SLOW IN & SLOW OUT - The 12 Principles of Animation in Games

[@AdamBucceri]

As an animator of 10 years, boy you explained that well. What took years to internalize intuitively, you laid out explicitly and extremely well. Very, very well done.

[@NewFramePlus]

Many thanks! For such a straightforward-seeming principle, it was surprisingly tricky figuring out intuitive ways to explain it.

[@AdamBucceri]

@@NewFramePlus at 2:30, the "slow out, slow in, pose" with the flashes is incredibly good. That's the kinda thing that you need to train your eye to see. You even explain 'favoring'! I went for YEARS without that piece of vocabulary!

[@Platanov]

As a level designer who just like to hang out near the animators to hear them talk animation and doesn't really know anything about animation, I can vouch that this explanation was very clear and intuitive :p

[@syro33]

@@Platanov Hey, I'm the person who hangs around both animators and level designers, and just listens to them. All i can really do is like, make a spreadsheet.

[@ruki4929]

its interesting seeing things I ended up doing in animation from gut feeling being explained. it becomes an 'oh, so thaaats why it works'.

[@xXJ4FARGAMERXx]

Ruki:says thaaats. Me:fast-in, slow-mid, fast-out.

[@lordvader903]

you have no idea how much i was anticipating this.

[@yuichikita6018]

You should have said that in the anticipation video

[@zyaicob]

Clever

[@momsaccount4033]

"anticipating" nice

[@CoxTH]

Ah, just watching the other New Frame Plus videos really squashed down the stretch without video.

[@whynotanyting]

You're timing was just a bit too quick then

[@lifetake3103]

You know this whole video everything sounds so obvious, but while being so obvious I can look back at my game projects and see where I just don't apply these principles. Its the simple things that you really need to remember in development and obviously animation.

[@Vesperitis]

Seeing that Spiritfarer clip at the end makes me really wanna request it's animation be analyzed. Especially that fucking hug. That thing is heartbreaking and adorable.

[@lessiedevelop7718]

Thanks for providing me the name of the game, fellow commenter!

[@profoundpro]

Just finished it last week. I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

[@ElionMars]

I *may* have squeed when they hugged back.

[@Vesperitis]

@@ElionMars I *always* squee.

[@TalysAlankil]

"Noted sweetheart" killed me thank you

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

It's funny though, I don't think I've actually heard anyone say "slow" probably.....ever. I don't know if it's a UK thing, but _easing_ seems to be a more common term in animation here? I dunno, whenever I talk about the _'slow in, slow out'_ principle, I always just say "easing", but maybe that's because I use After Effects everyday for motion graphics, ha. Great video, Dan! *EDIT* Welp that'll teach me to comment before finishing the video.

[@ItsJustMe0585]

lol! I was thinking the same thing. I did have 1 old boss that used slow in and slow out, and he drove the rest of us mad. Then he kept doing it to just troll. :) He came from 2d film animation background. So I'm wondering if it has more to do with that.

[@Lukz243]

Never though on how one's word choice would affect so much :O

[@Kakimech89]

Thats not even starting on how software vs traditional animation sometimes flips the meaning for slow in/out and ease in/out, creating MORE confusion

[@marinamoraes6174]

Yeeeees, a new Principles of Animation video! I love this series~

[@mitchkat123]

I love seeing you break down Overwatch animation. The animators have done such an amazing job not only animating, but capturing the essence of each hero in their animation. It's so cool to see all the thought and animation techniques behind the animations.

[@dondashall]

Great video. I've noticed myself that since I've started watching your videos I'm paying a lot more attention to animation in video games and just really noticing it & I've seen some remarkable work that less graphically advanced games are able to pull off and compensate for those less than stellar graphics with great animation.

[@user-ej4md7tm3y]

5:45 love how you narrated Crash Bandicoots poses here :D

[@thehauntedattic4279]

I occasionally have to watch your videos in computer animation class and it’s the best part of my day

[@marshmallow3200]

Needed a break from my schoolwork, Going back in refreshed now, thanks Dan!

[@bellyjelly0812]

I really appreciate the perfect subtitles right when the video is uploaded. Great and informative as always :)

[@corwin32]

Thou hast been truly burning the midnight oil of late, my Lord and Liege

[@SparkyForce]

4:15 I approve of this Sonic music, excellent choice

[@JoyceW-Art]

I just love how each time you manage to make these videos both so interesting and informative and also very fun to watch! I think a lot of (future) animators will get a lot out of these videos!!

