Timing is everything

One of the key principles of animation as posited by the animators of Walt Disney in the timeless book written by disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in 1981, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation is timing. They define timing as the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film. On a purely physical level, correct timing makes objects appear to abide to the laws of physics; for instance, an object's weight decides how it reacts to an impetus, like a push. Timing is critical for establishing a character's mood, emotion, and reaction. It can also be a device to communicate aspects of a character's personality.



Simply put its the way we space key activities apart that gives a sense of motion. In consequences it is how fast or slow a movement is that determines how realistic the animation looks.Ive found that getting timing right usually makes all the difference between believable motion and something that looks odd. By the very same token this makes getting timing right, an often very difficult stage in the animation process. At the blocking stage, I usually start out with 4 to 5 frames apart in a pose by pose action and when i get a feel of the movement that works then I move on to some quick timing.  Of course, with breakdowns and in-betweens the timing has to change to accommodate the extra motion.

I've learned that making something faster or slower than usual adds a little more believability to an animation and takes away the linearity that comes with frame by frame tweening. Human motion which is usually what we are trying to depict in animation is ruled by arcs rather than straight lines and inherent in the arc is a sort of delay in the trajectory of motion. In a way, it is an attempt to simulate the effect of the forces of gravity, push or pull on an object that determine how long it will take for an object to move from one position to another.  Achieving the right spacing of this motions are what make up good timing. One good method i've found to approach timing, is to animate to sound. Because music is so strongly linked to timing, syncing to music helps you to keep to a consistent  rhythm across the whole sequence. An important and recent example is found in the work of one of the key animators on the Ice Age (Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, 2002)movies. In an attached video he shows how keeping the sequence in time with a soundtrack helps to achieve a more cinematic flow of animation.

Below i've also attached another walk cycle video from vimeo. I will be using this as reference for work cycle sequences in the future.

References

Ice Age, 2002. [Film]. Directed by Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha. USA: Blue Sky Studios

Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas (1995) The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation [Hardcover], Disney Editions; Rev Sub edition, ISBN-10: 0786860707