Motloop for indie animators
A tool earns its place by how it fits your workflow. This is how Motloop fits one.
A real workflow
Quick sketch
Open, pick the brush and start. No project wizards between you and the first line.
Onion skin
See the neighboring frames while you draw the next one, and keep your arcs honest.
Timing and spacing
Adjust the exposure blocks, play with a real clock and shape the spacing with speed curves.
Export to MP4
Export H.264 MP4 for social media and clients, with nothing else to install.
The craft, in five words
These are principles every animator knows. The app doesn't teach them; it gives you room to practice them.
- Timing
- How many frames an action takes decides what it means.
- Spacing
- The distance between drawings is what makes motion feel fast, slow, light or heavy.
- Arcs
- Living things rarely move in straight lines. Check your path frame by frame.
- Weight
- Show it with timing, spacing and how things react when they land.
- Anticipation
- A small move in the opposite direction tells the audience what is about to happen.
Words every animator knows
Motloop doesn't replace learning timing and spacing. It only clears the obstacles so you can practice them.
“You could say that animation is the art of timing.”
“Certainly for a film director, timing is the most important thing. For an animator, it's only half the battle. We need the spacing as well.”
“Most actions follow arcs. Generally, an action is in an arc.”
“Drawing should become second nature, so that the animator can concentrate on the actual actions and the timing of them and give the performance life.”
“If drawn 'classical' animation is an extension of drawing, then computer animation can be seen as an extension of puppetry — high tech marionettes. Both share the same problems of how to give a performance with movement, weight, timing and empathy.”
“It's a language of drawing. It's not a language of tongue.”
Read the book
This site teaches craft, it doesn't replace the book. The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams is the place to learn it properly. Buy the official edition from your usual bookseller. We don't publish any material from the book: no scans, no drawings, no pages.
Get one email the day Motloop launches
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