#principles of animation

[just-a-drawing-bean]

Hi!! I was wondering how you get your animation so smooth, like butter.

Especially on that lineart, I’m always having trouble but your looks very effortless and consistent, what are your secrets?

-thank you

[sorry if asked before, also hi from TikTok! Thank you for the kind words, I admire your work and its always a treat to see it in my dash (^_^)]

Hello! Thank you <3 honestly there’s a few reasons it’s so smooth. (Get ready for the ramble I love talking about animation)

First on the lineart I use Toonboom to animate and it’s a vector based program. That means I can edit a line’s curves once I draw it. I don’t have to erase it to change it. I can grab a point on the line and stretch it where I want. So that’s why the lines themselves are pretty smooth, I have a lot of control over them.

As for the motions themselves people can think that frame rates equates to smoothness and while having a lot of frames and inbetweens can do that, it’s way more about the movement that makes something smooth. I tend to work on twos, threes, and even fours. This means you see a frame at 12 frames per second, 8fps or even 6fps. But it depends on the timing of the motion. When I animate the fps isn’t consistent. Faster motions tend to get a higher fps meaning you see it for a shorter amount of time. While slower subtle movements I tend to put on 8 or 6 fps which means you see them longer. Easing of the timing of the frames as well as easing of the motions themselves leads to smoother animation.

Another key point is that objects travel in arcs, always. Unless they are stopped by something. When I animate, I use onion skin religiously. (Onion skin allows me to see previous or future frames on a low opacity) that way I can check my motions and arcs. here I've marked the path of travel for his hand, hips and head ad he bows.

My method for animation tends to be pose to pose. Meaning I’ll draw all the key frames (the important poses that tell the story) before I fill out the inbetweens. Now inbetweens doesn’t always mean you draw a frame that’s exactly between pose a to pose b. You still have to think about the motion you want to achieve and keep in mind your arcs. Additionally you can add secondary movements or actions to help with believability in actions. Animation is all about performance and exaggeration.

But another technique is to animate frame by frame instead of pose to pose. People tend to use this method for effect such as water flowing, fire, or in my case I used it when I animated the capes. Since the cape drags behind the animation and is influenced by what the character does. I animated the cape after I animated the character. I went frame after frame thinking about how the cape would move both with gravity in play, and being moved by the character’s actions.

Using reference is a big help when animating. I had to act out actions to make sure I got things right when making it. I even got a towel and threw and shook it around to see how it fell.

Another thing about getting it smooth is I use a lot of easing in and out of my motions. If you are about to punch something, you don’t just move your arm towards what you need to punch, you’ll draw it back first to build up the punch. That’s easing into a motion. When you stop moving your arm you’ll either overshoot and draw it back a little if you moved it fast and stopped abruptly or it slows down to a stop. Things don’t stop abruptly. Think about a car. When a car stops you have to slow down considerably, it’s not immediate. So same with your motions. I always ease into a motion when it starts or ease out. It can definitely make the actions more believable and smooth.

Again, because Toonboom allows me such fine control over my lines. to ease in and out of a motion I will copy and paste the last frame and adjust it slightly, continuing the previous motion so that everything settles nicely. This shows only the previous two frames. you can see I didn't draw any new lines (except for the cape) I just adjusted his pose. This helps me stay away from lines being shaky because I didn't redraw them.

This last thing I’ll talk about is more subtle. But follow through and secondary actions are so important. In my animation for example, when sun bends down, his body starts moving a lot faster than his head. Sort of like the body goes first and then his head slightly lags behind. It follows the movement of the body. Another example of a secondary action that follows through would be the movement of the little wings of the cape on their chests.

Ok I lied there's something else. SMEARS, I love smear frames. those are great at making things smooth. Usually smears don't stay in view very long and need to show rapid motion so you can stretch a character or pose or show multiple limbs to make motions appear faster. Here I added a ton of arms to show he was wind-milling them around as he fell, and he has a third foot to show the rapid motion of his leg as it swings upwards. Smears can be fun because you can get away with a lot. Be loose with them! I didn't even draw his face here.

