Smear frames

Smear Frames is one tool in the animators toolkit that is quite underestimated, it can really make your animation feel snappier and more polished at the same time. I was reminded of it by the clip that I posted two weeks ago of the Frame by Frames interview with Joe Bowers about some of the work he did for the movies Bolt and Tangled. He tells us about the influence that Glen Keane had on his shots and from what I saw a lot of it was exaggeration and smear frames. (If you haven't already seen the clip I'm talking about, you really should! It's awesome and  instructive at the same time. You can find it here: http://insearchofanimation.blogspot.nl/2012/10/tangledbolt-animation-breakdown-with.html.)

In my opinion the animation quality of Tangled is still above other animation films released after it, and if Glen Keane's advice on smear frames contributed to that quality difference, then it's definitely worth the time to learn about it, right!?

So I dug up and rewatched some videos that I had seen by Tony Bonilla who is an instructor at AnimSchool. It could have used more explanation on why he uses smear frames and what the effect is on the impression the animation leaves, but at least he shows his complete approach to it using latices. I still hope it helps :)

Part 1


Part 2