All language subtitles for 13 Animating With Perspective

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Hello, everyone.

Havtza here.

Since the beginning of the animation sections,

we've been working on the mechanics

of how everything moves

and what things we can animate.

Starting from this lesson,

we’re going to learn

how to actually use them in cinematic animation.

And by this, I mean how to make your animation

more interesting than a single character movement

and actually create narrative

and energy between cuts and shots

using the principles that we've learned

to create the actual movement,

as well as some guidelines

and additional techniques

that will let you actually play around with your perspective,

camera and editing to create more interesting

and better looking stories using animation.

So the most important thing

when creating cinematic animation is remembering

the placement of your camera

because different shots will use different angles

and different types of lenses in quotes to show these effects.

And you need to know

how to animate parts of an object from different angles,

with different perspectives

in order to pull certain effects and camera movements off.

This is actually where good at drawing abilities

start to become important.

But don't worry, because what is really important

is to make sure that you understand

how perspective works with the camera

and the properties of your object.

Same as we've done with the animation before.

When animating in 3D space

the same rules that we've been using for our animations so far

are still going to apply

and they will still be working the exact

same way in almost any type of shot.

Just because you suddenly only see

just part of the character body

or look on the character from a different angle

doesn't mean that the lots of reality stopped working.

Acceleration is still going to be conveyed by the speed

and spacing between frames.

Smear frames, impact frames and overshoot are still

going to be useful tools.

The only difference is that now you need to consider

not only how the rules of reality

are going to affect your movement

but also how the camera captures images.

The main role regarding animation in 3D space is that objects

that are close to the camera are big

while objects that are far from

the camera are small.

This creates a clear indication of distance from the camera.

This trick relies solely

on the audience experience with reality

because we can recognize that objects

that might take the same amount of space on the screen

are not necessarily the same size

and only seem like the real

because the distance from the camera

in the environment is different.

The complication starts when your objects are moving forward

and away from the camera.

Although on a 2D space an object will move in

constant distance between frames

the amount of change in the size of an object on

3D axis is not constant.

The closer an object is getting to the camera,

the quicker it's going to grow

and the more intense the smear frames are going to get.

This effect is caused by the aforementioned change in size

relative to the object distance from the camera.

And the way that in animation

we depict speed for spacing.

For example, let's look at this lever.

From the side

we can see that it has its own changes in acceleration

but both ball and handle

move at the same rotational speed at any given moment.

We know that the lever and the ball

have the same rotational speed.

Even when we look at the lever from the front

because they are connected

they technically move at the same rotational speed.

But now we have to accommodate for perspective

and because the lever is a straight line,

the point closer to the camera is bigger

and has to move with bigger spacing to stay connected

to the rest of the lever.

Now, if we look at each point on the movement separately,

they look like they are moving in different speeds.

A change in speed indicates acceleration.

And this demonstration shows us

that even though in reality

we know that the object is moving in constant speed

to correctly depict it for the eyes of the camera,

it will have to artificially accelerated

to accommodate when objects are moving

closer and further away from it.

To simplify, object close to the camera change size and move quickly

while object further away from the camera

will change size and speed more slowly.

The type of shot and camera you're working with

is going to affect the way that are going to deform

and accelerate your character

In real life, different types of camera

give you different focus range and fields of view.

There are physical limitation to how focused or wide a shot

can be without changing different cameras.

In animation, we don't have this problem

but we do have to be conscious

as to how you would realistically recreate

the certain camera effect that we're trying to imitate.

Going back to our first animation lesson

we've talked about how the camera's low frame rate

result in motion blur when trying to take

a picture of moving objects in real life.

In the same way,

the camera lens is going to affect

the way that it captures pictures and how it deforms them.

In general, your camera position creates the perspective in the scene

and different angles create different perspective points

like we've seen in the background design lessons.

Your character is going to be affected by that perspective,

so you're going to have to draw it

with these perspective grids in mind,

even if you don't have it as actual reference.

This change in your character perspective is going to be expressed

by the deformation of the character

and basically changing its proportions

to fit with this new perspective

and the term for this change in proportions of different body parts

is called foreshortening.

So foreshortening is the term used when viewing an object

from in the angle, which doesn't allow you to see all of it at once,

results in parts of it being hidden and the shape changed.

It can appear in both neutral angles

depending on your pose,

or as a natural consequence of your camera angle.

There are many techniques for foreshortening

and a big part of practicing is understanding

how to make foreshortening look good.

But foreshortening is not that hard to do

if you understand the idea behind it.

