CHAPTER V - LINEAR MOVEMENTS AND FAIRINGS

Abstract

This chapter discusses linear movements and fairings. The commonest type of movement in animation is linear that is the movement is at a constant speed. To find out the amount to be moved each frame, all that needs to be done is to subtract the initial position immediately before the move from the final position and divide the result by the number of frames in the move. In the case of zooms, it is well known that a linear, constant speed movement of the camera produces an effect of change of speed on the screen, the speed appearing to be slow when the field is large and rapid when the field is small. The simplest explanation is that whereas the field width is changing throughout the zoom, the screen width remains the same. If a movement starts or stops or does both in the course of a scene, it is usual to insert fairings, that is, at the start, the movement is accelerated from rest to some constant speed and is similarly decelerated to rest at the end.