Planning the animation

You need to plan your animation before you begin creating it, just as you did in Chapter Three for the animation of a sun rising. When animating overlapping action for an object, you need to think not only about where to place the object in the animation frame, but also about how to change a part of the object to simulate movement of that part.

Take the example of a bird flying; think about how you would change the wings in shape and position from frame to frame to simulate a flapping motion. If your animation is going to have more than one object moving in the animation frame, you need to plan how those objects will interact with one another.

If there is a light source, for instance a sun, you need to consider how the lighting will change on your objects. If an object moves from a bright area in the animation frame to a shadowy area, you need to plan how you will alter the colors of the object to agree with the lighting change.