Timing in animations, the common quirky movements we sub-consciously make in life. Rubbing the nose, the polite cough during a conversation or the body language of interaction. These are things that I would like to categorize and make a library of. Natural movement is too static without something to make it "Natural". What would help the most is some ways to smooth the flow of movement for low frame rate short clips.(Between 15 and 20fps). My interest is in animated banners and active buttons for web art and design. This is basically a duplicate of a question I asked yesterday concerning my class project. Hermit

Hermit, when you're working at frame rates that short, those little movements get really tough to carry off well. They simply happen too fast to be captured at that rate. What you can do is shorthand them a bit and abbreviate them down, so they keep the illusion. But that's about the best you can do when you're at 15fps. And incidently, lip synch at that rate, while not impossible, is a real terror. Just a heads up.

These minor movements are essential for realism. I try to include them even at 12 fps. Whilst I agree it's difficult to go as far as a cough or nose rub, it is possible to include the gentle shifts of balance and adjustments we all make all the time. Okham's 'Naturalizer'script (check the archives) is a usefull tool for this. Personally, I create the main pose and then go back to add the finer movements - to everything! Incidentally, Mimic defaults at 12 fps. Then again all my animations end up on the web so file size is a huge factor, if you've got the luxury of a large file size then by all means go for more fps, it'll be all the smoother for it.

It seems I do have an interesting project then. The problem in using third party in this particular case is the honesty issue. The Tech School I am going to are careful to warn against plagiarism, plus the focus of the paper is the research. Your pointers have given me encouragement that it's possible, maybe my time wont be wasted after all. :)