BLOCKING: ANIMATION PRINCIPLES PART 1

The origin of these studies on animation principles in blocking came from watching The Raid 2 for another viewing. I wanted to dig into why I found the camera movements so unique and energetic, and I realized that it was in part due to animation principles. This following study will focus on anticipation.

ANTICIPATION

Anticipation is one of the most important principles of animation. The rules are pretty simple: before a character performs an action, they must hint to the audience what they’re about to do. Anticipation usually involves moving in the opposite direction before performing the action. For example, humans move down before they jump up.

And we move back to wind up before moving forward to throw a snowball (move left before we move right).

Camera movements can also follow this principle. It can move up in anticipation before it tilts down, and left in anticipation before it pans right, etc. This adds elasticity to the camera movement.

In the shot below from The Raid 2, anticipation is shown through a pan. It’s meant to emphasize is when the man is kicked into the wall. Notice how the camera pans left (opposite the action) before panning right to sweep the camera to the man kicked against the wall.

The same type of left/right pan anticipation is found in Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse. The camera pans left right before Peter Parker is swept out of frame screen right.

An example of forward/backwards or “Z“ camera anticipation in Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures: