See, in the second episode of s4 we see that the panic room actually looks sort of cozy. It's fortified like crazy and whatever, but inside there's beds, there's a couch, there's a desk and books and pictures!! So my question is - why did they take all this stuff out when they threw Sam in there?? I mean were they scared he could use something in there as a weapon?? He was already locked in a steel metal box what was he going to be able to do - even with his powers? Did Dean call Bobby up and was like alright Sam is sucking demon blood we need to lock him up - make sure it's as uncomfortable as possible tho. Lets go to the extra effort of taking everything of comfort out of there so this detox is as uncomfortable as possible. Like sure, take dangerous stuff out of there but they couldn't have given him a book or something? Why did he have to sit there with nothing to do but focus on his horrific withdrawal symptoms?
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Hi!! I was wondering how you get your animation so smooth, like butter.
Especially on that lineart, I’m always having trouble but your looks very effortless and consistent, what are your secrets?
-thank you
[sorry if asked before, also hi from TikTok! Thank you for the kind words, I admire your work and its always a treat to see it in my dash (^_^)]
Hello! Thank you <3 honestly there’s a few reasons it’s so smooth. (Get ready for the ramble I love talking about animation)
First on the lineart I use Toonboom to animate and it’s a vector based program. That means I can edit a line’s curves once I draw it. I don’t have to erase it to change it. I can grab a point on the line and stretch it where I want. So that’s why the lines themselves are pretty smooth, I have a lot of control over them.
As for the motions themselves people can think that frame rates equates to smoothness and while having a lot of frames and inbetweens can do that, it’s way more about the movement that makes something smooth. I tend to work on twos, threes, and even fours. This means you see a frame at 12 frames per second, 8fps or even 6fps. But it depends on the timing of the motion. When I animate the fps isn’t consistent. Faster motions tend to get a higher fps meaning you see it for a shorter amount of time. While slower subtle movements I tend to put on 8 or 6 fps which means you see them longer. Easing of the timing of the frames as well as easing of the motions themselves leads to smoother animation.
Another key point is that objects travel in arcs, always. Unless they are stopped by something. When I animate, I use onion skin religiously. (Onion skin allows me to see previous or future frames on a low opacity) that way I can check my motions and arcs. here I've marked the path of travel for his hand, hips and head ad he bows.
My method for animation tends to be pose to pose. Meaning I’ll draw all the key frames (the important poses that tell the story) before I fill out the inbetweens. Now inbetweens doesn’t always mean you draw a frame that’s exactly between pose a to pose b. You still have to think about the motion you want to achieve and keep in mind your arcs. Additionally you can add secondary movements or actions to help with believability in actions. Animation is all about performance and exaggeration.
But another technique is to animate frame by frame instead of pose to pose. People tend to use this method for effect such as water flowing, fire, or in my case I used it when I animated the capes. Since the cape drags behind the animation and is influenced by what the character does. I animated the cape after I animated the character. I went frame after frame thinking about how the cape would move both with gravity in play, and being moved by the character’s actions.
Using reference is a big help when animating. I had to act out actions to make sure I got things right when making it. I even got a towel and threw and shook it around to see how it fell.
Another thing about getting it smooth is I use a lot of easing in and out of my motions. If you are about to punch something, you don’t just move your arm towards what you need to punch, you’ll draw it back first to build up the punch. That’s easing into a motion. When you stop moving your arm you’ll either overshoot and draw it back a little if you moved it fast and stopped abruptly or it slows down to a stop. Things don’t stop abruptly. Think about a car. When a car stops you have to slow down considerably, it’s not immediate. So same with your motions. I always ease into a motion when it starts or ease out. It can definitely make the actions more believable and smooth.
Again, because Toonboom allows me such fine control over my lines. to ease in and out of a motion I will copy and paste the last frame and adjust it slightly, continuing the previous motion so that everything settles nicely. This shows only the previous two frames. you can see I didn't draw any new lines (except for the cape) I just adjusted his pose. This helps me stay away from lines being shaky because I didn't redraw them.
This last thing I’ll talk about is more subtle. But follow through and secondary actions are so important. In my animation for example, when sun bends down, his body starts moving a lot faster than his head. Sort of like the body goes first and then his head slightly lags behind. It follows the movement of the body. Another example of a secondary action that follows through would be the movement of the little wings of the cape on their chests.
Ok I lied there's something else. SMEARS, I love smear frames. those are great at making things smooth. Usually smears don't stay in view very long and need to show rapid motion so you can stretch a character or pose or show multiple limbs to make motions appear faster. Here I added a ton of arms to show he was wind-milling them around as he fell, and he has a third foot to show the rapid motion of his leg as it swings upwards. Smears can be fun because you can get away with a lot. Be loose with them! I didn't even draw his face here.
Or this one that's a couple frames before that leads into the fast motion.
Once you learn and practice all these things (and more, there's more principles of animation!) your stuff will get smoother. I don't always think about all of these every time I animate, I've done it for years so its ingrained into me. Sometimes I'll think about it to make sure I'm getting motion right, but usually its just second nature. it just takes practice and getting used to it.
Hope this helps!
You can also try watching animation analysis videos and I recommend looking at old 2d animated Disney movies. Or go frame by frame on any animation you like. I've analyzed so many animations that I love and just absorbed their techniques.
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