Line of Action Thoughts

I am doing alot of posing right now and I feel this is a concept that I always can think about when working in cg...

John K use-line-of-action-to-maintain-guts

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/01/use-line-of-action-to-maintain-guts-of.html

Sponge Bob and Line of action


Hands and Line of Action
harvey-kurtzman-opposing-poses-life

Williard Mullin and Animated Line of Action

Mark Kennedy and Line of Action

Elements and Line of action

richard scarry line of action

Use Line of Action to show force

Tigers and Shapes-clip from Spline Doctors on Line of Action

Why Line of Action...Preston Blair says, the LoA is the basis for rhythm, simplicity and directness in animation. USe it to show change of shape..see here in richard williams book.

It is also useful when looking at the direction and intent of the character’s action.

Glen Keane talks about it alot in his planning notes...

Some Last Thought I got from Animation Mentor
Line of Action:
1.simplest line through a character that describes the action of that frame. If the line of action were taken from each of your frames and separated and played at full speed they would describe the action of the scene without the niceties of all the limbs.

2.It's the force of a pose described in one line and all the other elements of the character compliment the main driving energy.
This line is not always from the foot through the body and into the head. It starts at the forward foot and terminates at the higher arm.

Examples
If somebody is depressed it may start on the ground and go upwards then hook around like an upside down 'U'.

If somebody is about to dunk a basketball it may look like a 'C' whereupon the ball would be at the end of the upper part of the C and the legs are being described by the lower part. The head in this instance is not represented by anything as it is secondary to the action that is taking place.

Some John K thoughts

Line of action helps your poses "read".It makes them clear and understandable and gives them a distinct non-ambiguous direction.