Timing Tutorial
Timing Tutorial
Its not important what goes on each frame of film; its the spaces between the frames that are important.
Norman McLaren Oscar-winning animator of Neighbors
2011 Alejandro L. Garcia Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
The principles illustrated in this tutorial by the ball drop animation test will apply to your other animation work, even character animation such as a person jumping or effects animation such as a stream of water.
Frame
Key Pose
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
#1 / / #2 / / #3 /
#3 #4 #2 #1
#5
frames between key poses is xed in each example. In your own animation work you may nd yourself putting a different number of frames between each key, such as putting more drawings when the action is fastest. But to keep things simple, in our examples well always have the same number of frames between each key pose and between each drawing.
Animation uses a confusing varity of frame rates. The most common is 24 frames per second (fps) is since its used for lm. Digital video is often recorded at 30 fps. The conversion is easy since 4 frames of lm = 5 frames of video.
Note:
Uniform Motion
The simplest type of motion is uniform motion; a bowling ball rolling on the oor is a good example. In uniform motion, the velocity is constant so the spacings from frame to frame are constant. The greater the spacing, the faster the ball is traveling.
Uniform motion may not appear uniform due to the distortion of scale when shown in perspective, such as in the example below in which a ball is rolling from the foreground towards the background.
2 4 10 30 60 90
1 1 /2 3 7 22 44 66
The table is also useful when staging a scene. For example, if a character is sprinting at 10 miles per hour then you need about 15 feet of space for a shot lasting one second.
Note:
A normal walking speed is around 3 miles per hour while running is typically in the range of 6 to 10 mph.
Question:
These key poses for the girl on the sled are three frames apart; about how fast is she going?
,teef ev dnuora eb ot skool gnicaps ehT .h.p.m 03 dnuora si deeps reh os ,emarf rep sehcni 02 si hcihw !suoregnaD
:rewsnA
Slowing in
A ball thrown upward slows in as it rises to the apex and then slows out as it falls back downward.
If the speed is increasing then the spacing between drawings increases, which in animation is called slowing out (or easing out). A ball rolling down an incline is a simple example of slowing out.
Slowing Out
The apex is the highest point or the furthest point reached by a moving object.
Note:
Slowing in and out is one of the Principles of Animation listed by Frank Thomas and Olie Johnston in their classic book, The Illusion of Life. They describe it an important discovery that became the basis of later renements in timing and staging.
Time (sec.)
Frames
1 2 3 4 6 8 12 16 18 24 48
1/3 inch 1 1/3 inches 3 inches 5 1/3 inches 1 foot 1 3/4 feet 4 feet 7 feet 9 feet 16 feet 64 feet
Shooting on twos (two frames per drawing) the rst drawing below the apex is 1 1/3 inches down. This softball is 4 inches wide so thats a third of its diameter.
The distances fallen from the apex may also be found using this formula: (Distance in inches) = (1/3 inch) x (Number of Frames) x (Number of Frames) For example, the distance fallen after 6 frames is (1/3)x(6)x(6) = 12 inches.
Question: What is the distance fallen after 5 frames? Answer: .sehcni 3/1 8 = 3/52 = )5(x)5(x)3/1( si ecnatsid ehT
The distance that an object falls does not depend on its weight if air resistance is minimal. Well discuss the effect of air resistance in later in this tutorial.
Reaction Time
Distance Time (sec.)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.07 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.17 0.19 0.20 0.23 0.25 0.27 0.29 0.30
This table gives the time it takes an object to fall various distances. It is useful for measuring reaction time, as shown in the photo.
Release
Typical reaction times are about 0.20 to 0.25 seconds. Compare with your visual frame rate (rate at which you see distinct images), which is about 0.10 seconds per image.
Catch
Take a one dollar bill and have a friend put their thumb and index ngers near Washingtons head. At random, you let go of the dollar. Can your friend react fast enough to catch the money? Probably not! Typical reaction time is 0.20 to 0.25 seconds. Half the length of dollar bill is 3 inches so it takes about 1/8 of a second (0.125 seconds) to fall this distance.
Experiment:
a short scene with a stop watch should you account for reactiom time? No! The reason is that your reaction time in pressing START is more or less equal to the reaction time to hit STOP.
