Anywha, it was pretty much fluff with throwing "Bono" in the title for hits or reads for suckers like myself.
It had insightful tips like:
1-Start Strong
2-End Strong
3-Make The Beginning Really, Really, Really Good
(I'm not kidding. It 'really' said this.)
Not included was:
4-Be Bono
nor:
4-Be a Fucking Good Writer
Lots of garbage on the internet and I reckon more is to come. (Could be as soon as the next paragraph.)
It's hard to breakdown creativity. There is a process, but there is also inspiration. Part of the trick is to get a process established, do it and then wait for your muse to wander in to your trap. If you aren't a great photographer you may get inspired and grab the nearest camera, and then your lack of fundamental process will cloud your idea.
I never thought about animation having those sort of technical or 'artistic guidelines', but they exist. My grandmother in her and Disney's early days turned down a job to be a cartoonist. If she would have taken it, perhaps she'd have told me about them, but since that didn't happen the Internet shed it's grace on me.
Wikipedia has this to say:
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The 12 basic principles of animation is a set of principles of animation introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.[a][1] Johnston and Thomas in turn based their book on the work of the leading Disney animators from the 1930s onwards, and their effort to produce more realistic animations. The main purpose of the principles was to produce an illusion of characters adhering to the basic laws of physics, but they also dealt with more abstract issues, such as emotional timing and character appeal.
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And here is the list of the 12:
Squash and stretch
How a bouncing ball might squish, or something a car moving fast might appear longer
Anticipation
A character pausing before acting
Staging
Mood, light, shadow, surroundings
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Not really sure what these are...
Follow through and overlapping action
Where certain body parts may still be in motion after the main portion has stopped
Slow in and slow out
Flash folks know this as 'easing'
Arcs
Most motions move along a trajectory
Secondary action
Such as a tail wagging adds realism
Timing
That steps are in sync with the laws of physics, etc
Exaggeration
Realism can be boring
Solid drawing
Good drawing skills pay off
Appeal
Overlaps with good drawing. Likable characters a symmetrical or particularly baby-like face tends to be effective.
I saw another article out there about how Disney broke down body morphs too to make animals extra cute. Fattening them up to be like babies seemed to be at the crux of the technique.
Good luck with your Avatar movie!
Sincerely,
Bono