First, divide your object into simple shapes

such as fields and cubes like we've been doing up until now.

Now try and squish them in your mind

in according to the movement that you want to create

and the more squished they are, the more they're going to be hidden

and the more front facing they're going to seem.

Now remember that when you are squishing them,

you need to make sure that your curves,

or your angles, are being kept correctly.

So don't distort and flatten your volumes

Now factor in the way that objects

that are closer to the camera are bigger

and accelerate more quickly

and slowly increase the size

and distance of the parts closer to the camera.

Remember that when the object is far away from the camera,

this change is very small to the point of it

being almost unnoticeable.

So don't enlarge part of your character for no reason.

In cases, that your character is extremely close to the camera

and you can only see parts of it,

use the perspective points in your background as a reference

as to how to actually deform

and change the shape of the different body parts.

Because they too will obey the perspective walls of your scene.

Now that you know the concept of acceleration

towards camera and a little bit more about foreshortening

and how you can create different perspectives using it.

It's time to see how we combine the two

and creating different camera

effects and angels.

Starting with the most extreme example

we have the biggest distortion in perspective

and foreshortening with a fisheye camera.

A fisheye lenses will make everything captured by it distorted.

You will find this effect in somewhat specialized scenes,

such as from the point of view of a character

looking out over eyehole

or creating unsettling atmosphere,

or sometimes to show a large amount of details

that would usually not be able

to fit in a single composition

like details behind the corner

or in a very distant places from each other.

This type of camera lens corresponds

to a four point perspective,

which we haven't actually covered

because it's very specialized

and it doesn't really correspond to an actual grid

which is available on procreate.

A four point perspective

basically just creates a sphere.

So once you create your background,

which is slightly distorted as a background layout,

you just need to use the background itself with its distortion

to know how you're going to adjust

and deform your character proportions and perspective in your animation.

Of course, the timing and motion rules

are going to work as usual,

so you're still get to have ease in and ease out,

but you're also going to have the added rule

of acceleration towards camera.

So stuff that is closer to the camera is going to be both

less distorted and move quickly,

meaning that you're going to get a lot of distortion

within each part of your character's body,

depending on the motion and the position

within the fisheye perspective.

The next type of lens is extreme shots.

This can be shots from very high or low angles,

and in these cases

your character model will be deformed

to mimic a three point perspective

with the perspective point being on the side

furthest away from the camera.

So if you have low angle shot

the perspective point will be at the head

of the character.

and if you have a high angle shot,

your perspective point is going to be at the feet of your character.

It's important to make sure that your character perspective

actually fits with the background itself

so you don't just make a three point

perspective specifically for your camera,

it needs to match the background as well.

And in these types of scenes,

your animation is again going to abide by the rules of animations

that we've seen before

and the rule of acceleration for this camera.

In these types of shots,

your character is actually going to walk very similarly

to deliver the example that we had at the last section.

This type of shot is slightly difficult

because the character model itself is going to be deformed

and its moving part of it

are going to constantly change their size,

depending on their position in relation to the camera.

So you're going to have to use a lot of foreshortening

and the different types of foreshortening

depending on each individual frame.

When trying to make a movement in an extreme angle,

I usually break the character into simplified shapes

in accordance to a character sheet

and just compare the relative size

to the other body parts to make sure

that the character model stays

consistent, even with a difficult angle.

Basically, instead of using a grid

and trying to match the character

to a single point or triple points,

I just match each individual part of it

to the rest of the body within that angle.

Because you will encounter

a lot of different parts being affected differently,

depending on the distance from the camera as well.

So you can't only refer to your perspective points,

even if you do have a grid.

You need to remember acceleration towards camera

and that you need to exaggerate your foreshortening as well.

So basically in shots like this, it's better

if you make it feel like it's correct

instead of actually drawing it correctly.

If your movement is too complicated,

or if you don't have the time to set up your grid.

Moving slightly away from the extreme shots,

we have more neutral shots

where the object is extremely close to the camera.

These are going to be close up shots or shots that have a lot of movement

made by the character itself.

These types of shots function

similarly to the extreme angle shots,

but they're slightly easier to manage

because they basically have two different perspective.

One, where your character is a little bit further away from the camera.

Where they're going to be on model without any deformation.

And the other is the frames or body parts

that are close to the camera,

where we're going to use the same type of foreshortening

as the extreme angle version

but again, with a pretty easy perspective point

because we have a more neutral scene.

