Video Reference

High-speed cameras have always been around but in the last 10 years with the advent of high-definition digital video cameras there's been lots more footage captured of high-speed objects in motion, and now with the advancements and accessibility of the internet, all this sort of footage is more easily-viewable than ever. Here's just a few links that show the power of slowing down reality and how much animators can learn from this technology.

• BBC Life in Slow Motion collection
• Discovery Channel "Time Warp" TV show videos (on Youtube)
• Edgerton Center High-speed Imaging links
• Fastec Imaging video gallery
• Mega Speed (see samples under the different categories)
• NAC Image Technology video gallery
• Photron video gallery
• Pirate (UK high-speed video company) video gallery
• Speed Vision Technologies video gallery
• The SlowMo Guys
• Ultraslo.com video gallery
• 20/20 Hindsight industry video gallery
• Video Demonstrations (real-time engineering and physics videos with audio narration)

Jason Keyser's 2012 FX Reel

Rapparu - Animated GIFs Reel

At around the 30 second mark we see what starts off as simple black and white animation, but then quickly turns into some sophisticated FX work, some very amazing stuff.



At about 1:00 the FX gradually start to get displayed, again, lots of explosions and smoke.

Magic FX from My Little Pony

Animator G. Beaudette delves into Flash and After Effects to produce some reusable Magic Effects animation.

The Water Sphere

In his off-duty time, NASA Astronaut Don Pettit experiments with the physics of water in the weightless environment aboard the International Space Station.

The results is footage that can be great reference material for all sorts of FX animation.

The FX Reel of Araiza Tokumasu Naoki

High Speed Photography

Images capturing the instance a ballon pops.

via buzzfeed

Water Splash Tutorial - Part 1

This was the first tutorial I ever made, it was originally hand-written on paper and photocopied out to my animators on the first series I ever directed in 2001. So when I found it while cleaning out junk from some old boxes, I thought I should type it up for here, enjoy.

Download the PDF of these notes here.


-UPDATE-
Here's a tutorial by the talented Kathleen Quaife, she goes into greater detail with the planning, structure, and drawing of a water splash: