7 ms·

The Illusion of Life: Disney's principles of animation

144 points by mike_h 12y ago

pdenya 12y ago
Very cool animations and most fit the principals nicely but there's very little info on this page. I found the wikipedia page helpful and relevant - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animatio...
huxley 12y ago
I'm not generally a big Disney person but the books on animation theory from them that I've bought are quite enjoyable. There is book that the linked-to animation is based on: The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas Two other Disney animation resources that I've picked up over the years include: * The 2 volumes of Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes by Walt Stanchfield * Walt Disney Animation Studios: The Archive Series in 4 volumes: Story (about storyboards not writing), Animation, Design, and Layout & Background I haven't seen the flip books they released recently for each of Disney's "Nine Old Men" but it sounds interesting.
- GuiA 12y ago
  I own all of the books mentioned above, as well as the flipbooks. They're really great, but you have to have a certain appreciation of animation beforehand to enjoy the details. It's really just the flipbooks - no accompanying text or anything. It gives you great insight into how talented animators animated certain movements, but you have to know what to look out for. Not Disney, but the Animator's Survival Kit is also heavily recommended. Also recommended: Timing for Animation. I also have been meaning to check out "Elemental Magic" (2 volumes, about animating substances such as water, fire, etc.), and "Setting the Scene". /signed a computer scientist who wishes he can retire and attend CalArts on his startup millions ;)
braveheart1723 12y ago
This is the greatest resource on animation I've found By Richard Williams http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/ http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/
- Kiro 12y ago
  So you would say it's worth the price? ($959.50)
  - Htsthbjig 12y ago
    Obviously it depends on what you do for a living. If you are an animation pro, $1000 could be even cheap if you earn way more money thanks to it.
    - braveheart1723 12y ago
      Sorry, a friend got me the book and videos so had no idea how expensive they were... Guess I have just found out I have a good friend :) here are some excerpts from the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtbbdA4kUM&list=PL1A1FEDA47ADC18D4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtbbdA4kUM&list=PL1A1FEDA47... also the book is also amazing http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles/dp/086547897X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399122684&sr=8-1&keywords=animator+survival http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles/... and only $30 if you need any excerpts or advice on this stuff, tweet me @jonathanmatthey happy to help :D
  - jacobolus 12y ago
    For a professional animator (including e.g. video game graphics/physics programmers), absolutely. For someone who makes a career doing user interface works, it’s a bit harder to say. At some point there was a large portion of it on YouTube but I think it’s been (quite rightly) taken down as copyright violation. Anyway, the parts I watched were really really good.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  It's a great and practical book, but I'd say it serves a different role than Illusion of Life. I take it from one of the other replies that it's fallen out of print :-(
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
GuiA 12y ago
Those animation principles absolutely apply in UI work, and I wish digital designers were more exposed to it. There is still a lot to be explored with what can be done with quality animation in UIs, and digital designers should absolutely pay attention to this. If you're a designer, doing motion well will do wonders to your career. Motion has always been extremely important, but with the faster processors and GPUs we have in our mobile phones we finally have the extra cycles for it - Apple's latest iOS does really well on that front (far from perfect of course, but they're trying really hard and getting places). It's no coincidence that UIDynamics shipped with iOS7. CSS3 brings its lot of cool things too. Also no coincidence is that Apple and Pixar grew very close together - a lot of OSX's charm comes from subtle and delightful animation (genie effect, apps bouncing on the dock, etc.) that Windows didn't even try doing until Vista. Relevant article: http://watchingapple.com/2007/06/are-apple-ui-designers-learning-from-pixar/ http://watchingapple.com/2007/06/are-apple-ui-designers-lear... I've been maintaining a blog where I document animations that I find particularly interesting: http://www.ui-animations.com http://www.ui-animations.com (no throbber/loading spinners, those are very rarely interesting from an animation standpoint, even though they may be cute from a graphic design point of view). For the more academic minded of us, I like this CHI 1995 paper: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=974941&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=974941&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE (ACM paywall, but Google Scholar is your friend. Also, you should get an ACM membership- it's really worth it and will make you a better computing professional)
- applecore 12y ago
  Can you recommend any high-level libraries to incorporate motion into web UIs? It's annoying to work directly with CSS3 animations.
  - malandrew 12y ago
    Didn't see your comment until after I commented. See my sibling comment.
  - puppetmaster3 12y ago
    #1 by far: GSAP! Lots if not most award winning stuff w/ them, ex, spend a few minutes on http://intothearctic.gp http://intothearctic.gp It makes famo.us look like the 80s.
taigeair 12y ago
Very neat. Not really sure how to appy this though.
- qwerty_asdf 12y ago
  Do you need to present a series of images in rapid sequence, to the user, in a seamless manner, evocative of a particular concept?
1stexp 12y ago
There is a video that goes along with this: http://www.centolodigiani.com/117722/3078861/work/the-illusion-of-life http://www.centolodigiani.com/117722/3078861/work/the-illusi...
aspidistra 12y ago
For great examples of these principles in videogames, see World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (1992) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Illusion_Starring_Mickey_Mouse_and_Donald_Duck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Illusion_Starring_Mick... and Disney's Aladdin (1993) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Aladdin_(video_game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Aladdin_(video_game)
Tloewald 12y ago
There are two editions of the book which is a masterpiece (the longer edition is intended for serious animators). If you have any interest in animation you owe it to yourself to grab a copy. I don't think that two of the principles are dealt with well in the animations — staging and pose-to-pose. The morphs are too subtle to really illustrate the principle well. (The elegance of animating a cube for each principle is fantastic.)
ulisesrmzroche 12y ago
Hey, nice. This was one my favorite books in film school! Also, 'In The Blink of An Eye' by Walter Murch.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
timdiggerm 12y ago
The fake film-dirt noise is really silly.

