Before we begin, just want to let everyone know I’ve finished all my Cinema and Composition studies with full honors and I’m moving on to Art History, Form, and Humanities! Both are truly interesting topics, and I encourage you to pursue them on your own time to expand your knowledge of art! Animation is art, after all!

Hello Everyone! Welcome back to another Classy Critique! This time, we’re going to go more in-depth on a certain misconception within the community! I’ve always done stuff like this before, but instead of focusing on story types and characters, I’ll be providing to the reader a closer look at an important animation aspect! Though these terms don’t give their factual names enough credit, it will be easier for everyone to just recognize em off the bat! This Classy Critique is about…

TWEENING AND NON-TWEENING! (Non-Tween? No-Tween? Psycho Mantis? Whatever, I’m going to roll with Non-Tween.)

There’s a lot to talk about here, so I’ll get started!

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First off, what is non-tweening?

Non-tweening is the title for traditional animation within the community. As it turns out, the technically correct name of this is “Frame-By-Frame Animation.” Essentially, all movement, effects, etc. are all manipulated by the animator in his/her animation to give off the illusion of movement. Every single action, movement, lighting bolt, gunshot, you name it, all of it has been personally animated by the animator. Frame-by-frame animation has been predominant in the professional animation industry (as well as the animation industry in general), because while it may be more difficult to use, it allows an animator to have more control over what he/she creates, and it allows animators to personally ensure that their animations are smooth and without error.

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What about Tweening? What’s Tweening?

Here’s where the misconceptions start to show. The common community belief of what tweening is isn’t actually the factual answer for what tweening is, kinda like RHGs. Tweening is short for the term “Inbetweening,” which is an animation technique of inserting additional “key frames” between two frames of an animation to give off the illusion of smooth movement. Inbetweening is a considerably important factor in animation, and it is used all across the professional industry in order to guarantee smoothness and realistic movements. Here’s the thing though: Inbetweening is a process that is incredibly important, ESPECIALLY SO to people who use FRAME-BY-FRAME animation. Allow me to explain.

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Inbetweening is the process of putting additional frames between frames of an animation to create smoothness in movement. However, inbetweening is commonly used by Frame-By-Frame animators all the time in order for their animations to look smooth. If a person is animating on StickNodes “without tween,” they still are engaging in the process of Inbetweening if they add frames to make their animations appear smooth. Frame-by-frame animators are manually “tweening” their animations. This leads us to the real two options of Tweening in the StickNodes community; Manual and Software-generated Tweening. Manual Tweening is what Frame-By-Frame animators constantly do. Inputting additional frames for smoothness, but at the same time, every frame they input was animated by themselves. Software-generated Tweening, on the other hand, is Inbetweening done by a software. The software guesses where the movement will be based on the distances of appendages and objects between the two frames, and automatically inbetweens additional key frames for the illusion of movement. This results in a tween that is less controlled by the animator but more smooth in its movement.

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So, a summary. When you decide to choose “Tween is disabled” in StickNodes, you are choosing to animate in Frame-By-Frame animation, where you will animate the entirety of the work on your own without any software movement assistance. However, you can and most likely will still participate in Tweening while creating your project by adding frames to make your movements appear smooth to the audience. This decision gives you more control over how your animations turn out, and all the eye-candy that is visible within the animation is completely your own work. However, the cost of this is that it is more difficult to animate smoothly with Frame-by-frame than it is to animate with the assistance of a Tweening software. If you decide to enable “Tween,” then you are choosing to animate with the assistance of a software. The software will implement additional key frames between the normal frames of your animation, making the movement smoother and more realistic. Making animations smoother is now much easier, since the software does a fair amount of the work for you. However, the software isn’t always perfect. It predicts movement, but it doesn’t completely get it right all the time. Animators using Tween must adapt to the potential flaws of the software itself and any errors in spacing and judgement it may make. In addition, it is its own task to master a Tweening style that is satisfactory in its visual output. Of course, there are exceptions to all this with the use of “Non-tweened frames” in a tweened animation.

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“Tweening” via software assistance is considered a great tool for beginners, since it automatically makes movements smoother and introduces beginners to animation with greater ease. As an animator becomes more skilled and is more aware of animation techniques, it is often recommended to begin animating frame-by-frame without software tweening assistance, so that the animator can improve their prowess even further. Most professional animation studios require animators skilled with Frame-By-Frame animation and manual inbetweening, so mastering No-Tween on StickNodes is incredibly helpful if one seeks to pursue a professional career in animation. The professional field of animation has contained a mix of both styles. Software Inbetweening is particularly popular in the 3D department, and such software has become incredibly useful for smooth realistic movements in a 3D plane. 3D movements already have tons of frame-by-frame movements, and Tweening is used to make such movements look even more real. However, considering how many manual frames are required for 3D tween to look smooth, animators in the 3D field are required to nearly perfect their frame-by-frame animation skills. 2D animation has always been more centered around frame-by-frame animation, as many 2D animations are either hand drawn or drawn on computers. There are certainly exceptions, but it is a norm within the professional scene. Stop Motion and Claymation are also devoid of software tweening, but they are arguably one of the most strenuous and demanding forms of animation.

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A problem I see within the community on the usage of tween isn’t really tween itself, but the way in which tween is used by animators. Tween automatically makes animations look smoother. However, it doesn’t particularly make the animator better. Some have gotten lazy, and they would rather slap Tweening on their animation to make it automatically smoother instead of working on key animation aspects and improving. Tween is fine. Encouraging others to hide their faults through tween isn’t. Use tween because you like the style of realism and fluidity, not because you’re too lazy to work on animation techniques. This doesn’t speak for everyone, but there are certainly some that would rather use tween not because they like the style but because it’s easier than easing and managing fluidity of motion. Tweening uses the computer software to input additional frames for increased smoothness for a style. It is not an automatically-better button, so don’t treat it as such.

This is not to say that everyone should automatically pursue “Tween” or “Non-Tween” or assume one is superior. In the end, it all depends on the style that the animator likes. Though one may be easier than the other, no work is automatically inferior specifically because of Tween or No-Tween. It all relies on how the product looks in the end. “No-Tween” typically gives off a more fighting-oriented “anime” look, while “Tween” produces a more realistic and smooth look. It matters not what the animator chooses, but whether the animator can pull that style off or not.

And that’s all folks! Tune in next time, where we take a closer look at the true importance of “antagonists” in stories! I’ll be happy to answer any questions, and I encourage discussion in the comments! Let me know in the comments if you like this new style of spacing for the critiques. I’m trying to make em easier to read lol. Thanks! Stay Classy!