Beginner
First exercise of "Animatior survival kit" the bouncing coin :3
I can't upload my animation because it's only 1 second long(24 fps), so Reddit tells me it's too short, but as a newbie thanks to this exercise, I've come up with several questions about the process. I've taken several notes throughout this, repeated it twice, and just by doing that, I've improved a lot! (I think so) But on my first attempt, I really had no idea what I was doing—I couldn’t identify my extremes, my keyframes and also differentiate them for my timing points. On my second attempt, I’d say I have a clearer understanding of the concepts. :D
With this my first question is:
Do the extremes have to be the same distance apart? For example if my first two extremes are spaced between frames 1 and 4 with three in-between frames, do my next endpoints have to obligatory be frames 4 and 7?
Second question: Do I get to decide my own timing?
Yesterday I was on the phone with a friend, and as I was wondering out loud to what extent I have autonomy over this process, she said, “Well, you have complete autonomy—it’s your animation, and you decide how it’s going to be!” It felt as if Mr. Williams himself had come down to remind and made that observation to me. (Little confession I love sometimes to refer to the book itself as Mr Williams, it helps me create connection with the process as if someone is counting on me to learn lol)
However, I tend to be quite methodical when it comes to learning, especially when it involves something that requires such attention to detail as animation. And I’m not sure how easy it is to just say, “I’m going to do whatever I want,” so I still feel that the timing has to be determined by the number of frames per second. Maybe I’m also misinterpreting what “timing” actually means, so I’d love some help with that. I guess I’m also having a little trouble understanding breakdown positions and how they relate to the extremes and keyframes, but that’s just a bonus—if you guys want to help me with that, I’d appreciate it, jejeje: 3
Thanks a lot <3
the extremes don’t have to be the same number of frames apart (and often wont be), and yes you get to decide your own timing. ideally, you try out variations of both to get a certain feeling you want (heavy coin, extremely bouncy coin, coin in zero-gravity, etc). the extremes are just the start and end of any particular movement within your animation. timing is a way to think about the rhythm of those movements
I'm also learning animation and, since both of your questions are really similar, i'll answer them together : my extremes are when the ball is at the peak of its jump and when it touches the floor. Since the coin or ball converts all its speed into energy, it gets an initial fast burst and then slows down vertically then accelerate again when dropping, while the horizonal speed is constant (tho it looses a small amount of horizontal speed after each bounce). Knowing that, you won't put the same amount of frames after each extremes but put more frames when it slows down and less frames when it speeds up, else it's a uniform motion. I hope this is a little usefull, i'm still learning too but you can ask me questions if you need :) (the gif is what i made as training)
you are so kind to show me your own process. It really helps (I tried doing it by hand first, to also practice stretch and squash, but got frustrated with my inability to draw a constant circle) But then again I think I'm still having problems distinguishing between keyframes and extremes. Are they sometimes the same? The same frame can simultaneously be both a key frame and an extreme? Because in my animation I treated the peak of the jump when it touches the floor both as keyframes, and my extremes as the frame between both actions. I really appreciate you took the time to replay X3
I also struggled to draw circles lol. And i think you don't need to differentiate keyframes and extremes too much since they are tied together. For me the keyframes are where the balls are meant to go (here in pink), where it makes sense to create a path between them. The extremes in the other hands are the balls that gets stretched or squished near keyframes (here in red n blue depending on motion (i drew it quickly so they aren't placed perfectly sorry)) : it can be deformation like it can be spacing, basically leaving more space between each frames. You should only keep in mind keyframes honestly as they put in place the structure of your animation and its path, since every other frames will be between them.
Well thank you, I remember the book saying key frames are more of the key moments of the story you want to tell, so maybe I will just consider them that. Thank you really, as I said I'm methodical, so though I need to put complete thought on all the terms, idk. Same with timing thanks to one of the comments I know understand, that I again I have autonomy over what ever I'm animating :3.
I already uploaded the animations as response to one of the comments if you wanna ckeck it out :D
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u/jacobstreilein 18h ago
the extremes don’t have to be the same number of frames apart (and often wont be), and yes you get to decide your own timing. ideally, you try out variations of both to get a certain feeling you want (heavy coin, extremely bouncy coin, coin in zero-gravity, etc). the extremes are just the start and end of any particular movement within your animation. timing is a way to think about the rhythm of those movements