Animating the Zombie - Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity - page 196

Planning Animations with Traditional Techniques
Animation is a field where traditional techniques are still essential even with new tech-
nology. Principles that were developed and used by early innovators in the field, such as
Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and others, are just as relevant today as they were
decades ago. As such, some of these techniques can help you plan your game zombie's
own movements.
Even viewers unfamiliar with animation theory will be able to spot when a character's
movements do not “look right.” This is because animation, like many other forms of art,
is a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. In the real world, creatures move organ-
ically. Animators have had to create techniques that help viewers anticipate movements
that characters are about to make or that simply help animations look much clearer. It
is outside the scope of this topic to explain all of these animation principles in detail,
but there are a few that you should remember as you animate your zombie. Upholding
some and breaking others will give you a zombie that is both realistic and unsettling as it
moves.
One of the most important things to remember in animation is that body parts are
physical objects and must therefore follow the laws of physics. This applies heavily to your
zombie, as many zombies (depending on the types of zombie movies you like) shamble
around with awkwardly controlled movements.
Animators use techniques called Follow Through and Slow-in/Slow-out to show how
the body reacts to physics.

Follow Through
Follow Through demonstrates to the audience that a character's body or other objects
associated with the character have weight. This allows the character to have a convinc-
ing physicality as it moves through a scene. Follow Through can be created by having
body parts, clothing, accessories, jewelry, hair, and other things react to the motion that
is happening at that particular time by moving slightly through the motion rather than
coming to a completely dead stop. Figure 8.3 demonstrates this type of motion in a 2D
game sprite. As he runs, his hair
and coat bounce as he moves. His
body also bounces up and down
slightly as his feet hit the ground.

Figure 8.3
A 2D game sprite
running. Note how
his hair and coat
react to the running
motion and how his
weight is forced into
each step.

Slow-in/Slow-out
Slow-in/Slow-out, like Follow Through, helps describe the physicality of the character, but
it focuses specifically on the acceleration of body movements. Most of our joints are set
up to move in arcs, as shown in Figure 8.4. As we make these arcing motions, there is a
natural acceleration and deceleration as we first enter a motion's arc and then exit it.