Think of the animation world as a playground of imagination, and when these imaginations are brought to reality, they can turn out to be good as well as bad.
Today, amazing designs have been made possible through the advent of various marvelous technologies like CGI and graphic design. Nonetheless, all animators will certainly make mistakes and no one is immune from them.
It is crucial to be able to differentiate good animations from bad ones so that a person not only knows how to judge an animation but can also create good ones themselves.
Certain points can be taken into consideration while trying to understand which animation is good and which is not. Not everyone who produces the art of animation is experienced, and this is why their quality can suffer.
Therefore, in this article, we will share a few tips for judging animations based on various aspects that might go unnoticed if you’re not an experienced professional. So, without further ado, let’s find out what makes the good animations as good as they are.
1. Restraint
Every animator loves clever designs, but the use of these can turn out to be detrimental since they may create some problems for the audience. While every animator wishes to show their prowess to the world, they need to practice restraint every once in a while.
The specialists at a reputed corporate video production company explained that it’s okay to make mistakes since that’s the right way to learn. However, if someone doesn’t learn and adapt, then these mistakes can pile up and eventually result in poor animation. Even if a specific design looks good to the animator, it might not be the best for the animation’s flow.
Bad designs, although very clever, are usually an indicator that the work was made for the designer’s eye and not the viewers’. Since it is the audience that these animations are made for, they must be well-rounded. To ensure this, one should take the opinions of their prospective audience so that they can better understand what’s needed from them.
2. The Needs and Wants
The animation must be the result of the viewer’s wants; this is the single most important rule you need to remember in this business. It doesn’t matter whether the viewer wants to see action, information, or drama, a good animator will cater to whatever they want.
If your viewer is looking for some family time while watching a children’s movie, you can’t deliver an animated presentation to them and expect them to be happy about it. While this might be an over-exaggeration, it clearly highlights the importance of satisfying the viewer’s needs. Hence, a good animation does not only attract the attention of the audience but also caters to their needs well.
3. Superfluous Animations
The most important thing in animation is to avoid redundancy, if your animation has a lot of unnecessary clutter, then it’ll distract the viewer from what they’re actually supposed to see. It is extremely crucial for every little thing in animation to serve a purpose. Some animators use designs only for the sake of it, and this is where it becomes a bad animation.
While designers find animating fun, the people watching it are likely to get bored of complexity and, thus, might even skip entire sections. Therefore, the limited focus and attention of the audience must be considered.
Good animation is when the animator does animations purposefully. There are certain steps that the creators must take while designing. These are as follows:
- The animations must be fast – about 4 times faster than what the animator initially planned. This will not only save the time of the user but will make the animation unobtrusive.
- The necessities come first, and then the aesthetics follow. If the design elements are aesthetically pleasing but do not suit the scene and theme, then they’re redundant.
- Before creating any animation, the animator must think it through several times over. This is likely to result in an animation that’s comprehensive and not rushed.
The motive of an animation must be defined first, overly beautifying a design can kill the essence of the art form. Eventually, the animation may lose its impact if unnecessary design elements are overused.
4. Technicality
A good animation follows the 12 principles of animation. Even if one of these is not followed, it may turn into a bad animation since its smoothness would have been lost. Furthermore, a good animation keeps everything in perfect sync with the timing, pacing, emotions, themes, and music of a scene.
On the other hand, a bad animation may have sloppy or missing frames, rewinding or repetition of frames, numerous stills, and looks choppy. It may also have movements that look unnatural or unrealistic, which are not based on the reasons of style or story. This means that the objects may lack weight, momentum, or impact when they are in motion.
In opposition, a good animation would demonstrate the willingness of experimenting, detailed animation, and well-animated body language like eye communication. Most of all, it will be consistent in nature, as all animations should strive to be.
Also, it is noteworthy that the choices of style do not determine the animation’s quality – they are the results of the animator’s taste. Similarly, a low framerate does not essentially mean that the animation is bad. However, what does matter is the basic foundation of it, which is the most important part.
Animations can be open to interpretation. While some people may call an animation good, others may disagree. However, certain aspects can decide if an animation is good or bad on a professional level, some of which have been discussed above. In essence, the major factors that must be noticed are the needs of the audience, the technical aspects of the animation, the suitability of certain elements, and the purpose.
The tips provided in this article will not only help you in judging an animation from the perspective of aesthetics and customer satisfaction, but also in determining the quality of the animation from the viewpoint of an animator.
