More things to think about for your assignment... Don't worry about this too much, we'll go over this in a lot more detail in class. Just wanted you to have something to look at in case you were bored...
To create believable character animation, your audience must be able to see and understand what your character is doing before, during, and after an action. The key to making your character's actions "read" is anticipation and overshoot.
Anticipation: Anything your character does to prepare for an action. If your character does not anticipate its actions well, it will appear as if the character is moving without thought. And your audience will have a hard time knowing when to expect or see the action.
Overshoot: Motion that is a direct result of an action.
Without anticipation and overshoot, some actions may happen too quickly for your audience to recognize them.
Anticipation and overshoot are best explained by a real life example. Take the action of a baseball pitcher throwing the ball. The pitcher anticipates the throw by pulling his arm back and lifting up his leg. Then he throws the ball. The overshoot of this action occurs when the pitcher, in this case Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants, continues to rotate his body forward while his back leg swings over to the front, all after the ball has been released from his hand.
With strong enough anticipation and overshoot poses, the audience can tell what action the character is performing without really seeing the action. To create snappier animation, have your character hold the anticipation and overshoot poses for more frames than the action itself.
This next example was taken from John K's blog, creator of the Ren & Stimpy Show: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/03/basic-classic-antic.html
Take a look at this clip from Woody doing a classic anticipation and overshoot.
Imagine how much less dynamic and readable this simple action would have been without anticipation and overshoot. Here's the break down of the animated frames:
1) Start
2) Antic Down (helps audience see that action is coming)
3) Antic Right
4) In between pose
5) Overshoot
6) In between pose
7) Settle from overshoot
Here's another great example of both from "Baby Bottleneck."
Here's a classic anticipation before Daffy takes off walking, and then another great example when Porky's hand appears in the next shot, and antics for two frames before reaching out to grab Daffy's neck. Anticipating the grab by showing the hand for two frames first, allows the audience to then instinctively look at the hand. That act of grabbing the neck is made much strong by an overshoot, and even stronger still by the overlapping action of Daffy's body (we'll get into overlapping action in a couple of classes).
Even when Porky pulls Daffy back to him in the next shot, there is an overshoot. Watch how Porky pulls Daffy back closer to his body for two frames before settling his arm back away from his body for the final pose. The combination of anticipation and overshoot throughout this clip shows how dynamic pushing these principles can be in your animation.
To create believable character animation, your audience must be able to see and understand what your character is doing before, during, and after an action. The key to making your character's actions "read" is anticipation and overshoot.
Anticipation: Anything your character does to prepare for an action. If your character does not anticipate its actions well, it will appear as if the character is moving without thought. And your audience will have a hard time knowing when to expect or see the action.
Overshoot: Motion that is a direct result of an action.
Without anticipation and overshoot, some actions may happen too quickly for your audience to recognize them.
Anticipation and overshoot are best explained by a real life example. Take the action of a baseball pitcher throwing the ball. The pitcher anticipates the throw by pulling his arm back and lifting up his leg. Then he throws the ball. The overshoot of this action occurs when the pitcher, in this case Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants, continues to rotate his body forward while his back leg swings over to the front, all after the ball has been released from his hand.
With strong enough anticipation and overshoot poses, the audience can tell what action the character is performing without really seeing the action. To create snappier animation, have your character hold the anticipation and overshoot poses for more frames than the action itself.
This next example was taken from John K's blog, creator of the Ren & Stimpy Show: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/03/basic-classic-antic.html
Take a look at this clip from Woody doing a classic anticipation and overshoot.
Imagine how much less dynamic and readable this simple action would have been without anticipation and overshoot. Here's the break down of the animated frames:
1) Start
2) Antic Down (helps audience see that action is coming)
3) Antic Right
4) In between pose
5) Overshoot
6) In between pose
7) Settle from overshoot
Here's another great example of both from "Baby Bottleneck."
Here's a classic anticipation before Daffy takes off walking, and then another great example when Porky's hand appears in the next shot, and antics for two frames before reaching out to grab Daffy's neck. Anticipating the grab by showing the hand for two frames first, allows the audience to then instinctively look at the hand. That act of grabbing the neck is made much strong by an overshoot, and even stronger still by the overlapping action of Daffy's body (we'll get into overlapping action in a couple of classes).
Even when Porky pulls Daffy back to him in the next shot, there is an overshoot. Watch how Porky pulls Daffy back closer to his body for two frames before settling his arm back away from his body for the final pose. The combination of anticipation and overshoot throughout this clip shows how dynamic pushing these principles can be in your animation.
great examples! thanks for doing these!
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