Frame
Key Pose
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
#1 (apex) / #2 / #3 / #4 / #5 / #6 / #7
The next question is: Where do you draw keys #2 through #6?
Note:
Pose-to-pose animation is all about planning. You start with the rst and last poses; from the timing you decide how many poses need to go inbetween these two extremes. Then you divide and conquer by adding the middle drawings. In the example below youd start with poses #1 and #9, then create #5 as a breakdown, then add #3 and #7. If you decide to shoot on ones then nish with #2, #4, #6, and #8.
If youve had a physics class then you probably didnt learn about acceleration in this way. Physicists like to measure falling by the total distance from the apex, which increases in the ratios 1:4:9:16:25: or 12:22:32:42:52:... As you see below, the physicists description and the Odd Rule give exactly the same the positions for the falling ball.
Ping-pong ball falling from a height of four feet, shot on twos. Diameter of a ping-pong ball is about 1 1/2 inches.
Question: Answer:
Instead of a softball you animate a falling bowling ball; how far below the apex is the rst drawing when shooting on twos? .gnillaf tcejbo eht fo sseldrager sehcni 3/1 1 si ecnatsid ehT
Important:
You should use the Odd Rule as a helpful guide for judging timing and spacing of your key drawings.
Do not use a ruler and a calculator when drawing your animation. That approach only works for the very simplest tests, is time intensive, and creates stiff action. The better approach is to understand the Odd Rule and be able to apply it instinctively. You should be able to feel the rhythm of the pattern when you see it. You will need such skills when creating more sophisticated animation, like a jumping character.
All the spacings between the drawings after this rst one are longer by the same increment and this increment is: 2/3 inch 2 2/3 inch 6 inches (if Shooting on Ones) or; (if Shooting on Twos) or; (if Shooting on Threes)
The important thing is not the numbers above but rather its the simple fact that the spacings always get longer by the same amount (that is, by the same increment). Maintaining a constant increment in the spacings makes slowing in or slowing out look believable.
doesnt matter whether you measure distances from the bottom, the center, or even the top of the ball as long as you always measure from the same spot on the ball.
Note: It
The Odd Rule essentially has three parts; the rst two are the most important: From the apex, spacings increase between drawings. After the apex, that increase in the spacing is always by the same amount. You should always visually check your spacings to be sure that these two conditions are met. The nal part of the Odd Rule is: That increase in the spacing is twice the distance from the apex to the rst drawing below the apex. For large objects, such as a basketball, the drawings near the apex are too close together to apply the last part. But if you increase the spacing for the rest of the drawings in a consistent fashion then the motion should still look correct.
After creating a realistic animation of a falling softball its likely that your lms director (or your teacher) will make you alter the timing or spacing. Thats life as an animator. But your efforts were not wasted since your animation has physically realistic motion as its foundation.
Apex key
If your spacings are correct then the half-time key should be a quarter of the distance from the apex to the bottom key.
Motion Graphs
In computer animation the timing and spacing of motion is often viewed using motion graphs, which are manipulated in a graph editor. Below are motion graphs from Autodesk Maya showing the position (either horizontal or vertical) versus frame number.
For uniform motion the graph is a straight line. The higher the speed, the steeper the curve. When an object is stationary the motion curve is a at horizontal line.
For falling motion the graph of height versus frame number is a parabolic arc. Rising motion has the same parabolic arc, simply going the other way. In general, slowing in or out with constant acceleration is a parabolic arc motion graph.
Falling
fact that the parabolic arc in these motion graphs is the same as the path of action for a ball thrown across a room is not a coincidence. The connection is explained in the Physics of Paths of Action tutorial.
Link: The
Rising
In this example we mathematically calculated the position of the half-time key but usually you would just visually estimate its location as a quarter of the way down from the apex.
You now know the basic physics for animating falling objects. So before reading any further, apply what youve learned and create your own animation of a ball drop. The rest of this tutorial covers a variety of topics related to creating believable accelerated motion. Come back later and read the rest to make your animation even better.
STOP:
Falling a la Chai
Dave Chai came up with an approximation for slowing out thats easy to use in pose-to-pose animation. Recipe for Falling a la Chai: Draw interval from rst & last keys. Divide interval in half. Mark a key. Divide top part in half. Mark a key. Divide top part in half. Skip Divide top part in half. Mark a key. In the example on the left, the rst and last keys are #1 and #5. Following the recipe, we mark those two. Then we nd the mid-point between them and mark that as key #4. Then we nd the mid-point again and thats key #3, Then nd the mid-point again but skip that point. Finally, nd the mid-point one last time and thats key #2.
