Why Your Animation Looks Bad | Fix Floaty Movements and Other Common Animation Problems

hey guys what's up it's me Robyn and today i'm  going to tell you why your animation looks bad   and how you can make it look better now this might  be a bit of a tough love video but you know what   tough love is there for a reason because sometimes  it works not everything needs to be coated in   sugar sometimes advice needs to be a little bit  spicy not in a sexy way in like a slightly painful   way painful but good you know like really  spicy food so go grab a snack if you need to   gird your loins and let's get started the first  problem that you might be making is that you're   not blocking or planning out your animation this  can result in several issues with the timing and   impact and appeal of your shot one of these issues  is having movements that appear to be floaty   movements with no weight or impact behind them  does your character live under the sea that   is pretty much the only time that i would think  that this sort of animation would be appropriate   but actually even under the water water will  create a drag on you and this particular   floaty look that i'm talking about still  wouldn't look right because it's wrong   it's not intentional and it looks bad so some of  the reasons you might be getting that particular   floaty look are that one you haven't properly  planned out the actions and their timing   two you're not using slow in and slow out or  acceleration in any part of your movement so   the entire span of the movement is just constant  in timing and three the movement is just too   damn slow like some external force like water is  pushing against your character and slowing down   their movement so it just doesn't look natural you  should know that there are two ways to animate an   action there's straight ahead and there's poster  pose if you're serious about animation and you've   been studying it then you should already know  about these principles first to pose means that   you're working from key pose to key pose you're  laying down those key poses first and then you'll   go back and fill in the in betweens this method  means that you've planned it out you have a   clear plan of action you know what key poses you  need to hit you know what beats you need to hit   and you're giving yourself a defined structure to  follow in your animation straight ahead means that   you're animating from beginning to end the  way a movement happens in a linear way this   is mostly where the floating movement comes in  because you're kind of just winging it as you go   this method can be great for creativity because  it's more spontaneous and you're not limited by   the plans you've put down for yourself and it's  also really good for natural fluid movements but   without that structure and planning there is  a lot more margin for error and that's where   that aimless floating sort of comes in if you're  not an experienced animator and you don't have a   sound knowledge of timing yet then it's not really  the suggested method for you structure is not a   bad thing plan out your key poses get them done  nicely with the timing and the beats you need to   hit with your shot and then go back and fill in  your in-betweens this is guaranteed to make your   animations look a lot better use blocking which  is what i always ask my team to do because it's   important to get the flow and timing of the scene  first before you go and put all this effort into   refining an animation that you're actually going  to need to scrap and redo because it just doesn't   work with the movements that you decided to use so  i've spoken about planning your shots properly and   your key poses now we can look at slow in and slow  out and how that contributes to helping with the   floating movement effects slow in and slow out is  the change in velocity of a movement it'll start   out slowly then it'll accelerate then near the  end it'll decelerate again it's the spacing of   the action movements will accelerate or decelerate  they don't just start from north to 100 they don't   have a constant velocity throughout they're not  just one speed as they go fixing your spacing will   go a long way to improving your entire animation  the next issue that i want to bring up is timing   specifically movements that are too slow or  too fast although it seems with inexperienced   animators usually the movements are much slower  than they should be and this also contributes to   that floaty movement effect you really need  to study how real people move reference is   your friend people actually move quite quickly  the synapses fire they tell the brain that   something's going to happen you'll see that  there's a little bit of anticipation and then   the movement will happen but it'll happen quite  quickly once it started it's not this slow gradual   and i see a lot of this happening with newbie  animators it's just not natural guys i see so many   characters end up looking like they're defective  robots whose batteries are dying or something   it's really sad although if your character is  sad or depressed then their movements will be   slower but it's a deliberate slowness  and you can totally see the difference   the next thing to work on is constant movement  people don't move constantly again look at real   people it's not this thing where someone's always  doing something you've got somebody sitting at a   desk they're not like this the whole time moving  their head and moving their bodies i get that   you're trying to fill up your animation space  but you actually don't need to humans don't move   unless they need to okay humans are lazy we  try to conserve energy with our movements   so they're only going to move if there's a  reason for it reasons of communication like   what i'm doing now with my hands i'm trying  to communicate a concept to you so i'm moving   or returns of comfort so shifting your weight  from one leg to the other or scratching yourself   or if there's an external force coaxing your  character to move if they have to move out of the   way of a ball or if a cat settles on their lap and  then they have to adjust their position for that   but they're not just going to move for absolutely  no reason and in their movements they still need   to have pauses and settles people are not just  going like this all the time can you imagine how   tired you would be if you are moving literally all  the time and it gives you no space to then put in   anticipation or give impact to the important  actions that you have happening in your shot   constant movement is just thoughtless if you  think about good design you need to utilize   the white space to land your concept and give that  concept impact and space to breathe it's the same   with animation and the actions happening in the  shot if you have constant movement happening in   your shot then your audience is not going to  notice when a really important action happens   something that needs to drive the story forward or  tell us something about the scene because there's   just so much of this visual white noise happening  that nothing seems important nothing seems   different nothing stands out so you're really  going to struggle to convey any important concepts   because there's just so much happening all the  time another issue is purposeless movement you   need to be clear about why your character is  doing something and what beats they need to hit   