06 You WON'T get good timing animation if you do this!

Learn more at http://www.2danimation101.com Check this lesson at http://www.2danimation101.com/cartoon-animator-tutorials/06-you-wont-get-good-timing-animation-if-you-do-this.html --- Hi Mark Diaz here for 2DAnimation101.com Have you ever wondered why some of your animations look as if they were not organic? I am talking about something like this: (watch video to see example) Like, as we discussed in previous lessons on how to avoid robot-like characters, you use a storyboard, and plan for the correct emotional expressions, but even after doing all of that correctly… you still get weird movements? Ok. This is important. Because, if everything else is great, this part is the one that can screw up all your animation. What is the screw-up? Fake movements. The movement of your characters is THE ACTUAL animation work you do. No software can help you with this. I repeat. NO SOFTWARE can automate this for you. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you get to be considered a good animator or a bad one. This, right here… the moment you add movement to your characters. If the movements are stiff, fake, or unnatural, your animation will feel weird. And if your movements are fluid, smooth and organic, your animation will be awesome! So, how does it look like to have movements that are unnatural? Well, it looks like this: (watch video to see example) You can see that the movements are kind of weird, unnatural. It is because the animation is low quality. It has to do with timing and movement. The main problem is that if you imitate this, and you DO the movements yourself, it will feel uncomfortable. In neuroscience, there is an effect caused Mirror Neurons. In which, if you see someone you like being hurt, you can imagine that pain yourself. That is, the same neurons that fire in the victim of the pain, are very similar to the neurons firing in your own brain. That is why it’s called Mirror Neurons. This is how empathy is born. And when we see a character, doing a weird movement, the mirror neurons tell us that moving like that is uncomfortable, and so the movement “feels unnatural”. So. The title of this lesson is: YOU WON’T GET GOOD TIMING IN ANIMATION IF YOU DO THIS. so, what is it that you are doing that is causing all this bad timing? All this weird unnatural movements in your characters? Ok. Here is what beginners do, and what you are probably doing yourself. You have the background, the sound, the characters all rigged and ready for animation. What do you do? You start animating! THAT IS THE MISTAKE! When you have everything ready, everything prepared, everything produced for your animation, you should NOT, I repeat, YOU SHOULD NOT START ANIMATING! Why not? Well, because, if you are not a professional, and chances are that if you are checking this lesson you are definitely not… then… if you start right away, you are going to get bad timing. This is what happened with an animation by John MacDonald. So what should you do before you do the animation? Well, you record yourself, or an actor, somebody who can help you, and you record the movements to see the exact timing in real life and apply that for the animation. This is what we did for the acting of The Hunters… I recorded myself as reference to use for the animation. That is why the movements, and the timing are organic, because they are based on a REAL PERFORMANCE. So… How do you do this precisely step by step? Well, that is what we are going to check out on the next lesson. Stay tuned. Until next time, this is Mark Diaz for 2DAnimation101.com. Take care.