• Arcs and Path of Action, on page 27

• Laws of Motion and Easing, on page 27

• Keyframes, In-betweens and Timing, on page 28• Further Reading, on page 28

• Further Viewing, on page 28

• Activity 1: Experiment with Space = Time, on page 29• Activity 2: Drawing the Pendulum, on page 31

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Lesson Objectives

Total Lesson Time:- One classThis lesson describes the basics of timing.

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

• Understand the concept of frames-per-second• Understand arc and path of action

• Understand the affect of gravity on the action of an animated object

• Know the difference between ease-in and ease-out• Know how changes in the exposure of a drawing affects the timing of an element

Activity 1: Experiment with Space = Time

Activity 2: Drawing the Pendulum

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Lecture NotesIn this lesson the students will find out about:

The Importance of Timing in Animation• Timing is essential to the development of animation. Story development, gags,

reactions and character development all depend on a clear sense of timing to be effective.

• Analyzing and establishing timing are a part of the process of developing the action of a character in a scene (for example, consider differences in the way a character walks if he or she is dopey, hasty, hurried or lethargic.)

• The physics of motion determines how objects move in the physical world. It would be hard to convince viewers if your animation did not follow these basic laws of motion. Of course exaggeration is essential in the animated world, but even exaggerated animated action still follows the basic laws of physics.

• The frame rate of film is 24 frames/second (fps). That means that it takes 1,440 frames to create one minute of action.

Note: For the purpose of your introductory class, the students should work at 12 fps.

Arcs and Path of Action• The motion of living things does not usually progress in straight lines. Most

action follows the shape of an arc; for example, throwing a ball, swinging a bat, or nodding the head use arc-shaped motions.

• The path of action is the direction that an action will follow. Think of a ball falling off a table and bouncing until it comes to a stop. The path of action helps map out the position of each drawing at each frame.

Laws of Motion and Easing• Newton‘s laws of motion apply in the animated world. Basically stated, objects

don’t move or stop unless acted on by a force large enough to overcome their inertia. And when they are acted upon by a bigger force, they react in an equal and opposite manner.

• Acceleration due to gravity is constant. This causes falling objects to gain speed until they are acted upon.

• At the top of its arc, a pendulum’s velocity is slow, at the bottom it is high. This kind of speed change is referred to as ease-in and ease-out in animation. Ease-in means that the object is gradually picking up speed; ease-out means that the object is gradually slowing down.

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Keyframes, In-betweens and Timing• Keyframes are significant poses in a character’s action, such as the first and last

positions in a jump.• In-betweens are all of the drawings between the keyframes; they progress the

action from one keyframe to another.• The more drawings there are between keyframes, the slower the action will

appear to take. This is because more drawings means that there is more time to complete the same action.

• In animation, space = time; the more space there is between drawings, the faster the action will appear to progress; the less space there is between drawings, the slower the action will appear. Basically when two drawings are far apart the time taken to go between them appears shorter than the time taken to go between two drawings placed close together.

Further ReadingThe Illusion of Life: Disney Animation: Chapter 3: Principles of Animation

The Animation Book: Chapter 14: Line and Cel Animation

Further ViewingLooney Tunes. Available on the Golden Collection Volume 1 and Volume 2 or your local cartoon specialty TV channel. Examine the use of comic timing.

Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940). Deconstruct the use of comic and dramatic timing in each segment.

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Activity 1: Experiment with Space = TimeThis exercise will demonstrate to the students the effect of spacing on the timing of an animation.

Open the Lesson 2a sample material in Toon Boom Studio and complete the exercise.

Material Provided for this LessonThe Lesson 2a sample material contains drawings of a ball as it rolls. Each element displays drawings at different positions on the path of action to illustrate the effect that spacing has on timing. Only the “mechanical” element is displayed by default.

In the “mechanical” element, each position of the ball is displayed over 21 frames. The students can use the drawings in this element to experiment with spacing.

The other elements show the different timing setups, so the students shouldn’t look at them until they have finished their experiments.

Exercise: Experiment with Space = Time

1. In the Lesson 2a sample material, copy the drawings from the mechanical element to a new element.

2. Display Drawing 1 in Frame 1 and Drawing 21 in Frame 2, and play back the animation.

a Delete all of the drawings in the new element. (by copying your drawings into the new element, you have stored them in the element folder in your project. All you need to do is rename the cell to place the selected drawings in the frames you want.)

b Rename the first cell “1”. The drawing stored in the element’s folder will appear in the Drawing View window.

c Rename the second cell “21”. Drawing 21 will appear in the last position in the motion path.

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d Select the element and click the Play button on the Interactive Playback

toolbar. See how quickly it moves!

5. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 with the following combination of drawings.• 1, 11, 21

- at frames 1, 2, and 3 (choppy).• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 21

- at frames 1 through 9 (ease-in/accelerate).• 1, 6, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

- at frames 1 through 10 (ease-out/decelerate).• 4, 2, 1, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

- at frames 1 through 16 (anticipation).

4. After you have made these experiments, show the rest of the elements in the scene and see how they resemble your experiments.

The column you create should look something like this. You can rename your element columns to help you keep them organized.

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Activity 2: Drawing the PendulumThis exercise demonstrates the affect of gravity on the swing of a ball, and the spacing of the drawings in the action.

Create a new animation set in Toon Boom Studio and complete the exercise.

The students should create their animation from the ground up, using the Ellipse tool to draw your circles. When they are done, they can see their creation in the Lesson 2b animation set.

Material Provided for this LessonThe Lesson 2b animation set contains several elements required for the development of the pendulum.

• key: the keyframes in the pendulum’s action.• path-timing chart: the path of action for the pendulum.

• pendulum: the final pendulum.

Exercise: Drawing the Pendulum1. In one element, draw the path of action for a swinging pendulum.

2. Map out the frame marks for the action, considering there will be fewer drawings at the bottom of the pendulum’s swing and more at the top.

3. In another element, draw the pendulum centred at each frame mark.

You can use the Auto Light Table to see the path of action you already drew. You should extend the exposure of the pendulum’s path of action so that you can see it in each frame in the pendulum’s column.

4. Hide the path of action of the ball and play back the pendulum drawings only.

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