Animation Breakdowns & Thumbnails
A breakdown is a pose at the turning point of a motion path - often during the fastest moment of a motion. Poses are the animator's most important tool to define motion.
Beginning animators and students often wonder how the more experienced artists can create so much footage. What’s the secret? Well, two of the main techniques that might help you break through BOTH the quality and quantity barriers is the use of thumbnails and breakdowns.
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Thumbnails are, as the name suggests, a preliminary sketch of the scene, an single static image, in which you plan out the action, timing, arcs, etc.
Breakdowns are the large gaps between the keys. By placing key action on breakdowns, you can loosen up your animation, and offload a lot of your animation work onto an inbetween drawing – which is far easier than creating yet another key.
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For more information please see: https://www.angryanimator.com/word/2018/03/26/breakdowns-thumbnails/