7. Anticipation

In animation, the main action doesn’t just happen out of the blue. It is always preceded by another smaller action that indicates something is about to happen. This is called anticipation.

Anticipation can serve two purposes. First, it emphasizes the action by building momentum before it happens (for example, a character leans back before running forward). Second, it makes an action more clear to the viewer by indicating that something is about to happen (for example, a character looks at an object before picking it up).

Here is a comparison. The animation on the left doesn't have anticipation while the one on the right does:

In this other example the ball squashes down before moving upwards:

The viewer knows that something will happen to the ball because the squashing movement indicates that the ball is ‘preparing’ for something. The act of ‘squashing’ also allows the ball to build up energy before it can jump, making the movement more believable and interesting.

Without anticipation, the viewer can get confused and sometimes miss important points of the plot, so anticipation helps the animator build a well connected and intelligible story.

Next, we will look into two kinds of movement that happen after the action has started, follow through and overlapping action.