Squash and stretch for me is a conversation of cause and effect, an interaction of forces between mass and make of mass.
Energy of force is invisible; visually, they can be felt through distortion of mass and speed of movement. When forms response and react to force, it also reveals condition, definition and feel of its physical qualities.
It is good to keep in context that this conversation is spoken through a set-physical-mechanic of motion pictures, projected at 24 fps.
In live-action, things appear in focus when projected, but when observed in freeze frame, shapes distorted and blur pending on degrees of speed.
This physical condition does relate to graphic nature of animation and is very interestingly linked. Surface texture of forms in motion is defined by the proportion between velocity of speed and amount of distortion.
Distorted form in accordance to speed creates a very fluid with an elusive texture to movements, like a magician’s hand.
Lesser distortion in relation to speed gives forms more clarity in motion, but less fluid with a strobe-like texture to movement when projected. (I supposed this would not be a problem should film is projected at much higher frame rate, but then one has to produce a lot more in-betweens).
The proportionate application of distortion in accordance to velocity helps define the motion styling of a particular animated universe.
One giant hurdle to overcome when taking the inner ‘feel’ approach is not to get catch up in aesthetic beauty of the single drawing; at time, a drawing can look rather odd and unappealing by itself, but it is critical to see of how it feels in motion.
I keep a constant reminder- anatomy might look awkward and broken in still frame, but this impression should not come across in motion.
For CG, motion blur is applied to help fluidity of movements; it is mathematic.
For hand-drawn, we rely on inner ‘feel’ and blur forms accordingly; since it is a ‘sense’ and not mathematically correct, it allows the animator to communicate more directly to viewers how he or she actually ‘felt’. It is this enhanced and amplified reality that is uniquely to hand-drawn.
(Above, an experimental scene I made when this awareness first came about; it is not perfect but did bring about much application possibilities since the design was more on a realistic end.)
