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Animation Secret: Animating to Music

Ferdinand Engländer

December 26, 2011

Sooner or later every animator will have the fun tas of animating something  in sync to music. !o

matter if your character is su""osed to deliver a fine dance performance or subtly bobs his head,

there are some tricks and rules that really can hel" you to create a catchy and interesting

animation#

The beat rules!

$he obvious thing first% The beat of your song defines your character’s movements.  &s long as

the s"eed of your song doesn't change, the beat is a fixed reoccurring interval that has to be

re"resented by visual highlights in your animation#

n the beat your character goes into a hit position ( a s"ecial rhythmic event )lie cla""ing his

hands, maing an im"ortant dance ste", *um"ing, shifting his weight u" and down or from one side

to another etc#+# ff the beat your the character "re"ares for the net hit "osition )e#g# builds u"

momentum to cla", to *um" etc#- or is in a breadown "osition between two eyframes+#

"n the end the visual hits should be # $ % frames earlier than the actual beat but never one

frame later! .sually you would animate eactly to the beat and then shift it a few frames when you

are done# /t really im"roves it $ry what loos best for every individual animation#

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$here are some tra"s you will have to face when you wor with certain beats on certain frame rates#

ore about that later 3et's continue with some basic guidelines for your animation first#

ne more time& 'ycles

4ecause the beat is a re"etitive event we can also use re"etitions in our animation# !o one cla"s his

hands *ust once# (se loop)able cycles, where the last frame leads to the first frame again ( as long

as it's interesting# $his way you have more seconds filled on the screen, but less frames to draw

/f you really don't want your audience to see any re"etition )in a classic dance for eam"le+, you

could *ust reuse half of your cycle and then go into different one# $his is often done in Disney films#

Somehow we only notice the re"etition if it ha""ens two whole times#

5ee" in mind% 'ycles *ith an even number of frames are easier to animate, because you have a

frame in the eact middle for the breadown )or accents if you divide the s"ace between the ey and

the breadown+#

(p and +o*n!

hatever you let your character do, the most im"ortant thing is to wor with the u"s and downs of

the whole body# /t is not so much actual dance ste"s that mae your character get the rhythm ( it's

his overall shape expanding and contracting# 7n the beat you can either drop the *eight or

make the character push himself up# Set visual contrasts by moving the body and arms u" and

down, left and right, streched and bend

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Make it snappy

&n im"ortant thing, es"ecially for broad movements% ,et the character snap into the hit position.

8ou should not ease into it# $he "hase between the beat is often filled with antici"ation, allowing

the character to *um" into the beat with a huge amount of energy#

&lso ee" in mind that you don't need to "ut the ey between two hit "ositions in the eact middle#

$ry different a""roaches de"ending on what you are animating%

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-inding the beat

3et's go bac to the beginning# 4efore you start animating you have to figure out the rhythm of

your music# 8ou really need it to be eact or else, after some seconds, the animation will loo out of

sync, even when it a""eared "erfect at first "f you don’t have any other tool you can find out the

beat by trial and error. 9uess the beat, "ut a symbol in a fied interval and see if it flashes in sync

to the music# /f it is too fast, increase the interval- if it is too slow, decrease it#

/n the internet you can find tools *here you can tap on your keyboard to the rhythm of a song

and determine the beat this way# :owever, this might not be very accurate# 8ou should only

analye the short snippet you are actually using, because the beat might change throughout the

song#

The big problem is that the beat can be bet*een frames.  /t's "retty easy to animate if you have a

fied beat, lets say every 12 frames# 8ou *ust "ut your hit "osition there, a nice breadown or

antici"ation in between and your dance cycle is ready to go# 4ut this is a very ideal condition# 3et's

have a loo at an eam"le where the beat lies between the frames# :ere we have a metronome

click on a fixed speed /0#1 bpm2%

/f we "lace our hit "osition every 0# frames it’s too early after a while# /f we "lace it every 03frames it *ill come to late# /n this eam"le the beat comes eactly every 0#4 frames#

8ou can still animate it though, you 5ust have to alternate the space bet*een the beats % hit after

12 frames, hit after 1; frames, hit after 12 frames, hit after 1; frames and so on# 7f course, this gets

a little awward to deal with# /n a <uic cycle you would have one frame less for half of the motion

 ( one frame that could be an im"ortant u", down or breadown "osition#

 

Avoid problems by preparing the music

henever you have the o""ortunity to influence the music, you should take care that the beat

hits *hole frames# usicians, of course, usually don't calculate in frames# $wo worlds meet here%

e ( the animators ( need to now the beats "er frames, so that we can "ut our hit "ositions on the

correct frame# usicians, though, wor in beats "er minute )b"m+# /n order to bring these worlds

together, / am afraid we need to use math% /f you wor with #4 fps, one minute has 0411 frames 

)60 seconds the frame rate% 2= f"s+# So to calculate which frames the beat is on, you divide the

4"m of your song by 1=00 )ee" in mind that you get different values for other f"s rates+# $his

shows that a beat with 120 would indeed awwardly hit every 12,= frames )120>1=00+# 8ou should

tell your musician to use 12= b"m instead ( it is almost the same s"eed and the beat hits every 12

frames )12=>1=00+# See%

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8ou don't wanna do the math? $hat's fine e have a nice list for you with the 4eats "er Frames

for various 4@ on different frame rates#

$hat's <uite a dry theory, but you need to be eact here Sometimes it might be hel"ful to get a click

track  from your musician )or mae one yourself+ where you hear a metronome clic very loudly#

8ou can see these clics in the waveform diagram that an animation "rogram dis"lays in thetimeline#

/ have to em"hasiAe it again% 6ou need to kno* on *hich frames the beat is on $ other*ise your

animation *ill never look right )es"ecially if you have to deal with a tricy beat between frames+#

/t would be a shame if you invested hours into creating a cool dance cycle, and it goes out of sync

after a few seconds#

&s for the other ti"s and trics in this article% These are

 5ust guidelines giving you a basic point to start *ith. Feel free to alter them# $ry your own ideas,

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e"eriment with timing and "osing until your animation literally rocs# 7hat’s allo*ed is

*hatever looks good and groovy.

 !ow, "lease let me now your e"eriences with animating to music and your feedbac to this

article in the comments#