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Design & Animation | Part 2

Three animation principles that imbue objects with their dazzling personalities

Timing, solid drawing, secondary actions

This animation of an elephant shows nuances of timing, solid drawing on the elephant’s mass, and a secondary action with the roll after the jump.

Previously, we looked at three animation principles, squashing and stretching, creating a motion arc, and slow in/slow out, in Character rigging, the next level in animation.

Animation techniques encompass a number of principles that define motion. The unique motion of an object also depends on the design and build of the object, weight, size, length, accessories, color, story hierarchy.

To experiment with some of these parameters let’s explore the principles of timing, solid drawing, and secondary actions.

We’ll use ball shapes and an illustration of an elephant to explore these principles.

1. Timing

Timing plays a crucial role in animation. Timing defines the speed of an object to make its movements believable.

The nature of an animation is affected by the number of frames inserted between each pose.

Insight 1: More keyframes inserted between two poses will slow down the action. Fewer keyframes between two poses will…