In the Channels panel, you can set keyframes for individual attributes by directly clicking on the highlighted attribute right click mouse and selecting in the appeared context menu Key Selecte d (Set key frame to selected). This allows you to manage key

frames, setting them directly for the selected attribute or group of attributes. The selection of the Key Selecte d menu item is shown in Fig. 7.1.

Rice. 7.3. Animation playback controls

The Tim Slider and its associated controls are direct, though not the most precise, animation controls and occupy a very small portion of the screen, unlike the other two editors. The time slider in combination with the range slider (rang e Slider) allows you to set the start and end of the animation playback range, as well as set current time V numerical form and interactively.

Clicking on the time slider moves the Current Time Indicator to the specified frame, which then becomes the current frame. Clicking and dragging the left mouse button on the time slider allows you to interactively move to the desired frame (jog) or manually control the playback (scrub) of the animation. The quality of playback depends on the complexity of the scene. The presence of a large number of polygons, deformers, high-resolution textures or light sources in the scene reduces the smoothness of playback, but the ability to jump to the desired frame of the scene is the best way to evaluate the movement of the object.

To move the current time indicator to a different frame without refreshing the scene in the viewport or changing attribute values ​​in the Channels panel, middle-click and drag the time slider. This powerful way copying keyframes. Remember that setting a key frame is equivalent to recording changes in attributes over time, but if the attributes have not changed, then setting the next key frame effectively copies the previous key frame. This feature will be used extensively when creating animations in this chapter.

After right-clicking the time slider, an Edit Key pop-up menu will appear, offering standard set keyframe editing operations (discussed later in this chapter). In addition, it provides access to the following submenus.

The Display Key Tick s submenu allows you to display key frame ticks for the current object or attributes selected in the channel panel, or completely disable their display.

The Playback Looping submenu allows you to make Maya play the animation once, repeat continuously, or, like a pendulum, play forward and then backward between the start and end times.

The Set range submenu allows you to control the playback range in a variety of ways. It contains

This is what the timeline is now called. - Note ed.

one useful installation- Soun d Lengt h (Duration soundtrack), which can also be used to determine the duration sound file, which was imported into the scene.

The Soun submenu allows you to show, hide, or rename any imported sound files.

The Playblast function implements preview the resulting animation in the form of real-time cartoon clips. This preview is used extensively in Chapter 9, "Character Animation."

Directly below the time slider is a range slider, which also contains fields for changing the start and end times of animation and playback. The range slider allows you to interactively change the range of frames displayed by the time slider. To decrease or increase the size of the slider and change the range of frames displayed accordingly, click and drag the mouse pointer over the rectangle next to the number at either end of the range slider. By doing the same thing directly with the slider itself, you can move the entire range of frames displayed in the time slider. A pair of inner margins on either side of the range slider set the start and end frames of playback, and a pair of outer margins set the start and end frames of the animation.

Animation workflow concept

When approaching any animation task, it's wise to have a plan for creating the object's actions. A huge mistake newbies make is that they start animating by first setting keyframes anywhere. It is recommended to follow the following methodology as it is suitable for almost all animations, from simple to complex.

Start by setting preferences for the ease of creating a specific animation.

Animations for the Web, television, and film have different parameters; and for each type of resulting animation you need different settings workspace and time parameters. To make it easier to create a specific animation, change these settings early in the process in the window that opens when you click the Animation Preferences button. If you need to get results for multiple types of output, set your preference for the highest quality output to get the result for that first (for example, TV output has higher quality than Web output, so target your animation preferences for both media systems follows on television).

Create keyframes in the viewport and roughly adjust the timing using the timing slider. In the next exercise, you will set a keyframe for one specific attribute of the example ball rig. In most cases, a keyframe is set for all attributes that control a character's animation at the extreme positions of the character's movement.

Finally, refine and adjust the movements using the Graph Editor. In the next exercise, using tangential manipulators(tangent handle) and changing their types, we will reconfigure the interpolation of attribute values ​​on intermediate frames located between the key frames.

Now let's get hands-on with Mayan animation controls and apply the previously discussed workflow to the classic "bouncing ball" exercise.

“Here, however, we look back, but we do not stand still. We strive forward, open new paths, take on new things, because we are curious... and curiosity drives us along new roads. Only forward." (Walt Disney)

About animation technology

Sometimes, misunderstandings arise between me and the customer when agreeing on the technical features of future animation works. The article will help you better understand animation technology issues.