[@brookselder9854]

I think Brigitte's dance synced up to the outro music quite nicely! Great video, as always!

[@brandonyohn]

I really enjoy this series! It's clear how much attention and care you put into each episode!

[@DrDark0]

Always happy to see more New Frame Plus. I always enjoy the more inside baseball elements of your let's plays and leap at the chance to watch any of your videos over here on this side of things. Also, if anyone knows where the cat comes from at 6:40, I would like to see more of that. Looks like a portfolio reel to me, though.

[@zmanjace1364]

I dont know why but just seeing TF2 clips in something like this makes me happy. Havent even played the game in like a year...

[@KingdomTerrahearts]

OH MY GOD IS THAT SPIRIT FARER OH MY GOSH THAT GAME LOOKS GREAT I'VE BEEN WANTING TO PLAY IT SO MUCH.

[@FlyingDominion]

Well, over on Dan's other channel, Play Frame, he's playing through it. Link in the description.

[@KingdomTerrahearts]

@@FlyingDominion I made this comment September 8th and the first spiritfarer video was on the 20th. Please don't answer old comments.

[@LemonMoon]

This one and arcs are my most used principles of animation

[@happi-entity]

5:40 I feel like Majora's Mask deserves a mention here. They made the Happy Mask Salesman snap to his poses _because_ it felt wrong. Know when to break the rules, as per usual

[@MarioFanGamer659]

*pulls out an organ from hammerspace*

[@baltamour4442]

I wish to thank you for all of the hours you put in creating awesome videos. I started my career as an 3d-modeller/Animator/JackOfwhateverIsNeeded, and for over a year now I have been working as a solo developer on my own game. I greatly appreciate people like yourself who have invested time and energy to share your professional experience and really go deep into the core of design and problem solving. Again, Thank you so much!

[@emerald1968]

These videos are great, they’ve been helping me out a lot since I’ve started studying pixel animation for a game I’m making thanks so much for making these

[@franciscoaltomonte2285]

I'm not as much of an animator as I am a programmer and designer, but I LOVE your videos. You have a way of explaining things that is very informative and friendly. You can easily tell its a subject that you're an expert at, yet the explanation doesn't come off as condescending or egotistical at all. Keep up the great work!

[@RocketSlug]

Is this also related to the term "favoring your keys?" I hear that often as well, and my working understanding (not an animator) is that it's another way of saying "slow in slow out"

[@takahashierik]

Yes, it's basically the same thing. Keeping your inbetweens closer to the key poses and holding the key poses longer, makes the animation feel more "snappy"

[@PurpleFreezerPage]

Ball Moving Across the Screen is what makes this series iconic

[@oscarvee8648]

I think a video about idle animations would be really cool

[@EnekonGaming]

Man I LOVE your videos. They are soo educational. Thanks!

[@randominternetstranger1148]

Some of the greatest animation advice I’ve ever heard! Thanks for putting so much effort into these man

[@waldonobody]

I really want to see you talk on Corridor Crew's Animators React

[@SpiritOnAdventure]

Ooh, I'm just starting animation school so this came out at the perfect time for me!

[@shawnheatherly]

Always nice to see a new video here. Slow In and Slow Out seem to be yet another way to give an animation a little more oomph.

[@ChesireWaltz]

I'm mad, how come I'm only just seeing this video despite having all notifications on for this channel? Thanks KZbin. Lovely video! I've heard of this but never explained so well before.

[@ItsJustMe0585]

Great explanation. :) Been in AAA game animation for over 10 years, and I still love to watch these as a little boost to my own polish. I think I'm gonna hit up my old college and tell them to show these to their classes.

[@JairusC]

I'm very much looking forward to the next principle you end up covering. Thank you for this wonderful video.

[@FlyingJetpack1]

When you mentioned that cartoons can ignore this rule for comidic effect, i imidiately remembered the short animation: "Ramshackle: the thesis film", specifically, around 1:22. I won't spoil much to not steal from the comidic effect of that scene, but the way the duo driving in the car snap from laughing to a completely different keypose in a still frame, wearing their smuggish grins, is just the best ;)

[@xXbananaXxist]

Im usually not a fan of animating but your videos makes me wanna try it out more. Cant wait for new videos

[@r3ttgaming177]

He's back boys! This'll be a fun one!

