Digital Foundations: Intro to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Suite

Chapter 19. Pacing

Frames from the final animation created during this chapter.

The formal design relationships we have created in still com-positions also exist in animations. Repetition, symmetry, asymmetry, balance, and rhythm become enveloped in a new formal element: time. In the visual examples, forms are reused to create unity between different moments in the animation. At the same time, transformations of scale, color, and value create contrast, which helps differentiate moments in the animation. Early experimental animation kept time visually with abstract shapes. Pacing is key to Hans Richter’s film Rhythmus 21 (1921). (Fig 19.1) With the ...