Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
use both in a creative manner. Such an understanding can only be gained
from the systematic and long-term study of motion and dynamics and, more
important, by practicing their craft that involves the application of timing.
After a time and with practice, the study of motion will become second
nature and will result in a very different way of observing the world and
understanding movement. This will result in the animator
seeing
, not just
looking. We have all watched people as they walk down the street; we might
have looked at how they swing their arms and lift their legs, but how many
of us have
seen
those same people walking? Here's an example: For a number
of years I have taught classes to first-year animation students looking at the
principles of animation and action analysis. As part of these classes, students
undertake a series of exercises involving figurative movement, walk cycles,
lifting, throwing, carrying, pushing, and the like. During these exercises I
encourage them to use their own bodies as reference material. They are
encouraged to walk, lift, push, and so on. Many of these students start out by
getting the basics of even the simplest walk cycle wrong. This should come
as no surprise, really, since we are very good at taking things for granted—
simply
looking
at things and events and assuming that we then understand
them without ever questioning in any detail how things actually work. My
students have
looked
at people walking; they even undertake these actions
themselves as part of these exercises; but it quickly becomes clear that up
until this point they have been engaged in
looking
at a walking figure and not
seeing
how the figure walks.
One of the first lessons in the study of motion is how to begin to
see
.
Pioneers of Action Analysis
The study of motion has been a serious endeavor for man for many thousands
of years. Cave paintings offer evidence that early man had an understanding
of the motion of a range of animals that can only have come about through
intense observation. We can only speculate as to how or even if such an
understanding had a practical benefit to those early hunters. Perhaps it
helped their field craft and assisted in the success of their hunting efforts;
we shall never know. We do have evidence as to how the study of motion in
ancient times has had practical application: The study of the motion of the
sun and the stars enabled early seafarers to travel the globe, even before the
true nature of the solar system was known or understood, and in doing so
give us an understanding of the planet on which we live.
Great scientists make great discoveries of which we lesser mortals may
understand little, though from their findings we may be able to undertake
a study from which we can then draw and apply knowledge. Isaac Newton
put forward his theories on the laws of motion in his great work, the
Principia
Mathematica
(1687), in which he set out the three laws of motion and
