The whip action (all over the place)

This time I wanted have a more in-depth look at the overlapping action.
Looking through some cartoons I discovered that it's used almost every time a character or an object (depending on the material of course) is moving.

The principle itself it's pretty much easy: whenever a part of the body is moving, the other connected part is dragged behind, and when the first part reaches his apex or stops his movement the second one catches up the same action.
I found that it's useful to think as divided parts, for example: when the arm is moving the forearm is dragging behind, followed by the hand (same goes for the relationship leg-ankle-foot).

Here are some studies from The Rescuers (1977) and Beauty and the Beast (1991)

You can see in this last example the overlapping action really clear:

The dress is making a C curve coming upwards (the wardrobe's hand is pulling it that direction), the part nearest the force (the hand in this case) on the right screen is up, the last part (left screen dress) is dragged downward.

In the second frame the first part of the dress is coming down, the last part is still dragged up.

In the third frame: the last part is still going down, the middle section is still dragged up, the last section (the "tail") is even more up.

Finally when the first part comes to a stop (facing upward because of the hand of the wardrobe), sections 2 and 3 are resolving the action coming down making an S curve.

Straights versus Curves

If we want interesting and appealing characters to look at we should use straight against curved lines.

For what I've seen in most Disney movies (and other art master pieces of course) the trick is not only to randomly put a straight line against a curve, but how it is done.

Here the rule of thirds comes really handy: usually we better perceive an image when the focal point is shifted from the center, so we put the most important element in a scene shifted to the right (or left, or up/down).
The same principle is applied to our straights and curves:

Here you can see that if we put the apex of our curve not in the middle but in the first (or last) third the curve has a better appeal to us.

Also avoiding symmetry in our lines makes them more "natural" our drawings (in nature we rarely see things perfectly symmetrical: think about the branches of a tree or the grass).

Here are some frames I've taken randomly from some Disney movies:

I tried the same thing with a painting by Michelangelo, and guess what?

Looking for some shapes around

Today I wanted to focus on design applied to character's poses and the overall staging of a shot.

The main and basic shapes we can use for this purpose are the following: circle, square and triangle.
From what I've seen almost everything can be reduced into one of those shapes.
Using those simple shapes applied to staging and posing of our character we can tell a lot in one image.

When we look at a circle our eyes tend to be "caught" in a vortex, without any direction where to go they are like ipnotyzed by it.
Circles can also mean security for us and they remember to us something soft, natural.

Squares are usually used to sell the idea of stability, strength; while triangles are synonymous of lack of balance, conflict, opposing forces.
Of course every shape with a certain tilt and depending on the relationship with the line of the ground has a different meaning for us.

Let's see some examples I've found:

In this first frame we can see that the pose of the two characters can be reduced to simple shapes: a rectangle for Woody (slightly bent towards Buzz) and a sort of triangle coming towards left screen, emphasized by the arm pointing to Woody's chest.

Here you can see that the relationship between the characters is exactly the opposite from the first one:

Woody is attacking Buzz like and arrow, while Buzz is tilted and pushed to the corner of the frame.

Woody's arm is also helping to make us see the direction of the overall arrow.

In this example we can see the composition of the frame: Buzz is in a triangle, and all the elements (his arms, the outside figures too) are pointing to his face.

We can find a similar composition in the following painting by Leonardo da Vinci:

The use of shapes is almost the same: in this renaissance painting Leonardo studied all the elements (arms, legs of the main characters) to make us look at the child's face.

In this case the triangle is a stable shape, because his base is on the ground pointing upward.

Notice also the elements outside the figures: they are there to stop our eyes so that we can concentrate on the most important place of the painting.

In this last painting (also from Leonardo), the "Battaglia di Anghiari", we can see a circular motion built from all the limbs and even with the horses too.

Also notice the shapes created by the fighters: they all are shapes on unstable bases.

The paining should evoke movement and action, that's why the circle is used instead of a more stiff shape like a square.

Good (fins') Posing

Just today I was looking at some posing tutorials by the animator Keith Lango (you can find them here: http://www.youtube.com/user/keithlango), so I wanted to look at some great animations to see if I was able to identify the same principles in one movie.
I chose one of my favourite disney movies: "The little mermaid".

Here are some frames taken randomly.

As you can see the pose has always a main curve (the so called "line of action" of the character), usually used in the spine; but all the other limbs too are used to help conveying the emotion and attitude of the character.

The line of action plus the directions of arms, head and legs are also used to guide the viewer's eye into a particular spot.

Tilting of the head is also important in good posing: we always tilt our heads, we rarely stand still with our heads on a straight line (a common initial mistake especially for beginner CG animators, including myself).

Because we look at frames in fractions of a second, we should be always aware of the importance of good posing and silhouette every time the character is changing pose.

Last, but not least, even props are used to focus on one part of the frame.
Here are some examples of use of props and parts of the body to emphasize an element in the shot.

Here you can see that Ursula's left arm was used to direct the viewer's eye to screen left, like a frame for a painting.

In this last example we can see that all the lines are heading towards Ariel's face (more specifically her throat).Also notice the prince's right hand on the rock, and the rock itself that are creating a sort of barrier to direct the eye upwards to Ariel.