[@MrT3a]

This might be an oddball to you, but I recently started to show my kid episodes from La Linea on KZbin. It's quite old to be honest, but the animation always impressed me. There are no dialogues, all must be expressed visually, while maintaining the illusion of being only one bent line. Each episode is really short, so it's great for a quick watch.

[@DanielSavageOnGooglePlus]

I love slow/easing in game jams. It's usually quick to add and provides a lot of "pop" in helping make an interesting project if you're doing something quick over 1/2 days.

[@TheChiptuner]

I love these videos, I hope you finish the series!

[@warpnova1304]

I like that you flipped between so many different kinds of games

[@kimrimmel6022]

I could listen to you talk about any principle of animation for hours. Thank you for this content lol

[@JMJackMcNally]

thank you SO much for bringing up when not to use ease in ease out i feel like every video on the subject just goes "use this to make your animations more lively, real things don't move like that" they don't mention the real applications omitting slow acceleration can have they just say Do This, Not That so thank you for this

[@migueletcetc]

Hey Dan thank you so much for puting out teachings in the world as you do, I truly believe you are making the world more enjoyable and accesible. Also, during quarantine I watched your video on Hollow Knight, decided to play it after years of not really playing any videogame after dropping out of videogame design college. It made my quarantine fascinating and I'm coming back to learning on my own as a hobby now. I hope you are doing great, and know that you have helped me do great.

[@JHD42]

I've been _anticipating_ this video, excellent _timing_ . I'll be sure _ease in_ to watching it, trying to _stretch_ the experience. ... Squash! (Sorry, couldn't fit that one in.)

[@theythemdani]

Squash!!

[@monchytales6857]

as an animator of 10 week, this was really more helpful than most resources I've found to explain this principle

[@key099able]

Great video as always

[@erikasilva4183]

I should definitely watch all these videos again now that I'm starting to get into my own animation projects

[@dantenotavailable]

ease in and out is really common in the web UI animation space (the CSS transition timing functions literally mention ease-in and ease-out)

[@Daeranilen]

A great example of removing slow-in slow-out to convey roboticism is the boss fight vs 1010 in No Straight Roads! The robo-idols have a great bit where they do an instantaneous full 180 rotation at the hips, among some other amusing moves.

[@brucelit]

it's a constant battle to search the exact use of these terms. It's been 15 years I work in animation and there's always people saying to me I get this wrong. But I'm kinda relieved you use it as I do, refering to something starting to accelerate as a slow-out and not a slow-in. Because it's slowing out of a pose ! Maybe the ambivalent use has came from video editing software that refer to slow-in as a progressive start.

[@Gilbot9000]

100000000% worth the wait on this. 5/5 MASTAPEECE

[@DennerBob]

Agreeeed!

[@aphidamas1]

Hello, your "Which Dark Souls Had the Best Parry Animation?" left quite an impression when I watched it last year. Enough so that when I saw the new Demon's Souls gameplay some of my first thoughts were to what a video comparing the approach to animation between From Software and Bluepoint would look like. To my layman's eye I got the impression that Bluepoint is going for more immersive and realistic animations while FromSoft typically goes for a more communicative style. I would be very interested in seeing your thoughts on the topic.

[@just_ugu]

I guess I feel happiness in about the same frequency as Dan uploads

[@justember794]

I was just thinking about this series the other day! This seems REALLY closely related to timing, to the point that I'm not sure I could distinguish between them in examples. Also dancing Brigitte (sp?) at the end was very good.

[@themothreborn]

ur bgm choices r on point

[@Roxor128]

Now this is a really easy principle to put into code. Many libraries even include a function for it: smoothstep() It's a cubic polynomial with the useful properties of passing through 0 at 0 and 1 at 1 and having a slope (aka first derivative) of zero at both those points. There's no shortage of uses for it in computer graphics (to the point that GLSL includes it as standard), and interpolating between keyframes in animation is one of them. For more, Wikipedia has a pretty decent article on it (including its higher-degree relatives): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoothstep

[@ryankramer2703]

Will you ever do history videos again, or will you continue to focus solely on animation? Honestly I miss your old history videos on extra credits

[@FlyingDominion]

Can we just appreciate the end card with Brigitte dancing in the back.

