Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Follow through and overlapping action is very important for animation if we want it to look natural. When a character stops, they are usually some secondary movements of parts in the main movement of the character that still continue for few more frames so they catch up to the main mass. The parts might be arms, tail, long ears, clothes, hair, etc. For instance, if the character changes direction the parts will still move in the same direction for a very short time and later they will change their direction. Timing in follow through and overlapping action becomes very critical for an effective animation.

This video is Snow White’s dance with the dwarfs (1937). It is a good example to observe the motions of her dress and hair, and also the animals’ tails.




In fig.1 there is a detective dog and his tail, ears and clothes follow the main action.

fig.1