why is your character raising their arm right  now is there actually a reason for it because i   as the viewer don't see any reason for why  your character is doing that right now so   it just seems weird to me pay attention to the  context of your scene it sticks out like a sore   thumb if a character is doing something for no  reason other than the animator thought that they   should be doing something right now you can see  straight away that there was no purpose behind it   they just wanted to put a movement in there  because they thought that the scene was lacking   something but they didn't know what think of your  character as a real person with real emotions   real thoughts real physical needs we can  understand if your character is standing   in a line and they need to shift their weight  because they're uncomfortable that movement   makes sense to us because we can understand  discomfort we understand why a character would   scratch their nose or why a character would brush  their hair out of their eyes these movements make   sense and we're not going to question them  if we see them but a character just randomly   raising their arm because you felt like your scene  looked a bit boring it just doesn't make sense and   it's just going to look worse so think about  the context of your scene and any reasons for   why your character is moving one of my pet hates  that a lot of new animators do is give their   characters really shifty eyes because they feel  like their character should be doing something   but they don't know what so they default to having  their eyes looking around the room unnecessarily   for no reason why why do you do that stop it  your character is going to look if they hear a   noise here sure that makes sense if somebody  comes into their view sure that makes sense   but just saw me chilling sitting on the couch  your eyes going like this for no reason no it   doesn't make sense think about the context of your  scene break down your actions into anticipation   action and reaction this is another reason why  your animations may look floaty is because they're   all action there's no anticipation and there's  no reaction think about if your character is   punching someone the anticipation is drawing  back your fist and shifting your weight backwards   the action is the actual punch and the reaction  is that follow through and readjusting your weight   maybe putting out your foot to catch yourself as  your punch pulls you forward every movement that   your character makes is going to have anticipation  action and reaction and that's going to give you a   much more realistic and appealing animation side  note if you're finding this video useful and are   dedicated to improving your animation then throw  this video a like hit the subscribe button and   the notification bell so that you can keep up  to date with my other animation related content   my next point is over animating now i get that  you want to be the very best like no one ever was   and you want to show that you are by getting  all this really fine detailed animation   into this very short shot that you're working on  but please reign yourself in all of that is just   clutter you need to focus on your key actions and  what is actually necessary to get your concept and   the emotions across often inexperienced animators  will go and put all this time and effort into   these really small details that nobody's actually  going to notice and then they'll actually neglect   the key poses and the importance of the general  appeal and staging of the shot again it also   just contributes to this visual white noise it's  kind of like when you're working on a painting and   you keep going and adding these fine details and  these little things and then you step back and   look at it and you've actually stuffed the whole  thing up because you just completely overworked it   also keep in mind again that humans and  creatures are about conservation of energy   they're not going to do this whole intense really  complicated movement if a really simple one would   suffice following on from that is using too many  keyframes which can also be part of over animating   this often stems from not understanding how  to use the graph editors properly yet so you   keep adding more and more keyframes to try and get  your character to do exactly what you wanted to do   and just making it look worse again less is more  so the more keyframes you have the more stilted   and less fluid your movements are gonna look  you really need to delve into the graph editor   and learn how to use it properly to get your  character to do what you needed to do rather   than relying on keyframing you want to have smooth  arcs in your movements and none of that stop start   rigid animation work that you'll see with  inexperienced animators and it's always obvious   that they've just used way too many key frames you  shouldn't be using keyframes to try and control   the acceleration or velocity of your movements  you should only be using keyframes for controlling   the position so please don't overuse them in  cases where it's just not necessary believe me   the graph editor is your friend it is  there to help you now bobbing heads what   is that why why do people do that do you  see characters walking around like this oh hey man yeah no i'm doing great  thank you how are you oh yeah you did   wow that's amazing okay sweet  man see you on the flip side no stop it guys come on that's not how people  move i guess it's the same as constant movement   and purposeless movement but what is it  about bobbing heads i i see it so often   why is it a thing so just stop doing that  cool thanks it's also really lame to ignore   the 12 principles of animation and i mean  i mention them in pretty much every video   for a reason because they're gonna  make your animation look better so   if you love yourself do yourself a favor and go  and print them out and stick them on the walls in   your office or wherever you work so that you will  see them every day and stop forgetting to use them   seriously that is an act of self-love that you can  do for yourself so i hope this video was helpful   and i truly do apologize if it made you feel so  attacked right now but honestly it's for your own   good and it's for the good of mankind like let's  be honest people want to watch good animation   and i know you want to be a good animator so  take these on board it all came from a really   good place and i just want everyone to be the  best that they can be for reals guys so if this   was useful and you learned some stuff then you  should probably hit the like button and subscribe   and turn on the notifications so you don't miss  out on any other videos so you can learn lots of   other really cool stuff and be the very best that  you can be thanks for watching guys love ya bye

Channel: RobynO

Views: 6,974

Keywords: why your animation looks bad, how to fix your animation, floaty animation, why your animations look floaty, common animation problems, become a better animator, beginner animator mistakes, most common animation mistakes, animation blocking tips, learn animation for beginners, animation tips, how to be a good animator, after effects animation, learn how to animate, pose to pose vs straight ahead, animation advice, animation tips and tricks, how to improve your animation skills

Id: -FHb6XFHyT4

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 16 2020