It is a basic principle of animation known as the smear frame — used to show high speed movement. It’s basically frames where a character or object is stretched in the direction they move. This is what allows things like punches, spins, or quick movements to look smooth and invisible.
The Purpose of Smear Frames
Smear frames provide an essential contribution to animation by connecting spaced keyframes, mostly in case of fast motion sequences. Else rapid animations will appear jittery or jerky. Animating an object and stretching or blurring that object across several frames will give the appearance of motion blur in real life.
How Smear Frames Are Used
This is a process called stretching or distortion and one of the most obvious types of smear frames. This exaggeration is supposed to replicate the blur of real speed in reality.
Multiples Technique: This one also involves copying portions of the part or character in a single frame to suggest movement from one place to another across multiple. This can add emphasis to punches or quick types movements.
Historical and Modern Use
The smear frame itself made its greatest impact during the golden age of animation, with animators like Tex Avery and Chuck Jones turning it in their rule book. This technique is seen often in many Looney Tunes fast-paced comedic shorts, as well as the animation of other countries; especially from around the 1940s to 1960s.
Smear frames are still pretty classical in modern animation, mainly used in 2D or anime right. In certain 3D animations they can be employed to imitate quick motion and still have the animation appear smooth.
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