Introduction

Hi There!

I’m Jon Cone

I am one of the full-time faculty at Cecil College in the Digital Arts and Media Design (DAMD) department. I am mostly responsible for the Animation &  Game Design, and Web Design programs. I am also a freelance animator typically working on visualizations. If you have any questions about the subjects I teach, Cecil, or College in general, you can reach me at

jcone@cecil.edu

2D Animation

2D Animation is the imitation of movement on flat objects and characters presented in the film and video mediums. Typically 2D animation is utilized to produce succinct story-telling through caricature and condensed film-making techniques.

Animation Techniques

• Traditional hand-drawn
• Puppet cutout
• Traditigital (hand-drawn & cutout combined)
• Experimental/mix-media

Tradigital (a mix of hand drawn elements with keyframing)

Principles of Animation

The principles of animation are a set of rules that animators employ in their work. They provide guidelines on how to approach movement that offers visual clarity and appeal to the audience. When we say animation, there is a standard of motion that the audience expects.

Animation Books

I generally do not suggest technical animation books. The techniques presented become irrelevant immediately since the technology is constantly changing. Instead books that emphasize theory offer much more staying power.

The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston was the go to animation book in the very early days. Personally I think of it much more of a historical text than anything else.

Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams was the book every animator had. It has practical theory and formulas that remain relevant regardless of technology and medium.

Animation Creation

We are going to produce a ball bounce. This will introduce the key concepts like keyframing, timing, spacing, arcs, squash/stretch, and anticipation/action/reaction.

Once this is complete you may further develop it or start something more original.

Piskel

Piskel is a free online editor for animated sprites & pixel art. -Piskel

The Process

We will be methodical to start

1. Draw path of action guide maintaining strong straights, ‘c’ curves, and ‘s’ curves
2. Create key position that provide storytelling poses, extreme positions, and contact positions
3. Adjust the timing of the key poses
4. Add hashmarks to the guide to indicate the spacing of the inbetweens
5. Create key breakdowns. In this particular case, create squash/stretch poses
6. Create inbetween drawings. Rule of halves works well here

Next Steps

I hope you enjoyed the presentation. If you did you may want some advice on what to do next. If you didn’t enjoy it, that is fine as well. Now you know it’s something you don’t want to pursue!

You should

• Practice
  • If you look online you will find a ton of information on various exercises you can complete to get better at animating. There are a ton of tutorials on Youtube. Some other notable exercises include, head turn, flour sack, lip-sync, etc.
  • Drawing is the universal skill. If animation is something you want to pursue (2D, 3D, Stop-motion, etc.), build up your traditional skills. 
• Create shorts
  • Make small (and I mean small, ex. 10 seconds) short films. Basic narrative with one major gag. Just finish projects.
• Pursue a degree (or certificate)
  • Honestly, the paper doesn’t matter as much as your portfolio but you need something to push your forward. This is a great way to achieve this.