Principles of Animation Research: Richard Williams.

I'm coming back to waffle on about The Animator's Survival Kit again, because It really is just so useful.

Throughout the entire book Williams talks about the priniciples of animation and gives many examples to help explain these principles, but there was example that I found very useful. Not only did it explain 'Squash & Stretch' and 'Timing & Spacing' really well, It also helped me a great deal when I came to do my second pose to pose animation. (It would have been really helpful for me when I was doing my first frame by frame flipbooks on squash and stretch too, had I have thought to look).

I'm Clearly a God at Photographing Books

I thought these examples explained the concept of timing and spacing really well. In this example, the timing is the frames between the points where the ball hits the ground (for example 10 frames) and the spacings is where the ball shall positioned on each frame, or how much space there will be between drawing. He then goes on to talk about how squash and stretch can be introduced...

 Squash and Stretch - Basic S&S (Left) and S&S With "More Life"

This diagram would have been so helpful for me when I was doing my flipbook animations as it clearly shows you the path the ball will take, and how it will squash into the ground then stretch away from it. I don't think I did a bad job with my frame to frame annimations, but this can easily help me point out my mistakes, and that I really do need to consider the arcs of the path that the balls take, as well as my timing & spacing and when and where to use squash and stretch.

I did try to use this diagram to help me put together my second Pose to Pose animation of my bouncing teddy. I think I did well with the animation and was able to encorporate a nice amount of detail, but I think I was a bit sloppy with the arcs looking back at it. The first bounce doesn't seem to flow in a nice arc shape, but other than that I think I have done well. This book definitely made me think twice about my timing and spacing, and I think there is quite a significant improvement in my animations looking back at my original bouncing ball sequences.