TIMING - The 12 Principles of Animation in Games

[@TheApoke]

Important tip one of my animation instructors told me: big heavy things CAN move quickly, they just can't CHANGE DIRECTION quickly.

[@a_creatorsstuff17]

Wrong, you do have to give more easing on tge moviments, just look at xenoblade chronicles' faced mechon, more specificly, metal face, he is fast, changes direction quicly, and all, but his size is given by the easing

[@user-bf5sc8pn8x]

Unless they have enough force to change direction quickly*

[@Oldsah]

@@user-bf5sc8pn8x or they're jumping and then falling. That is indeed very fast

[@zyaicob]

It's a bit more complicated than that. This is good advice for a beginner, but physicality is so important to animation that you really should just learn some physics

[@Cyberian_Khatru]

That's true, albeit worded poorly. Anything can move quickly, but stuff with bigger mass has less acceleration (if the force stays the same). Since a change in direction is a form of acceleration (centripetal), this is just a byproduct of the more general rule stated earlier.

[@JoCat]

"even the small characters dont dart around" except for the collectible lizards because they're actually evil

[@tenacityxl]

Those scaly little bastards...

[@bagelboi4321]

I've caught about 5 total. I just can't smack them in time.

[@anthonydavis5288]

Hey! JoCat 👍

[@Nejvyn]

I've seen EVERY other iteration of this video, I know everything that's in there - and yet it didn't feel like 9.5 minutes at all. Your teaching style is so damn good

[@FearlessSon]

How many times have I heard Dan give this lesson? Doesn't matter, I could (and have!) listen to him teach for hours.

[@Burning_Dwarf]

I feel the same way about this

[@theophrastusbombastus8019]

Year is 2022, NFP releases the 15th edition on the first principle of animation. This re release came out as Dan thought that the 14th version where he instructed viewers on how to smell time and provided a full sensory experience was not up to standard with the channel. In this new edition Dan teaches how to manipulate time at will to create the perfect animations, after the video one should be able to warp to past and future alike or to change the relative speed of time in one surroundings while being partially safe from paradoxes.

[@timothymclean]

We're never going to get to the last few principles if Dan keeps insisting on updating these videos whenever he thinks the old ones aren't good enough. :P

[@ICountFrom0]

I have hope that he will get through all 12 this time, without something going horribly wrong this time.

[@BlueMonkey]

I'm so glad this is a stand-alone channel now. Incredible work as per usual!!

[@yousof77]

This channel is absolutely incredible. I haven't seen anyone doing anything this well thought out, and formulated in such a simple yet nuanced way on animation yet.

[@casizle377]

Dude the fact that you took the time and committed the effort to record yourself performing an action to convey different aspects of the lesson.... that means a lot and is a bigger (and more respectable) deal than some may realize. You went the extra step to contribute to your video. That means a lot man. I'm in a position in creating indy games pretty much by myself and know that a lot of things have to be self created to be different and creative. You're great

[@benjoe1993]

Are we finishing the 12 principles this time? I got my bet on "possibly?", you know...third time's the charm.

[@goldenyellowapple]

I haven’t watched the whole video yet so I don’t know if you addressed this, But please dear god make this a full series of going in depth into each of the 11 other principles I know I and thousands of others would adore that.

[@NewFramePlus]

It's happening! They won't come out back to back, but I have a full series on all 12 planned.

[@cedricwublin9306]

@@NewFramePlus ❤️❤️❤️

[@GameOver-ou1ge]

@@NewFramePlus thank you

[@NarfiRef]

I’m calling it now. The Squash and Stretch episode will feature Kingdom Hearts 2 or 3.

[@timothymclean]

​@@NewFramePlus ...again. Here's hoping Dan makes it through all twelve episodes before deciding his first few episodes aren't good enough.

[@bwminich]

I keep hearing Splatoon music remixes in your background music, Dan, and I love it. Tide Goes Out is such a good song.

[@bwminich]

And another Splatoon remix to close things out! :D

[@NewFramePlus]

It's all so good, how can I NOT :D

[@fernandoquant]

I love how even though I am not an animator nor plan to be, because of the way Dan makes these videos and explains things I get excited whenever I see there's a new video

[@Kalernor]

One bonus I didn't expect to get with this new channel but I am now very delighted with, seeing real life Dan more (when he acts out an action)

[@cedricwublin9306]

Yeah, I liked that he gave us him doing reference. I wonder if it's from a project or specifically for this video/series.

[@cedricwublin9306]

Would be cool to see the translation of reference into animation as part of a behind the scenes style video.

[@a_creatorsstuff17]

Timing and spacing: *are the most important principles of game animation. Netherrealms studios: "We dont do that here"

[@charcharmunr]

GENERALLY better animation in MK11, but even so, NRS games have jank as hell gameplay animation.

