Animation as Visual Music

This article was written by Carlos Baena, an animator who previously worked on Cars, Ratatouille and Toy Story 3. He explains throughout the article on how music is strongly related to animation in more than a few ways. The first example he gives is how animation relates to timing. Like how a note can be timed perfectly to a tune, movement in a character can be timed perfectly in animation. And it's interesting to put the two together, to see animations timed to music. The next point he makes is about Pacing. This basically meaning in music how fast the tempo is in a song. But in animation how fast or slow the animation is. And in animation how fast timing can change can create a jarring/humorous effect. Next is Repetition. Any one who's made a walk cycle knows how this relates to animation. But it also relates to music too as there's many parts in music where staffs are repeated over and over again. Repetition is all part of rhythm, and that definitely plays a big part in Animation. The next point he makes is on posing. This meaning acting out body positions to represent different sounds or instruments. This especially works in cartoons as you can really draw any body movement you want with complete free range. The example they use with Bugs Bunny is a great example on the exaggerated look. And the last example he talks about is about using music as inspiration for a character. This is about how you can visualize a character in your head when listening to music. It's interesting to hear different music and thinking of which characters pop up in your head. I thought this article was pretty good. I think music is defiantly a big part of inspiration in animation. All the ways listed can lead to very good animation.