2010 edit: this is a really old post initially called "Lisa Mullins against spacing..." :P I was pretty wrong about the definition of timing and spacing back then. I apologize to Lisa and whoever read this, and please read my newer post on this subject: Updated Animation Dictionary. I'll leave this here, but you should just keep in mind that these old rants are coming from someone who was learning animation back then, and was so excited about all this stuff that he wanted to write about the things he was learning... :D despite his lack of experience. :D So anyway, here it goes:
I have a feeling that spacing is rather poorly understood by animators, maybe I'm wrong, but more or less... each time I see something being written on spacing, people were actually referring to timing. This is what Lisa Mullins writes, for example, in an article of hers called "How to move a human":
Spacing……determines your slow-ins and slow-outs and your timing
i. Favor a pose
ii. How quickly do you want it to move from pose A to pose B
iii. Cartoony animation vs. Realistic animation. A lot is determined by both timing and spacing. Snappy vs. flowing.
Sooo not true...
Every word refers to timing: slow-in slow-out is 100% timing and 0% spacing, favoring a pose could also mean spacing, but its mostly used as timing, and she definitely uses it as a way of underlining the slow-in/out idea, "how quickly" is also timing 100% and then... cartoony vs. realistic is style, and even though one could see cartoony animation as being snappier and realistic animation more flowing... that's more a matter of stylistic choice, and there are quite a lot of exceptions. Snappy vs. flowing can refer a bit to spacing (smoother paths of action versus more eccentric lines), but again, is used as timing, definitely timing: snappy animation is usually seen as cartoony, because of its snappier timing, and realistic animation is more flowing (which is a pretty vague word anyway) because its timing, again, is less contrasting, and the poses are less extreme (while cartoon animation tends to be spacing-wise softer, rounder, more arched, therefore flowing better in space... and realistic spacing tends to be less round and more irregular). Now, poses do have more to do with spacing than timing does; spacing is described through poses, spacing is the WAY one moves from one pose into another.
Basically, Lisa is saying that spacing doesn't exist, that all is timing, that spacing is actually timing. Which is not true. Spacing is simply something else: spacing = paths of action, timing = speed of action.
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About me
I'm a character animator, visual artist, game dev, and music composer. I like to doodle, write, experiment, and plan my next big thing. I love tech that inspires and enables art. I have a formal background in music composition. And I like to walk around the world and see things up close. Archives
February 2022
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