So the amount of deformation that you're going to give

to each body part is going to be lesser

than in your extreme angle shots.

The shot is pretty common and tends to be fairly dynamic,

even without using the crutches of extreme angle

to give more variety to your animation.

This type of shots are actually very versatile as well

because you can have both object on model

and stay the same distance from the camera

as well as more dynamic shots and poses that you can have

when putting your character or object closer to the camera.

And within this type of range from the camera,

the shots are going to work in very similar way.

In general, as long as your object

stays in the same distance from the camera,

it will keep its size and shape

and will according to the rules

that we've learned in our previous lessons.

But once your object moves

closer to the camera, its size

and deformation will change in accordance

to the concept of acceleration toward the camera

that we’ve seen at the beginning of the lesson.

So it's going to accelerate very slowly

and in an almost unnoticeable way when it's further away

and when close to the camera

it’s going to move very quickly

and the trajectory of the object will change in accordance

to the perspective rules of the scene.

When animating complicated objects in space

at the beginning, it's easier to break them down to shapes

sizes and poses, or even plan the trajectories in advance.

And later on use experience to understand

your timing and placement better.

It's also easier to break the different parts of your character,

depending on the distance from the camera.

Basically, you can separate each part of your character

into different layers of sorts

and then animate the layer

which is further away from the camera very easily

with the rules that we've learned until now

and then animate the parts that are close to the camera,

with the rule of acceleration.

So that you don't have to consider the entire body

and how it's going to accelerate

and only focus on the relevant part.

The last type of shots

that we're going to have is where you see

the full body of the character

and it's moving in a somewhat 3D environment.

This is 3D movement in a wide angle shot.

In this type of shots, your character

proportions and model will stay

without any type of deformation.

And only your character's size

will change relative to the camera.

And of course, the pose of your character

is going to be made with foreshortening.

In this type of shots because you have a wide angle

and you see your entire background,

it's very easy to make your character

fit the perspective using perspective point.

Up until now, it was harder to do

because the perspective point wasn't

necessarily present on the screen.

Or that different parts of your character

had two different perspectives, depending on the distance

from the camera.

But with this type of scene,

you can basically mark

the effective and correct range for your character movement

using the perspective points themselves.

Also, you can basically use

the background itself as a reference

to the size of your character.

If you have a grid it's pretty easy.

You just compare your character

size to the grid on the ground or the sky

and just match your character's relative size to the background

if you're bringing it closer or further away.

But if you don't have a grid

you can just do that with comparison

of simple textures

or details within your background itself.

It's going to be a little bit less precise.

So using your perspective points to have

your effective range is going to be helpful as well.

Now, an important thing to remember when deciding

when to use your foreshortening

and acceleration and how to plan your shot is to understand

if your perspective change stands from your character

moving, or from your camera moving

Even though we don't use actual 3D models

and we don't have 3D environments

that doesn't mean that we can’t have 3D animation using 2D.

It just requires a different understanding of angles

and specialized backgrounds.

And knowing when your character is moving

or when your camera is moving

is going to be a big distinction

how you're going to approach

your background and character movement.

Basically, if your character is the one who's moving,

we don't necessarily

need to think of your background as a 3D environment.

Only the individual parts of your character, which come closer

or further away from the camera,

are going to indicate the perspective change

because of the relative size of each other

and the deformation that we're going to use with foreshortening.

With this type of shot your background can stay

basic and have a single perspective

of any other type of perspective that you want

but they still stay consistent and don't change

perspective in the middle.

Only the individual parts of your character

and its relative size changes.

But when you want to

animate your camera moving,

this is where things become more interesting.

If you're moving your camera,

you're basically trying

to create a 3D effect using 2D.

You will see this with shots

where the perspective changes

or when using rotation shots.

And the main difference

between animating your character with a regular shot,

but with your character moving in 3D space

as opposed to actually animating

camera movement in 3D space is how we're going to treat

the relative sizes of your character's body part

and the layout of the background.

So I'll be covering the background

in the next lesson of camera movement.

But to animate your character to look like

it's moving in 3D space with the camera is a little bit more difficult

because basically what you're doing is shifting

the perspective points within your scene,

which changes your character perspective

for each individual frame.

This is basically just having

a whole bunch of extreme angle shots.

And connecting them together

with regular angle shots in the middle.

So it's a combination of the more difficult parts of each type of shot.

And to make them,

we will use the same type of tricks that we do

with the regular extreme angle shots.

The important thing to remember

when trying to animate

your camera movement is that your character as a whole

is going to be affected.

