SLOW IN & SLOW OUT - The 12 Principles of Animation in Games

hello welcome to new frame plus let's talk about another principle of animation so far we have talked about timing squash and stretch and anticipation this time let's talk about slow in and slow out back in animation's early days some of the more savvy animators at disney and other studios observed that character movement felt more spirited when it lingered on key poses when characters didn't just move from one to the next at a perfectly linear speed but slowly accelerated out of one key pose speedily moving and then decelerating into the next and in addition to feeling more lively this quality of movement also felt more grounded in how things actually move in real life because it takes time for things to speed up and slow down i mean your car doesn't go from 0 to 60 instantly nor does it instantly stop when you hit the brakes which you know probably for the best to show what this looks like in action let's bring back our old friend ball moving across the screen remember back in the episode on timing when i used this ball to demonstrate the concept of spacing turns out i was giving you a preview of slow in and slow out let's say that the starting position on the left is the ball's first key pose and the ending position on the right is another key pose if the ball moves from one to the next without any slow out or slow in then it will just travel from a to b at a constant speed which you know that's fine but this time let's have it slow out of the first pose you see how it favors that position a little longer as it takes time to accelerate and now let's also add some slow in as it reaches its destination now the ball is not only accelerating and decelerating respecting the principles of physics but it's also favoring both the origin point and the destination with its movement lingering near each location so that you have more time to see it there and on top of that the movement itself feels more visually interesting right now the movement across the screen has some more zip and energy it's a bit more spirited but for a more practical example let's look at this applied to a character and it's easiest to see this principle in action when the effect is exaggerated a bit so look at this overwatch emote of brigitta fixing her shield you see how she's really lingering in each of these poses almost coming to a complete stop it makes the slow into and out of each pose all the easier to see so let's say that these three poses are the key poses she's hitting watch how she moves from one to the next acceleration deceleration pose slow out slow in pose even on this little head turn the rotation of the head slows out slows in and notice that lingering on these key poses isn't just helping to effectively demonstrate the weight of her body it's also giving those poses greater priority in the performance emphasizing and drawing attention to those moments for a slightly more understated example consider this shot of sora noted sweetheart not knowing how phones work great huh dale starting on this first pose slight slow out slow in slow out slow in he does enter and leave certain poses quicker than others but there's a bit of acceleration and deceleration each time now this principle may be a bit harder to see happening with more naturalistic movement since the characters aren't holding on key poses in a cartoony fashion but make no mistake slow in and slow out are still in effect here all the parts of these characters bodies are still respecting the physics of acceleration and deceleration whether exaggerated or naturalistic this principle helps to give our animated objects an appropriate sense of weight which is crucial to making their movement feel right one of the easiest ways we can tell that this hammer's heavy besides just looking at the absurd thing is because we can see how much effort it takes to get it moving an object which is heavy is going to require a bit more time and energy to get moving than an object which is lightweight which is not to say that a big heavy object can't move at high speed of course it just might need a little more time or power to accelerate to that speed but there are some times when you specifically don't want to use slow in or slow out like just as an example maybe the object in question is being impacted by an external force consider the momentum of your standard video game hedgehog when he's just moving under his own power it takes sonic here quite a bit of time to accelerate from a stop to full speed and his deceleration isn't instantaneous either but if he hits a solid wall bam that's gonna stop him pretty fast or if he happens to contact a spring he is instantly off like a shot fired out of a gun and actually a gunshot is another great example the kick of this gun feels so right specifically because there is no slowing out of that initial pose it's just instant kick you might also intentionally choose to use less slow in and slow out if you are animating some sort of machine very even linear movement with harsh stops and starts tends to feel extremely mechanical it's why we move that way on purpose when we're pretending to be robots so minimizing or even completely eliminating the slow end and slow out from an object's movement can be a great way to lend it that robotic effect you might also intentionally not use slow in and slow out just for comedic effect sometimes just having a character snap into a pose instantly just feels really funny no matter how unrealistic it looks of course that is only going to feel appropriate if you have a heavily exaggerated animation aesthetic it would feel completely wrong for ellie to ever move like that for any reason but under the right circumstances it's perfect and when you're creating animations for a game there will be times when you have to minimize the slow in or slow out for the sake of gameplay players like their controls to feel responsive which means they need to see quick visual feedback for their inputs and a realistically weighty slow in to each move is not gonna help with that that sort of slow acceleration in this case is just gonna make the character feel sluggish so animators often have to find alternative ways to sell the weight of our player characters oh a quick side note you might sometimes hear this principle referred to as ease in and ease out it's the same thing if the terms are just used somewhat interchangeably don't worry about it at its most fundamental level slow in and slow out is about respecting the physics of acceleration and deceleration of force versus inertia but this principle isn't just about replicating physics yes it does help to sell weight but it's also a tool for animated appeal for emphasizing your key poses whether you're applying it in a highly exaggerated fashion or more naturalistically slow in and slow out will make your animation feel more well spirited and that's four principles down if you would like to see the videos about the rest of them be sure to subscribe and hit that bell and whatnot and consider supporting the show like all of these kind folks thank you for watching and i will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: New Frame Plus

Views: 93,296

Keywords: slow in, slow out, slow in & slow out, slow in and slow out, slow in slow out, 12 principles, twelve, principles, principle, learn, basics, fundamentals, animation, tutorial, explained, gameplay, New Frame Plus, New Frame +, New Frame+, Animation, Game Animation, Animator, Video Games, Daniel Floyd, Dan, Extra Frames, Extra Credits, Extra History, animate, Disney, Looney Tunes, Overwatch, Brigitte, Kingdom Hearts, God of War, Monster Hunter, Crash Bandicoot, Destiny, Sonic

Id: 3jNiNctcQ4c

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CrazyRainbowStar]

I have never anticipated entries in a series with as much enthusiasm as I do this one.

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IT HAPPENED !