Last fridays event has thrown everything for a loop. Due to spending time grieving, I did not end up working on my animation idles. I now need to make extra time to catch back up especially due to the short length of time left until this is due. Tonights goal is working out a new personal schedule to stick to so that Im not pulling all-nighters in the final week.
Using smears to reduce frames needed for transitions.
Something appearing fast is seen in less detail and smeared. Used to convey intense speed, or simulate actual human vision. Fills gaps between frames creating more fluid animations with less frames. Keep most key frames, especially the first and last ones in the movement untouched, then estimate the movement inbetween.
Colour Smudge or Stretch frame
The one frame between key frames is a blur of all the frames that would have been there, only keeping the outlines of the first and last key frames. Speed lines are effective in this style of smear.
Duplication
This style involves multiple limbs/appendages on a single frame. This type maintains the complexity of your movement without sacrificing the desired speed.
Tail
This smear is only used in a situation where there is a big difference in the start and end of a movement, using a tail from the first position to the current.
Smear frames allow for more "errors" and loss of detail, providing the movement/fluidity of your overall animation still looks good at 25fps.
Breaking the body is a technique that conveys movement and fluidity by making the character overly flexible to the point of unrealistic. This bending, twisting and over extending bones adds to the illusion of continuous movement, and can insulate against obvious mistakes.
