From the course: 2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

Opposing actions

From the course: 2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

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Opposing actions

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- [Instructor] A very simple technique to understand is opposing action. And that is the basic principle that when one part of the body moves in one direction, a different part of the body moves in the opposite direction to balance it. And we tend to do this unconsciously, so much so that we're not even aware that we're doing it. So this is an animation from a previous course about how to animate in the 1920's style. And it's a great way to illustrate it because they built entire scenes just using opposing actions like this. And in this case, the character squishes down in a little happy dance and the arms move up. And that's it. So when the body moves down and the head moves down, the hands move up, and vice versa. And that is sufficient to create many, many scenes. So as you can see here, this is the end result. It's literally an entire scene built around an opposing action. Now one of the great things about this is that we oppose all the time when we walk. When you're in a walk cycle, when one part of the body is forward, the other part is moving in the other direction. And this is how the body stays in balance. So at any given point in the cycle, they're opposing left right and up down. So as this is torqued this way, this is torqued the other way. And vice versa. So always be on the lookout for that. And also very important to try to get the counterpose, or the torque, or these opposing actions in the correct orientation. So you don't want them twisting the wrong way when the foot's forward, and so on. So let me show you another example. This is from my previous course on flying creatures. So it's a dragon. And as you can see, in any flying creature when the wings are moving down, the body will tend to move up. And there are many more subtleties in this scene than that, but that's the basic essence of, you know, one thing you want to get right in a flight cycle. And this is from another course I've done about animating monsters. So if you want to see that, then please follow that course. But as you can see, there's a very nice opposing action right at the beginning. Now I'm going to go back in and just frame-by-frame that. So we're at the beginning, the head moves down, the elbows move up. And the lower arms. So we have this nice opposing action. Very creepy, too. Also, he begins to lead with the elbow. Notice too as the elbow comes forward, the head's moving back, another opposing action. And then they all begin to gather as the walk moves on. And then any opposing actions will be fairly subtle at this point on. You know, the usual opposing actions that you'd see on the legs. Nothing too dramatic. There's a little subtlety on the arms as they move. You'll see sometimes the arms move up as the body moves down, or they'll change orientation to one another. So it can be very subtle, almost hard to point out. But as you follow through, so different things are moving at different times. But definitely the opposing action at the beginning of that scene was what gave it that menace. Simple little mono wheeled robot. And again, we have some very basic opposing actions here, and again, I'll go through frame by frame. So notice as he tilts backwards, the arms tilt forward. And then he begins to lead with the chest. And again, now as he moves forward, that the arms move back. He'll gather here. So it's strongest at the beginning, going into the anticipation. And that's what creates the believability. And in any degree that this scene has believability, it's because these opposing actions show that he is trying to stay balanced. So it gives him some interior life. He's trying not to fall over. So, very important when you begin to build out your scenes that you understand opposing action, at least in its most simple form. In later movies, I'll show you how we can apply this simple idea, but in ways that'll really go beyond this. And when we combine this with other methods, you'll start to see some amazing results.

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