A sequence of five frames from The Dover Boys at Pimento University. Frames 2–4 are smear frames, those being elongated inbetweens.

In animation, a smear frame is a frame used to simulate motion blur. Smear frames are used in between key frames.[1] This animation technique has been used since the 1940s.[1] Smear frames are used to stylistically visualize fast movement along a path of motion.[2][3][4]

History

While smear frames had been used sparingly in the 1930s, the most notable, major use of smear frames was in the 1942 film The Dover Boys at Pimento University.[3] The nature of smear frames helped to reduce production costs of other motion blur techniques used in earlier cartoons.[3]

Developed for 2D animation, smear frames did not evolve much even with the emergence of CG animated films in the 1990s.[3] The more sophisticated, rigged style of animation for CG films was not conducive to smear frames at the time.[3]

The earliest notable use of smear frames in a 3D computer animated film was 2012’s Hotel Transylvania, in which Genndy Tartakovsky's traditional design philosophies were used to guide the 3D shots.[3]

Types of smear frames

Elongated inbetween

Movement of the subject between key poses by distorting it over 1-2 frames.[2][3][4] The term first emerged in reference to this type of smear in Richard Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit.[3]

Multiples

Duplication of the subject or parts of the subject along a path of motion.[2][3] Does not distort the subject and is used for repeated actions like walk cycles.[3][4]

Smear frames in different media

While developed for 2D animation, smear frames can be seen in other mediums that employ the use of animation.

In 2D animation

• Chuck Jones’ Roadrunner.[3]

• An example of a smear can be found in Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit.[4]

• The Legend of Korra combined slight smears with motion blur to emulate a fast motion without distorting the realistic art style.[3]

• Animated with 2D puppetry, YouTube’s Super Science Friends used multiples as to not distort their models.[3]

In 3D animation

• 2012 Hotel Transylvania employed the use of both elongated in-betweens and multiples, depending on the motion of the shot.[4]

• 2014 The Lego Movie used Lego shapes in the same color as the character to simulate a smear.[3]

• 2018 Into the Spider-verse used squash and stretch with overlayed 2D effects to create smears.[3]

In Stop-motion

• Laika’s ParaNorman used 3D printed head replacements that were modeled in various smear shapes.[3]

• Wallace and Gromit used multiples to visualize quick action.[3]

In Video games

Much like 3D animation, smear frames were rarely seen in early video games due to the lack of power in gaming systems.[3] Visually stylistic games with fixed cameras were more likely to have smears.[3]

• 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog smeared Sonic’s feet in his run cycle.[3]

• Crash Bandicoot used multiples and blur on Crash’s spin. According to Lendenfeld, this is the first notable use of smears in a 3D game.[3]

• 2001 Jak and Daxter used elongated inbetweens, though they were limited in how far they could distort the model.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Santucci, Walter (2009). The Guerrilla Guide to Animation: Making Animated Films Outside the Mainstream. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 49. ISBN 9780826429858.
  2. 1 2 3 Drury, Matthew R., "Creating 3D Smear Frames for Animation" (2016). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 348. https://dc.etsu.edu/ honors/348
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Lendenfeld, Christoph (2018). Smearframes in Video Games (PDF). Masterabeit Digital Arts in Hagenberg. pp. 1–26.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Carter, Chris (October 2019). "Exaggerated Cartoon Style Motion In Hotel Transylvania" (PDF). International Journal of Computer Graphics & Animation. 9 (4).
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