Animation is a truly creative process, down to tiny and exacting details. Its production can potentially involve all sorts of approaches with design, materials, and techniques. Animators create the illusion of movement with technological means, with optical devices like thaumatropes, zoetropes, or flip books, or with moving-image-making devices like cameras and projectors, with digital lens-based equivalents, or with computer software. All of these are ways to assemble small-step by small-step movements, amassed cumulatively to then be played back in sequence, giving the impression of movement.
Whether it is with progressive changes and moves with drawings, or abstract forms and colours, or hand-manipulated 2D or 3D puppets, motion graphics, or computer-generated imagery, no matter what technique, no mater which way motion is crafted, at the core, the creation of motion involves the same considerations. At the basic level are the Elements of Motion, the attentive relationship of one move to the next.
When I present concepts of the Elements of Motion to students who learn the principles for the first time, I like to refer to an article by George Sifianos published in Animation Journal, The Definition of Animation: A Letter From Norman McLaren (printed in the Spring 1995 edition).
The link to a copy is here. You should read it!
In the letter, Sifianos asks McLaren to describe the meaning of a quote he is know for:
Animation is not the art of drawings-that-move but the art of movements-that-are-drawn.
What happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame.
McLaren also covers the ideas in a series of short instructional films, Animated Motion, Parts 1 to 5.
It’s not that McLaren is solely responsible for theories of animated motion. Others articulated the already well-established practices at the time. Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson did the same by articulating the “12 Principles of Animation” in the Illusion of Life.
Creative animated takes on the 12 principles, artfully produced by Cento Lodigiani, are here and here.
Norman McLaren was an important figure and innovator. He created more than 60 short films during his career, from the 1920s to 1980s. It is an impressive accomplishment and a rich legacy of work. McLaren pursued a variety of experimental techniques, establishing methods like direct animation (cameraless painting and drawing on film), pixilation, and multiple-exposure optical printing of live-action. He was was the first director of the Animation Studio at the National Film Board. As a Canadian, one that is proud of the reputation and accomplishments of the NFB, I like to use an opportunity like this to showcase McLaren’s work.
I have summarized the information about the Elements of Motion with notes here.
Comparing the tone of the films from then, in 1976, to this particular day and age, considering McLaren’s diction, narration style, and pacing from that period to now, the material is dry and slow. Perhaps painfully so. But, give the films a try. Each one is short in duration. The concepts are simple and effectively illustrated. For instance, you will discern the contrasting tempos and subsequent characteristics of a shape that moves the same distance in 1, 2, 4, or 12 frames, or 1 second, as well as to 500 and 1000 frame moves (almost 42 seconds).
It’s not to say the films and notes are definitive and the only information you will need. These are meant to get you started. There is much more to come, as you learn and practice animation methodologies.
Viewers will carry the gist of the concepts to a variety of complex and contemporary scenarios.
The films are produced on film and McLaren refers to filmmaking practices that might seem archaic and have evolved since they were made. However, the concepts are relevant today, especially with digital production. Now, as we tend to utilize software to create motion, when we set keyframes at the start and end of a movement phrase and consequently expect the program to interpolate and animate in between, we need to be aware of the tempo and pacing of the move. Knowing how the conditions of motion affect movement, we need to adjust the spacing and timing, approaches that McLaren defines and demonstrates in the both the published article and Animated Motion, Parts 1 to 4 in particular.
- Georges Sifianos’ article from Animation Journal, based on correspondence with Norman McLaren
- Elements of Motion presentation notes
Whenever possible, I like to show the 16mm films in class. Students can see what the relationships look like on screen, such as strobing, when the calibrations along a motion path are too far apart, or jitter, when the seemingly short duration of holds of each move are too long (that is, longer than on “2s, 4s, or 6s”). As a result, the movement is not smooth. As on-line movies, the nature of the effects or flaws are not as pronounced as they would be on film. Nonetheless, the qualities are evident. You should get the impression. The condition is important to know, so that you can design solutions when you plan movement phrases in the future.
From the National Film Board of Canada site
NFB.ca / Directors / Norman McLaren
- Animated Motion: Part 1
- With playback or presentation in mind, 24 frames per second (fps),a typical “frame rate”
- Introductory concepts:
- Motion paths
- Calibrations and moves
- Motion and tempo, speed
- Character and mood
- Illustrated examples of typical tempos for animation production
- Animated Motion: Part 2
- Categories of tempo:
- Constant motion
- Accelerating motion, acceleration
- Methods to design degrees of acceleration, from gradual to steep
- Decelerating motion, deceleration
- Methods to design degrees of deceleration, from gradual to steep
- Constant motion
- Practical applications
- Characteristics of such motion
- Categories of tempo:
- Animated Motion: Part 3
- Zero motion, holds
- Illustrated examples, such as 1/24, 1/12, 1/8, 1/6, 1/3, 1/2, 1 second, and so on
- Examples of holds with movements, as part of the motion
- Side-by-side comparisons of single- and double-frame rates (24 fps and 12 fps)
- Examples of tapers or cushions, “slow ins” and “slow outs”
- Irregular motion
- Its characteristics (erratic, nervous, frightened) and visual examples
- Zero motion, holds
- Animated Motion: Part 4
- Instances of the 5 qualities of tempo
- Complex or compound movements, known as the basis of human and animal locomotion
- Strobing and shudder, jitter
- Strategies to reduce it
- Instances of the 5 qualities of tempo
There is also a Part 5. It considers “change,” in association with “tempo.”
Inspiration, the elements of motion in practice
The Deep was created by Pes, or Adam Pesapane, an animator based in New York.
Pes fashioned physical items and tools as sea creatures and animated them move-by-move, photographing each step with a digital camera. The organisms move with personalty and behave as distinct species. The qualities occur because of Pes’s precise considerations of the Elements of Motion, by knowing the nature of motion tempos and timing, the heart beat of animation creation. The resulting movements in The Deep are wonderful presentations of McLaren’s quote, “… what happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame…”
Links to films by both Norman McLaren & Grant Munro, and information about the filmmakers
Norman McLaren
Grant Munro