How Can it be Moving if it's a Hold?

Here's an example of what CG looks like without the moving hold.

Pretty obvious that something went wrong, isn't there?

Now let's add a moving hold to that same move...

click to play AVI

Much better, no? This subtle bit of motion keeps the character feeling alive through the held pose.

Traditional animation didn't necessarily have moving holds because the natural "liveness" of the drawn line has enough to keep the drawn character from dying. A second factor is the frame rate. Typically 2d animation is a 12fps frame rate. This already has a built in abstraction of motion that allows hand drawn imagery to stop and be held for a number of frames without things feeling like they fell apart. If a held drawing needed some life, then the artist could always do a "trace back", where they'd redraw the image based on the previous one to keep the image alive during the hold.

Three Parts of a Moving Hold:

I see a lot of Cg animation where the animator tries to have a character exhibit a moving hold in a pose, but something still seems broken. That's because you can't just have a character move in just any old manner for a moving hold to work. There needs to be some measure of thought to the motion. If a hold isn't done correctly the character may end up feeling off weight, mushy or spastic, depending on the mistake. To help us get a handle on how to correct this, I've broken a moving hold into three basic parts. Amount of Movement, Variation of Energy and the Rule of Contrast.

#1) Amount of Movement

Too much movement in a moving hold and the animation is mushy. Too little and the character "hits and sticks" into their pose. The key is to understand and develop an eye for what looks right. There is no hard and fast rule to the amount, from an algorithmic approach. Here a good eye for motion and energy needs to be developed through the constant practice of life observation and animation practice. If you're looking for the easy answers on this one, well, you're out of luck. Here's an example of a moving hold that has a wee bit too much motion in it....

click to play AVI

Notice how it feels mushy and lacking in weight? The character is drifting into and out of things.

Now here's the opposite end of the spectrum, a character that has too little motion in the moving hold.

click to play AVI

Here the movement is insufficient to cushion the pose hit, the result is herky jerky animation that's a tad hard on the eyes. Like I said, there's no simple easy formula to plug in to get the proper amount of movement in a good looking moving hold. So just keep an eye on the movement to see if it feels too harsh or to mushy.

#3) The Concept of Contrast

For those with a more traditional animation background, a good way of explaining what a moving hold is would be to say that a moving hold is really just very long slow out. It may even be a long slow in, but generally I tend to think of it as a slow out. From an energy standpoint a moving hold is either a settle out from an energy release or a build up of energy to be released. The way to tell which approach to use is to look at your motion in context and the key indicator of which tack to take is what I call the Concept of Contrast.

A primary element that gives animation (as well as all art) some sense of energy is contrast. The more the contrast, the more striking the impact of the work. So with animation, the more contrast there is between pose, line of action, pacing, etc. the more the work will fire off those synapses in the mind of your audience. This can be taken to extremes for very edgy styles, but even when your goal is to produce animation that's "easy on the eyes" you should still look for ways to build contrast into your work to give the animation energy. So look at your poses and motion, marking in your mind the order of motion to see where and how you can build this contrast. The simplest way to build contrast from the moving hold of one pose to the hitting of the next pose is to push the moving hold the opposite direction of the pose that directly follows it. (you may need to read that last sentence again to get it). It's easier to show than type, so let's start with some examples...

These are 3 pose drawings for a motion. Notice how the character is going from up, to down and then back to up again. To know whether to build the energy up or to use a settle out of energy just see what comes next. So in this example we see that Pose-2 is a down pose compared to Pose-1, which is an up pose. Thus, the moving hold for Pose-1 should go in the opposite (contrasting) direction of Pose-2. So the moving hold for Pose-1 should be a build up because the very next one, Pose-2, is a down pose. Thus we build up into the extreme before we head into the down pose. This contrast gives that move some energy. Again, it's not easy to get down in text, so here's how it looks in motion. Pay attention to how the moving hold for Pose-1 rises up, building a greater sense of contrast from the down move of Pose-2:

click to play AVI

OK, looks good. But how do we know we should do it this way? What if we do it the other way? Well, take a look...

click to play AVI

It's a subtle difference, but notice how that move down into Pose-2 is now a good bit softer and mushy? It lacks punch. That's because we built our moving hold for Pose-1 going in the same direction as Pose-2. We didn't follow the concept of contrast. The result is a move from Pose-1 to Pose-2 that has been minimized in impact.

OK, so let's look at the Pose-2 moving hold. Pose-2 is a down pose, Pose-3 that follows is an up pose. So by the conept of contrast, the moving hold for Pose-2 will be a settle down, the opposite direction from the up move for Pose-3. Here's how it looks in motion...

click to play AVI

Again, what if decide to ignore this contrast and have the moving hold for Pose-2 flow in the same direction as the following Pose-3?

click to play AVI

Again, to the untrained eye it may seem subtle, but notice how it feels like something is mushy and wrong? He's anticipating his move and it steals energy from the move.

Let's look at the entire 3-pose sequence together using the concept of contrast to drive how we handle the moving holds.

click to play AVI

And once again for comparison, let's se the whole 3-pose sequence when we ignore the concept of contrast.

click to play AVI

The difference between the two is more pronounced the more we string these things together. Which is true for your scenes as well. When you consistently get the moving holds wrong you end up with a cumulative mushiness and weightless feeling to your work.

 

OK, to see how this same principle can be applied across many solutions, Here's a new example.

Here we have a character going from a down pose to an up pose, and then to an even higher up pose. Following our Concept of Contrast, we can surmise that a good way to approach the moving holds here is to have Pose-1 moving hold be a settle down because Pose-2 is an up pose. Then the moving hold for Pose-2 would also be a settle down because Pose-3 is yet another higher up pose. Here it is in motion...

click to play AVI

Of course the amount of settle is not uniform in every instance. You need to properly judge the amount of movement your holds need to build the appropriate amount of contrast. By way of comparison, let's look at this same sequence of moves if we don't follow the concept of contrast.

click to play AVI

See how the character is floating and seems weightless? This is because by moving our character without a sense of building contrast into the motion we are watering down the effect of all the moves.

I think by now you get the picture. A key way to make your moving holds feel like they have proper weight and direction is to take into account the following move direction and have the moving hold go in the opposite of that direction to build greater contrast. This gives your animation more energy.

This concept of contrast in the moving hold is generally applied to the up and down of a character's motion because gravity is the all pervasive energy force working on our characters. This same concept of contrast can work for left and right, forward and back, etc. Experiment with ways you can build this contrast into your motion on all levels, not just up and down. But if all you manage is to get it into your up and down then you're already much further along than you were before when you were just guessing your way through a moving hold.

Caveats: Just as in all areas of animation, there is a time when breaking the rule is the proper thing to do. Sometimes you will want to ignore the concept of contrast. Some moves and actions work better when you slowly build up into them. Just like sometimes twinning in pose and motion is actually desirable, sometimes lack of contrast is as well. But these are exceptions and not the general rule. Like all things in animation, the principles are just that. You can violate them, but only by purposeful decision and in the right manner. To ignore them out of spite is to be foolish.

Summary:

Til next month, keep animating, stay positive and God bless!