[@Gilbot9000]

I love how you acted out the standing motion to describe how fast and slow actions describe mood and character. What a fantastic video!

[@hayleymd5315]

I’m so glad you’re starting this series again! I got really sad when it felt like you weren’t gonna continue it after leaving EC, but this is so much snappier and really expresses your style! I’m excited for the rest of this reboot!!

[@KarlClarkeMusic]

Please do continue to do these episodes, your teaching style is great. Been on the fence about learning animation and would love to learn.

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

Lovely stuff Dan. Funnily I just released an episode on Alucard's running animation where the timing is pretty averagely paced which kinda makes it feel fairly unremarkable, at least at first anyway.

[@greengruntdude]

Video Game Animation Study tfw you guys have the same name. I thought both channels were run by the same person xD edit: Even the channel logo is similar

[@jonathonfreeman9233]

It's good to note that to this day new hires at Disney STILL have to go through 12 fundamentals training, regardless of their past pedigrees. It is that important.

[@past874]

The 12 principles? They'll be interesting to see done on this channel. Can't wait to see the others.

[@TheAlphaTeamPlays]

The quality of these videos makes the fact that they don’t come out for months all worth it

[@illjan]

Have you played infamous and what do you have to say about its animations while running and jumping and climbing through the city? I personally find it very appealing and like how fluid the animations are. It also always feels very responsive. But there is something that I have noticed recently, while playing: The normal character model and animations are incredibly basic and don't really come forth, it never REALLY is the thing that graps your attention, but when you use your abilities while going through the city, it graps almost all of your attention. When I realized that and thought about it, I really was surprised how such a subtle detail can make the concentration of the player be precisely controlled. Amazing.

[@rubberband22]

Great video. It's so important in fighting games. I remember reading an article way back that went through the 12 principles using Darkstalker animations for examples. Made me appreciate the details that went into that game a little more.

[@FelipeF78]

I appreciate that the used songs in the video are all listed in the description. It would've driven me mad trying to correctly identify the song at 8:10 as a remix from DKC3.

[@OjeOjeaga]

I swear if this were a class, I'd attend it. Excellent video as always, man.

[@DennerBob]

The addition of your self-shot reference is major improvement to the feel of the video. I love when making of features include reference.

[@princessthyemis]

Man, this was SUUUUPER fascinating! I really hope you make more!! I'd love to see more!

[@rachaelward6552]

Loved that you revisited this topic and expanded upon it. I originally followed extra frames but I'm so glad you started your own channel. Consider me an immediate subscriber.

[@DStrormer]

As someone with zero animation experience, I adore these episodes. The insight into why things move as they do makes me appreciate certain games (and videos) so much more. Thank you.

[@CVerse]

This video series is sooo useful for beginners. We just started watching it in my class after our animation professor introduced it to us. Thanks for making them!

[@jonahthebear]

This video is amazing as always. I love the point you made about SotC and how timing affects the entire mood and feeling of the game. Insight like that and a constant flow of helpful information is why I watch this channel.

[@Brawph]

So glad to see this series is getting picked back up again! Can't wait for more remastered videos!

[@TheRealProfwalrus]

Just shamelessly rewatching this video, even though i have no ambition to be an animator. Just because Dan has a better teaching mechanism than most teachers

[@StepBaum]

Very much looking forward to the series. You're way of explaining stuff is very appealing :)

[@NSilverwolf]

A great update on the timing video you did long ago! Love the new graphical examples as well...they're really helping to illustrate some pretty ephemeral concepts so you can be on the look out for them in other work.

[@ebunny1652]

I'm glad you're getting back to this series, as I was a bit disappointed that the series wasn't finished on Extra Credits back in the day.

[@enclavesoldier8893]

Glad I found you Dan, once you left Extra Credits I thought you left YT for good. Happy I found you, the EC team told me about your channel. Keep up the good work, I love your content.

[@radi0tower742]

as someone who is currently studying animation and would like to pursue game animation in the future, this is increadibly helpful

[@UngodlyDev]

Dan!! I've been waiting for your explanation of the 12 principals of animation since you tried it twice on EC, thank God you've finally gotten the time and platform to work on this!!!!!

[@rollingsheep6960]

Ok. Just. Why i wasn't already subscribed to this awesome channel ? Seriously i'm going to watch absolutely all your vid tonight, thanks

[@JochemKuijpers]

Also check out PlayFrame if you haven't yet. It's their lovely niche gameplay channel (:

[@DaBaSoftware]

It was a lot harder to find your channel after EC than i realized. Great content!

[@ColorMagicPictures]

This series is one of the best things ever!!! Thank you

[@pinxelated2799]

Loved this video! I showed this video to my animation teacher, since we're covering game animation in class. It explains things really well!

