In this series I've already explained how animation is the art of giving life and how this is done by using three tools. I've gone through the basics of the first two tools: the posing and the timing, and now it's time for the last of the tools: the spacing. Compared to the pose and the timing the spacing probably is the tool that is the hardest to understand how to use efficiently.
If the timing is the time, or the amount of poses, between two key-poses or breakdowns, the spacing is how and where the poses are placed during this timeframe.
Imagine a bouncing boll taking a bounce forward. The ball leaves the ground, travels in an arc and reaches the ground again. How the ball travels in this arc is the spacing of the balls animation. Are the poses all just evenly spaced? What shape does the arc have?
Bad spacing creates flowy weightless movements, making things seem underwater. This is a common mistake, especially in CG-animation. At times CG-animators get lazy and try to let the computer animate for them. But computers are stupid, they only do what we tell them to do, so letting a computer decide the spacing just creates more work for the animator to clean up in the end. The computer shouldn't do any thinking, only let the computer do the poses it can't do wrong.
For a lot of animators the spacing is mostly about easing in to a movement and easing out, about how big of an anticipation (how the movement starts) to use and in what way the movement stops. When learning more about animation the animator starts looking at the physical aspects of the animation, how the spacing makes things look more real, giving everything weight and making the influence from external sources (like wind, water etc.) seem real.
Imagine the bouncing ball again but now make it heavier, still using the same timing. First, a bigger anticipation gives the impression of the ball trying to push harder. To make the landing seem harder, don't show the "contact pose" but go directly to the "absorption pose" and have a rebound (the ball bouncing back to absorb the force). How the poses are placed or spaced on the balls motion arc will also influence how heavy it seems. If you have slightly more poses on the way up (just one or two, to many will look unnatural), the motion will be slower on the way up than the way down and ends up looking heavier. More poses on the lower part of the movement (the ground phase) and less in the upper (while in the air) will also increase the balls weight. On the motion arc, put a steeper angle on the way down than the way up. You should now have a bouncing ball that looks heavier.
Sadly, this is where a lot of animators stop.
As I've repeated before, creating movement isn't animation, no matter how physically correct the movement is. Animating to giving life, to creating character and not just creating movement. This is true also for the spacing.
The physics of animation is an important stepping stone. Without having a basic mastery of this aspect it is probably impossible to use spacing to reveal character. But the physics of animation is only the first step.
The mood, or mental state, of the character influences the spacing by seemingly changing the characters physique. If the character is sad he looks heavier, if happy: lighter, if confident: has a lot of forward momentum, if afraid: looks like he's pulling away from his fear even when moving towards it.
One way to try to find the right type of motion arc to communicate the message, is by thinking about the imaginary shape that the arc creates. Try first drawing a straight line between the two key-poses, then a second line that follows the motion arc. Look at the shape this creates and think about how it makes you feel. Try looking at basic compositional rules about what that kind of shape communicates. Is it aggressive or calm? Is it confident or uncertain? Does it communicate a the message you want to? Although the motion arc won't be directly drawn on the screen for the audience to see, it is still there, telling them something about the character.
It is important to be aware of this before starting to animate a scene, to think about what the character is feeling and thinking and how this will make his physique seem to change and how this influences the spacing.
When designing a character you should give her a main character spacing based on who she is, her base mode. If she is a "warrior archetype", confident and often cocky, her movements should have more forward momentum. Her movement arcs are also influenced by this, they are more linear and very horizontal. Also, making her movements rigid and her hand gesticulation almost look like punches.
During the story, as the character encounters new situations, her reactions and mood changes influences her base spacing, ads to it but doesn't change it. Not until she develops as a character will her base spacing change to add clarity to her character change. In this case, she would maybe change towards being softer and smoother as she learns that aggression only creates more aggression.
The spacing is a powerful tool. Probably the most powerful of the three animation tools, because the spacing helps reveal the subtext of the scene, what the characters really are feeling and thinking, and does this by communicating with the audiences through their subconscious - not through their intellect.
The spacing is the hardest of the animators tools to grasp. But the spacing is what separates the beginning animator from the animator who has understood the basics of animation. Not before ones capable of making a bouncing ball show emotions and do it with its own personality can one call oneself an animator. And making a bouncing ball show personality and have emotions is mainly through the use of spacing.
Spacing is hard to teach through text. Just as everything else, one can only learn it through experience, by continuously trying and learning from ones mistakes.
I've now gone through all the animators three tools, the pose, the timing and the spacing, and how they allshould be used not to create movement, but to create life. But none of these tools work independently, they are all part of one whole, the animators toolbox. How to use the toolbox is what I will cover in the last article of this series.
