Sunday, November 4, 2018

— ARTICLE RESPONSE: WEEK OF 11/4/18



                      — FOLLOW THROUGH: THE 12 BASICS PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION.



                      This week's wonderful article is about follow-through, also known as overlapping
                      action, and mainly relies on physics. More specifically, Newton's laws of physics
                      and gravity. The law states that an objects in rest will stay in rest, and objects
                      in motion, will remain in motion (unless stopped by a greater force.) 
                      A great example to explain this would be a demon tail, the base moving and end
                      of the tail (a spade) will flick and swish behind it, even when the base stops moving. 

                      Now you may be wondering, how does this beautiful law of motion help animators?
                      The answer is simple — the flick and swish, the continuous movement after a stop, 
                      animation much more lively and fluid. If everything just stopped, the pause would be
                      so sudden that the viewer wouldn't have time to digest the movement. To perfect your
                      animation, you must keep in mind that fluid motions follow Newton's law of gravity.
                      Drew Adams, author of "Follow-through and Overlapping action" (an article dedicated
                      to teaching young and old animators the ins-and-outs of animation) firmly believes that
                      "overlapping action give your animation a natural feel" (Adams). That being said, both 
                      professionals and animators agree that overlapping actions allows for fluid movements.

                      Now putting this into use may become hard, but with practice, it becomes much easier
                      to implement overlapping action into your own artwork. The most important tip to
                      using overlapping-action would be to remember that the 'tail' is "along for the ride"
                      (Adams). Never have the tail being the main focus, always have it drag along to create
                      a flowing motion. Another great tip, is to maintain volume within the flicks and action,
                      and to never have the flow exert more energy than the main action that caused it. Think 
                      of a pendulum, when you swing it, the second swing is never more powerful than the 
                      first. It slows, and the ball follows along to the rope. 
                      
                      My own thoughts on this subject is as follows: Important. Of course you need to obey
                      the laws of physics when animating, it's the only way to make a fluid and realistic
                      animation- even if your style is cartoony. I believe strongly in the principles of 
                      animation, and agree that it's a brilliant concept. Drew Adams explains it well, and his
                      examples of the tail, car crash with and without seat belt, perfectly demonstrate how
                      the motion works. He explains force and inertia well, and sticks to basic descriptions
                      instead of long, drawn out beat-around-the-bush vocabulary. 

                      This article is informative, and imperative for any animator to use. I myself struggled
                      with overlapping action, leaving a stiff tail in my ball-and-tail animation project. After
                      reading this article, and having more experience with understanding the laws of
                      physics, I believe strongly I would be able to fix and re-animate that project to become 
                      more fluid, and realistic.

                      I conclude that the animation principle, overlapping action and follow through, is 
                      extremely important in creating fluid, realistic motion that abides by the laws of 
                      physics that Sir Issac Newton created years ago. Drew Adams, an article author
                      explained this clearly with examples of car crash testing, tail and ball motion, and
                      spine movements. 

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