[@Ninjinhah]

YES! Thank you for bringing this series back, Dan!

[@miguelangelus959]

8:40 shadow fight 2 also teaches that. It's the only fighting game I like, and just now I realised why

[@RacingSnails64]

Miguel Angelus oh wow. shadow fight looks neat as hell!

[@bocatadeclavos1274]

you just keep teasing us with these series :(

[@cin2110]

Oh dan I’m so glad I found you again you know

[@NewFramePlus]

Welcome!

[@Emuraman]

Awesome vid there Dan, love the various examples you gave on this, looking forward to the next ones

[@k1ngk4gl3]

I have watched every single video you've uploaded. This one was in my feed. Yet I just realised I wasn't subbed until now.

[@Felgrand101]

What a beautiful video. Even though I have nothing to do with animating and such, it is such an interesting topic to learn about. It's just very fascinating to learn more about a hobby. I hope to see many more of these videos. They are some of my favourites.

[@cannonfodder4000]

Great idea for a video series! cant wait for the other installments

[@BackfallGenius]

Excellent video!! Would love to see a deeper take on game-specific mechanics like how animation canceling (especially for things like reloading in a competitive FPS game) adds an extra layer of strategy or how abusing i-frames in Souls games is almost a necessity for some of the boss fights.

[@TailedCarpet]

Nice editing, Dan

[@Not_Aaron_]

The 12 Principles of animation in my opinion should be learned so well that you remember them from your mind

[@marnsdnfois7006]

That's generally the goal of learning things lol

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

@Zinogg I think gaming itself should have it's own principles like Flow, Silhouette etc.

[@Not_Aaron_]

@Zinogg yes I know that there is sooo much more to learn than just the 12 of them but I still think that there super important.

[@kingpen]

I'm currently animating for school, listening to this motivates me so much~! Thanks for making this~!

[@Atle502]

This is really good! Short and sweet! I think you nailed the.... timing of the video :D This really made me want to get back into some game animation!

[@readyplayerjuan]

excellent video, loved it. well explained and you can see there's soul put into it.

[@jacksonelh]

Theres a serious lack of animation analysis videos on KZbin. I dig this one

[@shawnheatherly]

Another wonderful video. The speed of an animation goes a long way into how your game feels.

[@i.grushonvtskiy]

Thanks for Russian subtitles - really helpful for learning. I can't give money on Patreon, but i can say THANKS for you tutorial. Really, it amazing. Great Job on each videos.

[@acemack2]

I am not sure if you will see this Dan. But I wanted to let you know that I check my subscription feed very often and I did NOT see this get uploaded. Thanks for the great video!

[@Stiljoz]

Even watching you talk about something I already have a complete and thorough understanding of is somehow just so engaging

[@MrPomegranX]

I can learn animation from you for HOURS!

[@exquisitecorpse4917]

Would love to see you break down the animations of Third Strike. Every time I see that game, it blows me away with how beautiful it is and yet how economically they re-use animation to make it look like there's more variety than there really is.

[@superdude10000]

I can hear a variation of the Slow Tides song from Splatoon 2 in the back... where'd you get that? Sounds boppin'

[@alisoltani5636]

Awesome work. Very informative. Pls make more sooner.

[@Blazah99]

cool episode dude.

[@youtoobay]

When i saw the title i thought it meant we would finally get an idea of when the 12 principle videos were going to come out.

[@fosterchair]

Amazing job as always Dan. As someone who has no interest in becoming an animator this is still fascinating to learn

[@awsomesauseist]

this video was really good dude i didn't even realize 9 minutes had passed

[@darmandez]

Your taste in soundtrack is amazing!

[@alexavaneysan2935]

I love the Persona 5 music in the background! Btw, great video!

[@Crowbar]

One small side note to the fast animations of fighting games: Because the animations are so fast, there is a standard defense position in pretty much every fighting game. In most 2D fighting games it's crouched, in Tekken it's standing. The reason for that is because for example in Dragon Ball Fighterz, it's impossible to react to a low attack that you can only block crouched, and since you can block all standing attacks while crouched as well, you blocked crouched. Overhead attacks though, which you have to block standing, are much slower and can be reacted to, so you actively react to those and stand up.

[@SkywardKnight_]

I just want to say that as an artist with no intent to produce any piece of animation, I really appreciate this channel. You break animation down in both a fascinating and simple way. It’s incredibly entertaining. It also gives me new insight into the art forms I engage in. Art is so fascinatingly interconnected that you explaining animation helps me act and direct more fluidly. It’s really cool and I just wanted to say thank you. (Also if you are actually reading this I wanted to apologize. I left a comment on one of your older Smash videos complaining that you weren’t using footage from Ultimate. I was just super tired and out of it. Sorry. Now if you excuse me, I need to leave. I was just genuine on the internet and that’s concerning.)

