Principles of Animation Part 2 - Page 3

In the previous page you learned about slow-in/slow-out and arcs. In this page, though, I'll explain my favorite principle - anticipation.

Anticipation
I freaking love this principle. If you spend the time to really grasp this, and truly learn how to use it, you will be amazed at how much life it can give your animation. Anticipation is about psychology really. What is the person thinking that's carrying out the action? How would someone ACTUALLY use a mallet to whack some strange button in the ground? How would they lift it? Which part would move first?

I like studying Japanese, and one of the rules, when writing the intricate kanji characters, is that: "to go up, you must first go down, to do down, you must first go up." This is really what anticipation is about. It's the precursor to the main action. It's like a visual hint that you give the viewer to let them know whets about to happen. I could speak for volumes on this topic, but I think it will be better for you to look at how we use it with our example, and then experiment for yourselves. One last note on anticipation, whenever you do it, EXAGGERATE it! If you don't, it usually looks like a mistake.

Ok, so here is what our animation looks like, with arcs, slow in slow out, and anticipation:

Nice right? Ok, now what exactly, is going on here? Well, basically, we're "winding up" for our main action. I spent a few drawings raising our mallet back, slowing in of course, in ANTICIPATION of our main action. See how the motion works to get you ready for the big WHACK of the mallet? Once you reach your final drawing of anticipation, I usually like to hold it for about 3 drawings before moving into the main action. This is a personal preference however, and I encourage you to find out which works best for you in your unique animation situation.

In closing, let's look briefly at the onionskin of our final project:

Once again, I want to explain the ideas "behind" the animation. Please don't read this article as something trying to get all your drawings to look like mine. Use your own drawings and ideas, and apply the principles that I went over today. Have fun!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] or post on the forums. If there's demand, I'd be happy to continue the series with a new principle each lesson.

Thank you.

Daniel Bodinof aka Danielthelion creativeJUGGERNAUTS

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