Book description
Expand your animation toolkit and remain competitive in the industry with this leading resource for 2D and 3D character animation techniques. Apply the industry's best practices to your own workflows and develop 2D, 3D and hybrid characters with ease. With side by side comparisons of 2D and 3D character design, improve your character animation and master traditional principles and processes including weight and balance, timing and walks. Develop characters inspired by humans, birds, fish, snakes and four legged animals. Breathe life into your character and develop a characters personality with chapters on acting, voice-synching and facial expressions. Expertly integrate core animation techniques with your software of choice featuring step-by-step tutorials, highlighting 3ds Max, Maya and Blender workflows. Adapt the tips, tricks and techniques for unique projects like character design for rotoscoping and motion capture. Advance beyond the fundamentals of 2D and 3D character animation with the companion website which includes short demonstration movies, 2D and 3D exercises and fully rigged character models.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle
- Title
- Copyright
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Foreword
-
Chapter 1 Introduction to Animation Working Practice
- How Animation Works
- Frames per Second
- What You Need for Your Studio
- Let’s Get Animating
- Flipping, Flicking and Rolling
- How to Use a Line Tester to Help Your Animation
- Exercises
- How to Relate Your 2D Animation to Your 3D Animation
-
The 13 Things You Need to Know About Maya
- 1 Maya Screen Basics
- 2 Maya Keyboard Shortcuts
- 3 Setting Up Animation Preferences in Maya
- 4 Creating Basic Objects in Maya
- 5 Moving Objects in Maya
- 6 Setting Keys in Maya
- 7 Using Graph Editor in Maya
- 8 Creating a Preview in Maya
- 9 Hierarchies in Maya
- 10 Creating Objects and Putting Bones in them in Maya
- 11 Giving Your Characters Color in Maya
- 12 Importing Sound into Maya
- 13 Rendering a Scene in Maya
-
The 13 Things You Need to Know About 3D Studio Max
- 1 3D Studio Max Screen Basics
- 2 3D Studio Max Keyboard Shortcuts
- 3 Setting Up Animation Preferences in 3D Studio Max
- 4 Creating Basic Objects in 3D Studio Max
- 5 Moving Objects in 3D Studio Max
- 6 Setting Keys in 3D Studio Max
- 7 Using Track View in 3D Studio Max
- 8 Creating a Preview in 3D Studio Max
- 9 Hierarchies in 3D Studio Max
- 10 Creating Objects and Putting Bones in them in 3D Studio Max
- 11 Giving Your Characters Color in 3D Studio Max
- 12 Importing Sound into 3D Studio Max
- 13 Rendering Your Work in 3D Studio Max
- Overview of the ‘Ball Drop’ Exercise in 3D
- How to Animate a Basic Bouncy Ball in Maya
- How to Animate a Basic Bouncy Ball in 3D Studio Max
- Drawing
- The 12 Principles of Animation
- Chapter 2 Matter and the Animation of Inanimate Objects
-
Chapter 3 The Construction of a Simple Character, its Articulation and Balance
- Basic Human Anatomy
- Joints
- Movement in Arcs
- Line of Action
- Designing a Basic Human Character
- How to Design a 3D Character
- Overview of How to Build and Rig a Simple 3D Character
- Planning a Scene
- Animating Your Characters (Using the Left and Right Sides of the Brain)
- Exercises
-
Chapter 4 Timing, Anticipation, Overshoot, Follow-Through and Overlapping Action with an Animated Character
- Timing
- Anticipation
- Follow-Through
- Overlapping Action, or Overshoot
- Vibration
- Exercises
- Chapter 5 Animation of Human Walks and Runs
- Chapter 6 Animation of Animal Walks and Runs
-
Chapter 7 Animation of Acting – Body Language
- Acting
- Consequence
- Emotions
- Introduction to Laban Movement Theory
- General Body Language
- Basic Body Postures
- Basic Modes
- Palm, Hand, Arm and Leg Gestures
- Using Rhythm in Animation
- Acting Out a Scene in Animation
- Using Video Footage to Help Your Animation
- Using Rotoscoping and Motion Capture in Animation
- The Seven Questions of Character
- The Different Types of Animation Acting
- Analysis of a Character
- Exercises
-
Chapter 8 Animation of Acting – Facial Expressions
- Emotions
- The Eyes
- Facial Expressions
- Head Angle
- Hand-to-Face Gestures
- Extreme Close-Ups
- How to Animate a Piece of Facial Acting
- Exercises
- Chapter 9 Animation of Acting – Two or More Characters
- Chapter 10 Lip-Sync
- Animation Equipment Suppliers
- Index
Product information
- Title: Character Animation Fundamentals
- Author(s):
- Release date: September 2012
- Publisher(s): Routledge
- ISBN: 9781136129490
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