Class 2 - Week 8 [ Arc and Path Of Action ]

This Week we had Lecture on Arc and Path of Action another Principle from Animation Principles.. We must Always Make Sure That we a Good  Great Arc in our Shot.. Like its Said Every thing Moves in an arc.. With out arc ur shot Starts too look Jerky , Robotic etc.. Characters RARELY move from point A to B in a straight line there is always An arc in every Motion.. Arcs will add a Great Deal of fluidity, elegance, flow, grace, appeal to ur Shot and U can try to exaggerate it as much as u can to make ur shot Interesting.

Arcs & Path of Action are greatly related, they always go hand in hand with each other..

Every time there is a motion there is a path for that motion, that path is called path of action. The path of action -in most cases- has an arc shape. In animation we need to make that arc smooth & clean to add quality to the shot, bumpy path of action will weaken the animation no mater how good the character posing is.

If you watch any animated Disney movie you will notice that it has a very fluid feel to it, that's all because of smooth arcs & path of action, and that what makes Disney work so remarkable!

Its all about two things: Arcs, and Path of Action.. along with
solid character posing, appeal, Spacing, Timing  etc etc etc of course. lol..hahaha :)
There is plenty of tools in Maya for Ghosting, and showing animation path, or Another I learn't in AM was many animators Use DRY ERASER on the monitor to follow the path of an arc, helps us visualize this path easier or There are a number of software plug ins or scripts (such as Jason Schleifer's "Grease" tool for Maya) that will allow you to draw directly on Maya. I Personal Use a Script Called  " Ghost Man "  and AC3d Tool and Sometime " Arc Tracker " to help me track my arcs.. I Just Keep on jumping between these Tools depending on the Situation cause Sometime These end up to slow Down ur PC..

NOTE : -  But arc are not always Required there will be some situation where u don't necessary want to have an action in an Arc..
Assignment:-   This we Had we had to Block our shot.. Here's what I submitted.. The Constrain thing was Driving me Crazy Had to Waste 4-5 hrs try to get it Right.. but To Mike Amos he Suggested me to use ZV-parent Tool.. Helped me a lot