Welcome to today's lesson, which will discuss the Breakdown technique. Breakdown Or intermediate animation in Arabic, which is one of the methods of animating anime and cartoon characters, and one of its advantages is that it is very easy, and suitable for animators who want to save time and animate characters with unparalleled ease.
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We will be using Toon Boom Harmony, which is what I have always used. As you know, it only works on computers, but don't worry, the animation technique using Breakdown works on any device or application. So get your animation software ready, and let's go!.
First step
On the Toon Boom Harmony program, we will start by adding a pre-drawn, ready-made anime character to animate:
- We go to the library (Library)
- We select the desired character and insert it into the scene.
- We insert the background we want through Import > Images.
- We add Keyframe In the first frame.
Step two
Now we come to the stage of moving some parts of the man in front of us, who appears in Arab dress:
- We activate the animation option via Enable Animation.
- We add Keyframe In the fourth frame.
- We select the movement tool, which is Transform Tool.
- We identify the arm or limb to be moved.
- We raise our arms slightly upwards, and lower our heads.
Step three
Now it's time to repeat and copy, an easy stage because everything is ready beforehand:
- We copy frame number 1.
- We are heading towards frame number 7.
- We paste the movement here from frame number 1 into frame number 7.
This means that the fourth frame is the breakdown here, don't forget this information.
Step four
Here we will make slight modifications to the movement that we copied from the previous stage:
- We select the movement tool (Transform Tool).
- Raise your left arm “according to the screen”.
- We pull the anime character back a little.
- We lift the face slightly.
A closer look
Look closely at this picture. You will find that the first frame, “the picture on the right,” is the first movement we started with, the frame in the middle represents the intermediate movement or “breakdown,” and the frame on the left is the last movement that the character will move to.
Learn animation with two drawings using the Motion Twin technique for two-way animation.
What does this mean? It means that instead of the character moving directly and quickly from the first movement to the last movement, we add a frame or movement in the middle, a "breakdown," as a kind of introduction or bridge between the two movements, so that we get a more natural movement.
Animation without breakdown technology
Sometimes the absence of breakdown technology in an anime character's animation may cause the character to move from the first movement to the last quickly and automatically, without any preparation or smoothness. This may lead us to not feel the smoothness of the animation, and sometimes the animation may seem too simple for the viewers.
Animation with Breakdown Technique
When moving with the use of Breakdown, the matter is different, as it acts as a bridge connecting the two movements. This will help us create smooth and more realistic movement, as if the body moves gradually with the limbs in a gentle way without causing discomfort to the viewers.
Despite the beauty of this technique, I advise you not to overuse it in every movement, but rather to use it in moderation and balance, i.e., at a rate of fifty percent.
And with this we have learned how to animate an anime character with the breakdown technique known in the world of animation. The world of animation holds many secrets that no one may share with us for free, but the matter is different on our site, so we must learn together, in order to elevate the field of Arabic animation. .
By the way, this technique is widely used in animating cartoon characters, but it is not common in the field of anime animation. However, with me, I found that I do not have to follow the rules that they set for us. Why not create our own unique style of animation?
Thank you for following and reading the lesson. We hope to meet again, God willing.