144 points by mike_h 12y ago

Very cool animations and most fit the principals nicely but there's very little info on this page. I found the wikipedia page helpful and relevant - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animatio...

huxley 12y ago

I'm not generally a big Disney person but the books on animation theory from them that I've bought are quite enjoyable. There is book that the linked-to animation is based on: The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas Two other Disney animation resources that I've picked up over the years include: * The 2 volumes of Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes by Walt Stanchfield * Walt Disney Animation Studios: The Archive Series in 4 volumes: Story (about storyboards not writing), Animation, Design, and Layout & Background I haven't seen the flip books they released recently for each of Disney's "Nine Old Men" but it sounds interesting.

GuiA 12y ago
I own all of the books mentioned above, as well as the flipbooks. They're really great, but you have to have a certain appreciation of animation beforehand to enjoy the details. It's really just the flipbooks - no accompanying text or anything. It gives you great insight into how talented animators animated certain movements, but you have to know what to look out for. Not Disney, but the Animator's Survival Kit is also heavily recommended. Also recommended: Timing for Animation. I also have been meaning to check out "Elemental Magic" (2 volumes, about animating substances such as water, fire, etc.), and "Setting the Scene". /signed a computer scientist who wishes he can retire and attend CalArts on his startup millions ;)

braveheart1723 12y ago

This is the greatest resource on animation I've found By Richard Williams http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/ http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

Kiro 12y ago
So you would say it's worth the price? ($959.50)
- Htsthbjig 12y ago
  Obviously it depends on what you do for a living. If you are an animation pro, $1000 could be even cheap if you earn way more money thanks to it.
  - braveheart1723 12y ago
    Sorry, a friend got me the book and videos so had no idea how expensive they were... Guess I have just found out I have a good friend :) here are some excerpts from the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtbbdA4kUM&list=PL1A1FEDA47ADC18D4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtbbdA4kUM&list=PL1A1FEDA47... also the book is also amazing http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles/dp/086547897X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399122684&sr=8-1&keywords=animator+survival http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles/... and only $30 if you need any excerpts or advice on this stuff, tweet me @jonathanmatthey happy to help :D
- jacobolus 12y ago
  For a professional animator (including e.g. video game graphics/physics programmers), absolutely. For someone who makes a career doing user interface works, it’s a bit harder to say. At some point there was a large portion of it on YouTube but I think it’s been (quite rightly) taken down as copyright violation. Anyway, the parts I watched were really really good.
Tloewald 12y ago
It's a great and practical book, but I'd say it serves a different role than Illusion of Life. I take it from one of the other replies that it's fallen out of print :-(

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

GuiA 12y ago

Those animation principles absolutely apply in UI work, and I wish digital designers were more exposed to it. There is still a lot to be explored with what can be done with quality animation in UIs, and digital designers should absolutely pay attention to this. If you're a designer, doing motion well will do wonders to your career. Motion has always been extremely important, but with the faster processors and GPUs we have in our mobile phones we finally have the extra cycles for it - Apple's latest iOS does really well on that front (far from perfect of course, but they're trying really hard and getting places). It's no coincidence that UIDynamics shipped with iOS7. CSS3 brings its lot of cool things too. Also no coincidence is that Apple and Pixar grew very close together - a lot of OSX's charm comes from subtle and delightful animation (genie effect, apps bouncing on the dock, etc.) that Windows didn't even try doing until Vista. Relevant article: http://watchingapple.com/2007/06/are-apple-ui-designers-learning-from-pixar/ http://watchingapple.com/2007/06/are-apple-ui-designers-lear... I've been maintaining a blog where I document animations that I find particularly interesting: http://www.ui-animations.com http://www.ui-animations.com (no throbber/loading spinners, those are very rarely interesting from an animation standpoint, even though they may be cute from a graphic design point of view). For the more academic minded of us, I like this CHI 1995 paper: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=974941&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=974941&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE (ACM paywall, but Google Scholar is your friend. Also, you should get an ACM membership- it's really worth it and will make you a better computing professional)

applecore 12y ago
Can you recommend any high-level libraries to incorporate motion into web UIs? It's annoying to work directly with CSS3 animations.
- malandrew 12y ago
  Didn't see your comment until after I commented. See my sibling comment.
- puppetmaster3 12y ago
  #1 by far: GSAP! Lots if not most award winning stuff w/ them, ex, spend a few minutes on http://intothearctic.gp http://intothearctic.gp It makes famo.us look like the 80s.

taigeair 12y ago

Very neat. Not really sure how to appy this though.

qwerty_asdf 12y ago
Do you need to present a series of images in rapid sequence, to the user, in a seamless manner, evocative of a particular concept?

1stexp 12y ago

There is a video that goes along with this: http://www.centolodigiani.com/117722/3078861/work/the-illusion-of-life http://www.centolodigiani.com/117722/3078861/work/the-illusi...

aspidistra 12y ago

For great examples of these principles in videogames, see World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (1992) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Illusion_Starring_Mickey_Mouse_and_Donald_Duck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Illusion_Starring_Mick... and Disney's Aladdin (1993) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Aladdin_(video_game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Aladdin_(video_game)

Tloewald 12y ago

There are two editions of the book which is a masterpiece (the longer edition is intended for serious animators). If you have any interest in animation you owe it to yourself to grab a copy. I don't think that two of the principles are dealt with well in the animations — staging and pose-to-pose. The morphs are too subtle to really illustrate the principle well. (The elegance of animating a cube for each principle is fantastic.)

ulisesrmzroche 12y ago

Hey, nice. This was one my favorite books in film school! Also, 'In The Blink of An Eye' by Walter Murch.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

timdiggerm 12y ago

The fake film-dirt noise is really silly.