So it means that each individual part

is going to move separately,

depending on your character action,

and that the entire character's position

and perspective is going to change to fit the camera.

So you will often see instances

where some parts of your character are

deformed due to the perspective

and doubly deformed due to the action

depending on the distance from the camera.

And to do this type of shots,

basically you can only rely on experience

where you want to accelerate

to different parts of your character

and on your understanding of your character model

where you want to change the perspective.

So again, I recommend breaking your character

into simplified objects and parts

and then doubly breaking your entire animation into layers

depending on the distance of the object from the camera.

I also recommend using a lot of frames

when planning your animation.

So even if you're going with a pose-to-pose method

and then filling in the gaps using ease in and ease out

and in-betweens, it's still better to have a lot of initial poses,

just so you know that your perspective is going to work

without going back and forth and fixing many things.

Because you weren't sure how to connect between poses

that had a lot of change to them,

like you're going to see with these type of shots.

I myself, almost always

do them in the straight ahead method

when creating my own projects.

Because it's easier to figure out the perspective

and the connections between each frame

with the highest amount of base frames.

It is also very important to know how to animate and draw

your character from any angle and position possible,

if you want to create 3D movement correctly.

So it's important to properly understand

your character model from every angle.

Especially when trying for different angles and camera movements

which combine different techniques.

Always try and refer to your character sheet is to make sure

that you're keeping your character proportions in check.

But don't be afraid to use a lot of foreshortening

and deform your character model itself,

if it makes the movement itself clearer.

Once you figure out and master

how to recognize where your character

is coming closer to the camera

and how to animate it using foreshortening

and keeping your character model

and how to recognize when your camera is moving

and animate your character

from the correct angle of the camera,

you can combine the two

and create the most complex type of animation, which is

a combination of camera and character movement.

Once you know how to do that,

you can basically create

any type of shots that you want.

And matching your character

to any type of 3D environment.

When you are animating a combination

of character and camera movement,

you first need to recognize

what type of movement your camera is making.

See if you're working with a low angle,

high angle or mid-range shot

to determine your overall perspective,

then determine the distance of the camera from your character

to see which parts are going to be

in the foreshortening range

and which parts are going to be

in the regular character model range.

This is especially important

if your character is also making action forward

or away from the camera.

So you need to understand

what is the relative distance of each part of your character

from the camera at each position of your camera.

All the while keeping the perspective correct.

Extra difficulties added

if your camera is also rotating

or if your character is rotating.

Because then you really need to keep in mind

the volumes and correct

placement of details on your character.

These are a lot of things to keep in mind,

but we are going to use the same techniques

that we've done up until now,

just in combination.

So you need to determine your perspective point,

divide your characters into simple shapes

and enlarge them and deform them

according to foreshortening.

And you need to keep your character on model

by comparing the different body parts to themselves

in relation to the proportions within the character design.

There is nothing new or more

complicated with this type of shots,

except for the part that you need to combine all the techniques together.

If you have enough practice

in each individual one, it's not going to be very difficult for you

to actually make these type of connections between them.

The exercise for this lesson

is to follow along the example I gave

and try and create your own variations with them.

You can either choose different camera angles,

or you can use your own animations

from the previous exercises as reference

and try and animate them in different angles and perspectives.

Again, make sure that you keep your line quality

and character volumes and proportions consistent

and that you have an example of at least one

angle perspective of movement

that I've demonstrated through out this video.

Because these two will basically mean

that you have to create animation from scratch

and not based on something that you've made before.

You can either choose

to animate your character

with or without the details.

But of course, adding the details will add to the difficulty.

So it's better for the experience that animators.

For a high difficulty exercise

just try and create the most dynamic movement

that you can imagine

with both your character and your camera are moving in 3D space.

While combining both full and part body shots.

Basically create a very dynamic action sequence as a one shot.

So don't use any cuts

and just use camera movement.

To recap,

today we've learned about the effect

that your camera will have

on the deformation of your character.

How the distance of your object

relative to the camera affects

the timing of your movement

and how foreshortening

can be used to show different

angles and poses of your character.

We've also learned about the idea

of acceleration towards camera

and what type of the formation and change in size

we can expect from different types of shots.

And when and how we use relative sizes

of your character details to create the perspective of your character

as opposed to when we use background grids and perspective grids

to determine the size of your character.

Next lesson we're going to learn about

actually creating the camera movements

to fit to your new perspective and gives you the ability

to make cinematic animation.

Thank you for watching and see you next time

Bye