There’s a style of ‘animation’ that has become widely used on YouTube where they take a still image of a character then make them sway back and forth repetitively. I guess it’s cheap to make but I find it distracting and weird, even a bit patronising, as if they think we need moving pictures to keep us interested. I think it started with Veritassium and spread to other edutainment YouTube channels and now I just flat out avoid channels which use it.
Anyone else find it annoying?
I can only imagine you could’ve found a better example because I don’t see anything annoying about that at all. It’s simply an inexpensive animation style where more elaborate animation isn’t necessary.
But that’s the point - why animate a scene that should be completely static? Do we really need the character to lol their head around like a bobble head for no reason? To be clear I’m being hyperbolic here - I realise in the grand scheme of annoying things this falls somewhere between ‘that speck of dust under your phone screen protector’ and ‘the noise grandma makes when she chews’.
Why do you think it “should” be static? Someone wanted to convey something with that movement or they wouldn’t have put the effort in. I mean, why animate anything at all?
Ideally it would be an animation of the character that actually moves intentionally. Failing that, just keep it still! I’m happy to stare at a still photograph or cartoon of someone for 30 seconds, I don’t need to watch them sway back and forth like a slow flailing tube man to keep me engaged!
People don’t stand perfectly still. It’s exaggerated in the animation, but it’s done to make them seem alive.
Yea pretty much, it’s the same as old video games that had the sprite loop through an animation when you were standing still, instead of having the character freeze in place
If everything was still, I might as well be flipping through a PowerPoint
I mentioned it in another comment but I feel like there’s an intentionality and craftsmanship to those animations. The speed and fluidity of the repetition adds character detail. The stuff that annoys me almost feels procedurally animated, like they take the body parts and then just sway them all back and forth with no real thought.
True! You and our other commenter friends all have very valid opinions! I think I may be in a minority who it annoys for whatever reason, a bit like how some people can’t stand chewing noises.