Overlap and follow through

Ok this is a pretty intence subject to follow, but i think everyone can do it, becasue lets face it, we are animators and we can do anything, I mean, we are creating the illusion of life, and that is pretty big. Anyway, overlap and follow through are two big beasts all and in themselves so i am suprised i decided to talk about both, overlap in general is when say for instance(and you can try this with your own hand) you move your arm really fast in one direction, and your hand takes awhile to catch up.

Since i had a hard time explaining what it was i thought i might as well show you, try to follow along with what i have drawn. Take a look at what the arm is doing, it is going down at a rapid pace, but if you look,  the hand it is staying behind, just like i had said before it takes awhile to catch up. i have drawn degree numbers above to try and explain more clearly what it is i am trying to say. When the arm starts at the top, the hand is going to follow the most behind, then as it reaches the bottom it will straiten back out to follow the line of the hand. Go ahead do it with your own hand.

Ahaw it is not the same, and why, because when your hand reaches the bottom of its swing it has to end right, and when that happens, the muscles in your arm retracts and slightly pulls both the arm and the hand back up. Then bam, there is some more overlap, as your musles are retracting and pull your arm and hand back up, it definatly isnt much, but oh its there, and when you get this in your animation, oh my goodness it is so good.

But wait there is more, we still havent talked about follow through, i could just use my awesome hand drawing but i want to mix it up. Plus i get to talk about baseball so its a plus. Follow through, is when something(say your hand) reaches its main action, like i said before it doesnt just stop, it keeps going. There are many different ways to show this but my favorite is a baseball player.

I just love this photo, because of how it explains follow through so well, so in this case, this pitcher is going to throw the ball,  in frame1 you see him wind up, 2 he is anticipating the throw, 3 he is going intothe throw, and 4 he is following thorugh with his arm. It is going even farther after the ball leaves it, and that my friend is follow through. You will never in human kind see someone do this and just stop there hand after the ball leaves it. I actually think that it is physically impossible, but anyways, always, always, always have your character do there follow throughs, or your animation will look like CRAP, trust me, you do not want that to happen.This same thing will happen with your clothes, they will not stop as soon as you do, they will keep going, and then slowing rest on your body. Oh and recognize the overlap in frame 3, the arm is going faster, and is in the lead, so then he hand is coming behind.

Like i said, there are so many examples of both of these, like the seven dwarfs, there flab would keep going as they would stop. Only to rest back on there face.

And remeber always remeber to have all parts of your animation following through.