Why is 'Choppy' Animation Better?

With the release of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, we've never been closer to completely blurring the line between 2D and 3D animation. Why does "choppy" animation work so well, and why are animators so excited about it?
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Animation by David Oneacre

Music by Jayfoo

Assistance and Support by Melanie Tan

(Disclaimer: Around 6:02, I used some ad-libbed audio, so my translated script differs from what I handed for translation and I used Google translate to fill in two lines. If they're lacking here, that would be my fault, not the translator. I believe in quality, paid translations, so thanks for understanding!)

Gimberly uses kamone416's toon shader, which you can find here:

Additional Audio:
"Lost Grace Discovered" sound effect from Elden Ring
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0:00 Intro
0:13 Animation FPS is not Video Game FPS
0:32 Ones, Twos, and Threes
1:34 Nothing Is Better
2:51 Between Traditional and Digital Animation
4:11 Fighting The Computer
6:01 Closing Thoughts
6:39 Outro

[doodleyd]

Thanks for the big response to this video, and the 500k! It’s been interesting to hear everyone’s perspectives on this. I want to make it known that my videos are first and foremost for non-animators, so I’ve been trying to hear out any constructive comments from that audience.

While I stand by everything laid out in this video, for the past couple days I debated doing a follow-up video to explain/rebuke certain points in-depth. But I think it’s more constructive to just make it a pinned comment instead, so this is that. Sorry for the wall of text, (“happy for you tho/sorry that happened/etc. etc”) but if you disagree with this video, I encourage you to at least read any of the points that interest you.

Two biggest ones:

Arc System Works:
I had a Guilty Gear clip in here (at 5:16 I think) but I exchanged it for 3D anime clips to focus purely on film and TV. It can be tempting to put clips of things in just because you enjoy them, but they don’t always fit – since I already want to do a video on fighting game animation and had mentioned Kinuko’s GDC talk, this was one of those times. But yes, Guilty Gear’s style is impeccable and they were very early to this method, if not the earliest. I think video games in general are pretty early to a lot of artistic styles that have eventually cropped up in TV and film, which is something I eventually want to talk about.

Nausea/Discomfort:
So, a few people specifically pointed to characters moving at a different framerate than the background creating nausea/discomfort. I can understand that. I mentioned in the video that this whole style is an experiment and maybe things evolve, 5:16. Maybe that aspect gets ditched, or refind, or whatever. I like it, but I get why it can be weird.

But aside from that, I want to at least rebuke or question: why do you not feel the same way about stop motion?

What about 3D that’s so convincing it looks like stop motion, ala The Lego Movie? That film has characters moving at different rates from the rest of the scene. Or stop motion with digital effects at a different framerate, ala Paranorman? If the main issue is that the images have depth, yet are still held on 2s and 3s, how is any of that different from more obvious 3D?

I don’t say this as a “gotcha, ” I’m genuinely curious as to what the disconnect is for people. Maybe it's because those films are creating more cohesive, steady images vs something like Puss in Boots and Spiderverse, which really push it. I can get that. But overall, it just seems like people are used to 3D images moving at a smoother rate due to video games. All these methods – 2D, 3D, and stop motion – are just ways of creating flat 2D images. All 2D animation principles apply.

Whenever anyone tries to explain why it makes them uncomfortable they almost always use a word like “laggy” or compare it to video games. Again, if you feel nauseous from this style, that’s fine. 5:16 is for you. But as that timestamp says, it’s an experiment. It’s brand new. Have you considered that you're just not used to it yet?

A lot of people are just as excited as me to see it considering this video stands at a 99.4% like to dislike ratio. Maybe you should try watching more stuff in this style, let your eyes adjust to it, and see how you feel afterwards.

Some other dumb stuff that I’d put in a followup video:
- 60fps Footage: I also had a short clip around 0:30 that took 60fps DMC5 footage and crunched it down to 24fps to demonstrate that when a clip isn’t animated with a lower framerate in mind, it looks properly choppy. But I didn’t want to talk about games for too long, so I took it out. I kinda wish I didn't.
- 24fps Games: From my own hazy childhood memory I'm fairly confident that a number of PS3 games were specifically developed with 24fps as a target, but the few I was thinking of are indeed 30fps. (Uncharted, The Last of Us, etc.) That's what that section is referring to. There was an entire meme with the PS3 about "gaming at a cinematic 24fps." Anything else is splitting hairs on the silliest part of the video.
- White Flashes on Impact: This has been the weirdest series of comments I’ve received, that the white flashing in DBZ and other anime is to censor the impact. If you’ve heard this, can you tell me where you heard it? The footage I’m using is the original Japanese DBZ cut and it has Frieza getting cut in half, so I highly doubt it’s a censorship thing.

Thanks for reading if you did.

EDIT: One more thing. I stand by the title of this video. I love smooth animation and even mention this in the video, but part of my motivation for the title is that I believe this trend is better for the industry overall. It puts more control into the artists' hands and has a ton of potential. Hence the latter half of the video. Just in case you were wondering!

[empty_nam]

you animate on less frames because it looks good, i animate on less frames because im lazy. we are not the same

[patchet]

*Doodley: *talks about how choppy animation is better**
*Also Doodley: *animating his character on 86 frames per second**

[Crystal_]

Spiderverse showed the animation industry that there was success to be found in letting artists go off and make something unique and stylized

[NCHProductions]

in the end of the day, there will still be tech bros who will force interpolate 2D or "choppy" animation to "60" or "100" FPS and declare them to be much better than the original.