To begin with, in order not to get confused, I would like to highlight 3 main criteria by which animation can be judged: types of animation, animation methods and animation styles. For many, this is the same thing, but it is not! Types of animation are the form or form in which the cartoon is shown (hand-drawn, puppet, etc.). Animation techniques are technical features with the help of which animation is created (frame-by-frame animation, programmable animation, etc.). Lastly, animation style is an artistic technique that is used in animation (realism, anime, etc.). In this article I will look at the concept of “types of animation” in a more detailed form, and subsequently add “methods” and “styles” to this. All this together is animation technology.

Hand-drawn classic animation.

One of the most interesting and widespread types of animation is the so-called classical animation. Classic animation is done by drawing each individual frame on transparent film (or tracing paper). These frames are then assembled in a special editing program. This animation is very lively, smooth, spatial, but expensive))). An example of such animation is the cartoons of the Disney and Soyuzmultfilm studios.

Still from the Disney cartoon "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Translation animation.

The oldest form of animation. The essence of this type of animation is that an object drawn on cardboard or paper is cut into separate pieces and these pieces are moved (shifted) from frame to frame. Hence the name - retranslation! Many people consider such animation primitive, but in the right hands such cartoons can turn out to be very interesting. One of the most striking examples of transfer animation can be safely called the cartoon “Hedgehog in the Fog” directed by Yuri Norshtein. "Hedgehog in the Fog" was recognized by the world community as the BEST CARTOON FILM OF ALL TIME!!! So much for the translation... So much for it being primitive...

Still from the cartoon "Hedgehog in the Fog" directed by Yuri Norshtein

Painting on glass.

But here the animation certainly cannot be called primitive! The essence of this animation is painting with oil paints on glass. Each frame is a painting that is modified by the artist’s strokes. A striking example of such animation is the work of Alexander Petrov “The Old Man and the Sea”, which was awarded an Oscar.

A still from the animated film "The Old Man and the Sea" directed by Alexander Petrov.

Puppet animation.

The same old type of animation. All puppets and scenery in stop motion animation are made by hand, which makes it as expensive as classic animation. Nevertheless, this type of animation is very popular even today (despite the spread of computer 3D animation). To be honest, I didn’t like puppet animation as a child))) But my epiphany came when I saw Tom Burton’s cartoon “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

A still from the cartoon "The Nightmare Before Christmas" directed by Tom Burton.

Plasticine animation

The name plasticine animation speaks for itself. I will only add that plasticine animation came out of puppet animation and became popular in Russia after the appearance of the cartoons “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” directed by Alexander Tatarsky.

A still from the cartoon "Last Year's Snow Was Falling" directed by A. Tatarsky.

Computer 2D animation.

Whether we like it or not, old types of animation are being replaced by new ones. For some reason, computer 2D animation is usually called Flash animation and this is not entirely true. Flash is only one program. You can name other powerful computer programs for creating 2D animation, for example: After Effect, Anime Studi Pro, Toon Boom Studio and many more paid and free programs. Currently, almost all studios are engaged in 2D computer animation. This is exactly the kind of animation we see today in TV series, on the Internet, in casual computer games etc.

Still from the animated series "The Simpsons"

3D animation.

3D animation is a type of animation created on the basis of 3D computer programs. This is the youngest and most promising type of animation. With development computer technology It became possible not only to draw graphics and animation in a two-dimensional plane (2D animation), but also to animate three-dimensional forms. This technology is very complex, but if we tell you briefly, the production process looks something like this. First, concept art is drawn (in any way), and the three-dimensional geometry of the model is created from these drawings. Then textures that are put on the shape of a character or object. Next, they create the bones of the object and attach them to the form so that the form can move. Animators receive a prepared model for movement and begin to animate it. The better prepared the model, the more natural and flexible its movements will be. After creating the animation, the scene is visualized (translated from 3D to a regular picture). Vivid examples of such animation are the cartoons of the Pixar studio.

A still from the Pixar film "Ratatouille".

Combined animation.

Combined animation is the combination of any type of animation with a video film. Early examples of such animation could be: the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, the cartoon “The Adventure of Captain Vrungel”, etc. With the development of 3D technology and computer special effects, this type of animation is found in feature films more and more often. The main feature of modern combined animation is its complete realism.

