PWOW Workshop - Introduction to Animation Breakdowns

Oh [Music] this is bonbon our happy golden retriever bonbon wants to get a cookie from the cookie jar which is just a few meters away from him now how is bonbon going to get that cookie honestly if he could just walk towards the kisses our Rabb is cookie and take a bite out of it well that solves everything right let's go back to the initial problem what if I said bonbons could actually run to the cookie jars and then get his cookie there are so many ways our little dog can get cookie bonbon hoods crawl jump sprint die roll slide bonbon can't stop to wish you peace and then proceeded to get his cookies whatever action he decides to take he's still going to get that cookie but you've already noticed by now that all these approaches of him getting the cookie have all been different so there you have it I've described several different solutions and now this dog can get his cookie what if I told you him not having the cookie and him finally having the cookies are are the key frames and whatever actually decides to take are the breakdown so what is a breakdown a breakdown in character animation describes the actions and performances that connect our two main poses a breakdown can be one posed drawing or key or they can be more than just one these add a unique flavor to your animation it also helps the animator organize how your main cue should effect I have some visual examples to help so for this episode I'm going to be using characters for an idea I have so each of these characters are going to resemble different examples on how a breakdown can be use I'll first introduce the idea of actually using a breakdown and then how to use those breakdowns so you have texture and it has a bit more uniqueness to it or how to use it so you can organize your key poses and how can be applied to basic character loose so again I'm going to introduce it and how it can be used and Ketchum I'm exposing and acting first let's talk about how a breakdown can easily be applied to your animation work here I have two drawings that's basically supposed to resemble a girl turning her head from one direction to the other starting from pose a to pose B take note that I'm just going to use these initial two drawings as my main key poses for my first example I could simply make a breakdown that simply bridges our key poses now what we get is a simple in-between there's nothing special about it nothing unique there's just nothing specific about it so that's one breakdown now what if I decided to redo this breakdown and instead of just a normal in-between I'll have her head dip down with a blink notice how if there's a bit more weight I would argue there's a bit more snappiness to it the moment feels a bit more special I'm going to do another example this time her head actually tilts upwards even if it's not that specific even if there's no weight there's something unique about it it gives a character a certain attitude already see how a simple breakdown can already change the way the keys connect how it affects the actual performance of these acting choices so again she could turn her head in so many different ways now I'm going to do something that's closer to actual acting and performance don't get me wrong here you still need to have solid key drawings to sell great acting think of your main keys your main posing is your main ingredient and to break down as several seasonings you can apply here are two drawings with the same timing it's basically our boy character just reacting to something in awe that's pretty much it so again our two initial poses start off with a boy in a neato expression - a reaction of all let's explore a few different breakdowns our first breakdown could just be a simple blink maybe his shoulders contracts upwards notice how sitting his head closing his eyes and raising his shoulders emphasized the squash in his face I'll call this the blink because it's the most cliche thing we animators can do now I'm going to do another breakdown in this take instead of having him blank I'm going to emphasize a stretch so I'm going to drop the shoulders forcing his head to stretch and it's going to stretch even more because his mouth is open again I'm emphasizing the stretch now it looks like he's gasping see what is reacting to I'll call it a gasp but because our previous example was more of a squash oh just say this is our stretch example sometimes it doesn't have to be a squash or stretch it could just be a change in direction a turn he could shift his attention to the left or to the right it's kind of like my previous example with the girl where she could turn her head in different direction doing this alone doesn't really serve any specific performance choice I can think of but depending on what the context of the scene is it could always Barry I've shown that you can make breakdowns based on the squash and stretch principle but here I'm just using arcs alright so those remind basic three examples we have a basic squash a basic stretch and usage of the arcs each of them already give a different feeling now remember I said that there can be more than two breakdown drawings for two key poses again the breakdown is describing the actual movement so if you need more description for that movement be sure to have those drawings I'm going to do some example here's my second take of him blinking this time two drawings he squashes to register the thought and then he stretches to make a guess an emotional reaction and you can see I'm starting to mix squash and stretch together but more importantly this now gives an overall different feeling in effect there's a bit more weight - now I'm going to do another take where he guests first then falls into squash and then finally settling into the final clothes this gives you idea that he was caught off guard only after the guest does he begin to have the thoughts process to register whatever he saw again the second drawing of the breakdown is squash and it adds more of that weight I kind of overshot it to show weight so that's another tip use break downs to apply extra emphasis on weight such as overshoots or a change in momentum just by looking at these two tapes you can tell they're basically the opposite of each other or the reverse now let's do another take on the breakdown based on the movement of arcs here is an example where his body turns into many different directions now this is starting to feel a little more specific not only does the animation have more texture it kind of looks like he's shifting his momentum a lot kind of like he's trying to regain his balance again it's not really specific enough but if used well I'm pretty sure you can come up with much more genuine acting than I have here anyways those are my examples of a breakdown used in in character performance I could do more where he has his eyes closed longer or he doesn't gasp until the last two frames you can keep doing all these things all these different breakdowns but remember it has to support your performance the breakdown is no stranger when it comes to action in fact all the great action sequences and animation have really unique breakdowns it gets boring just to see where the characters are just doing the exact same punch them text towards each other or when a character snaps opposed in a dance move let's do some examples so for these initial sketches here are my two drawings of our man character just punching during the most cliche the most generic looking punch it's not the most proper core or the technical form of boxing or whatnot but you know what it's a punch and we're just going