Some common Stuff we overlook in Animations. Squash and Stetch, timing and spacing.

 Hello People and welcome to another edition of animations on Hypefroactive. Today i'll be talking about some basics that we regard as common but plays a huge role in understanding animations with focus on the bouncing ball. So here we go.

A lot of things make up animations and animations demands alot of things as well. Chief amongst them is the principles and a clear understanding of how they work.  It’s ok to move a ball from point A to point B, but what if you were asked to put a hold on it somewhere in the middle at point C and apply a squash and stretch to it during the whole process. Now, that would appear to be a BIG DEAL and yes you are right it is because you don’t just put the squash and stretch anywhere you like and the ball starts bouncing with the cartoony appeal that squash and stretch brings. Also you have timing and spacing to contend with in the process, then the moving hold and poses. And you can get away with keeping away from exagerations and still come out squeaky clean if you like, as it would not affect the short that much. So what is the point I’m trying to make? I’m saying you don’t need to apply all the principles all the time. It’s like making stew and using the same ingredients in cooking some other kind of soup. That wont work, because the soup would define the ingredients to use. Same thing applies to animation. The principles employed in creating a walk cycle would be different from that needed to create a jump or somebody falling off a cliff or somebody trying to get off a chair and begin a walk. The order to applying them would differ as well. The only thing that any of these would have in common, would be flow. Without flow, the animations wont be appealing as you hope they would turn out to be.

There are a lot of things still murking in the dark waiting to happen to that short you are planning, but wont come out until you get there. So youtube or any other tube wont save you from this one. These are the type of things that you encounter while trying to animate a short that’s not quite coming as you intend or imagined it and after a few hours to some days, you are like “hey, I think I should be doing something better with my life”. But the truth is that you went about it the wrong way and that’s why you were stuck and probably would stay there for a while until you get a proper hang of how to go about this.

What you see in this short is a cartoony bouncing ball https://youtu.be/Lga4M0pD2bs. But it goes beyond that because everything you see there and a little more applies to character animation. If you know how to go about applying this then creating a cartoon shouldn’t be much of a problem. And if you dont not know what I’m talking about up till now, then get a mentor or a school and learn how to animate properly. Opportunities abound in this wonderful profession and the potentials are limitless. Arm yourself properly, be an Animator.

If you've got any problems or would want to be an animator but dont know how, then send me a mail here chimatic@gmail.com.