Still from the film "Jurassic World" directed by Steven Spielberg

Other types of animation.

In addition to the listed types of animation, there are others, for example: sand animation, laser animation, photo animation, needle animation, etc. However, these types are considered less popular and in this article I only allowed myself to mention them.

Types of animation in the Cardboard Tower studio.

Our animation studio specializes in the production of 2D computer animation. Thanks to flexible options computer programs we can create both crossover and classic animation at the same time. We are also capable of creating 3D animation. As an example, you can look at 3 videos from our portfolio:

1. 2D computer animation in a classical manner.

Every person has a tendency to reflect their movement in work or creativity. This can be achieved using various animation techniques. The term "animation" was translated from Latin as "animation".

Classification

Let's try to figure out what types of animation exist. They are also called animation process technology.

• Animation based on the “freeze frame” principle. It is also called puppet animation. The object is framed, for example, using a camera, then the position of the object in the frame changes, then the fixation occurs again.
• Morphing is the transformation of an object. The existing one is being replaced with another one, according to the principle of quantitative generation of the personnel structure.
• The classic type is a video created from a number of individual frame-by-frame images, with their alternating changes. The main disadvantage is high degree labor intensity of the process. This direction is one of the most frequently used. It represents those types of animations that, as a rule, were (and are) used in most animated films.
• Color revitalization - characterized by color transformation without changing the overall spatial position.
• 3D animation - a cartoon created using a specialized software(3DS MAX, XSI, MAYA), in which key scenes for the future video are created.
• Sprite - the embodiment of this type of animation is produced by using a programming language.
• Motion capture is a type that most accurately conveys all the nuances of natural movement and facial expressions. Special sensors placed on human actors are aligned with control points models. When moving, the coordinates are transferred to them. Thanks to such methods, cartoon models come to life.

All the main types of animation presented in the list can be created using various technical means or manually. But today, most often, special computer programs are used for these purposes to optimize the creation process. animation objects and works. Computer methods Cartoon creations push the boundaries of expression. Increases the degree of impact on the viewer by using various effects, inaccessible by hand.

Computer animation. Principles

Creating a cartoon using computer capabilities is subject to compliance with certain rules. Their key principles are: raster, fractal, vector. There is also a separation of 2D and 3D animation software. Two-dimensional programs are usually used for Flash animation, while three-dimensional ones allow you to set the degree and type of object lighting, textures, and perform automatic rendering (visualization).

The main types of computer animation have the same principles in operation. All of the above types apply to them as well.

Methods for preparing computer animation

• Key framing method. Allows you to install an object in the required position and correlate them with respect to time intervals. Computer system completes the missing frames in the structure (between the reference frames). The missing stages of movement are recreated.
• Procedural animation. Used when it is not possible to reproduce certain actions using key frames. Characterizes computer views animations from the point of view of the sequential construction of individual personnel structures.
• Formation of single frames. Most often done using various graphic editors. Separate image frames are created, which will later be arranged in a certain sequence.
• Raster principle of animation construction. The most understandable of all those listed earlier. It is presented as saved in a single file. Typically the GIF format is used. There are a number of programs that allow you to produce such files, such as Gimp.

All of the above types of computer animation allow us to understand how multifaceted the process of creating movement is.

PowerPoint software

Touching on this topic and looking at examples of computer programs that allow you to create, one cannot fail to mention such a program as PowerPoint. She belongs Microsoft. This package is designed for creating presentations. The demand for presentations is steadily growing, since high-quality and visual presentation of projects and works is one of key points professional development. A presentation created in PowerPoint is a collection of slide materials that are displayed simultaneously on the screen. All necessary data, after being created in the program, is stored in one file. The Harvard Graphics program, for example, also has a similar focus.

Quite wide internal settings of the program help to use different kinds animation. PowerPoint uses different ready-made templates allows you to most effectively approach the creation of presentations.

Main features of the program

The software structure allows, first of all, to create presentations by creating slides with their simultaneous video demonstration on the screen. Slides can be created using different templates. The slide show is created using a variety of effects. Various types of animations are used. You can adjust the order in which the slides are shown on the screen.