Although this recipe does not give exactly the correct spacing, the fact that key #4 is just a bit too high is unlikely to be noticed. Finally, notice that Falling a la Chai is a simple way to place the in-between drawings for Fourth Down at Half Time (see page 15), namely keys #2 and #4.
Odd Rule
Falling a la Chai
David Chai is an award-wining independent animation director, a professor of animation at San Jose State University, and one handsome fellow.
small object with such large spacings would not look very good due to strobing (see page 21).
Question: From what height is this ball falling? How big is the ball? Answer: si ti os xepa eht retfa semarf 6 rof sllaf ti seno no gnitoohS
na fo driht a tuoba si llab ehT .toof eno fo thgieh a morf gnillaf .elbram llams a eb dluoc ti os retemaid ni hcni
Acceleration Stretch
Despite what youve seen in countless cartoons in which a character falls off a cliff, objects dont physically stretch as they fall (not even raindrops). Objects visually stretch as they gain speed due to motion blur. Motion blur does not depend on the objects material yet it will look more natural for rigid objects (like a bowling ball) to stretch less than elastic objects (such as a water balloon). The motion blur makes a falling object look stretched in the vertical direction while its width is unchanged. However in animation this makes the objects volume appear to change, as if the object is growing longer. You thus need to narrow the width to maintain a consistent visual volume.
Actual Shape
20 Animation Physics Timing and Spacing
Human Eye
Note: Perception
This action is fast so the drawings may be too far apart to keep a perception of motion.
Using stretch allows us to keep the same speed in the action while reducing the gap between the drawings.
Up and Down
Weve been analyzing the timing of a ball falling straight down but what about a ball thats thrown straight upward? It turns out that the timing of a ball slowing into the apex is just the reverse of how it slows out from the apex. That means that from the apex you can use the same drawings twice, once on the way up (#1 to #6) and again on the way down (#8 to #13). You could do this but you shouldnt. The reason you shouldnt re-use your drawings is that your animation will look jerky due to an optical effect called strobing. When the eye sees an object disappear and then reappear in the same spot it jars the illusion that the object is moving through space, instead we perceive it as vanishing and reappearing. To avoid strobing, shift the positions of your drawings a bit up or down; while they may not be exactly in the right locations the motion will still look realistic if you (approximately) follow the basic principles weve discussed.
Hang time of a jump is easy to nd because its just twice the time it takes to fall from the apex height. For example, the hang time for a four foot jump is 24 frames (12 frames going up and 12 coming down).
Use the Odd Rule and Fourth Down at Half-time to check your spacings near the apex as to avoid hitting the invisible ceiling.
hitting the invisible ceiling occurs if the motion graph curve for the vertical position is not at at the apex.
Decelerating by Friction
Deceleration by friction is very similar to the deceleration of a ball thrown upward. Using straight-ahead animation, you start by drawing the last key pose (where object stops) and go backwards in time, draw keys leading up to it with spacings in the ratios 1:3:5:7:9:, that is, using the Odd Rule. The increment version of the Odd Rule also applies but the distances will be different from those for a falling object.
The same procedure works for sliding uphill, but depending on the amount of friction the sliding object will either come to rest or slide back down.
The Odd Rule applies in many other situations, such as a ball rolling down a ramp or a drop of rain sliding down a window pane. In another tutorial (Creating Action) youll see how to identify when the Odd Rule applies (and when it doesnt).
Link:
Bounce Squash
Most objects do not physically squash except under extremely large forces of impact. For example, it takes a very fast moving golf club to produce a noticeable squash in a golf ball. You would expect this because a golf ball does not squash signicantly when you squeeze it in your hands. Although it may not be physically correct, you often want to animate objects squashing when they bounce to remove the jarring visual effect that occurs when an object suddenly changes its direction of motion. A rigid object, such as a brick, may need little or no squash while an object such as an apple will look hard as a rock without a bit of squash. However, use squash judiciously because the more your objects deform, the less realistic (and the more cartoon-ish) they will appear. John Lasseter says, Because of the realistic look of computer animation, an animator need to be aware of how far to push the motion. The motion should match the design of the character and the world. Animating very cartoony motion with lots of squash and stretch on a realistic looking object may not look believable, as would realistic motion on a caricatured object.
