Youtube daily Follow Jul 29 2017

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The principles of animation + Follow through & overlapping action (theory)

Hi! I'm Vaggelis Karadimas from vktoons and I'll talk to you who are interested in animation

about the theory behind follow through and overlapping action.

You'll know more on them, by reading "The animators handbook" by Tony White

(Greek publishers; Doudoumis). The chapters "flexibility" and "overalpping action"

refer exactly to these things we'll talk about today.

(Greek readers can get the book with a discount of 25% by sending us an email)

(Here, we explain to the Greek audience the steps they have to follow to get the discount)

Follow through and overlapping action are closely related principles.

We could say that follow through applies mainly in living characters, with joints,

while overlapping action applies to objects.

In follow through, flexibility of the joints is really important

because it gives persuasion to our work.

Every movement of the body does not manifest at the same time in all of its parts

but the movement goes succesively from one part to the other.

Animator must first distinguish the main action to go to the secondary actions.

Let's see that in daylife.

Let's say that we're about to through a cake to a friend of ours!

Perhaps it isn't something that happens every day, but it happens!

- What would you like? - I'd like a cake to take to my house.

Never mind! You'll eat it here!

Here it is!

First to move is the shoulder.

He drifts part of the body and the elbow after a while.

Elbow in his turn drifts towards back the wrist, a little after.

When shoulder stops moving

the elbow continues a bit more going back

and when it stops too, then after a while stops the wrist too.

In short, this is the move;

Then the shoulder moves abruptly forward in order to start the spur.

Along, after a while he drifts the elbow, who in his turn drifts after a while the wrist.

When the shoulder stops and the action of spur starts

the elbow continues a bit more.

When the elbow stops, the wrist continues its move forward.

When wrist stops, he transmits his action to the fingers,

which, in their turn, complete the spur of the cake at the face of our friend.

Even the head makes a slight move towards the opposite side of the arm

if you notice that.

A repeat, hoping not to cause any damage.

I didn't break anything... No...

In follow through, anatomy knowledge would help.

So, animator must know the part of the body that leads a movement,

as well as those who follow it.

Main action is that which shows us what is going on.

With pose to pose method we gain total control of our basic moves

while the secondary move we create it with straight ahead animation...

"strent ahent"...hmmm...

Well, let me correct it, because I was critisized on that...

"Straight ahead"

Nah!...Never mind... "Strent ahent". Balkan English is the best!

Oxford can wait!

Not to mention that I have Cambridge Lower Certificate!

which straight ahead will give life and spontaneity to our move.

Every joint folds in order to allow the next part of the body

to use the energy that the previous part of the body accumulated

and to continue the move, the action.

On the other hand, every secondary action starts before the previous

main or secondary action completes.

Of course, a flexible character will move a lot different in relation to a character

who has stiff joints.

I.e. we'll have a complete different move between an grandpa and his grandson,

a cat than a hedgehog

and an athlete than a viewer who sits on a sofa watching the game, eating pizzas and beers..

(We usually DRINK beers, but let's not spoil your thinking...)

Finally, in follow through secondary action depends on 1) obciously the main action

2) on how important we consider that extremes are but also how flexible is the character

3) on the air resistance

Also, we cannot run the secondary actions as we'll run the main ones.

In general, the same principles apply for overlapping action.

I.e., when a lift a paper, that bends downwards

having the tendency to remain to its previous position.

But when I stop the move upwards

the paper has just for a while the tendency to continue going up,

following the last move of going up.

We saw another example in the first video of today's episode.

There we watched elements of follow through as well as of overlapping action.

I.e. when the hair continued moving towards the initial direction of the head

while the head had already turn to the opposite direction.

Follow through and overlapping action can be applied to a part of the body

or of an object "breaking" it in two parts

of which the first reaches first to a position

and then comes the second.

That way we have a "spreading", let's say, of the main and secondary action.

Essentially, that we we combine overlapping action and follow through

with squash and stretch.

In general, having basic knowledge of follow through and overlap,

we can break their rules and create exaggerating and very interesting actions.

After all, we saw the secondary actions themselves

can lead to new secondary actions,

thus to create an extremely interesting optical dialogue.

At the bottom line, follow through and overlapping action

connect us in a certain way to reality

while we're in the fantastic world of animation.

Here, I'd like to thank schooltime.gr for accomodating our work

as well as our articles on animation.

There's a link to the page in the video description.

Go there and you'll find (in Greek only) articles and news on education, art etc.

In the description of the video you'll also find a link to "Doudoumis publications".

Don't forget to ask us for a discount code for your purhcase!

If you find this episode useful and funny, like it here, on youtube

and share it!

If you want to write, propose or ask something

you can do it down, in the comments field on youtube.

And if you're really interested in animation, don't forget to subscibe to our channel!

Also, you can follow our channel on vidme.

You'll find a link to the description of the video.

We'll talk again next Saturday with animated examples on follow through

and overlapping action. Until then, take care!