A Sense of Drama - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 114

these are the increasing and decreasing increment movements that are
a natural part of the physics of any movement. Shoot 15 still frames of
your subject in the far position, then have the person move up to the
next forward mark (toward the camera) and shoot 2 frames. Continue this
pattern until the subject rests near the camera (including those ease-
outs), then shoot 15 frames of hold at the end. That is the first reference.

Try this again but this time hold for 15 frames at the front, lean your
subject back a bit in anticipation (shoot 2 frames), then one small move
forward (shoot 2 frames), then move your subject all the way up to the
last position (close to the camera), leaning forward (2 frames), then
1 frame leaning back, 1 frame leaning forward (not as far as the first time),
and so forth. Settle your character out and shoot 8 frames of hold. The
playback should be 30 frames per second. This is the “snap” effect and
makes your subject look like a vertical diving board. It is very dramatic
and adds a fun dynamic to your shot.

Fig 8.4 a shot of the first ease movement animation setup.

Fig 8.5 a shot of the “snap” animation setup.

Reference Film and the Cartoon

One of my first jobs was working for the “claymation” studios of Will Vinton.
A small crew of us spent many years animating characters for an animated
feature. Many of us were relatively new to animation, so one of the techniques
that Vinton incorporated was making a live-action reference film of all the
voice actors as they read their lines in the sound studio. All of the animators
would take the appropriate clip of live-action reference film into our set and
view it on a 16 mm viewer as we animated. It was a great way to learn how
movement works, and there were actions that the voice actors incorporated in
their performance under the direction of Vinton that we were able to translate