Thank you for your time!
Peter Hertzberg
If the timing is the time, or the amount of poses, between two key-poses or breakdowns, the spacing is how and where the poses are placed during this timeframe.
Imagine a bouncing boll taking a bounce forward. The ball leaves the ground, travels in an arc and reaches the ground again. How the ball travels in this arc is the spacing of the balls animation. Are the poses all just evenly spaced? What shape does the arc have?
Bad spacing creates flowy weightless movements, making things seem underwater. This is a common mistake, especially in CG-animation. At times CG-animators get lazy and try to let the computer animate for them. But computers are stupid, they only do what we tell them to do, so letting a computer decide the spacing just creates more work for the animator to clean up in the end. The computer shouldn't do any thinking, only let the computer do the poses it can't do wrong.
For a lot of animators the spacing is mostly about easing in to a movement and easing out, about how big of an anticipation (how the movement starts) to use and in what way the movement stops. When learning more about animation the animator starts looking at the physical aspects of the animation, how the spacing makes things look more real, giving everything weight and making the influence from external sources (like wind, water etc.) seem real.
Imagine the bouncing ball again but now make it heavier, still using the same timing. First, a bigger anticipation gives the impression of the ball trying to push harder. To make the landing seem harder, don't show the "contact pose" but go directly to the "absorption pose" and have a rebound (the ball bouncing back to absorb the force). How the poses are placed or spaced on the balls motion arc will also influence how heavy it seems. If you have slightly more poses on the way up (just one or two, to many will look unnatural), the motion will be slower on the way up than the way down and ends up looking heavier. More poses on the lower part of the movement (the ground phase) and less in the upper (while in the air) will also increase the balls weight. On the motion arc, put a steeper angle on the way down than the way up. You should now have a bouncing ball that looks heavier.
Sadly, this is where a lot of animators stop.
As I've repeated before, creating movement isn't animation, no matter how physically correct the movement is. Animating to giving life, to creating character and not just creating movement. This is true also for the spacing.
The physics of animation is an important stepping stone. Without having a basic mastery of this aspect it is probably impossible to use spacing to reveal character. But the physics of animation is only the first step.
The mood, or mental state, of the character influences the spacing by seemingly changing the characters physique. If the character is sad he looks heavier, if happy: lighter, if confident: has a lot of forward momentum, if afraid: looks like he's pulling away from his fear even when moving towards it.
One way to try to find the right type of motion arc to communicate the message, is by thinking about the imaginary shape that the arc creates. Try first drawing a straight line between the two key-poses, then a second line that follows the motion arc. Look at the shape this creates and think about how it makes you feel. Try looking at basic compositional rules about what that kind of shape communicates. Is it aggressive or calm? Is it confident or uncertain? Does it communicate a the message you want to? Although the motion arc won't be directly drawn on the screen for the audience to see, it is still there, telling them something about the character.
It is important to be aware of this before starting to animate a scene, to think about what the character is feeling and thinking and how this will make his physique seem to change and how this influences the spacing.
When designing a character you should give her a main character spacing based on who she is, her base mode. If she is a "warrior archetype", confident and often cocky, her movements should have more forward momentum. Her movement arcs are also influenced by this, they are more linear and very horizontal. Also, making her movements rigid and her hand gesticulation almost look like punches.
During the story, as the character encounters new situations, her reactions and mood changes influences her base spacing, ads to it but doesn't change it. Not until she develops as a character will her base spacing change to add clarity to her character change. In this case, she would maybe change towards being softer and smoother as she learns that aggression only creates more aggression.
The spacing is a powerful tool. Probably the most powerful of the three animation tools, because the spacing helps reveal the subtext of the scene, what the characters really are feeling and thinking, and does this by communicating with the audiences through their subconscious - not through their intellect.
The spacing is the hardest of the animators tools to grasp. But the spacing is what separates the beginning animator from the animator who has understood the basics of animation. Not before ones capable of making a bouncing ball show emotions and do it with its own personality can one call oneself an animator. And making a bouncing ball show personality and have emotions is mainly through the use of spacing.
Spacing is hard to teach through text. Just as everything else, one can only learn it through experience, by continuously trying and learning from ones mistakes.
I've now gone through all the animators three tools, the pose, the timing and the spacing, and how they allshould be used not to create movement, but to create life. But none of these tools work independently, they are all part of one whole, the animators toolbox. How to use the toolbox is what I will cover in the last article of this series.
Thank you for your time!
Peter Hertzberg
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