Class1 / Week 4: Intro to Timing and Spacing

On week 4 we were introduced to yet another principle of animation: Timing and Spacing. Is one of the most important concepts in animation and they are both work closely together side by side.

For this week's assignment we had to create another bouncing ball animation but this time we had to show a contrast in weights (Light vs Heavy) between the two balls. Example: Ping pong vs. bowling ball or beach ball vs cannon ball, etc. I choose beach ball vs bowling ball.

It was a fun assignment! I wanted to shoot the reference myself so I ended up buying a bowling ball from the thrift store for  $2.50 and got a beach ball for $1 at the Dollar Store. Cheapest shopping EVER! My neighbors had to be so pissed that day,  I was bouncing a bowling ball on the roof of the parking garage. Yep, It was loud! Anyways, see below for my week's assignments and some extra info on Timing and Spacing. Cheers!

Timing and Spacing:

Timing is the amount of frames you give to each movement. In other words, is the amount of time it takes for something to happen. Spacing is the amount of frames you leave between the poses and how far apart each pose is from each other. The closer and tighter the spacing, the slower the movement. The bigger the gap between the drawings, the faster the movement. See below for example from Richard William's Animator's Survival Kit:

How can you tell something has good timing vs bad timing? 

Good timing in animation is pleasing to watch, objects in motion have the sense of weight and real world physics are applied and the audience has an easier time following the movements. Bad timing looks mechanical with no life and no sense of purpose to the movement. In computer animation is easier to fall in the trap of bad timing and spacing. Computer Animation softwares create a perfect interpolation or in betweens. This is NOT what we want. It is our job as computer animators to tell the computer what to do and not the other way around. So for those out there that think the computer does everything for us. THINK AGAIN! :)

"Spacing Is The Tricky Part. Good animation spacing is a rare commodity" - Richard Williams, Animator's Survival Kit.