[JayPig]

It's definitely about finding a balance between animating on 2s and 1s. Puss in Boots The Last Wish looked amazing. I love how they switched to a lower framerate when heading into high-action scenes.

[Mayyde]

you did an amazing job with this, very well explained.
i love animating with 3s and 2s the most. varying the framerate is so fun and such an interesting topic people always seem to forget. many people just assume every second has 24 drawings, but the truth is that a fair bit of animation productions choose not to use 1s for every scene. ive had plenty of comments on my high framerate animation tests where people say "48fps animation at 5 seconds wow that means theres almost 300 drawings in this!" when the real number of drawings is less than 1/3rd of that.
animation fans and enthusiasts have this odd obsession with the sheer number of drawings in any animation, but always seem to gloss over the quality and placement of drawings instead. thinking arbitrary amounts of drawings is as important as the animation itself, when the reality is that a lot of animation runs at varying framerates that are meticulously planned out by the animator, and we as animators are not strictly bound to a single idea of "always on 1s/2s/3s" in our works.
its funny, and i wish more people understood about animation

[inkerJ]

For some reason, the term fighting the computer makes me think like getting up and smacking it around in order for it to do what you want

[drfoto]

Your two examples of arrow animation (Mulan and Mononoke) are actually a great illustration of a point I never see brought up in discussions about animation, and that's the quality of the decisions made for the final result.

There is a lot of talk from animation artists on YouTube when it comes to animation, and it's usually the same bullet points all the time. You have the quick listing of how animation is 24 fps usually and the explanation of animating on 1s, 2s, 3s, etc. This is followed up by the assertion that it's always the animators intent and so forth. Rarely, if ever, have I heard anyone go into why and what the actual intended outcome is of these decisions.

Puss in boots 2 is a great example where I both love the "choppy" animation at times and hate it at other times. It's the same style, probably the same frame rate at those points, and yet they manage to give two different impressions.

This brings me back to the examples of the arrow shot animation. The two examples greatly illustrate the positives of both decisions, especially in the context of when they are used. In Mulan, the intent is to actually show how the arrow flies and how it interacts with objects. The arrow is the star of the scene, and it's all about displaying a complex feat of skill. This is a scene that, while it wouldn't fit, you could actually have made slow motion for a similar impact.

When it comes to the scene in Mononoke, it's not about the path of the arrow, but the impact of its destination. The scene is tense, fast, and snappy, and the animation of the arrow follows suit. The shot is meant to snap the deer awake, so it can hurry out of the way of danger.

The only commonality between those shots is that they involve a bow and arrow being shot.

The discussion should be on how well the different styles are applied and not so much the styles themselves, in my opinion. I haven't seen Spiderverse, but I have seen some clips of it, and I'm not a fan of the "choppy" animation in many of them. Since I haven't seen the whole thing in context, I obviously can't make a judgement on the whole movie, it's just that the clips I have seen do more to dissuade me from seeing it.

Lastly, it is possible to make high framerate animation look snappy and weighty, but that takes more than just deciding to make more frames, and I feel just the same about taking frames away.

[SuperJGamer]

Doodley is the best at explaining animations and animation choices, and I hope he has the best experience on this platform

[JNSStudios]

As much as I love tweening in Flash, there’s just something about converting that tween into an on-twos movement that makes it feel more visually appealing

[elijahkeay]

I love the cowboy bebop example. That shows main intro fight scene is just such a good introduction to the entire show and its style. Love the animation of it

[noidea]

3:39 never forget what Lord Hater said:




''ANIMATION IS SO HARD! ANIMATORS DESERVE MORE CREDIT AND RESPECT!''

[David_Burt_Art]

Stepped animation in 3D leads to a lot of interesting challenges. The camera always stays on 1s, even when a character is on 2s. This leads to issues like strobing, when the character only moves with the camera every other frame. Try going through Puss in boots or Spiderverse frame by frame and you'll see how they fix this. The characters move with the camera even when they are on a held pose, sliding along the ground. Looks super strange flipping through frames, but works perfectly in motion. This is part of "fighting the computer". It's completely unintuitive, hard to program for, but essential to this animation style.

[The_Mops]

My theory is that Spider verse showed everyone that animating that way won't end in failure, and will even be immensely praised :) it showed companies and animators that it's safe to do it

[RazzIe.N.DazzIe]

ok but like the way his collar bone clips through his head if hilarious 5:08

[paledrake]

Ultimately it's not better, it's different. But because it's different and rarer, it feels fresh.

[NotSoGenesiz]

thanks for teaching people the nuances of animation! ESPECIALLY how the “choppy animation” isn’t a financial desicion and instead is a artistic decision. if only it was as easy as people thought it was lol

[internetrules]

1:01 it's really cool how the background and foreground, the stationary objects, are at a higher FPS than the action objects/moving things. i guess it still gives a sense of motion in a more efficient for the animators manner. EDIT: ok now he explained that it also adds more weight to the animation, it lets you see what the animators wanted you to see.

[NinjaMan]

I never saw Into the Spider-verse, so this style was new to me. When I first saw it I was a bit confused, but then it really started to click for me. When the smooth animation slipped into choppy, I was clued in that we are entering an action scene with a lot of things going on at once. The slower, more choppy animation gave everything more weight and let me appreciate details that I never could have seen without replaying the scene.

I fell in love with the style because it wasn't an overload of data, and it let me just enjoy the scene rather than struggle to keep up.