Ah Fai was the lead animator of some early McDull movies and a generous animation teacher. This animation note made in 2016 remains the most shared on social media among all my animation notes to date.
Caption: I presented this in the order of how I slowly understood the trick of delivering force – first an abstract concept of impact taught by Ah Fai, then a more complicated discovery on the acceleration pattern, and lastly back to a more abstract concept of breakdowns.
Like I’ve previously stressed, 2D animation is everything but one single approach. There’s no one rule that rules them all, but interchangeable ideas with math, physics, music, etc. There’s no ‘perfect’ animation either, but rather what is perceived as organic and dynamic. E.g., using the Fibonacci numbers to animate didn’t bring me a perfect animation! On the other hand, a tiny change in the pattern could already make the feeling of force so much more powerful.
This is not so much of a tutorial as a personal experience. I hope you find this interesting.
Angela Wong's Portfolio 