Responsive - 11 second club

Throughout working on the 11 second club competition brief i have learned a lot. It is visually apparent when i watch the whole thing back that the bits i animated towards the end are a lot better than the previous bits.

I was aware of the 12 principles of animation when beginning the project but i think my understanding of the principles have been further developed by completing this brief. I feel as though its not enough to just know the principles without applying them practically. Knowledge is a lot different to understanding, knowing something doesn't necessarily mean that a person understands it.

Also applying the principles of animation on simple forms such as a sphere or a cube is different to using the principles effectively on characters.

The basic principle still stands when applying it to a character but it is a more complex application of the principle. This is what i mean when i say knowledge is not the same as understanding. If an animator can apply the principles of basic form, this does not make them a master of the principles as there are infinitely more complex forms/actions to apply the principles to.

This idea applies to the basic principles of drawing such as light, perspective and form, just to name a few. Although it is easy enough to get a grasp of the conventional methods for solving the problems of applying them within a drawing, it can take a lifetime to master these principles. Some would argue that one can never 'master' these principles because the understanding of these principles through practice could go on infinitely. This is exactly the same with the 12 principles of animation.

Besides my understanding of the 12 principles improving, my working practice has also improved. In the past i would usually just do one test of the animation and compensate for it having a few mistakes and i wold move on to the next sequence. However when working on this brief i really tried to review my line tests critically and i would alter the frames, then test it again to see if the issue is resolved.

An example of this can be taken from the first sequence i animated, i realized some of the motions of the hand were too linear and broke the feeling of fluidity within the animation.

I fixed this by adding more of an arc to the motion of the hand to make it feel like a more natural, organic motion.

One thing i learnt whilst planning the scenes was that alternating between fast movements and slow movements can have an big impact on the character performance. For example in the ending sequence, the characters motions are very fast and fluid to help show that he is confident with what he is saying. But when there was a pause in the audio i took advantage of this and animated him taking a breath and slowly taking off his glasses, then i returned to the fast motions to show him making his point.

This technique of alternating between slow and fast motions adds anticipation and also makes the animation more organic. Realistically people don't constantly use fast motions all the time. Also for the performance, as well as adding anticipation, it gives the viewer breathing space to take in the actions.

I feel like i often overlook anticipation but through this animation i have learnt to value it, as it can really affect the rest of the animation.

My animation came 41 out of 136 entries which isn't terrible but i can do a lot better. The important thing though is that i learnt a lot from doing this project and hopefully my next animation project will benefit from this.