Get to know about correct body mechanics in animation

Get To Know About Correct Body Mechanics in Animation If you are an animation company that’s facing challenges in creating effective character movements, then you may have realized the importance of implementing proper body mechanics to your characters. Because if you don’t follow the correct body mechanics rules, it is quite likely that your animations will end up looking quite awkward.

Therefore, whenever the animation firms do blocking, it’s crucial to have a handy list of all the controls for every time there’s a change in pose. This is because with every pose change, every body part of your character (including neck, arms, shoulders, spine, hips, and feet) should move, and this should be done even if the movement is very small and subtle.

So if your animated character’s movement looks a bit odd after a movement or pose changes, chances are you have not followed the key body mechanics rules diligently. And so let’s take a closer look at the top 3 rules of body mechanics which every animation studio should know and follow:

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1. Animate the Whole Body As briefly stated above, in order to make the scenes valid and realistic, it’s important to understand the importance of moving all the body parts whenever your character is moving.

Most of the companies miss out on the subtle changes that should take place in each body part during movement, and so their shots end up looking stiff. In real life though, every pose change leads to movement of all the body parts, and this is something animators and professional studio should keep in mind. For example, even when a character stands still, slight roll to show shift in weight between the two feet should be added.

Another important point to consider is for the bigger moves. Especially for jumps, most of the animation studios get the extension pose right but not the actual launch. What they do wrong is to make the motion of the centre of mass go the wrong w ay. As a result, the overall motion of the jump looks wrong. For an animation studio to accurately project the jump, the whole body and not just the legs should be compressed like a spring-loaded device, and shoulder-to-feet should be in a straight line.

2. No ‘Head Flip-Flops’ This is another important rule of body mechanics ignored by many animation studios. Basically, for any big or small movement or poses of the body, the head should remain as level as possible.

Under no circumstances should the head ‘flip-flop’ or move like it’s stuck on a stick without a body.

In fact, what every reputed studio must remember is that the head should always look in control and at the centre of the action, and shouldn’t swing around aimlessly. Also, during bigger movements such as jumps, when you incorporate overlap of chest and necks for the cushioning effect, do take care to not add too much offset, lest the head do that wild flip-flop action. This is because in our natural movement, the head is always relatively stable even when not ‘leading from the front’, so as to provide overall stability to the body in motion. And this is one body mechanics principle that most of the professional animation firm end up missing out on.

3. Mind the Feet Last but not the least, let’s talk about feet. If there’s one body part that is hugely ignored in animation body mechanics, it’s the feet. In fact, it’s surprising that so many animation company get the feet movement wrong, in spite of this movement being so basic.

Following are the two main points to remember about the feet movement animation for your animated character.

i) Understand and Follow the Correct Leg Moves Although we know and follow this instinctively while walking in real life, but it’s surprising how often the animation studios overlook the fact that the walk of their characters does not reflect the natural rhythm! Sometimes, it’ll be the classic case of incorrect step sequence: instead of the natural left-right-left, they end up doing a left-right-right or even a left-right-left-left. But the effect remains the same – that of making your character’s leg movement look odd and unnatural as per the body mechanics laws. And hence, the popular studios must take special care to ensure that the natural walking style is followed diligently in their animations.

Another common oversight that many animators make is to sometimes lift off both the legs at the same time. Please always remember that once a foot has been planted, it will (and should) not move until the other foot has been planted. In simple terms, one foot should always be on the ground during a walk or a run movement.

Another good tip to the animation studios regarding the feet movement is to include small and subtle shifts in weight between the two feet, whenever a character is shown simply standing.

This is a natural weight shifting movement for us in real life, and adding that in your animations will add more credibility and realness to your shots. ii) Lift the Correct Leg Again, this is something that most of the animators and other animators know intuitively, but end up ignoring as part of the rules of body mechanics that should be followed in animation.

Tip for animation studios: Imagine a character that’s walking normally and comes to a stop by planting his left foot. Now if he starts walking again, the right leg will be lifted first instead of the left leg which was just planted. Even if the character needs to start walking on left foot again, animation studios must incorporate a little weight shift to the right leg. So basically, whichever leg the body weight is on, shouldn’t be lifted!

The above tips may sound obvious to most animation company, but are still not followed by everyone, thereby affecting the quality of overall character movement in their animations.

Hence, by incorporating the above golden rules of body mechanics, animation firm and beginner animators can make their animations more effective.