Peter Halley

As i was in discussion with my Lecturer, and i was speaking about creating animations within a Retro Video games perspective, he told me to research an artist called Peter Halley, who uses interesting shapes that look very peculiar and gives you a sense of machinery.  I have looked at his art and some of his shapes seem very interesting and i think would be a good idea, to use within my games/animations.

2 Possible Themes

After researching and discussing in class, i am stuck within two main themes, to go with in demonstrating my principles of animation. These are A theme of a childrens story, or a retro games style.

Possible Children stories-
Twinkle twinkle little star
Jack and Gill
Humpty Dumpty
10 Green Bottles
Bah Bah Black Sheep

Retro Style Video Games-
Space Invaders
Packman
Tetris
Break out
Pin Ball
Astroids
Super Mario

I personally think, i would relate to the retro style video games more, as i am a typical boy, who used to play these alot when i was younger, and therefore enjoy producing work along these lines more.

Break Out


Space Invaders


Tetris

Principles in Detail

  


Follow through
Follow through is, again, something that occurs in nature
but is often exaggerated in animation.
Think of a golfer, taking a swing at a ball, the golf club
doesn’t stop suddenly when it comes into contact with the
ball, it follows through the same path and then gradually
settles back down to a halt. This is follow through.

Squash and stretch
One of the most important rules of animation is the
squash and stretch rule. For an object to look convincing
it must ‘give’ when external forces are applied to it.
As the ball hits the ground it will squash, but did you know
that it will also stretch as it falls and rises? The only time
the ball should look perfectly round is at the top of each
arc, where resistance is at its least.

Arc

Arc is where the actual action follows. For example this diagram shows us that the all is being chucked from left to right, but it also will drop as the forces of gravity brings it down.

Staging (setting the scene)
You must remember that the viewer does
not have the luxury of knowing what is
about to happen in your animations so if
something moves very quickly, they may not
have time enough to realize what is going
on, blink, and they’ll miss it! This is why it is
necessary to set the scene for them.
Setting the scene (or staging the animation)
involves attracting the viewer’s attention
and focusing it on a particular subject or
area of the screen.

Anticipation
Anticipation can also be
used to direct the
viewer’s attention to part
of the screen.
It is often intermingled
with staging. However,
there are differences
which make it a rule unto
itself.

Researching into the Basic Animation Principles

The Principles:

Timing

Arcs

Speed of Change

Squash and Stretch

Motion blur

Motivation/Anticipation

Follow Through

Staging/Exaggeration

Overlapping Action

 

After being set this project, i felt i better do some research into the principles of animation. After looking on you tube, there are loads of videos that explain the principles:

 

This is a very detailed video into the Principles, but is a fairly long video to watch.



This is a much smalled video, but is much more simple and demonstrates all the principles.