Secondary Action and Follow Through

Secondary Action and Follow Through/ Overlapping action

Secondary action – an action resulting from another action.

Secondary action is another tool that an animator uses to add realism to an action.  A thing to remember is the secondary action should never distract the audience from the main action. The secondary action is the result of the main action.

When a character is confused and scratches their head is a good example. The secondary action helps the audience in reading a characters expression.

“Secondary Actions will add richness to the scene, naturalness to the action, and fuller dimension to the personality of the character.” [1] 

Follow through/Overlapping action – the end of an action that connects to the next action

Follow through/ Overlapping action

An example that my 2d animation Professor uses is a baseball pitcher. When the pitcher releases the ball they won’t stop moving their body and continue until they come back to a standing, balanced position. This creates a breaking of the joints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZJzNTxgIx0

Another example would be when Batman jumps (the main action) off a building and lands, his cape would flap (the follow through) after he lands down kneeling.  Even though the body has stopped its movement, the cape follows the main action and stops last.

Thomas, F, & Johnston, O. (1981). Disney animation the illusion of life. New York: Abbeville Press.
[1] (Thomas, & Johnston, 1981) P 64