[@MasterofGalaxies4628]

Would love to see Solid Drawing be the focus of your next principles vid.

[@zyaicob]

"Standard video game hedgehog" What's a non-standard video game hedgehog look like?

[@BigDBrian]

like an actual hedgehog

[@benjamincheung6573]

Whatever that first version of movie Sonic was

[@Kyrmana]

Are there any other hedgehogs in games? 🤔

[@mechacode8527]

Shadow, of course

[@aspirtration]

@@Kyrmana Not sure if joking, but just in case; Mabel from Animal Crossing is literally a blue hedgehog.

[@tempest_dawn]

This is also generally applicable to other forms of animation and motion - easing in UI animation makes a transition easier to follow and generally feels better.

[@nekommunikabelnost]

Remember when you wanted to ask "I wanna spend my life doing X, why would I ever need that crap?!" in your highschool class. Well, that's why.

[@theoadamsiv7844]

I see why these take so long to produce! You put a lot of work into collecting appropriate footage and efficient & clear editing

[@captaint.tearex9279]

I'll never get tired of seeing Monster Hunter in your videos, man. Good stuff.

[@MF_BLUE94]

Great stuff, as always!

[@ninenezumi]

I used to do this all the time with lego stop motion animation, I could only do it in 15 FPS so the ease in and ease out technique was really important!

[@sharilshahed6106]

would love it if you dive into some other animation styles. Like the pre 3D aesthetics of rts such as Age of Empires 1 & 2, Starcraft and how they feel pretty authentic even with their 2D artstyle.

[@xer0_dr3amz]

Recently found this channel and your videos are very helpful and entertaining! :D I am someone who wants to have a career in animation, so these videos are very useful and well written!!

[@EpiKerCovers]

PLEASE CONTINUE!!

[@YoannDessin]

Love this channel 💙

[@PhilAlm92]

The animation in the Timesplitters games are an amazing example of this. Check out some cutscenes from Future Perfect

[@TinoMexineoMtz]

Love watching these!

[@makotoyuki345]

I’ve been waiting for this!

[@TheAsdasy]

I really enjoy your master insight in animation work

[@okanut]

I love this series!

[@zelenpixel]

yeah babey new frame plus!!!!!!!!

[@cor3zone]

It seems so... simple? Natural? I don't know the right word, but it just seems _right_ when you explain it. I can't imagine how much it took to actually figure this out in a concrete way, though.

[@andy4an]

these are so good. what's the next principle?

[@theoadamsiv7844]

So excited to watch this!

[@BarcelonaMove]

Nice explanation, thank you.

[@Actual_Mr_G]

I have NO idea about animation or any kind of art for that matter. But these videos ?? They feel so knowledgeable and inspiring that it makes want to go back to studying again. My opinion, but maybe you could try a hand in teaching. It would be great.

[@MartinPurathur]

Thanks this is helpful

[@bbym4ry]

Hi, a short question - which mic do you use? I'm sure it's your voice as well, but I find it very pleasant to listen to you :)

[@Vandalarius]

6:55 Those 5 seconds sold me on Spiritfarer. Thank you. (It would be nice to have a list of games referenced next time too!)

[@Artista_Frustrado]

-awww yeah new Animation Principle -haha Ball goes: MESATSU! -oh yeah that explains why the Soul clones feel so wrong

[@safabekr]

Now how do I get my animation college class to watch this.........

[@apollothefirst]

This guy sounds like extra credits guy with deeper voice

[@NewFramePlus]

For good reason!

[@jafar257]

I would love to see you guys do animation analyze in Vanillaware games.

[@dragonsswarm1987]

I remember seeing the original videos for the first three principles, did he ever make a video for this one before? Edit: He needs to do more sonic games so he can finally do that sonic retrospective that he was talking about.

[@fablion6324]

I love this series so much

[@tomireland4740]

Another great video =)

[@Helleynea]

i thoroughly enjoy Dan the teacher

[@solidreactor]

Gwibbers!

[@MidnightSt]

In my opinion "ease in/ease out" is much more clear and... exact. because it's about "easing into the motion (from pose)" and "easing out of the motion (into the next pose)" the precise shape of the curve in time determines the "character" of that specific animation. "slow in/slow out" is... eh... nevermind, thanks for the info that it's sometimes also called that, never heard it before :)

[@fablion6324]

I’m baffled that this one doesn’t have more views