timing: The essence of all animation is timing. How we create the illusion of life through images is totally based on the timing applied. “On screen” time is simply the amount of time an action is visible on the screen. “On screen” time is determined by the number of frames used to represent an action. Frame rate is only the tool we use to know that we need a specific number of frames to represent a specific amount of “on screen” time. How much screen time we want to show for an action is its speed and that translates to some specific number of frames. The more frames used to represent an action the slower the action appears and conversely the fewer frames used to represent an action the faster the action appears, because it is on the screen less time. You don’t change the frame rate to control the speed of an action. You change the number of frames used to represent the action.

Technically, the two major factors involved in timing an action are speed and distance, also often referred to as spacing. The speed of an action is determined by the number of frames that are used to represent that action. Distance or the spacing is the amount of change between those frames.

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