Improbably Possible

After finishing the little series on the 12 Principles I realized that it's been quite a while since I've shared what I've been up to. So as I develop more post ideas I thought I would take a minute to do that. I graduated from Animation Mentor back in 2018 (I said it was a while haha), and after about a year of applying and trying to make new shots for my animation reel I signed on to my first contract as a 3D Animator. I actually just wrapped up work on this project, it has been an absolute joy to work on and I'm still shocked and grateful I had the opportunity to be involved. That project was in the Film/TV sector of the industry and a little over a year ago I was able to start working in the Game sector. I have really enjoyed both sides, but personally, I was able to learn more about mechanics and animation faster working in games because of the types of animations that games require. In addition to working as an Animator, I was humbled to be asked to teach at my al

There are 5 principles left to cover all 12 Principles of Animation. These last 5 are a little more straightforward in terms of definition, but some of them may take extra effort when trying to communicate with others because they have to do with personal aesthetics and/or workflow. Looking WAY back at my introduction , I used 3 groups to organize the principles. We already covered all of the Motion principles and the last 2 groups are Technique and Aesthetic . These groups help to frame the principles in a way that I find helpful in terms of understanding their purpose. As usual, we will start by introducing the principles and defining them, and then move on to see how they are typically applied. The Technique group has 2 of the last 5 principles and seems like a good place to start since they are the most straightforward. They are: Solid Drawing - Drawings(2D) or poses (3D/Stop Motion) that show believable weight, balance, and relationship to the character's form as a whole w

After discussing timing and spacing, I think it's a little easier to see how all of these animation principles really feed off of each other and overlap in many ways. So instead of focusing on them as separate principles, I decided to discuss the remaining motion  principles as a group. They really are artistic definitions of scientific principles, a way for us to discuss and push reality while still basing our animation on realistic physics to ground our work and make it more believable. Starting with reality, we can look at science, then we will define and apply the animation principles. Obviously, I'm not a scientist so I will not try to get too technical, but I think it's helpful to look at the reality of motion. Specifically Newton's 3 Laws of Motion: (1) Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it (objects at rest will stay at rest until another force acts upon it, objects in motion will stay in

 Alright, I'm really excited to get into this second part of Timing and Spacing. Hopefully, I will be able to apply the principles we defined in Part 1 in such a way that helps make these concepts start to click for you. After reading this post I encourage you to keep studying this principle and read what others have to say about it because once you start to grasp it your animations move to another level. ***EXPLANATORY CAMMA*** One last note before starting, since I'm going to try and move into application vs. definition I'll define these terms as I mean them here so that I don't have to pause to define them later. Key Drawing or Key = A drawing(2D) or frame (3D) that establishes when something will happen as well as extreme poses that help communicate the story. Breakdown(BD) = A drawing or frame that establishes how something transitions from one key to the next Inbetweens = The drawings or frames that guide the viewers' eye to and from Keys and BD's. Tim

For my posts discussing the 12 Principles of Animation, I want to begin with Timing and Spacing because I feel that this principle is a major building block of the art form. This principle has a lot of power in establishing the style of a shot as well as what will be exaggerated and highlighted. It is also a principle that can be a bit confusing at times. For example, I'm calling the principle "timing AND spacing" while it has also been called simply "timing", and I sometimes hear students talking about the "timing feeling off" when it seems like they are trying to call out the spacing. All this to say I feel there's a lot to unpack so I decided to devote two posts to this principle. In this post, I'll define the principle as I think about it and share some basic examples so that in the following post we can dive in a bit deeper but all be on the same page. So, let's define this principle. The first thing to note is that while it is conside

During the current COVID lockdown, I'm finding some time to blog again and thought I should make a little check-in post to let you know what I'm working on and planning for the next couple of posts. I've decided to start getting into some of the animation principles. I mentioned a classification for the principles in a previous post  and decided to tackle the MOVEMENT principles first starting with "Timing and Spacing". This is a big one. I know. This term gets dropped a lot in critiques and feedback, and sometimes they are used as if they can be interchanged. In addition to giving a description of the principle, I hope to also explain what some of these terms are trying to describe and how to better understand them so that you can make the needed adjustments to achieve the type of look you want in your work. Hopefully, this next post will be out soon. Until then keep creating and thanks for reading! -Justin