From the course: 2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

Capes: Advanced

From the course: 2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

Start my 1-month free trial

Capes: Advanced

“

- [Instructor] In the previous movie, we created a cape animation. Part of that animation was a flutter cycle where the cape is caught by a strong gust and flutters strongly. It was this band here from 19 through 23 to 27, and 27 of course is the same as 19, that's our cycle, which we loop over and over again. Let's remind ourselves of what it looked like. Not too bad, it doesn't look like cardboard, so let's see if we can go a little beyond this. So the basic cycle was only three frames, two really, which you know, the third one being the same as the first. So, really there were only two unique drawings, and uh, so 19, 23 and 27 in this example. So the secret is to add breakdowns, and to do something different on these breakdowns other than a straight in-between. And you can see the breakdowns here in red and green, there's 21 and 25. Now in this image I've overlaid all five of the cape frames so that you can see how they are positioned relative to one and other. We're going to take a closer look at these in a moment. So here's the finished animation. Now you'll notice immediately how much looser and richer this cape flap is, it's starting to look really good. Once again, a reminder, it's based on fundamentally simple forms, what you see here, in red outline, C shapes and S shapes. So now we're going to look at these drawings in sequence and see exactly what's going on. This is the first frame of the flutter cycle, frame 19. Now I will overlay the second frame, the breakdown, and this is in red, number 21. Then, the second key in blue in frame 23. Now if the breakdown had been done mechanically, the endpoints would be roughly in the same position, as you can see here, between the black and the blue points. In other words, this point here and this point here, are roughly where you would expect them on a normal in-between frame. But I've done something different here, on this line of the cape on the breakdown, I've punched it up into a place where a strict in-between shouldn't be, and this creates a reversal, this is an energy kick, it's as if the cape has been hit by a very fast gust of wind, there's a, it creates a wave action animation on that. So this was something that I did, to see, I wonder what it looks like, and as a result, it put a very nice bolt of energy into the cape and gave it much greater flexibility. The second breakdown is in green, and this is the frame that closes the cycle between 23 and 27. Now remember, the 27 is identical to 19, so the first and the last frame in the cycle. Now here a straight in-between should be roughly halfway between the blue and the black lines. But notice that the left point of the cape now shoots down, right here. You would expect an in-between to go there, and it doesn't. I punched it right down, as if it's been yanked down by the wind, or some gust, or some force of the fluttering. Notice also that the far edge of the cape is also shooting up past the blue and the black lines you see here. So you would expect a strict in-between to go between the black and the blue and it doesn't, it does this extreme action. So what this is creating is a very strong circular rotary action, basically around the entire area of the cape, so it's breaking us out of this simple up-down reversal. So let's overlay all four, and now let's look again at the final animation. And here it is with the red outline. And here it is without. And now you can see the effect of all of those little breakdown actions, where you feel it rather that see it, you just know, your mind just registers the fact that this is loose, it's not mechanical. And there is a very dynamic wave form that's now moving from one end of the cape to the other. So these are tricky, you know, once you begin applying these nice little breakdowns to the major capes or clothing between your keys, good things can happen, bad things can happen. You will find by practice, you will become attuned to the kind of things that look good and the kind of things to avoid. So never miss a chance to experiment with this, make your two cape positions and do something fun on the breakdown and see if it makes it better or not.

Contents