Color Templates in PowerPoint

A key feature of the program is that standard animation effects can be applied to all files simultaneously. The program also has a set of ready-made color templates. They have a variety color schemes, allowing you to apply them to any thematic slides. Color templates allow you to increase the efficiency of working on a presentation, save time, and also give it a certain stylistic direction.

Special effects

For the most visual and memorable presentation, the program has a certain set of effects that allow you to adjust the type of transition when showing slides. Thanks to this, the pause between slide changes, filled with special effects, becomes imperceptible.

Features of the program

All presentations created in PowerPoint program, have the ability to save in HTML format. This saves all used audio and video data. The program also has tools for creating tables and diagrams by drawing, as well as special markup that allows you to insert ready-made drawings and then save them. One more distinctive feature is a function for automatically generating albums. It is possible to use musical accompaniment.

Thus, having considered the information in the article about what methods exist for creating animations, we can conclude that with the development of modern software, the approach to this issue has become the most rational. A large number of programs designed to modernize work on animation processes provide enormous scope for creativity and work. And understanding what types of animations exist will help you choose the most suitable one for your needs. specific goals program.

Throughout his existence, man has tried to reflect movement in his art. The first attempts to convey movement in a drawing date back to approximately 2000 BC (Egypt).

Another example of movement was found in the caves of Northern Spain: this is a drawing of a boar with eight legs.

Today, the transfer of motion can be realized using animation.

Animation called the artificial representation of movement in film, television or computer graphics by displaying a sequence of pictures or frames at a frequency that ensures a holistic visual perception of the images.

Animation, unlike video which uses continuous motion, uses many independent drawings.

Synonym for "animation" - "animation"- very widespread in our country. Animation and animation are just different definitions of the same art form.

The term more familiar to us comes from Latin word“multi” – a lot and corresponds to the traditional technology of drawing reproduction, because in order for the hero to “come to life”, you need to repeat his movement many times: from 10 to 30 drawn frames per second.

Internationally accepted professional definition "animation"(translated from Latin “anima” - soul, “animation” - revival, animation) most accurately reflects all the modern technical and artistic capabilities of animated cinema, because animation masters not only bring their characters to life, but put a piece of their soul into their creation .

From the history of animation

Animation, like any other art form, has its own history. The principle of inertia of visual perception, which underlies animation, was first demonstrated in 1828 by the Frenchman Paul Roget. The object of the demonstration was a disk with an image of a bird on one side and a cage on the other. As the disk rotated, viewers were given the illusion of a bird in a cage.

The first real one practical way animation was created as a result of the creation of a camera and projector by Thomas A. Edison.

Already in 1906, Steward Blackton created the short film “Funny Expressions cheerful faces"(Humorous Phases of Funny Faces). The author drew on the board, photographed, erased, and then drew again, photographed and erased...

A real revolution in the world of animation was made by WALT DISNEY (1901-1966), an American director, artist and producer.

This is far from full story animation, a small digression from the lecture material. More details from the amazing and interesting story animations you can get acquainted with yourself.

Animation technologies

Currently, there are various technologies for creating animation:

Classic (traditional) animation represents an alternating change of drawings, each of which is drawn separately. This is a very labor-intensive process, as animators have to create each frame separately.

Stop-frame (puppet) animation. Objects placed in space are fixed by the frame, after which their position changes and is fixed again.

Sprite animation implemented using a programming language.

Morphing– transformation of one object into another by generating a specified number of intermediate frames.

Color animation– with it, only the color, and not the position of the object, changes.

3 D-animation created using special programs(for example, 3D MAX). Pictures are obtained by visualizing a scene, and each scene is a set of objects, light sources, textures.

Motion capture (MotionCapture) – the first direction of animation, which makes it possible to convey natural, realistic movements in real time. Sensors are attached to a live actor in those places that will be aligned with control points computer model for input and digitization of movement. The actor's coordinates and orientation in space are transmitted to the graphics station, and the animation models come to life.

Principles of Animation

When creating animated films, some general principles. Most of them are formulated for Disney animation and originally applied to cartoons made in traditional animation techniques, but almost all of them are applicable to other technologies.
Here are the main ones:

"Compression and stretching"(squash & stretch). This principle revolutionized the world of animation. The essence of the principle is that a living body always contracts and stretches during movement. Before a jump, the character is compressed like a spring, but during a jump, on the contrary, it is stretched. The main rule in this case is a constant volume - if a character is stretched (stretch - deformation along the Y axis), then he must be compressed to maintain the volume of his body (squash - deformation along the X axis).

"Preparatory action" (Anticipation). IN real life To perform any action, a person often has to make preparatory movements. For example, before jumping a person needs to sit down; in order to throw something, the hand must be brought back. Such actions are called refusal movements, because before doing something, the character seems to refuse the action. This movement prepares the viewer for the character’s subsequent action and gives inertia to the movements.

Stage performance(staging). For the audience to correctly perceive the character, all his movements, poses and facial expressions must be extremely simple and expressive. This principle is based on the main rule of the theater. The camera should be positioned so that the viewer can see all the character's movements.

"Key Frames" (Pose to Pose). Before the discovery of this principle, movements were drawn, and therefore the result was difficult to predict, because the artist himself did not yet know what he would draw. This principle involves preliminary composition of movements - the artist draws the main points and places the character on the stage, and only then the assistants draw all the frames of the movement. This approach dramatically increased productivity because... All movements were planned in advance, and the result was exactly as intended. But in order to create any specific movement, careful elaboration of each “piece” was necessary. When developing expressive poses, the artist puts all his skill into it, so these moments should be visible to the viewer longer. To do this, assistants complete the movements so that most of the frames end up next to the key poses. In this case, the character seems to slip movement from one layout to another, slowly emerging from a pose and slowing down at another.

"Through Traffic and Overwhelm"(follow through / Overlapping actions).
The essence of the principle is that movement should never stop. There are elements such as ears, tails, clothes that must constantly be in motion. “Through movement” ensures continuity of movement and smooth transition of phases, for example, from running to walking and vice versa. The movement of individual elements of the body, while the body is no longer moving, is called overlap. Overwhelm is expressed in scenes of changing phases of movement. If a character suddenly brakes after running, the soft parts of the body cannot stop along with the hard ones and a slight overlap occurs (hair, ears, tails, etc.). When walking, the movement starts from the hips and then extends to the ankles. Thus, all the character’s movements are connected in a separate chain, and it becomes possible to strictly describe the rules by which he moves. A movement in which one element follows another is called through motion.

"Movements in arcs" (arcs). Living organisms always move along arcuate trajectories. Before this, the method of rectilinear movement was used, and therefore the movements looked mechanical - like those of robots. The nature of the trajectory depends, as a rule, on the speed of movement. If the character moves sharply, the trajectory straightens, but if it moves slowly, the trajectory bends even more.

Minor Actions (Secondary actions). Often, secondary movements are used to give the character greater expressiveness. They serve to focus attention on something. For example, a grieving character may frequently blow his nose into a handkerchief, while a surprised character may twitch his shoulders. Secondary actions have become widespread in world animation. Thanks to their use, the characters become more alive and emotional.

Timing(Timing). This principle allows you to give the character weight and mood. How does the viewer judge the weight of the characters? The character's weight consists of factors such as movement speed and inertia. In order for the character to move according to his weight, the artist calculates the movement and overlap time for each character. When calculating time, the weight, inertia, volume and emotional state of the hero are taken into account. The mood is also conveyed by the speed of the character's movements. Thus, a depressed character moves very sluggishly, while an inspired one moves quite energetically.

Exaggeration (Exaggerate and Caricature). Walt Disney always demanded more realism from his workers, in fact striving more for "cartoon realism." If a character was to be sad, he demanded that he be made gloomy, but a happy one had to be made dazzlingly shining. With the help of exaggeration, the emotional impact on the audience is increased, however, the character becomes caricatured.

Professional drawing. Drawing is the basis of everything. At the Disney Studios, it's quite common to see signs like: "Does your drawing have weight, depth, and balance?" The principle of professional drawing also prohibits drawing “twins”. “Twins” are any elements of a drawing that are repeated twice or are symmetrical. “Twins” very often appear against the will of the artist, without noticing it, he draws two hands in the same position.

Attractiveness (Appeal). The attractiveness of the character is the key to the success of the entire film. How can you tell if a character is attractive? Any object can be attractive if you look at it with pleasure, discovering in it simplicity, charm, good design, charm and magnetism. It is impossible to take your eyes off the attractive character. Even the nastiest movie character must be attractive to keep viewers glued to the screen.