Antic/Settle Abuses in Flash Animation

I'm gonna share a bit of wisdom/humor from "Bitter Animator" via a post reassembled on Flooby Nooby.

Here goes:

The Antic/Settle Abuse System

a) Antic. Take Pose 1. Stretch or squash slightly for anticipation (just move away from Pose 2 like it has the plague).

b) Sweep. Create sweep image that is somewhere roughly between Pose 1 and Pose 2. It doesn't matter if pieces are all over the place, you're only going to show this for one frame and nobody will ever see it.

c) Overshoot. Squash or stretch Pose 2 to overshoot the animation (just move your animation away from Pose 1 this time).

d) Hit Pose 2. Bounce up into Pose 2 proper. This is the settle.

e) Wobble. Move random piece. Hair perhaps. Doesn't really matter - just move something and let's say it's secondary action.

Use this system no matter what the mood is, action is, expression is.

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A further statement on "cheap" Flash animation:

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"You have one goal when animating in Flash for broadcast. To tell the story? No, that's what the writer is for. To convey emotion? What are you, some kind of poncy method actor?! No, the one true goal of broadcast Flash animation is to hide the symbol changes. That's it...This is the top way to animate in Flash."

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Anyway...good for a laugh, but definitely a ton of truth to it. Lets make sure as we continue to use Flash that we don't fall into any of these mindless traps and shortcuts! :)

For more rants, go directly to the source: the Bitter Animator's My Medicated Cartoon Life blog.

Special thanks to Ron at Flooby Nooby for calling our attention to it.