We Will Persevere and Follow-Through
- penspeare
- Jan 10, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 25, 2022
(Psst... did you read the previous post, or will I have to walk you out of here?)
"Secondary Actions, Follow-Through, Overlap"
So, what is all this?
Secondary Actions are a direct result from another action, and really help to improve the overall animation. It is incredibly tricky to achieve, but it certainly makes a huge difference to an animation, and can set apart a "competent animator, and an entertaining storyteller", but it must never, ever detract from the main action. It should instead emphasise and complement the main action. It can also add Exaggeration, or intensify the Exaggeration already present if done successfully.
More often than not, Secondary Actions are created separately to the main action, and implement different Timings, and may use a Straight Ahead approach opposed to the main action's typically more planned out Pose-to-Pose method. The book Timing for Animation has a section on Overlapping Action, that begins describing this principle, saying, "it is a good idea to have a time lag between the movements of different parts of the figure" and continues how it "helps to give [the animation] fluidity", later describing how these movements are also then Exaggerated for animation.
There are specific types of Secondary Actions, such as Follow-Through and Overlapping Action. The book The Illusion of Life stating how, in regards to Follow-Through: "when the main body of a character stops, all other parts continue to catch up", such as appendages or character embellishments like coat tails, hair, antennae, accessories, etc., as they "follow the path of action", but the Timing must be treated appropriately; nothing stops all at once. When a character changes direction, however, their appendages take longer to catch up with them. This is, again, known as Overlapping Action. In Timing for Animation, it states that these appendages "move to some extent independently of the character they are attached to", further backing up the idea that they are treated separately to the main action, as I have stated in the paragraph above. Again, Timing is important as, depending on the speed of the action, the amount of drawings needed will differ, and subsequently so will the use of Slow In/Slow Out, and the likes of Exaggeration.
Drag is another types of Secondary Action where the appendage literally drags behind the character. For example, "when Goofy starts to run, but his head, ears, upper body, and clothes don't keep up with his legs. It can be done subtly as well. For example, Snow White's dress when she dances". As I stated previously, it is essential to treat Timing appropriately because it can throw off the entire animation, making it distracting or odd looking. It can either help the animation, or hinder its effectiveness.
Overshoot is a bit like a pendulum. It is considered "leftover momentum", "bouncing back", or "settling", as it "settles" or "bounces back" after the main action occurs.
There will be some more details about Secondary Action and the like mentioned in other blog posts where it becomes relevant too, but I'll make sure to highlight it either way. But, now that the terminology explanations are (mostly) out of the way for this particular post, let's get to the exercise.
Let's re-visit Gef and give him an antenna, and we can focus on the Overshoot aspect of Secondary Action for this:
Remember how I (eventually) found the "Alt + Shift + D" to duplicate frames so I alter the individual drawings without messing up the rest of the animation? This was a life saver! I had been redrawing everything until that point, but this was something that benefitted much better from being economical. As I stated in the big terminology explanation paragraphs, the Secondary Action - in this case, Gef's antenna - is treated completely separately to the main action (the walk and, subsequently, Gef himself).
I also made sure to make the task a little bit easier for myself, so I made sure to differentiate the new embellishment by making it another colour to Gef's outline.
Just a quick aside: I was listening to Depeche Mode's album Violator while playing around with this, and now I want Gef to walk to the beat of Personal Jesus or Enjoy the Silence... I think he was already doing that, but now that's all I can think of when I watch him go;
The antenna is very, very stiff at the moment, though I've only moved its position for each key frame so I can see how it looks in general. It's okay, but it can be Exaggerated a bit more. It'll be bouncier and with more movement but, again, this is so I can see how it looks, and get an idea of what it needs to or what it could be doing;
I intended to go out and buy some springy cat toys to record to see how they bounce as a reference point to get a better idea of what to do with the Drag and Overshoot, but I couldn't find any that I had in mind to get the desired or similarly desired effect, so I made one using an incense stick and shoving a ball of Play Doh on the end of it. I then took a video of it while I bobbed it about for a bit.
Above is the full video of the video reference I took of Gef's antenna. It's easier to see slowed down though. I'm also an idiot, and recorded it in the wrong direction.
So now it has a lot more bounce to it. Also notice that I had to change up the Staging, as Gef is much lower down. The antenna wouldn't fit in the previous composition I had, so I had to make room for it.
It looks a little odd but, in a way, it sort of looks as though Gef is deliberately making his antenna bounce about in the way he wants.
I opted for an animation trick, known as a smear, which is why there are motion lines, and sometimes a "double antenna". Looking at the real life reference footage I took, blurred images are often visible, especially with fast motion. This is another economical method of using less drawings while still achieving the illusion of effective, or as I said even fast, movement. An animation smear depicts a "blur of movement" that we don't tend to notice unless we pause the screens, which often allows us to discover hilarious results. Of course, we aren't really supposed to be pausing them to see these blurs, but in this instance, it's for research purposes. The human eye, after all, simply registers the smears and motion blurs as part of the movement. To register each and every frame individually would be impossible, as the movement happens far too quickly, as explained in this Idea Rocket article describing the concept of The Smear.
For example, here is one instance of my incense stick-Play Doh antenna in a "blur of movement":
It's not much in this example but, as you can see, the "lines" are a lot thicker, and the objects is generally much blurrier.
Here are a few other examples of animation smears in cartoons:
Smears also utilise the other principles of animation, such as Squash and Stretch and Exaggeration, as demonstrated in Pearl's distorted, off-model character as Garnet throws her up in the air. Also note the tips of her feet: those are intended to be motion lines or smears, likewise with her hair. It looks odd paused, but it is effective when put together with the rest of the animation, as can be seen here. There are many, many animation smear and motion blur incorporated in the dance sequence alone, because dance is such a fast action. A lot of these smears also, incidentally, include a lot of Drag and Overshoot; again, coupled brilliantly with the principle of Exaggeration.
I bet you can't Anticipate what the next post will be about!
List of reference material:
How to Animate Dangling Stuff: Follow-Through, Drag, Overlap Animation Principles - 2D Class [010], by Animator Island TV. 30th July 2021, via YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwqKw0DvUew [Accessed: 20/12/2021];
Thomas, F. and Johnston, O. (1997) The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. USA: Hyperion;
Williams, R. (2001) The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators. USA: Faber and Faber;
Whitaker, H. Halas, J. Sito, T. (1981) Timing for Animation. 2nd edn. Oxford: Focal Press;
Steven Universe - Garnet Asks Pearl To Fuse - Pearl Gets Emotional - Cry For Help - Cartoon Network, posted by user "Steven Universe" via YouTube. 29th March 2017. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wypp0tgI6pk [Accessed: 09/01/2022];
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