Original subtitles

[Instructor] There are a couple of animation principle

we haven't talked about yet.

Line of action and exaggeration.

The cool thing about both those principle

is that they both apply

to animation but also drawing

as they define the quality of a pose

not the quality of the motion.

But since motion and good animation is about

a sequence of poses then it does relate also to animation.

So let's first have a look to what a line of action is

into a pose.

In the words of Preston Blair,

former veteran animator at the Walt Disney studio

and also Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,

"The line of action is an imaginary line

"extending through the main action of the figure."

Basically it's a line or a curve

that does support the silhouette of your character

and give direction to its motion or to its current pose.

It's here to guide the eyes

and build to the whole dynamism of a pose.

Whether it's dynamic or not.

The shape of your line of action

may turn your pose in something more static.

So it's not about drawing dynamism,

it's about drawing directionality to make the pose clearer.

Let's see a couple of example.

Line of action is about simplifying

how a silhouette or a character reads.

On the character it often starts from

a contracting point or a pushing point

to the opposite extremity.

Because the line of action is not always but often driven

by the force applied into a pose.

So good line of action will translate momentum

or directionality to your motion.

So whenever you are building a pose for your character,

the whole pose should support the line of action.

All the line of action should support the whole pose.

In this case I've posed the back

but also the tip of the finger of the end of my character

to support the line of action.

Same thing here.

The way the character is posed

make the line of action super obvious.

So the line of action helps to read the pose

and helps to read the motion.

If we see the evolution of the line of action

through those poses,

we can see it extending as our character is jumping.

There absolutely no doubt about the orientation of the jump

so it simplified the readability of the lecture

of this jumping moment or action.

The line of action is not necessarily a straight line

or a simple curve.

It can have an S shape

clearly translating the fact that our character

is gathering energy to extend on the next pose.

So beyond simplifying the readability,

the line of action will also define the flow

of your animation.

So the line of action is the best friend of the animator

because it will help you to see and simplify

the poses of your character through time.

So when you build your animation

and when you build your poses,

you need to first think of the line of action.

And then while posing make sure that your pose

is currently supporting this line of action.

So it's always about going back and forth

between what drives the pose and what the pose defines.

Let's now about a bit one of the 12 principles of animation,

which is exaggeration.

For me,

this is one of the most important principle of animation

especially regarding my own style of animation,

which tend to be pretty cartoonish or stylized let's say.

And this whole chapter will be about exaggeration in a way.

I have very few interests to super realistic animation

where there is no exaggeration.

Though exaggerating in animation doesn't mean

it won't look realistic.

Great animator will clean motion capture the data

and know the spots where they can push the pose

or exaggerate the animation to make it more appealing

and better sell the animation or the idea.

Exaggeration is not about building extreme poses

but better sell an idea.

Here I've just built a pose where a character is punching.

I've used the reference and tried to match it.

So I'm not here to tell you if this pose is good or not

but I feel like it does work

and sell that the character is punching.

But now what if I take this pose and I push it

or I exaggerate it.

Don't worry,

I will explain the whole process in the next videos

and we are going to build a bunch of different poses.

What we need to understand here is that

I'm taking the same idea,

my character is throwing a punch and I'm exaggerating it,

meaning that I will push the pose further

both in its directionality

but also in the intention of the character.

No longer punching his target

but he's trying to punch through his target.

If we now compare both poses we have similarities.

On both poses our character is punching

and while the line of action on the first character is clear

by pushing the line of action forward toward the punch

we are making the idea that our character is punching

way more obvious.

We are exaggerating it.

While it may makes the pose

a little less realistic in this case

it makes it way more appealing and way more readable.

A good test is to show those two poses to a child.

He will certainly point out the right pose

as its favorite one

because it better shows the intention of the character.

The big disclaimer here,

no children were harmed or involved

in the recording of this course.

While exaggeration can be used to communicate intention

it can be also used to communicate emotions.

Whether it's joy,

anger or in this case some kind of shininess and sadness

by pushing the character pose and calling him more

I am closing the line of action.

The head is leaning more.

The fingers also looked more tortured.

So in the end the emotion on the right pose

are more convincing and our character will look more alive.

Finally we can also use exaggeration

to improve the readability of the motion.

When the character is jumping

I'm pulling his body or elongating it

though I'm exaggerating his shape

to make the jump read better.

Especially at full speed.

So we can use exaggeration to build what we call smears

that in a way simulate the motion blur of a camera.

And allow us to better feel the motion.

To summarize we have seen that the line of action

can be applied to animation,

drawing or even photography.

The line of action simplifies the readability of the pose.

It conveys the directionality,

momentum and or stability of the pose.

It helps to read the flow of the animation.

The animator should use the line of action

to build his poses and use his poses

to clearly define the line of action.

Exaggeration improves the appeal and dynamism.

It better communicates the ideas and the character feelings

and it can improve fast action readability.

(silence)