Animation Principles Presentation: Timing

Example #1: Surface Pressure (From Disney's Encanto)

Time Code: 00:02:00

Luisa is singing about having the weight of her family and town's burdens on her back, and therefore the entire sequence has very sharp and heavy movements. In this specific moment however, Luisa and Mirabel are floating through the air, literally weightless. Luisa's movements are slow and graceful, matching with the song's sudden serene and calm tone. Mirabel is also floating along slowly, but has more frantic movements, such as when she grabs her glasses from the air, since she's more confused by the musical number. Then, the girls grow heavy once again along with their environment as the music swells, as objects, larger and larger until it's the Madrigal house, fall very suddenly and quickly onto Luisa's shoulders. This represents Luisa's extreme stress throughout the song and emphasizes the metaphorical and literal weight of all the town's burdens and donkeys on her shoulders.

Example #2: Fuelled (Blood and Murder warning)

Time Code: 00:03:50

The sequence starts out slow and steady as the cat is collecting her thoughts. The scene cuts to a flashback of the cat and her husband doing a slow dance. The animation takes it time to show the dance to the music, as the husband embraces his wife to give a slow but soft kiss. It makes the scene feel serene and gentle, to let the viewer rest in the moment. Then, the scene shifts back to the present, with the music from the record still playing. The cat slowly opens her eyes and struggles to focus on the pig, who the cat frames into the memory of her husband's killer for a few seconds as he turns around in the same manner. Time has slowed down, and the sluggish movements continue. This time, however, they are not there to give the viewer a lull in serenity- they are there to build up a sense of dread. Whereas the slow dance before was natural and calm, the purposely slowed down scene feels uncanny and sluggish, as if time is coming to a halt to drag out the anxiety of the situation. Finally, the cat breaks the glass of the light and bolts towards the pig, all in a matter of a second. This is the climax of the scene, where the cat, viewing the pig as her husbands killer, breaks and murders the pig in order to get her gas. The slowed down framing returns immediately as the pig's cigarette falls from his mouth, as if he has fallen into the same anxious lull as the cat. Time returns to normal as the cigarette falls into the fuel and causes the gas station to explode.

Example #3: SIAMES- The Wolf Music Video

The girl kicks up her skateboard and slams it into the wolf very quickly, but the impact drags very slowly as the slam makes the wolf recoil and morph in shock. The girl's eye widens a little slowly to drag out the intensity and shock of the scene.