2D or not 2D - what is your question?

Award-winning director, animator and author Tony White regularly answers student questions on animation in Imagine magazine. Here's his latest.

➔ Can you say something about ‘weight’ in animation? It is not dealt with much in books.
The creation of weight in animation is something that is a challenge to most animators. Weight is not an easy quality to define but there are essential, core rules and principles we can add to your animation which make everything you do more convincing.
There is not a lot of space to cover everything here but let us at least consider a few of them. Fig 01.
First and foremost – ‘The pose is everything!’ This is a phrase I tend to use over and over again when it comes to all forms of animation. However, in terms of weighted animation it means that unless your key poses suggest a condition of weight, no amount of fancy animation will ever make it look like it has weight.
So, make sure your key poses show weight in them. Here’s a character that is carrying a box but the pose suggests it’s not heavy.Fig 02. Alternatively, here’s a pose that communicates the fact that the same box is very heavy.
Fig 03. Why is this? Well, first and foremost the adjustment of the bodily posture immediately communicates that the box is heavy. Secondly, the balance of the character is convincing. Good balance in this case suggests that with a heavy box being held in front of the character, the character will automatically lean backwards a little, so it is in perfect balance. Note too that in this pose the legs
are bent to accommodate the extra weight being carried. This is essential if weight is to be implied with the action. Next, if a character is bending down to pick up an object; make sure that the poses you create will reflect what is required to lift it. For example, if the weight were really heavy then it would be wrong to have the feet positioned far away from the object. With heavy lifts it is far better to have both feet as close to the weight as you can – either side if possible. Fig 04.
Finally, don’t forget the use of ‘anticipation’ in your action. A character throwing a heavy sack for example will do so much more convincingly if they first swing the sack away from the direction it is being thrown. This little momentum build-up will motivate the major effort of the throw. (And don’t forget to bend the legs a little in mid-swing and then straighten them again at the point of release.)
I believe all these things should give a greater sense of weight to anything you are attempting.

Send your animation questions to:
tony@imagineanimation.net marked ANIMATION QUESTION in the subject line. Where possible provide a link to your online work.