/ani/ - Animation

Getting Started
When learning animation there are certain guidelines you have to follow before you begin.
Rule 1: You must learn how to draw from life before you can animate.
The word animate comes from the Latin verb animare, meaning "to make alive or to fill with
breath." Animation is essentially all about change and bringing things to life, everything changes from frame to frame. But how can you make things come to life, if you can't draw from it. So I suggest learning how to draw before you are ready for the vast realm of animation. In the wise words of Richard Williams, you don't know what you don't know.
Rule 2: HAVE FUN
When it comes to animation you have to be both technical and creative simultaneously. You have to know why you want to learn animation first, it can be to tell a story, make things move, to express oneself, to entertain others or because you simply love to draw. Animating requires you to be passionate about what you're doing. Without that drive, you'll be impatient and incapable to be creative and let's be honest here; No one has the patience to complete a task if they don't even enjoy doing what they're doing. So have fun and be loose, I promise you that your work will improve tremendously.

Lesson 1: Tools and Medium
Prior to my experience, the medium you use isn't as important as one would think.
There are many mediums of animation such as:
-Traditional (Paper and pencil)
-Puppet [Nightmare Before Christmas]
-Live Action
-Cutout [Southpark]
-Computer
-3D
-Mechanical (Animatronics/Puppets/etc.)
-Much, much more

So there are lots of mediums with animation. But these animations are not limited to just one medium! You can mix and match these mediums together and get a nice look and feel.

Lesson 2: Timing and Spacing.
Part One: The Difference
So the best way to explain the difference between timing and spacing is to use the bouncing ball techniques which is a standard to learning the principles of many key essentials when animating.
What is timing?
Timing is the action and rhythm of when something happens. The first pic shows demonstrates when the ball hits the floor and makes a 'boink' every time it hits a floor. It's knowing when something happens at the exact moment.
What is spacing?
The spacing is the distance between how close and far apart the object is in a space of time. For example, (pic 2) things going in a fast pace have far distances apart from each frame and slow paces have small distance apart from each frame.
Timing and Spacing together, as one.
So timing and spacing have to work together well or it won't work at all. To make it work together, you must work on the timing first so that each movement are in a correct space of time so you have a point A to B to work with. Then use the spacing with the frames/time you have to make the animation fluent.