Animate a jump: anticipation and ease

A jump that only goes up and down looks like a lift. A jump that looks real does two more things, and both are among the rules Disney's animators found in the 1930s, the 12 principles of animation. Before it springs, the body sinks: that is anticipation, a small move the other way that tells the audience what is coming. And it never moves at one speed: it slows as it rises into the top and speeds up as it falls, which animators call slow in and slow out, or ease.

In this lesson you animate a jump with keys, the way animators key a rig in Blender or Maya: you put the playhead at a time, turn a part, and that is a key there. The move maker fills every frame between the keys. You work in passes, the whole body first, then the legs, then the knees, as professionals do. It takes about fifteen minutes, and at the end the jump is a move every character in your cartoon can do.

1. Open the editor

Go to jabbertoon.com/editor/. This is the one editor: Cartoon, World, Game and Forge are its tabs along the top.

2. Go to the Forge

Press Forge at the top. The Forge is where things are made: characters, things, lands and moves.

3. Start a new move

Press New move. A person stands ready in the middle, the parts you can move are on the left, and the timeline is under the person.

4. See it from the side

Open Seen from and choose Seen from the side. A jump reads best from the side, where you can see the knees bend.

5. Pick the whole body

Under Pick a part, press body up. It moves the whole body up and down, the way a jump does.

6. Go to where it gets ready

Press Later until the playhead says 0.3 s: three presses.

7. Sink before the jump

Move the Turn slider to −15. The body sinks before it jumps: that is anticipation, a small move the other way before the big one.

8. Go to the top of the jump

Press Later until it says 0.6 s: three more presses.

9. Rise into the air

Move the Turn slider to 60. Now the body is high in the air: the top of the jump.

10. Slow into the top

Open How it gets there and choose Slows down. Anything thrown up slows as it rises, so the jump eases into its top.

11. Go to the landing

Press Later until it says 1.0 s: four presses.

12. Land

Move the Turn slider to 0. The body is back on the ground: the landing.

13. Speed into the landing

Open How it gets there and choose Speeds up. A body falls faster and faster, so it speeds into the landing.

14. Now the legs

Press legs. The legs get their keys in a second pass, one part at a time, the way animators work.

15. Back to the crouch

Press Earlier until it says 0.3 s again: seven presses back.

16. Thighs forward

Move the Turn slider to 40. The thighs come forward as the body sinks.

17. To the top again

Press Later until it says 0.6 s: three presses.

18. Legs straight

Move the Turn slider to 0. The legs push straight as the body leaves the ground.

19. Now the knees

Press shins. A shin turns at the knee.

20. Back to the crouch once more

Press Earlier until it says 0.3 s: three presses back.

21. Bend the knees

Move the Turn slider to 70. The knees bend deep for the crouch.

22. Up to the top

Press Later until it says 0.6 s: three presses.

23. Knees straight

Move the Turn slider to 0. The knees straighten in the air.

24. Watch the jump

Press Play. The person sinks, springs up, hangs at the top for a moment and drops, again and again. The crouch is what makes the jump feel heavy and real.

25. Name it

Click the box at the top, The move's name: it says “My move”. Delete those words and type a made-up name, like Big jump.

26. Keep it

Press Use it. Big jump is kept in 🎒 My moves, in this browser, and every character can do it now.

Try it yourself

• More anticipation. Go back to the body's first key and make it −30: the crouch is deeper and the jump reads as bigger. Make it −5 and it hardly feels like a jump at all.
• A softer landing. Give the legs and the knees keys at 1.0 s, a little bent, and keys straight again at 1.3 s: the body takes the landing in its knees, the follow-through of the fall.
• Timing. Move the top of the jump later, to 0.8 s, and it floats; earlier, to 0.5 s, and it snaps. The same poses at different times read as a different jump: that is timing, another of the 12 principles.

The jump you kept plays in any cartoon: pick a character, press Do, then My moves. The same move can be made with blocks (the Blocks tab), and an AI can write it as steps, the move maker's own.