Physics, emotional psychology, graphic designing, perceptional, and related such subject matters are of primary importance when it comes to game animation. The reason why many game developers and animation outsourcing companies fail is that they simply create visuals that are just appealing at first glance. They don’t focus that much on adhering to the basic standard of design and animation.
And for that scenario, this article would cover the notable facts and principles of game animation that any developer could read and benefit from. Spare your time and have a glance at the following basic facts about how to animate in a game, picked from the well-known "Bible of animation.”
The 12 Bible Standards of Game Animation
There is a book called “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.” This was written by 2 great animators, namely Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas from ‘Disney’ in 1981. They introduced around 12 fundamental principles behind animation characters that give out more realistic outcomes. And here they are;
- Squash and Stretch:
The idea behind following the squash and stretch principle is to add a sense of weight and flexibility to any drawn object. Consider the case of a beach ball thrown up by someone. Here, to give a realistic feel to the animation, mildly exaggerated by shortening and widening the object. This will give the user the feel as if a real picture-like ball is thrown.
- Anticipation:
As the name says, anticipation means expecting something that is upcoming, for a given subject. In the case of 2D animation services, the principle of anticipation states that the designer should create a sense of suspense, and make them stay excited about what comes next in the cue. This works best when there are fewer physical actions.
- Staging:
Not all elements and objects present in a given screen will be noticed by a user; unless there are only a few entities. But you can focus on this as a principle itself. This means staging can help the user follow or notice something compulsorily. So, the most relevant detail will be watched, unnecessary detail can be eliminated, and confusions are avoided.
- Straight Ahead:
You can draw a given scene in distinct ways:
- Either way, you can follow the straight-ahead action method, where the details are sketched and animated frame by frame from start to end.
- Or, you can try the pose to pose, where you can sketch only the initial drawings for the keyframes and then fill in the other intervals.
Know when to strategies them both and use the methods wisely. Straight ahead action works best for dynamic movements and illusions, while pose to pose suits good for emotional/sentimental scenes.
- Follow Through and Overlapping Action:
The idea is simple here. Follow through actions refer to the process where a particular object will move with inertia, even if the action has been completed already. You can turn this realistic by making the similar part move at varying speeds as known as “overlapping action.” Disney’s Firebird Suite in “Fantasia 2000” is one of the classic examples here.
- Slow In and Slow Out:
You need sufficient time for any given movement to accelerate and slow down. But there is a trick to make it more realistic;
- Add more drawings at the beginning and end of the action.
- Emphasize gradually on the speed up and slow down.
- Give only fewer sketches in the middle portion.
This is also a reason why the slow in and slow out principle is called the “ease in and ease out” methodology.
- Arc:
You must have noticed scenes like a cat climbing a roof or the branches of a tree swaying with the breeze. In such scenarios, the natural action of the subjects/objects tend to follow an arched trajectory. This is nothing but the realism is added for curved pathways rather than straight lines. The deer stumbling over the snow in “Bambi” is an example.
- Secondary action:
Give more essence and life to your character by supporting the main action with another secondary action. Just keep in mind that the 2nd action should support and grasp the attention of the user rather than making us drift somewhere else. You must use this point wisely, especially when it comes to presenting the facial gestures of a human being.
- Timing:
We mentioned the importance of emotions and psychology. To ensure that your target audience understands the character’s objective and relates to the scene, you must have a clear picture of the total number of frames (or drawings) for a given action. One of the key tricks followed by experienced 2D animation outsourcing companies is that:
- More frames = Slower actions.
- Less frames = Faster actions.
- Exaggeration:
When many of us recognize exaggeration means adding falsified information to existing data, in animation, it simply means staying true to the reality, while still presenting the pictures in wilder, and more extreme forms. Staying dull and static might work good for cartoons, but for animations, you should follow the exaggeration principle.
- Solid Drawing:
Sufficient knowledge is vital to designing, sketching, and drawing objects. This stresses the aspect of being proficient in anatomy, academic drawing, balance, volume, weight, light, and shadow, and more components. With the advent of computer graphics, developers of today are greatly facilitated with 2D animation, rather than focusing on solid drawings.
- Appeal:
Fun means Mickey Mouse. Spinach means Popeye the sailor man. Nobody has to teach us about their traits. Because when we see these characters on screen, we can easily relate to the charisma the character is associated with. Video game concept art can be as simple as a silhouette or a cute object with basic colors. Only the appeal matters to the audience.
Conclusion
There are 12 underlying principles behind animating an object or character. Orderly, they are squash & stretch, anticipation, staging, straight ahead, follow through & overlapping action, slow in and slow out, arc, secondary action, timing, exaggeration, solid drawing, and appeal. Make use of these fundamentals and give a realistic feel to your animations.
Want to hire an experienced animation and/or game art outsourcing studio that follows all these principles? Check out the awesome portfolio of ZVKY Design Studio and contact the experts at +91 80 23600107 for more details.
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