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***STUDYING MOTION & MOVEMENTS Personally, I have not seen much written about how
to actually study or analyze "motion". There are general principles of
motion & movement that deal specifically with the Art of Animation, such
as slow-in, slow-out, squash & stretch, etc.. You should definitely add
to your library, books that outline these basics of animation. With this method, not only can you study the great Cel & Stop Motion Animation works, but you can also observe Natural or Real motions of animals, insects, reptiles, etc. (in slow / step motion). I have a library of National Geographics & Nature documentary videos and I have used the LOOP / Slow-Mo technique to observe & analyze how muscles and joints behave, which not only gives me insight about the understanding of motion, but also helps me greatly in designing Stop Motion Animation Armatures. Update: The above was
written some years ago and may sound complicated but not really. Easier to do
than explain. Now that Burning Music CD's and / or Videos
(aka VCDs or DVDs) has become more common, I suppose that one can
burn videos onto CDs, creating VCDs which can play in many
low-cost consumer DVD Players. Compared to a
VCR (using video tape medium), with a DVD
player, one has more options & control of single frame
advance or slow motion features so that you can more closely
study the movements.....viewable on your TV set. I have not gotten
into burning DVD's yet and using the dual VCR method, for me
was presented here as a quick "poor man's" method to help you study motion.
In addition, one can just purchase DVDs with the subject motion you are
interested in. First, you just watch at regular speed and do your timings
using a Hand Stopwatch. Then afterwards, you study it and playback on your
DVD player in single frame or stop motion step
mode. |
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Here are a couple of well known Classic books written by Edweard Muybridge, around the 1890's. Today with our modern photography, video, & computer tools, you can probably do a good job in capturing motion, for single frame study, but this, now classic, early motion study information was certainly advance technology at that time. You can Click on book images to take you to Amazon.com |
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iversal low cost home
appliance; also, there is a vast resource of existing animation works at
video rental stores. It is obvious that you can view the animation at home,
but if you really want to get into that Single Frame
Animation mode, it might be helpful if you observe the
animation in Slow or Step Motion. Here is a technical aid to enhance
your understanding of animation and motion which requires the use of TWO
VCR's connected together so that you can make duplicate tape recordings.
Usually there are instructions that come with the VCR, showing you how to
hook-up both VCR's. So, let's make our Slow / Step Motion Study Tape:
and then play it back
in slow / step motion; also, with constant rewinding you are putting
excessive wear of that rental video cassette tape. You can now insert the
master video cassette, with the multiple slow / step motion recordings, into
the VCR, and view the slow / step motion repeatedly &
uninterrupted (you do not need to play around with the remote control,
as much). This allows you to Really Focus on the animation, and
again, you do not have to constantly rewind the tape. I sometimes record the
same slow / step motion scene at least ten or more times. For me, the
repetitiveness of watching the same slow motion scene, not only
helps me analyze the frame-by-frame movements, but also, helps me
shift my reference to "time".....I am forced to think in
single frames. I suppose, this is similar to a "Right Brain" principle. I
know that animators who stay in practice with animation, eventually acquire
that "altered state of time" intuition or skill, but, I don't animate
regularly, so I use this method to assist me.
