Why is running away so difficult?

harkins

Adventurer
This has bugged me since day one of my anime viewing. I can’t understand why characters that are running or walking away always look like they're going the wrong way down a travelator. Then they conveniently disappear into the shadows or something.

Given that this inflicts nearly all anime I presume there is a good reason for this?
 
I don’t think it’s for dramatic effect. Maybe my description wasn’t so good. I mean like when someone is running/walking away from camera(?) and the shot is from eye level and looking directly at their back. They seem to run and run but never get any further away. Then after a few seconds they disappear into shadows or something obstructs the view.

Maybe it’s to do with having to draw a person slightly smaller over and over again being expensive and time consuming.
 
Maybe it’s to do with having to draw a person slightly smaller over and over again being expensive and time consuming.

Cheap animation

Agreed, not just anime, its all sorts of animation and in games as well. I'm sure in old games they simply treated the character as a "image" and just scaled it down as it went away, resulting in some really messy animation.
 
Espy said:
I was expecting a really emo topic when I saw the title >_>

You aren't alone.

Remember, anime is a 2D art-form. Depth of perception is someting extremely difficult to do well in anime, with mostly only very good animators with a large budget being able to do it.
 
Espy said:
I was expecting a really emo topic when I saw the title >_>
I thought that myself just after I posted it. Maybe now we've established that the problem is one of budget constraints and 2D constraints we could recycle the thread and discuss Ikari Shinji?
 
Well, I would understand if it was like a memory... It fades into reality sometimes, like when someone is depressed and it remembering the 'good times'.
Other than that... Damn you cheap animators!!! ^_^
 
Running is a really hard thing to anime well as you have to show the whole body so everything has to movew right, in the end if the budget isn;t there to concentrate on these areas they come out looking like that
 
McIcy said:
Running is a really hard thing to anime well as you have to show the whole body so everything has to movew right, in the end if the budget isn;t there to concentrate on these areas they come out looking like that
That, and you don't always see them run off screen all the time.
E.g. You see the girl running off, but before she starts to disapear, the camera turns to the guy waving etc.

Otherwise, I would just:
1) Let the person run to a certain distance, pause and fade them.
2) Draw smaller/less detailed version of person and fade in/out.
3) Draw a black and smallest figure of person and fade in/out.

It's been done before, so that'll probably be the most effective and inexpensive metho.
 
I've always considered it a budgetry issue in terms of time and cost...which I suppose means the real reason why Shinji says "I mustn't run away!" is because animating his last battle nearly bankrupted Gainax!

Solid objects that don't change shape much, such as cars and buildings, seem to be much better done than moving people. Even now you rarely see a character's legs walking at the exact same speed as what they're walking on. They seem to 'hover' as they move.
 
pomtry said:
Its probably just because of crappy animation

Animating a person running away from the screen is difficult in getting all of the characters proportions right whilst making them move up and down as their bodies rise and fall with each step.

Also, animation a person's legs running face on is very difficult, the legs just look like they are shrinking and growing. So to get the effect of running you need to bend the knees outwards as they run so that the leg isn't perfectly vertical from hip to ankle.

Doing all of this is time consuming and annoying, that's why my lecturers advise us not to animate our characters like that. It would just take too much time.
 
random_pie said:
pomtry said:
Its probably just because of crappy animation

Animating a person running away from the screen is difficult in getting all of the characters proportions right whilst making them move up and down as their bodies rise and fall with each step.

Also, animation a person's legs running face on is very difficult, the legs just look like they are shrinking and growing. So to get the effect of running you need to bend the knees outwards as they run so that the leg isn't perfectly vertical from hip to ankle.

Doing all of this is time consuming and annoying, that's why my lecturers advise us not to animate our characters like that. It would just take too much time.

Wow :shock: thanks for the information what are you doing at Uni ?
 
pomtry said:
Wow :shock: thanks for the information what are you doing at Uni ?

Digital Character Animation.

I do 6 modules.

1. 3D animation.
2. Drawing and Compositional work.
3. Concept Design. (Writing scripts, Storyboarding, Concept Art)
4. Professional Studies. (Researching, General Gaming/Computing Industry work)
5. 2D Animation.
6. History of Moving Pictures. (Study films from all around the world since filming began to the present day and compare them)
 
random_pie said:
pomtry said:
Wow :shock: thanks for the information what are you doing at Uni ?

Digital Character Animation.

I do 6 modules.

1. 3D animation.
2. Drawing and Compositional work.
3. Concept Design. (Writing scripts, Storyboarding, Concept Art)
4. Professional Studies. (Researching, General Gaming/Computing Industry work)
5. 2D Animation.
6. History of Moving Pictures. (Study films from all around the world since filming began to the present day and compare them)

Sounds like an awesome course there. What work are you planning on going into?
 
adamcube said:
Sounds like an awesome course there. What work are you planning on going into?

I would like to do animation full time. But, if I can't find any projects that I am interested in I would like to do work on Live-Action shows. Possibly doing some pre or post-production work.

If that doesn't work out I could become a teacher I guess, but that would be quite a while down the road.
 
crying out loud to those who's saying that it's a bad and cheap animation, animating a 2d character is difficulty and laborious, why don't you try it considering the details of expressions, hair, clothes and movement and besides you should praise them that with a tight budget they provide you a great entertainment.....

PS. I actually thought that it's about how difficult to run away from anime once you seen it........
 
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