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How to Animate eBook
The How to Animate? electronic book is a great tool for learning all aspects of animation. It covers the foundations
of animation in 11 lessons, from character design, timing, squash and stretch and lip-synchronization, to multiplane
sceneplanning, composition and camera movement. Each lesson comes with sample material too.
- Lesson 1: Introduction to Animation and Animating Basic Shapes
- Shapes Overview of the history and development of animation, as well as instruction on drawing and deforming basic shapes.
- Activity: Drawing and Manipulating Basic Shapes
- Lesson 2: Timing
- Introduction to the importance of timing in animation, including how manipulating exposure time can change
the time and feel of an animation.
- Activity 1: Experiment with Space = Time
- Activity 2: Drawing the Pendulum
- Lesson 3: Squash and Stretch ("The Bouncing Ball")
- An introduction to a basic animation technique.
- Activity: Drawing a Bouncing Basketball and Bowling Ball
- Lesson 4: Anticipation, Drag and Overlapping Action
- Students look at how to make their animations think before they act.
- Activity: Drawing a Bouncing Ball with a Tail
- Lesson 5: Character Construction Sheet
- Basics of character construction and break-down.
- Activity: Drawing a Character Construction Sheet
- Lesson 6: Animating a Jumping Character
- Getting a character to jump deals with all of the concepts already covered and will get your students warmed
up for more complicated animation tasks.
- Activity: Making Your Character Jump
- Lesson 7: Animating a Walk Cycle
- In this lesson, your students will try and make their characters walk.
- Activity: Making Your Character Walk
- Lesson 8: Basic Multiplaning/ Sceneplanning
- This lesson takes students into the basics of sceneplanning and multiplanning, which has evolved from huge
camera stands and complicated lighting, into a simple process in digital animation, producing interesting
visual effects.
- Activity: Moving Your Character in 3D Space
- Lesson 9: The Take
- This lesson takes another look at acting in animation, as your students will start to think about how they
can convince their viewers that their characters have a personality.
- Activity: Draw a "Take" Shot
- Lesson 10: Visual Break-Down and Lip Sync
- Lip syncing is a difficult art to master, but we will review the basics of breaking-down sentences here,
as well as lip assignment. This labor-intensive process is facilitated by features in Toon Boom Studio.
- Activity: Break-Down and Lip Sync
- Lesson 11: Storyboard and Staging
- This lesson describes how to set up and plan shots and scenes in a storyboard.
- Activity: Storyboard Your Dream Scene
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