Secondary Action – The Eighth Principle

Secondary Action – The Eighth Principle | Principles Of Animation

SECONDARY ACTION – In this topic, we will now discuss and learn the eighth principle of the 12 principles of animation, secondary 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 eighth principle refers to the other movements that emphasizes the animation. AnimationMentor describes it as a movement that is dependent upon some other, active movement.

For example, when shaking your head, the primary is the head movement and the secondary is the hair; or when walking angrily, the primary is the leg movement, while the secondary is the fist clenching, face looking angrily and almost everything.

Here are some tips you can use to apply this principle:

Avoid generic secondary ones
- By generic, it means every character you use has the same action. This suggests that everyone is unique in their own way so you must have specific action for evey character.
Use props
- Props is an easy way to execute this principle. For example, a character is in a restaurant with a friend. If its primary is talking to his/her friend, then the secondary is his/her hand using a fork to fiddle with the food.
Use body language
- If there is no props, gestures do the trick. Adding another action to the body conveys their emotions and and what they are doing

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