[@SkywardKnight_]

Oh and the principles of animation thing reminds me of a ton of different theater concepts, including the 9 physical viewpoints.

[@fablion6324]

This is my favorite youtube series

[@intertenera]

excellent video as always. I would also like to add that darn I forgot papa so buff.

[@MohamedOmrano]

Excellent work sir, thanks a lot.

[@PPedroFernandes]

Please do all of the principles! That would be so cool :D

[@caphine244]

1:57 Bro you can't just hit me with dj cutman out of nowhere! XX

[@KarolaTea]

Thank you for explaining these so well :D I recently tried to do a super short animated clip (hand drawn) as a fun little project, and your videos certainly helped, and partially inspired me to try it in the first place :)

[@morbid1.]

There is a ton material about basics of animation... I wish people with experience like you made videos for advanced animators.

[@Felipe-hl6nh]

I've been waiting for this reboot Also when that DS3 enemy did a thrust attack my first instinct was to dodge into it for Mikiri

[@timothymclean]

So what you're telling me is, play Sekiro _after_ Souls but tell my favorite KZbinrs to do it the other way around.

[@Felipe-hl6nh]

That's evil Do it Also make them play the original dark souls 1 last so they descend into less and less playable games

[@ChrisOfTheDead]

Keyframes and the Maya graph editor are my best friends.

[@johnnyD_166]

LOL dude "Beneath the Mask" is my phone's ringtone, so when it started playing in the background @1:57 from silence, I jumped to attention

[@gophermanX]

Hey Dan, do you think you could take a look at Absolver for a video? It's kind of a fighting game but they do some really cool stuff with building your own combos and strings out of individual moves and the way they animate them linking together is really well done.

[@laliicek7220]

Great video, i really hope we can see the other 11, for those , like me , starting to animate its very helpfull. Ty.

[@nividixen6860]

Man, this channel is underrated

[@SilverArrow23]

Loving this reboot. You are getting better and more concise in explaining these concepts, but for when you get to new principles that you have not explained yet, maybe please make the videos a bit longer so we might understand the concept a bit more thoroughly(12-15 mins instead of 10 - a couple more minutes can go a long way). Other than that I absolutely love these videos, please keep making more! You are amazing!

[@Foreignerlin91]

I notice the SOTC and I see that you’re a man of culture

[@mr.fluffyface431]

Have I slipped back in time? I could have sworn you had already done this as well as the Squash and stretch one.

[@the-mush]

KZbin: _What's this sorcery?_ * Dan appears from the distance with a new 12 principles of animation video on timing * ... Dan: _KZbin, i've come to bargain_

[@FredericoLohmannJr]

Third time's the charm. 😄

[@SystemBD]

You can say he already has the timing down.

[@tomas95go]

This kinda explain what I thought when I was watching the KoF XIII supers and the KoF XIV supers, timing and the way of animation can express anything, in the case of KOF XIII the supers and transitions are way too smooth and make you feel like God or euphoria when you can perform a hard combo. I was hoping you did a reference to KOF or some SNK game, back in the '90 the use to have one of the best animations of the market. I'm not even an animator but I love this channel.

[@TheFartsandCrapsShow]

Liked and subbed! This was so beautiful, dude.

[@Dlo2018]

2:11 so i see you have a more hip hop version of "Beneath the Mask". Where did you find that?

[@NewFramePlus]

There should be links to all of the tracks in the description if you want to hear the full thing! Unless I missed one, which I hopefully didn't. :P

[@Dlo2018]

@@NewFramePlus thanks guy. Also I'm a new fan of yours. I'd love a break down on warframe animations. You could do a whole series on that lol

[@-ism8153]

I saw Alan Becker's video on the 12 Principles of Animation, and I'm really excited to see your take on it!

[@Sketchy_Dood]

Now I can’t wait to see the other 11 principals videos

[@neverhelios]

Can it be 10? Spacing isn't developed so idk

[@Sketchy_Dood]

HeliOS spacing and timing are taught as one as he said so it wouldn’t count as 2

[@DanteYewToob]

Timing and Spacing are intrinsically linked in animation huh? Almost as if they were some sort of... singular entity... like... I dunno.. Time-Space.. or Space-Time! Animation is based in physics, that are rooted in an important space-time fabric that makes up their reality, and only really exist once they are observed... hmm.. Animation is quantum physics confirmed. My anime Waifu is absolutely just as real as I am! Science confirmed it! A guy on KZbin would never lie to me! I gotta go tell Froppy the great news!

[@jamesniosi7239]

Very excited for the next 11

[@endermage77]

Well. It took you a couple years, but *you did it Dan!*

[@roopehavu]

Loved the video and the Persona 5 background music