Animation Fundamentals: Haikyuu!!
The little commercial I chose was an older trailer for a movie based off of a manga/anime about volleyball: Haikyuu!!
Let’s get right to it.
In terms of staging, there are shots upon shots where the staging is informative and dynamic.


In the above left image, the two teams are lined up on the opposite ends of the court to both provide context and a loose introduction into the characters. The scene itself is very basic, but the text in the center is what adds more energy to the shot. On the right shot, one of the protagonists is shown to be mid-jump in preparation for a left side quick. He takes up the majority of the frame but the setter is shown on the right-hand corner to both provide context for where the ball came from but also to work alongside the leading lines created by the net and lights to add to the intensity of the moment.



In the sequence above, I showed the zoom out portion of a zoom in/out sequence. As soon as the ball is seen to be served, the camera behinds to ease out to redirect our attention to the trajectory of the ball instead of the server. Additionally, you can see the follow through of the hand and overall body after the serve has been completed. A typical serve will involve the not only the biceps, but more importantly the triceps in the servers arm. This information is important because the strength of a serve doesn’t actually lie behind how strong the servers arm is, but it instead is reliant upon how fast the force applied to the ball occurs. This anticipation to a serve, also anticipation in animation is more clearly seen in these three following frames. The arm is drawn back, ready to slingshot forward to hit the ball.



The next two frames are excellent examples of mainly overlapping action, but also encompass framing as well as a little exaggeration. The orange haired boy is made to be the main character in this sequence by the leading lines all pointing towards him. He’s rapidly preparing himself for a set, but while he’s running the setter and opposing blocker is also simultaneously moving to actually set the ball and position themselves for a block, respectively. It’s important that we know what’s happening in this scene because it gives us the information to anticipate the actual spike to come, but the setter and blocker are playing vital roles in both providing background (overlapping) action and making sure that we as viewers know that there still is, in fact, a game of volleyball being played.


