Principles of Animation: Arcs and Ease In/ Ease Out

Today, we’re going to learn Arcs and Ease In/Ease Out principles of animation. 

Get ready to animate a cute little frog jumping across the pond to get away from the hungry alligator!

Let’s get started and have fun!

Table of Contents

Learn the Basics of Animation at Creativity School!


Let’s begin the animation journey of your kids and enhance their creative potential this 2021!

Our award-winning artists give away free LIVE art classes from the Creativity School. 

Learn how to make animations, pop-up cards, draw ninjas, characters, paint, and much more!

What is the Arc Principle?

graphical representation of the arc

Arcs are the path from where your animation will happen. 

In principle, arcs are based on the fact that all living things move in curved motions and not straight.

What is Ease In/Ease Out?


Ease In/ Ease Out
(sometimes referred to as slow in/slow out) is the inclination of a subject/ object to gradually accelerate and then decelerate when moving from one position to another.

In doing animation, ease in is when you have more frames in the rest and anticipation position, 

On the other hand, ease out is when you have fewer frames after the main action before returning to a rest position.

Leaping Frog Animation


We’ll do the leaping frog animation to demonstrate arc and ease in/ease out principles for this activity. You’ll also be able to apply the previous principles that you already learned!

Let’s start!

Materials

  • 25 pieces of rectangular papers
  • 1 pencil/pen

Instructions

rectangles with blue numbers on upper right (1-25)

Step 1. Number the papers in the upper right corner from 1-25.

Drawing of reference objects for pond, lily pads, and alligator

Step 2. On each of the papers, draw the reference objects: pond, lily pads, and the alligator.

graphical representation of the arc

Step 3. Let’s draw the arc.


Sketch lightly since we will erase it later.

Key poses of a frog

Step 4. On a separate sheet of paper, draw the key poses of the frog.

Step 5. Let’s do the frames!

Frames 1-3 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 1-3

Frames 4-6 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 4-6

Frames 7-9 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 7-9

Frames 10-12 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 10-12

Frames 13-15 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 13-15

Frames 16-18 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 16-18

Frames 19-21 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 19-21

Frames 22-25 on how to do the leaping frog animation

Frames 22-25

GIF animation of a leaping frog cross a pond with an alligator

Step 6. Let’s try to flip it!

Arrange the papers in decreasing order from top to bottom, then flip.

Now you already know how arcs and ease in/ease out works in animation! Good work!

Tips for art-mazing success:

  •  If you have an iPad or a tablet, I highly recommend that you try FlipaClip. It is an awesome app that lets you do digital animation just like a flipbook!
  • Color your characters to make it more appealing.
  • You can add more in-between frames for an even smoother transition.

Animation is a lot of fun especially when you begin creating some cute cartoon illustrations, so keep going and have fun! Leave your comments below about how you’re doing your animations. 

Learn more about animation below: 

Squash and Stretch 

Anticipation and Pose-to-Pose.

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