ANI172 - Week 6

Session 1

• anticipation is preparation for an action, that gets the audience ready to expect it 

• there are two types: 

  • physical - e.g. the character is winding up to make a big movement 

  • acting - e.g. alerting the audience that something is about to happen, to ensure they're looking at the right place 

• an action occurs in three stages - anticipation, the action itself, and the follow-through 

• like squash and stretch, anticipation is key to creating a believable action 

  • few movements occur without a windup of some sort, in real life 

  • transferral of energy 

• before starting an action, the character must build up enough momentum/energy to make it believable 

• this often results in moving the entire body or large sections of the body 

• anticipation is the opposite action that transfers weight to the main action 

• the size of the anticipation must equal the size of the action 

  • big anticipation = big action 

  • small anticipation = small action 

• anticipation should also affect the speed of the action 

• if the audience is not prepared, they might miss the action entirely 

• if a character of action is moving too fast, the eye may not perceive it in perfect detail 

• to compensate for this, we often use smear frames 

• the purpose of a smear is to show the audience the direction of the movement without losing any speed 

  • these typically only last for 2 or 3 frames 

• types of smears: 

  • character - where the body stretches or distorts 

  • multiple features - duplicates of a limb, head, etc. can be drawn into one frame 

  • blurring - applies a motion blur to simulate a lower shutter speed 

  • other - uses miscellaneous objects to create a blur effect (e.g. the lego movie) 

• it's always good to keep an eye on silhouettes 

• anticipation can also indicate heavy weight 

• when a person goes to lift a heavy object, their body bends over more and they widen their stance 

• before a character can jump, they must first bend their legs and swing their arms to counter-balance 

• acting anticipation is used to direct the audience's attention to the right part of the screen at the right moment 

• having a character look off-screen and react is a good way of executing this 

  • generally, the audience will look where the character looks