Or this one that's a couple frames before that leads into the fast motion.

Once you learn and practice all these things (and more, there's more principles of animation!) your stuff will get smoother. I don't always think about all of these every time I animate, I've done it for years so its ingrained into me. Sometimes I'll think about it to make sure I'm getting motion right, but usually its just second nature. it just takes practice and getting used to it.

Hope this helps!

You can also try watching animation analysis videos and I recommend looking at old 2d animated Disney movies. Or go frame by frame on any animation you like. I've analyzed so many animations that I love and just absorbed their techniques.

[yangularoo]

12 Principles of Animation: 1- Squash and Stretch Currently teaching some friends about the animation principles and thought I'd share here too ^^/ It's great practice to teach others what you've learned and brush up on the basics.

[imindecicivestudio]

Collaborative project! I drew the phoenix and did the morph animation

[mystybelle]

Oh morties~ 💜v💚

Behold what we have wrought thus far~!!

We're playing league now though, making the ribbon follow the bells is gonna be tough, so I'll need to study before I want to spend any time on it

(click/tap the gif to get to the stream plsktnx)

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

hehee ty for all the love on my redesigns post :3, heres a full ref of all of them!

[finnleyalexanne]

Anticipation, The second principle of Animation.

In a nutshell, anticipation is the persistent sense that something "new" is soon going to happen. You need to keep watching to find out what that is. The 12 principles of animation depend heavily on anticipation because of this. If anticipation is not applied, the item may move in an abnormal way. The item will move in advance as a preliminary action before traveling at all (often quick or decisive movements). The anticipation phase serves to reserve energy for boosting movement.

A very simple yet effective technique for letting your audience know that something is about to happen is to create anticipation. This can enhance the enjoyment of watching animation.

However, expectation serves to enhance movement interest rather than undermine the movement's "surprise" in any way. It might be viewed as a means of heightening the tension (for the impending action). Because of this, viewers of the animation will focus more on the action and not miss it.

Moving first in the opposite direction is the traditional strategy for anticipation. It will be a natural movement for the character to first lean slightly to the right if they are about to move to the left.

Physically, the idea of anticipation can be used to describe how an item prepares for motion and stores kinetic energy before it begins to move (as in the aforementioned cases).

However, timing, dynamics, velocity/acceleration, and the contour of the movement are some of the crucial elements animators need to focus on while using anticipation. In order for the movement to appear realistic to the spectator, the expectation and movement must coincide.

Many animated films, particularly superhero flicks, have this animation problem that may be pointed out. Animators frequently want superheroes to be "faster" and "stronger" to give the impression that they possess abilities. This is entirely comprehensible. However, if we overuse anticipation during the animation process, the character's movement will lose its organic logic. This frequently occurs in cartoons where the buildup is too brief or unimportant.

This flaw in animation can be pointed out in many animated films, especially superhero movies. To make superheroes look like they have superpowers, animators often want them to be "faster" and "stronger". This is completely understandable. However, during the animation process, if we use anticipation unreasonably, the character's movement will lose its natural logic. This often happens when the anticipation is too short or insignificant in the cartoons.

[bixels]

tarpit site.

[crispy-art-on-fire]

Chapter 4: I know you.

The Elite Guard arrives on Earth and slowly everything becomes known- As well as the reason Sentinel is acting so odd.

[otaku553]

Save me yi nine sols

(You should play nine sols it’s very very fun)

[tutorialdrawix]

RESOURCES FOR ANIMATION

Book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston

Book The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams

Book Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by Robert Beverly Hale

Book Character Animation Crash Course! by Eric Goldberg

TUTORIAL VIDEOS:

[subsequentibis]

ok. getting closer

[imindecicivestudio]

Tadpole

[maliciousalice]

[nothingbizzare]

Silly angry boy

[fowlblue]

I think Arty should have a little white stripe in his hair… to hell with realism it’d be cute and novel…