Sunday, January 30, 2011

AM Class 1 - Week 4

Alrighty everyone, this week's going to be a little bit shorter because, well, because I'm tired. Our lecture was on timing and spacing and what those two words really mean to animators. To be honest, they're still a little bit fuzzy in my head but it's kind of because they go hand in hand.

Timing as I understand it is how long an action takes, which seems simple enough. Spacing is how far apart your drawings are from frame to frame. So if your drawings are spaced far apart then your object is going to look like it's moving really fast across the screen. But if your drawings are spaced close together then the object is moving slowly.

It gets a little confusing because how much time you give an object to get somewhere effects the spacing of the drawings. Also, the spacing of your drawings really changes everything about the action. You could have a slow in, a slow out, acceleration out or in, an arc or straight line, etc. If either your timing or your spacing is off, it can really make the animation look weird or confusing or just wrong.

I guess those two concepts aren't too difficult after all, but you can often fiddle with either the timing or the spacing to make something look right. For instance, if we consider one bounce of a basket ball: if I change how high the ball bounces, it effects the spacing of the drawings throughout the entire bounce. Or, I could give the ball more or less time to bounce which also affects the space of the drawings throughout the bounce. Sometimes it's hard to decide which one you need to change.

Alright enough of that jazz. This week's assignment was to plan out and animate two bouncing balls. One light, and one heavy. We could also make revisions to last week's assignment.

So here's my planning. I decided to go with the top one of a beach ball and a bowling ball.



And here's the animation.



And last but not least, here's the revision of my excitement poses. The first is the old one and the second is the revised version.



I lied, this week's not any shorter.

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