Timing for Animation, 40th Anniversary Edition, 3rd Edition

Animation and Properties of Matter

The basic question which an animator is continually asking himself is: “What will happen to this object when a force acts upon it?” And the success of his animation largely depends on how well he answers this question.

All objects in nature have their own weight, construction, and degree of flexibility, and therefore each behaves in its own individual way when a force acts upon it. This behavior, a combination of position and timing, is the basis of animation. Animation consists of drawings, which have neither weight nor do they have any forces acting on them (Fig. 13). In certain types of limited or abstract animation, the drawings can be treated as moving patterns. However, in order to give meaning to movement, ...