Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
There are four distinct levels of animated action that identify the nature of
movement from the simplest to the most complex. The Four A's may best
be considered in a sort of hierarchical fashion, with the most simple at the
bottom and progressing upward to the most complex and sophisticated
actions at the top. These categories of animation set out to differentiate
between these levels. The categories are:
• Acting
• Animation
• Action
• Activity
These levels of animated action are appropriate to certain animated
movements. They are not a ladder for the would-be animator to climb, nor
are they meant to imply the ability of the animator. They identify the nature
of movement in various subjects. The animator, regardless of the discipline
he or she works in, the techniques used, the format of the production, or the
intended audience, will at some point or another encounter all of these—
sometimes all in a single shot.
Activity
The
activity
category describes the simplest of the four forms of movement
and is at the bottom of the Four A's of Animation. Such movements are
extremely basic and describe a type of dynamic that cannot easily be
associated with any naturalistic movement. An object or image moving in this
mode would not describe the behavior or movement that was recognizable
as belonging to any given object. Activity is evident when an object or image
appears at a particular point in space at a particular moment in time. This
object or image would then be seen as either the same object or a different
object at a second moment in time and point in space. The location in space
and the place it appears on a timeline may be completely random, or it
could follow a structured pattern but a pattern that does
not
conform to a
movement the viewer would recognize as belonging to a subject in nature.
By way of illustration, let's consider for a moment the static “snow” on a
television set that is not tuned in and receiving a clear signal. We witness a
flurry of vigorous movement but not of a type that relates to any naturalistic
movement. The individual sparkles move across time and space, though
they do not represent the identifiable movement of any object. Sparkles on
moving water, though not entirely random, could be said to represent simple
activity.
Another example of animation that we may consider simply as activity is often
evidenced in the credit sequences of nonanimated films. The moving text,
whether scrolling down or across the screen, fading, flickering, or presented
in a host of other ways, is clearly animated but has no form of movement that
we can attribute to the image itself. The text in this instance is not represented
