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Hello, I have a question regarding animation technique.

I often have trouble with deciding the difference between KEYDRAWINGS, EXTREMES, BREAKDOWNS and INBETWEENS.
Like say when you make a series of pose- to pose drawings which together form a movement, what is the best way to break it down?

Example


In this case I'd call 1 and 4 the Keydrawings and the rest Extremes. But 2 and 3 could also be two breakdowns. It just boggles my mind a bit each time to figure this out. Does anyone have any tips to make this process a little more understanding to me ?

Personally, I think you don't always have to think in rigid term like where is keys, breakdown, extremes etc... I finally think there is above all a "feeling" when you animate. I mean... you know what are the main, the most important poses in an animation. Give them a name is not always necessary and, sometimes, it confuses you much than it helps you.

Well... As I didn't animate something since a long time, I don't know if my opinion really counts, but I remember when I thought too much in "key / break etc..." I felt like I fall in a big hole with thousands of rocks to classify by size.

Keys: the drawings which define the movement.
Breakdowns: the drawings which define the arcs and fine-tune the timing.
Inbetween: everything else.
Extreme: can be a key, but often is just the emphasis of a movement.

Don't take this as a law. Get some books and compare their definitions. Most recommended is Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit".

Vincent here an illustration from the animation mentor website
it Illustrates nicely the meaning of the terms. But i agree with Elodie,
and i think these terms are mostly useful/necessary when you work in a larger team and you need to make sure everybody is talking about the same thing.

I personnaly think you lack the drawing zero.
Your keyframes are drawing zero and 4. Everything inbetween is, exactly as you read it, inbetweens (lol)
Further thinking would make your animation unrealistic in my opinion. No human changes keyframes more than 2 times by second.

a key would be the minimum necessary to describe a motion. On a bouncing ball I would only have the starting pose, the Apex and the landing. All the rest goes in the same bag for me.

Well I think this system is very handy and it makes the process far more transparant and practical once you actually get used to it. You can break everything down in a precise manner and the breakdown drawing clearly defines the movement and in that drawing you decide on the kind of overlap and spacing. Then the rest is just a matter of inbetweening. Of course a lot of variation etc. is needed to prevent it from becoming stiff but that's in the hand of the artist. Though developped by Disney in a studio environment I think it's still very appliable for the (more chaotically minded) solo-animator.

I used to animate in a more loose and intuitive manner but Ive found that not having clear breakdowns etc. is very frustrating. You keep having to adjust things for eternity.
Now I work with the image mark panel (from Contents sharing) and use the white part above the timeline (for dialogue etc.) to make inbetween charts.

Thanks for the advice everyone.