Animation is the art of time, and expressing action is the specialty of animation. Action design in animation plays a vital role in the success or failure of an animation. Action design is to design the motion state of characters in animation, so that each character's personality can be fully and reasonably expressed. Let's have a look!

Comics are the product of the combination of traditional painting, sculpture and other art forms with film and television technology, and are good at showing people's imagination in virtual and exaggerated ways. In the scene of early human hunting activities in French cave murals, the hunting process of the task is represented by serial actions, and the running prey is boldly added with several legs to reflect its running speed, which shows that human beings have always had a strong desire for animation. At the beginning of19th century, human beings invented photography, which made the desire of "active painting" come true. It is on this premise that animation gradually develops and matures with the development of science. It can be free from the constraints of real-life performances and natural environment, and has a broader space for developing imagination and exaggeration. It can not only reflect things that only exist in the artist's fantasy, but also show actions that ordinary people can't do, actions that people can't do, magical scenes that can't be seen in real life, and create unique artistic effects that are unheard of and unseen.

Animation is the art of time, and the expression of action is the specialty of animation. For example, there are almost no voices in Tom and Jerry, and the whole film shows its humor through the two main actions of cat and mouse. Therefore, the movement in animation is reflected by the movement of the role and the actions and behaviors of the role in the process of action. The action design in cartoons plays a vital role in the success or failure of cartoons, which reflects the psychological activities of the characters when they have a key conflict with the surrounding environment or characters.

What is action design? Action design refers to the design of the motion state of the character in animation, including the positioning of the role and the positioning of the action characteristics. Action design must be based on the movement process of different roles. Make the most distinctive format settings, so that each character's personality can be fully and reasonably reflected. Action design includes the following aspects:

I. Situational actions

Situational action refers to works that require specific design in specific situations, including environmental requirements and emotional requirements.

The actions in cartoons should be cleverly designed according to the character and emotional changes; Design the action range according to the size of the scene; Design action mode according to internal motivation. But no matter what kind of actions are designed around the content and plot of the story.

The actions in cartoons are not only a series of coherent actions, but also actions made by the characters under certain background conditions. The design of character action style should not only consider the differences between characters, but also unify the overall situation of the whole article. In situational action, it is emphasized that the action is in harmony with the environment and the story. For example, "Make a scene in Heaven" is a fairy tale with China characteristics. The film adopts the traditional Peking Opera performance in China, and the music of Peking Opera, the Monkey King's clothes and facial makeup all use the modeling on the Peking Opera stage. In this context. The action design in the film is different from the general traditional animation. The action design is quite beautiful and smooth, showing the color of dance, with the stylized treatment in the stage art of Beijing opera, and the gestures are very particular. The characters in Beijing Opera often appear in movies. Because it is a fairy tale, the Monkey King designed a series of actions different from other movies, from people to birds to fish, from snakes to tigers. The situational action in the film aims to make the audience full of infinite imagination and make the role fuller in the audience's mind.

Second, personality movement.

Role action refers to the action designed according to a character's personality characteristics, including personality conditions and physical conditions.

Personality is the life of each animated character, and personalized action design is the action of the character's movement. Some ups and downs, the fixed format of "appearance" can better reflect the character, such as the rest in the Japanese cartoon "Smart Rest". Whenever he thinks, he turns his index finger on his head with both hands, which is a personalized action.

Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, believed that "action is not to show character, but to show character in action." The actions of the characters are expressed philosophically, and the personality characteristics of the characters also need to be reflected in the actions of the characters. Action is just a way to express the role. "For example, in Tom and Jerry, cats and mice have been chasing and confronting each other. A lot of sprints and exaggerated facial expressions are used in the film, which not only have human actions in daily life, but also have some characteristics of animals. Through actions, the cat's arrogance and the mouse's agility and intelligence are vividly displayed. Role action is not only the design of role behavior, but also the richness of expression can sometimes accurately show the character characteristics of the role.

When highlighting some extreme expressions and actions, animated characters use exaggerated actions to strengthen their personality characteristics and convey special emotions. Such as "Scared to disgrace" and "Get carried away" are all actions that change the normal state, mobilize all the image elements of the role and play the role of body language.

A series of fighting scenes with the giant spirit god, Nezha and the four heavenly kings were designed in Noisy Heaven. The audience is more concerned about how they fight, which can reflect the Monkey King's dexterity and agility, huge giant spirit god and so on. The audience is used to seeing the characters' personalities in their usual living environment, which can only be used as a starting point in cartoons. Animation must exaggerate the usual behavior and sometimes simplify and deform it to create dramatic or comedy effects. Any formatted and patterned action design can neither show the unique personality of the role nor have vitality.

Third, body movements.

Body movement refers to making cartoons conform to the general law of movement, which is a basic movement that needs to be mastered.

The body movements in cartoons are all obtained through long-term analysis. The actions designed in cartoons need to express the specific character of the character, but at the same time, they cannot be separated from the body movements of the character itself.

Body movements are extracted from physical phenomena and characters' movements in daily life, and there are few exaggerated and distorted elements, but they are an indispensable part of comics. This is reflected in some Japanese animations, mostly based on narrative themes. For example, the action design of Spirited Away in "Grand Theft Auto" mostly comes from ordinary life, which makes people understand what cartoon characters are doing with the actions of ordinary people, generally without extreme exaggeration and deformation.

Physical actions include human actions and object actions.

(a) People's sports include people's regular sports such as walking and running.

It also includes people's expressions and characters' mouths. In order to emphasize action and coordination, action and expression are integrated in comics. This kind of action is universal, and the addition of mouth shape is more conducive to the dubbing of cartoons, so that the audience can understand the meaning that the character wants to express through action.

(2) Curved motion is a very important part of object motion.

The so-called curvilinear motion, as its name implies, is a nonlinear angular motion of rigid body, but a curvilinear, soft, smooth, graceful and harmonious motion.

In cartoons, all the soft, smooth and graceful movements of figures, animals, objects, gases and liquids, as well as the textures of various slender, light, elastic and moving objects must be curved. For example, the clothes of Yuan Gong, the god of heaven, fluttered in an arc motion, which showed that Yuan Gong was an unusual person and strengthened the feeling of walking in the clouds. At the same time, the curve action can show the character's character from the side, such as the fairy flat peach in The Heavenly Palace and the fairy ribbon falling from the clouds, which also fully shows the gentleness and gracefulness of the fairy with the curve action.

(III) Main actions and follow-up actions

Sometimes in comics, in order to fully express the purpose, strength and speed of a character's action, it is necessary to accurately grasp the key dynamic action, which is the main body of the action, and the following action is an accessory action that follows the main body's action, which is different from the main body's action.

All kinds of attached objects also play a very important role in the subsequent actions of the role, which can make the actions appear stiff and inflexible. This kind of action is everywhere. For example, among the golden monkey demons, Pig Bajie's ears swing when he walks, which makes the characters of Pig Bajie more vivid.

Communication between people can be realized in two ways: language and action. Language is a symbol, and action is an ideographic symbol, which can transcend the function of language and cross the boundaries between countries and nations. Animation art mainly expresses meaning through action. The primary purpose of action design is to let the audience get information and make it have the general meaning of * * *. At the same time, we should also look for special action symbols of personality. This kind of action design to show personality in * * * is the difficulty and key to the symbolic expression of language. Perfect action design means observing, trying to figure out and making bold choices, so as to extract normal actions in life and make accurate and refreshing action symbols.

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