Aaron Blaise's : Fundamentals of Animation - Secondary Action, Exaggeration, and Appeal

The next videos that I watched today were Aaron's videos on Secondary Action, Exaggeration, and Appeal.

In the Secondary Action lesson, Aaron said that it is common for animators to confuse secondary action with follow through and overlapping action. He said they are totally different things! He said follow through and overlapping action happen due to the main action whereas secondary action is an action that is happening separately but is in support of the main action. The example he gave was a character thinking of what to do and the secondary action is that character also scratching their head. It is a second action separate but in support of the main action.  Another example is a ballerina jumping but the motion of her arms is a secondary action that is in support of her main action, jumping.

The next video I watched was about Exaggeration. In this video, Aaron mentioned there is different levels of Exaggeration within the animation world. He said animator's exaggerate animation to clarify what is happening for the viewer. One level of exaggeration is Pocahontas and bear and the hare film where the characters were so lifelike they did not have much exaggeration. But, another different level of exaggeration was Roger Rabbit where exaggeration is taken to the extreme. Aaron said it all depends on what level of exaggeration you want to use to convey your character's world. He said you must ask yourself what world does it fit into? All animation and exaggeration must be consistent for that world otherwise it will not mesh.

The next video that I watched was about Appeal. Appeal in the terms of animation means making something real that your viewer can relate to. We can find appeal in the character's acting, the look of the character, and the design of the character. It doesn't have to be all 3. Aaron said that whenever he tries to design a story character he gives them a backstory to help understand that character. For example his bear character he wanted her to be a mother character with round shapes and soft eyes. His elephant character he wanted to look fun and real chill kind of dude. So he said to ask yourself what kind of person/ character are they and how can you make it something you can draw over and over again? Appealing characters should be real, honest, and interesting Aaron says.