Five, Follow Through And Overlapping Action

Five, Follow Through And Overlapping Action | Principles Of Animation

FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION – In this topic, we will now learn the fifth principle, follow through and overlapping action.

The 12 principles were introduced by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, both of which are Disney animators who wrote this in their book called The Illusion of Life: Disney.

The fifth principle applies physics, technically. According to AnimationMentor, we also apply the Newton’s Law of Motion, specifically the first law called the law of inertia, which states that:

“Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.”

This principle features two techniques with the same purpose and its is to make the animation more natural than robotic.

Follow Through refers to the concept that loose parts will keep moving. Imagine a pendulum with joints.

Overlapping action, on the other hand, refers to the different parts of an object moving at different rates. For example

Here is an example of the sixth principle by The Brown Bag.

Here is a simplified video of the fifth principle, again by Alan Becker, the creator of the famous “Animator vs Animation” series.