Notes from Class and FX Animation Project Notes!

Practical Animation Advice for THE FX PROJECT:

• Question: How do you make the most of the time you have?
• YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT TO DO GREAT IDEAS!
• You just have to make the idea MANAGEABLE within the time frame.
• EFFECTS ANIMATION: the overall IMPACT of that effect.
• how it looks, how it moves, how realistic or stylized it is
• YOU CHOOSE these elements!

PROJECT:

• Research a cool effect you would like to do. When we speak of effects: We are speaking about ELEMENTS and FORCES:
• fire
• smoke
• water
• plasma (lightning)
• flashes of light
• impact frames
• motion blur (any other speed frames)
• cloth
• and many more!
• Find a video or videos online of the effect you would like to do.
• if you find multiple ones, make sure at least half of your research comes from real-world examples (IRL)
• Figure out a short SIX SECOND(6) sequence to animate (storyboard and animate) that demonstrates applied use of this element and effect
• PREPRODUCTION: STARTS TODAY.
• it is okay to think about what colors you want your EFFECT to be, but DO NOT do anything else with color before class next monday.
• PRODUCTION STARTS THIS WEDNESDAY AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS AND ENDS NEXT WEDNESDAY AT THE END OF CLASS.

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS FOR FX ANIMATION:

• emitters - the origin of that effect or element. Where does it come from? What energy is used to make it move?
• direction - where is that effect going?
• gravity - how gravitational force effects the way that element moves.
• decay - how the element disappears over time. Does it evaporate? turn into another element? etc.
• impact - how much force the element creates when it comes in contact with another body.
• stickiness - how much the element attaches to another object.
• body - The entity that is the object itself. Each element effect, and the objects it come in contact with are bodies. What’s important to remember is that each body has different classifications attached to it! You want to pay attention to which body is the GREATER FORCE and which body is the REACTIVE FORCE.