When drawing an objects squash, be sure to maintain consistent volume. You want your object to appear elastic; rarely do you want it to look compressible.
Tip:
Falling Speed
The approximate speed of an object thats fallen from a given height may be found using the table below or by the following formula: (Speed in inches per frame) = (4) x (Square Root of the Height in feet ) To nd the height from the speed of the falling object, use: (Height in feet) = (1/16) x (Speed in inches/frame) x (Speed in inches/frame) Here is an example of how to use this table and formulas in timing an animation: Below we have Alice (in Wonderland) falling down the rabbit hole. The distance between drawings is about two feet, so if were shooting on twos the distance between frames is one foot, which means that were seeing her after having fallen from a height of only 9 feet.
Height S p e e d S p e e d
(feet) (inches per frame) (miles per hour)
4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 40 64 80
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 50 80 100
Suppose that were shooting on ones instead of on twos; in that case from what height has Alice fallen?
Question:
Answer:
nellaf sehs os sehcni 42 si semarf neewteb ecnatsid ehT .sroo eerht tuoba si hcihw ,teef 63 fo thgieh a morf
The table and the formulas assume that air resistance is negligible, which is not true for very light objects, for falls from very great heights, or if the air pushes with great force. For example, because Alices dress acts like a parachute it may be that shes fallen from a greater height yet due to air resistance she is oating downward more slowly.
The Empire State Building has 102 oors. At 12 feet per oor, that puts the top oor at a height of 1224 feet. From the formula, a fall from this height would reach a speed of 140 inches per frame (about 200 m.p.h.). However, air resistance is significant so the speed will be lessened.
The size of the rst two rectangles is somewhat arbitrary since they depend on the station point of the viewer (distance between the viewer and the picture plane). Once those rst key poses are selected, all the rest of the positions are xed by the Odd Rule. Alternatively, use Falling a la Chai (see page 18) for poseto-pose animation going from the apex to the lowest key. 27 Animation Physics Timing and Spacing
Falling golf ball, 1/24 second intervals
Paths of Action
This tutorial has covers the essentials of slowing in and out, focusing on the ball drop animation test. Specifically, we considered a ball falling straight up and down, focusing on the timing of a ball slowing out from (or back into) the apex. A more advanced test would have the ball travelling in an arc, possibly in perspective, and have it lose height with each successive bounce. Well discuss this type of motion (and more) in the next tutorial, Physics of Paths of Action.
Image Credits
All illustrations not listed below are by Charlene Fleming and photos not listed are by the author Water Fountain, pg. 2, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Balboa_1_bg_020903.jpg Jumper, pgs. 2, Corey Tom Detective, pgs. 3, Rebbaz Royee Bowler bowling, pg. 4, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Image:Bowlerbowling.JPG Walker, pgs. 5, Corey Tom Juggling, pg. 6, Aracapital, http://www.aracapital.com.au/ Softball vs. Bowling Ball, pg. 7, Rebbaz Royee Dr. Experiment, pg. 8, Rebbaz Royee Golfer, pg. 10, Dora Roychoudhury
Directors Chair, pg, 14, http://www.thedirectorschairtv.com/ David Chai, pg, 18, http://www.houseofchai.net/ Basketball Players, pg, 22, http://sportscenteraustin.blogs. com/photos/uncategorized/sports_center_basketball_injuries.jpg Cliff jumper, pg. 20, Rebbaz Royee Golf ball squash, pg. 25, http://perfectgolfswingreview.net/ TI-impact.jpg Baseball squash pg. 25, Rebbaz Royee Empire State Building, pg. 26, Wallace Gobetz (wallyg), Flickr. Bouncing Ball, pg. 28, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Image:Bouncing_ball_strobe_edit.jpg
Special thanks to Alice Carter, Cassidy Curtis, David Chai, John Clapp, Courtney Granner, Lizz Greer, Rex Grignon, Martin McNamara, and the Shrunkenheadman Club at San Jose State. Physics of Animation is a project supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation