Moho Forum

Hello,

I wanted to see some example videos of the following


1. Use of speed lines and speed blurs in anime to show movement ..action scenes..

where can i find such an example of anime in you tube?
does the character actually move or only the lines move?

2. Where there is a parallax scrolling method - background moves
while character walks at a fixed place....


3. Any other cheating employed in anime and some good example videos
of these in you tube and see how they are employed

shake

Hm, don't call these "cheats" because they are legitimate means of animation film language ...

I think speed blurs should best be done in a bitmap program. Speed lines don't belong into animation, they're for comics. But that's my personal opinion only.

A moving BG with a character walking in place is such a common thing that nobody seems to bother posting an example for just that ...

They ARE cheats:) The reason for them being called cheats is because the eye cannot register so many moving frames at a time. Therefor we can get away with blurs or sometimes no inbetweens to suggest a certain movement.

Hold your hand out in front you and look at the back of it. now wave it back and forth...

You have your start pose and your end pose.... You can cheat the inbetween by just adding a blured hand in the middle.

Or you can draw a hand in the middle with 10 fingers.... Although this seems odd, it is actually what you see because your eyes are not registering the movement fast enough.

So as you can see cheat and get away with the inbetween with just a blured hand. (motion blured).

The best way to do this is to understand your movement... Add the inbetween with 10 fingers... and then blur that frame... This is what you naturally see....

CHEATing is used a lot in animation. Often times you will see a walk from the waste up, or a lot of camera work to hide the animation. This is a way to FAKE or CHEAT movements.
It is a way to cover up poor animation or a more time efficent process. However you can get your point across, do it. Cheating of faking movements, but my advice is to learn how it should be done first to get a basic understanding of the movement. THe best animation book out there is the Richard Williams -Animator's Survival Kit. So many 3D films feel stiff because they lack the understanding principles of animation and just move models around.
A good example of this is Pixar. They have amazing animations because everyone is or has some knowledge of tradtional training. Go to their web site and look at their current job listings... They have an animation position for 3D open right now. The only requirment is.... "Must have tradtional training"
If your not one to read and don't want to invest in the Richard Willams book then you can find many of these techinques where they fake movements on youtube. Pretty much every anime film fakes movements with croping or effects. I think the best one's though are the films that not only fake movements but also show scenes where they pull back the camera and show that they know how the movement is done.
Knowing how the movement is made will help not only fake movements when you need to, but also open you up to longer camera shots and scenes that take place in a single enviorment with not many cuts.
Best of luck to you, and I do advise getting the Animator's Survial Kit.

apscalmato

http://apscalmato.com/animations/
http://WhenTheWorldGoesDark.com

I'm sorry, what you subscribe are illusions, but then, animation is an illusion, caused by the effect called persistence of vision. The word "cheat" has a negative connotation. Merriam-Webster gives the following definition:

the act or an instance of fraudulently deceiving : deception, fraud

So, why is illusion a recognized expression of the arts? Well, because it amuses us, and brings us in a state in which we are receptive for storytelling, for a temporary suspension of disbelief. So illusion is a trick of the trade of an artist.

IMO it also means, that, in principle, 2D animation, when done right, is much more imaginative than 3D animation. People need to use more imagination and a deeper suspension of disbelieve to be amused. It is a known fact that when illustrations become less realistic and more abstract, more powerful concepts can be conveyed through them. Of course, to be able to do that, you first need to guide people into that state. That is the true craft of the animation producer, who has to establish a language and then use this language to give people the experience (s)he envisions.

If you're interested in this kind of stuff (and as an animator you really should), go read this book by Scott McCloud. If you never have read it, it is a true eye-opener.

Thanks for the book recommendation Rasheed. I will def. give it a read.

You are right on with calling animation an "illusion". A sequence of images pieced together to create the illusion of motion. Cheat in a sense may have been the wrong word and it could of been discribed as "how to create the illusion" of a walk cycle without having to actually show the feet. (ie. Cropped shot of the waste up) But then that statement can become confusing because animation in general is the illusion we make. So basically what he is asking is how do we create the "illusion" of the illusion of an animated walk cycle. I think the words cheat and fake are valid.... but do bring across negative meanings. They are words in short- that we understand in terms of asking "how do you make him look like he's walking without having to actually make him walk" So we know the illusion of animation is not actually walking, but we want to know how we can fake that illusion even futher. Yes this can be a very deep and entertaining debate, and im sure glad you chimmed in and shared some a valuable resource concerning how to create illusions.

A tip on your walk cycle, Snake
Crop your shot from the waste up .animate a character bouncing up and down inplace, but make sure your timming in his motion is believeable. Then on seperate layers pan your backgrounds from Right to Left (if your character is facing right) to create the illusion as if he is traveling forward. To make this illusion more believable, make the objects closest to you move faster, and the objects further in the distance pan slower.

Hope this helped, When it's all said and done, It's an illusion like Rasheed said.