Animation toy-toy story

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Principles of Animation: Toy Story

Introduction The intention of this research was to closely analyze a few scenes from Pixars "Toy Story" to see how they were using the principles of animation. The principles of animation I've listed in this page is not restricted to the ones outlined in "the illusion of life". I went through a few other books and articles to come up with this list of principles an animator has to look out for while animating. So I've included blinks, dialog anticipation/follow-through and some other issues which has to be kept in mind while animating. Also, while analyzing the scenes from "Toy Story" I realized that its not a good idea to try to use all these principles in each and every scene in your animation.

Staging

Two contrasting examples of staging. Buzz fills up a large part of the screen and the camera is placed at his feet and tilted up to make him dominate the scene. Quicktime movie The toy soldiers occupy a very small part of the screen. Even when a soldier comes in close to the camera the scene is set up so that he takes up less than a quarter of the screen space. This scene was probably set up this way to show the magnitude of their task. Quicktime movie

Anticipation

The animators use an exaggerated anticipation even for the simple scene of woody lifting himself up from the bed. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie In this scene where Mr.Potatohead accuses woody, the anticipation is followed by a follow through in the camera movement. Quicktime movie

Follow-through

The follow-through is also exaggerated a lot in most scenes. The hands and head "drag" behind the body and take longer to settle down. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Line of Action

A curve can often be drawn through the characters pose. Carefully planning the line of action can make the scene more dramatic.This is similar to the characteristic curves that is often used while designing and modeling a character. Quicktime movie

Assymetry

The animators make sure that the characters always strike a pose with some kind of asymmetry. Its more lifelike to have the character put its weight on one foot or to bend one arm a little more than the other. Quicktime movie

Squash & Stretch

There's a very subtle use of squash and stretch in "Toy Story". Squash and stretch is often seen in scenes where the toys land onto a surface. I couldn't find any squashing and stretching by means of scaling. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Slow in/Slow out

Careful manipulation of the animation curves can make the scene look believable. Quicktime movie

Arcs

The characters hands and head in particular always move around in arcs. There are no sharp movements. Quicktime movie

Exaggeration

A lot of woody's scenes are wildly exaggerated. The hands and the head are animated using a lot of secondary motion. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Timing

I initially thought of classifying this scene under the title "appeal". But actually the beauty of this scene comes from timing. The sudden movements interrupted by graceful slow movements is what makes this scene appealing. Quicktime movie

Weight

Weight is conveyed mainly using timing. The use of sudden movements after the character has put in some effort gives it weight. The animators also make the characters shiver slightly to make it seem like they're puting in a lot of effort. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Dialog Anticipation

The characters anticipate dialog delivery by about 3 to 5 frames. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Dialog Follow-thru

The characters follow-through with their dialog by holding the last expression for sometimes as much as 10 frames. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Moving Hold

This isn't exactly a moving hold but it makes use of the principle of "hitting the same pose, then drifting to an even stronger pose and so on". Woody "hits" four different variations of the same pose to make this scene dramatic. This is the more traditional moving hold where the character holds the same pose but keeps moving a little so that it doesn't look inorganic. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Eyes leading

Every head-turn in "Toy Story" is preceded by an eye movement in that direction. When the eye leads the head, the character blinks. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Blinks

Eyeblinks in "Toy Story" are almost always like this. The two eyes blink about a frame or two apart. Quicktime movie Quicktime movie Quicktime movie Quicktime movie

Balance/Center of Gravity

The center of gravity of the character is always right above the foot planted on the ground. Complicated scenes are made believable by making use of convenient camera-angles. Quicktime movie

Flip book

Flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.

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