Chapter 4 - Basic Posing and Key Framing

Abstract

This chapter begins with the pose-to-pose method. This can be dealt with later, but the reason for using it now is that it allows us to break the process down into nicely digestible nuggets. Instead of tackling every aspect of animation at once, it lets us first concentrate on crafting the poses themselves. Regardless of whether working in stop motion, computer graphics, or traditional animation, it all boils down to a series of poses. Whether an artist is drawing them on clear sheets to be layered and shot by a camera, or a computer is generating interpolated poses between poses that you've created, each frame of an animation finds the character in some pose or another. The visual strength of those poses will be the first component of a good animation. When deciding exactly which poses to create, think about your goal: to create a series of strong, dynamic “drawings.”