Today we’re going to be learning how to properly portray speed in your animations.
Speed is relative in study but the same goes for animations. It isn’t all about having more or having less frames in your animations. While that helps with some aspects, you’d really try to aim for showing the difference between said moving object/character and everything else.
Similarly, Anticipation is also very vital for the demonstration of speed. It allows for the audience to have enough time to process the build up before the action.
Strong posing, clear silhouette and shape language should all be at the forefront of good anticipation. Try and exaggerate the poses as well. We are artist and animators, our creations do not have the same limitations as reality does, so make sure to REALLY sell those poses
There are also a multitude of methods that you can use to visual sell the ‘blitz frames’
Such as :
– Blurring the character/object moving
– Adding speed lines to the background/foreground
– Adding speed lines to the moving object or character
– Adding smears
– Adding after-image trails
– Adding a blurred out trail behind the character or object
– Having follow-through animation
Expanding more on the last point a little, follow through animation like the hair of a character reacting much slower than the movement of the character, or even clothing like a jacket, scarf or bandana help exaggerate that velocity of a character even further!
Reactions
Character reaction afterwards also plays a very important factor with speed. I think this sequence with Kefla from Dragon Ball Super is a great example of that. She dashes through the field in an instant, with nothing but a puff of smoke where she once was and a very strong and exaggerated pose where she appears, implying that she was moving far too fast for her to handle. And Goku standing in the same pose as before she dashed, yet again selling the unimaginable speed behind that quick dash movement
But I like to think of speed as a dynamic part of animations. You could mix some of these methods together, you could show the background or foreground moving faster or slower than than character, you could depict it as if time itself was frozen in comparison to how fast your character is moving. There are endless methods to use to achieve this effect and many great showcases of it, so remember to experiment, study and reference, and most importantly, have fun!
A special thanks and credit to Challcy/Cyprimm for writing the script for the YouTube video above and general information sharing for this blog
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