Animation walk through: Slime crouch squash

1. Anticipation Frame(s)

2. Climax (Squash Frame)

3. Recovery Frame(s)

4. Last frame

1. Anticipation Frame
Anticipation precedes climactic events. Otherwise, the significance of said climactic event is cut short!
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• Just like in a scary movie, the eerie creaking noises down the pitch black hall foreshadows a pop-scare. What lies within the dark hall is unclear, but the anticipation of it happening is made obvious to the audience. Without it, the climax has no context. Without context, there is no story to be told. No story means no experience for the audience to connect with (making it unenjoyable)!

When going back to this animation's example, you can see the eyes deforming a tiny bit. If the eyes had larger smears, it would foreshadow a more impactful squash (like a landing). If there was no vertical deformation the downward movement would feel too jerky & unnatural. This is why anticipation frames are so important. Nailing them within the context of the entire animation makes it 


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2. Squash Climax 
The climax of an animation is an event of peak energy & change. Since there is only one frame of build up, this climax frame has an 'ease-out' feel to it (quick acceleration & dramatically slows down near the end).

• Going back to the scary movie example, we can break down the significance of the jump-scare. The screeching howls tears the tension of the eerie ambience, the scar riddled face covers the dark hallway for a brief moment, and so on.. Have the climax in mind before anything else (worry about the anticipation & recovery frames afterwards)!

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The climax only occurs for a brief moment so don't be scared to radically deform your sprite. I see animators be lazy & stretch their previous frames as the climax frame. Please go above and beyond for the climax- you never know what weird shapes & colors will work out.



3. Recovery Frame
The climax has just occurred and all the energy has been expended. Now is the time to revert back to the 1st frame. 

How quickly do I move the recovery frame back to the 1st frame?
Consider how much 'energy' was put into the system. In this instance, not so much. So as a result, the recovery frames resemble an ease-in feel. The recovery accelerates slowly back to the initial frame.
Whereas with extreme energy in the system, the slime would bounce upward instantaneously. 



4. Last frame 
The last frame either LOOPS back into the first frame or stays static (like in this example).

Ill go into detail on this topic for animations that loop. But for the most part, a static last frame is straight forward. Keep the motion consistent till the end.

Final thoughts

Hope this animation walk through helped you in any way!!
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Until this asset releases, check out the page for more info. If there's any topic you'd like me to cover, please let me know via comments/social media!

If you're interested in downloading the early access files or would like to support me in any way, I'll have them posted on Patreon! 

Thank you for reading. Have a good one!
-j