Timing, Spacing, Eases, Mass, and Arcs. No shortcuts -- dial in every movement using the Value Graph.
This is a heads-down production week. Your animatic and hero frames are locked. Now it's time to bring the first five principles to life through final keyframe animation.
The "beat" of your film. Establish the rhythm that drives every subsequent principle. Use the Value Graph to show the difference between uniform and dynamic spacing.
Demonstrate the difference between linear, ease-in, ease-out, and custom bezier curves. The Value Graph is your primary tool here.
Make the audience feel the weight. Heavy objects accelerate slowly and impact hard. Light objects float and bounce.
The wind-up before the action. Every major movement needs a preparatory motion in the opposite direction.
Natural motion follows curved paths. Nothing in nature moves in perfectly straight lines. Use motion paths to prove it.
Don't just set keyframes and hope for the best. Open the Graph Editor and sculpt every curve. The Value Graph is where amateur animation becomes professional motion. Spend 80% of your time here.
Even in the physics-heavy scenes, your Hero must maintain its personality. If the character feels "robotic" while demonstrating Timing and Spacing, you're missing the Appeal layer. Every scene should feel like a performance, not a tutorial.
Next week is a mandatory mid-project check-in. You will be turning in your project exactly as it exists. These are easy accountability points -- don't lose them by not submitting.