Flash Animation 14: Gravity, Squash, and Stretch

Introduction to Squash and Stretch

Now we're going to move on to the squash and stretch portion of the lesson. Squash and stretch is a technique that takes the natural tendency for gravity to pull on the shape of things, and exaggerates it. Animation is about exaggeration; while realism is an amazing thing to accomplish, it's the "larger than life" look to it that draws us and makes animation so fun. So in order to exaggerate motion, animators will often take the primary shapes of things in motion, and "squash" them to add weight to upward or downward motion or impact, implication of pulling gravity--or "stretch" them with sideways motion or any indication of momentum and velocity. The greater the exaggeration, the greater the sense of the weight or velocity.

• Introduction and Setting Up the Scene
• Creating and Placing Our Object to be Animated
• Basics of a Bouncing Animation
• Extending the Bouncing Animation
• Animating the Pull of Gravity on the Bouncing Ball: Deceleration
• Animating the Pull of Gravity on the Bouncing Ball: Acceleration
• Introduction to Squash and Stretch
• "Squashing" the Bouncing Snowball
• Bouncing Snowball Completed