Animation Principle Analysis
The animation short which I choose is I See (the animation for Chapter 1 of Black Myth: Wukong), from 2:32 to 2:37.
This sequence serves as a very typical example of Follow Through / Overlapping.
While the character’s movement (turning and swinging his arms) has already stopped, the soft, long cloth continues to move forward due to inertia, and then creating a huge, “S” curve in the air. Notably, this principle applies not only to the cloth, but also the character’s head. Rather than following character’s body rigidly, it drops slowly after the body stops that movement draws a clear arc. Emotionally, it can reflect the slowness of the character as an elder and also make the movement more natural. In this way, the character itself, the character and the object all overlap in time.
In addition, just before the cloth wraps around the character, the character makes a slight Anticipation movement of pushing backward first, which generates power for subsequent “wrap”, enhancing the sense of power and providing the logic of the following Follow Through.
Regarding Timing, the sequence demonstrates a sophisticated use of frames. When the cloth unfolds and dances in the air, there are more frames and the movement slow in; Conversely, when the movement of the cloth wraps around the character, the frames decrease significantly. This enhances the visual impact of the action and highlights the importance of principle “Timing”.
In this perspective, a clear application of Squash and Stretch is visible. When the cloth is flung by the character, it is distinctly exaggerated beyond its natural length, stretching towards the camera through a perspective transformation. Upon wrapping around the character, it immediately snaps back and be squashed to the character’s silhouette, which amplifies the dynamic tension and visual impact of the action significantly .
Finally, the staging of this scene is designed. It can be observed that the light is shining vertically downward on the character and the cloth, and there is a strong contrast between the darker background and the brighter character. This precisely locks the audience’s focus on the character’s action. Moreover, the color contrast between the huge cloth that occupies most of the screen and the small character also guides the audience to observe.