The next video that I watched from Aaron Blaise was his lesson on Anticipation. He says that anticipation is used a lot! He says that because anticipation is a natural part of physics its used almost constantly in animation or at least he said it should be. Anticipation is the anticipation of a particular motion. For example when a character punches something, we anticipate the build up of the punch as he prepares to punch, before a character gets up they have to hold their hands on a chair, before a character jumps there's them going down to prepare to jump, there is lots of anticipation. He showed a demonstration where a bunny was anticipating his jump and followed through with that animation. You definitely want to feel the physics of your animation. Physics is what we do naturally all the time when we move and react. Drawings tend to be closer together during anticipation before a big move or an action of sorts.
The next video that I watched was Aaron's Follow Through and Overlapping Action Video. I learned what these were. I learned a lot of these in college but, I am stepping back through them again and re learning them from a new perspective. Aaron said things move at different timings than the rest of the animation that animators have to track such as: hair, ears, clothing, etc. Overlapping action is for example: a punch but the rest of the body moves differently than just the arm and fist which we need to take account of and make sure it is moving properly.
Follow Through is momentum follows through after the action is completed and shouldn't just stop. So for example when you are punching your body will continue to move and complete the action not just stop moving once you punch but it will complete the follow through of full action anticipated previously.
Aaron said animation we tend to think no both sides of the brain because we not only have to be creative but we break things down, observe from life, and have to think in a logical position of how physics works and how things move and react in real life. He also says once you understand all the principles of animation, you will use them constantly and sometimes you don't even think about it you will just begin to do it out of habit.
The next lesson that I watched was on Arcs. I have watched some previous videos from Aaron's scene approach videos but in this one, he goes into detail about what arcs are. Aaron says that in nature everything seems to move in an arc. To draw using arcs adds fluidity to your animations. You can use arcs in storyboarding, drawings, animations. It adds realism to how we move, walk, throw, jump, planets move, and etc. By adding arcs of motion in your animation by drawing in a set arc path it adds realism, grace, and life to your animation. It creates a beautiful path of motion for our viewer's eyes to follow. Aaron said he really learned about arcs a lot more when he was working on Disney's animated feature: Mulan.
The next lesson that I watched was on Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose Action. Aaron said that animators can animate in 2 main ways: Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose Action. Straight Ahead is animating a scene straight on on the timeline without using key poses to guide your animation. Straight Ahead is used in Stop Motion animation where animators animate from beginning to end guiding their character and they really feel out what's happening and just go with the flow of their motion. Straight Ahead can be great just getting the feel of your character and it can be a lot of fun and a faster method however it can cause problems such as: loss of volume in animating characters. It is used a lot less. He demonstrated an animation where Straight Ahead Action was used.
He then talked about Pose to Pose Animation. Pose to Pose is the most common method for animation. Pose to Pose is where you animate a scene using key poses and move from pose to pose to set up the scene and animation. This method is great for animating a complex character, lots of action, emotion, and dialogue. It tends to be much more accurate but you can get lost in drawings and it can become stiff if you aren't careful. Pose to Pose animators typically make thumbnails of their rough action ideas and then use those to create their key drawings later on. Aaron said that he tends to work this way. Pose to Pose helps you get a sense of direction but it can be often different than your final animation delivery. Be open to change he says.
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