As developers we spend a lot of time making things move. Animation is the art of motion, and even outside the realm of timelines & traditional animation we can learn a lot about how to make movement more appealing by studying the lessons animators have learned over the decades the artform has existed.
Many of the systems we implement as developers control movement in a way that doesn't lend itself to being easily defined by animators and designers on the team. Things like character & camera controllers, the movement of AI controlled and procedurally generated entities, and other 'programmatic' movements benefit from a working knowledge of animation when designing and implementing these systems. That knowledge helps whether you're on a team with animators and designers who will want to have an expressive system that allows them to tweak and polish to create the motion they want, or on a smaller team where being able to make those movements appealing yourself can greatly enhance the character and 'feel' of your game.
The 12 Principles of Animation were devised by the lead animators at Disney and represent their combined person-centuries of animation experience condensed into simple guiding principles for how to make motion look & feel great. This session looks at these 12 principles through the lens of games programming, showing how these principles can be applicable in many contexts and applying them to your code can help make more expressive, dynamic, and appealing movement in your games.
Maya is a freelance developer & tech-artist with more than 7 years of industry experience and has lead development on multiple award winning & nominated games.