to work through these drawings and make it look believable at least so in these two drawings he just steps forward a bit and throws a punch from the opposite side so this would be called a cross so let's come up with a bunch of different breakdowns for this particular punch these two drawings so here's my first take it's nothing special it's very safe looking in my first breakdown drawing the character is slowly stepping forward while his other arm the punching arm is so what anticipating this punch after the punch I just made him shifts back with his foot dragging what we get is a dull looking punch nothing special no performance notes nothing unique about it it looks like someone you'd see in a workout class in my second cake I gave him more of a steady frame everything about him feels tighter than the first breakdown in my breakdowns I prioritize keeping his arms close to his face as much as possible and him being defensive his head is a bit more tucked in chin closer to the neck he's starting to feel a bit more seasoned like an experienced fighter or fighter with a bit of experience now what if a guy fights with strength and power and he wants to emphasize that in this example my first breakdown is him winding up shifting his upper body back winding up that momentum for a devastating cross after he throws that punch I want to shift his shoulders or rotate twist his shoulders a bit more so I'm just emphasizing the power of that strike so even though it's the same timing the same keys I tried my best to give it a bit more of that power notice how the timing between the bit where he winds his fist back and then throws the punch feels a lot snappier and a lot heavier because of how much contrast there is in spacing some fighters are quick on their feet and like to move a lot this fighter is active and always on the move opposite to the power fighter who uses his whole body to create the power and movement I used to have had to lead the overall movements so if you look at my breakdowns I'm using his head as a leading asset of his breakdown so wherever his head moves his body starts to shift along with the head this gives him a more intuitive feel he's evasive and quick on his toes he's always ready to get out of danger he doesn't fight with strength but he's more on the move and just getting out of harm's way the I was calm all the evasive fighters let's stick to that so have you seen those videos of random Punk's fighting on the street in public and let me see the way they fight it it's funny like they've never studied or taking an actual martial arts class it just looks like they're covering their way through to emphasize that clobbering feel it's tough throwing a direct punch I'm just going to make him swing his hand over his head and when he steps in he's basically leaving his torso wide open he strikes into that punch pose but then his arm is still flailing I think it's a very charming way of fighting I'll dub this the hole again because it looks like some random bloke on the street wanting to pick fights just for the hell of it I also want to emphasize that even the breakdowns I've done the past have a more direct punch I played with a break down so the arm just goes all over the place what if there was a man who fought smart someone who fought as if he was constantly thinking he's doing things like measuring the distance between him and his opponent I emphasized this by having a gentle jab and I made it open hand in case he had to grab and throw or maybe he was just measuring the length of his arm who knows he would then return with a quick cross and after that initial cross maybe he uses this opportunity to throw a quick jab with the other hand so in a way this guy fights efficiently oh I'll give it that let's call this one the strategist I'll do one more finally there's a punch where you can tell this man is an expert in other martial arts especially in the Eastern styles like kung foo in those Styles they like to combine the sense of defensive moves the push in the pull the ease of your opponent's momentum the flow of water and not using energy and force all the time I was looking at some Wing Chun videos and I wanted to see if I could have one breakdown where he's blocking one punch and our main key where he throws that punch after that breakdown and then when you stepping back he quickly loses his other arm to the block to block the incoming punch or attack it all happens really fast but that just shows how you can make complex breakdowns to fulfill your characters intent and purpose I could do a lot more takes for these simple drawings but then again there are so many options available it's pretty much endless you can approach a breakdown any way or any form you decide to go in I just want to show that with these of unique breakdowns a simple punch can feel like something else a breakdown again is there to serve or emphasize a certain performance a certain attitude and to sell the character and with that you do need texture and flavor in your animation so there you have different approaches to Amend throwing a single cheesy punch same initial poses same timing different breakdowns so I've shown you examples of how you can use break downs and how you can make it one secondary key now that you're animating you might have to start adding some breakdowns in your work I have five pointers for you guys to think about when making these breakdowns number one weight distribution I noticed what parts of your characters are heavy will they use that part to regain balance to shift weight around number to leading and delayed action what parts move earlier and what parts move later than the rest of the body what parks tend to drag for example number three anticipation and overshoots do the characters let's say step back and wind up for the action or do they snap into that post and if they were to snap do they go way beyond that key pose number four path of motion are some parts following an actual art or are they going straight to that pose number five ups and downs if they're subtle bounce to your character every time he or she walks while they're doing an action are they dancing to the beat or are there any sort of up-and-down move lastly there's character if you're animating a character you want to think about character performances things like personality attitudes temperament culture physical condition are they two types of character who acts on emotion or do they think before they even act are they playful or are they serious it's all very abstract but character plays such a huge role in coming up with these breakdown drawings because the descriptions found in the breakdown drawing can help sell your performance if you guys liked this video and would like to see more please check out my patreon page and give it a support backing up the workshop will give you access to streams I never put publicly and other animations related files that I never show online check out the links below for the patreon page this episode also comes in with an exclusive plus mission that you can find on my Gumroad page what the plussed edition you may ask it's an extended version of this video for $5 you get access to the actual project files of the examples shown in the video aside from that thank you very much and there will be more to come as all [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 133,163

Keywords: animation, hand drawn, toniko pantoja, workshop, tutorial, breakdown, 2d, digital, lecture, discussion

Id: wdPbiy-8BRo

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 04 2017

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