Post 49 –Timing is everything.

Well, technically, this is Week THREE of Adam’s Animation Academy’s Moho Magic Animation Course with Dani Abram, Moho Ambassador. However, this week covers a lot: two rigs, storytelling poses, turnarounds, blocking, and smoothing performance. So we’re going to pause the class again, because I want to build my own rigs for this week’s learning (so time-consuming),oh the joys of asynchronous learning. 😁 I’ll post a full Week Three breakdown at some point in the future, stay tuned.

I did find this treasure on YouTube. It was posted 13 years ago, but the information is still incredibly relevant. I’ve been watching the entire series, working on those animation basics, but doing it all in Moho. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Things to Know:

✔ 5 Core Timing Charts
✔ What’s an inbetween.

5 Core Timing Charts

There are five standard timing charts in animation. They say timing is a matter of aesthetics, you look at the movement and develop a sense of whether or not it feels right. However, that sentence sure assumes a lot. The idea is that you can sense it. That is… yet to be determined. lol This is what I understand so far.

Timing = how long the action takes.
Spacing = where the drawings/poses occur within that time.

1. Halves

These are all timed on halves, meaning there is even spacing between keys, which produces a consistent, linear speed. They all use step keys in Moho (no interpolation), at two keys per drawing (or position). Timing is measured from top to bottom. And no squash and stretch.

Even though these are all have the same linear movement on halves, the speed at which they travel is different depending on how many positions there are (2 frames per position). MORE POSITIONS = MORE TIME

2. and 3. Slow-in or Slow-out

With slow-in and slow-out, you can choose where you want the movement to ease. You might bring an object in slowly, using a slow-in, or usher it out slowly with a slow-out. You don’t necessarily need both; the choice depends on the movement you’re trying to create and where you want the emphasis to be ( little hard to see with step keys, but hopefully you get the idea).

You can see the magic of a timing chart✨ is that the placement of the drawings/positions along the timeline controls the feeling of the movement.

4. and 5. Thirds or Cushion

In this case, thirds helps to increase the speed, while cushion uses slow-in and slow out. Lemay gives the best analogy when explaining the concept of cushion, as a car starting and stopping. A car couldn’t go from a complete stop to full speed instantly without giving its passengers quite a jolt. And, it couldn’t come to an abrupt stop without sending everyone flying forward. Hence, both a slow-in, a slow-out, are often used.

Inbetween

1. Definition: An in-between (or “tween”) is a drawing or in Moho’s case, a movement, that fills the gap between two keyframes.
2. Purpose: It creates a smooth motion by bridging the start and end poses of an action together.

“Grief is like rain. Sometimes it’s a gentle drizzle, a constant reminder of what we’ve lost, seeping into our thoughts, making everything seem a little heavier. Other times, it’s a torrential downpour, overwhelming and all-consuming…”

— Suchandra Das

Sad Panda

This week, I was thinking a lot about grief. Grief is often such a solitary experience. And sometimes life just serves you a big rain cloud, no getting away from it.

And thank you Pixabay & Dragon-Studio for beautifully sounding rain.🌧️

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Post 49 — Afterthoughts

I had a slow start to this week. Feeling my way forward. Had a little bit of frustration with what I’ve learned with action bones, sometimes they seem to contradict themselves. When I figure it out, I will do a post on how to rig those action bones consistently from character to character. This week, we also (quickly) covered vitruvian bones working as switch layers (arm in front/arm in back), however, it was very fast, and I realized I have a lot more to parse through on that one too. Hopefully will get the answers I am looking for at Monday’s live Q&A.

On a positive note, I am continuing to feel much more confident coloring with the brushes and using styles. I truly enjoyed drawing the little bouncing ball with vectors, still in amazement over the ability to paint with vector brushes.

Prayers for all those experiencing grief or overwhelming sadness, hopefully the rain will relent just a bit.

🌧️🐼 Nik