Animation Glossary

Free Digital Creativity

← Animation Glossary

Anticipation

Anticipation is a technique used in animation where the character makes a movement or facial expression to show what they are about to do next. It's like when you wind up before throwing a ball, or take a deep breath before jumping into a swimming pool. Anticipation helps to make the action more believable and exciting for the viewer.

Anticipation is not just limited to physical movements or actions, but can also be applied to facial expressions and dialogue. A character’s facial expression can give a clue to what they are thinking or feeling before they even speak. This helps to create a more nuanced and complex character that the viewer can empathize with. Similarly, anticipation in dialogue involves setting up the context for what a character is about to say. For example, if a character is about to reveal a secret, they may pause for a moment before speaking, building anticipation for the audience.

To create effective anticipation in animation, it is important to pay attention to timing and spacing. The preparation or anticipation phase should be longer than the primary action itself. This allows the viewer to fully understand what is about to happen and builds up the suspense. Spacing refers to the distance and speed of movement between poses. By using slow-in and slow-out techniques, animators can create a more natural and fluid movement that enhances the anticipation phase.

Anticipation can also be used in combination with other animation principles such as squash and stretch, exaggeration, and secondary action. Squash and stretch involves distorting the shape of an object or character during movement to emphasize weight and force. Exaggeration involves pushing movements beyond what is realistic or expected for comedic effect or emphasis. Secondary action refers to additional movements that occur alongside the primary action, such as hair bouncing or clothing swaying.

Anticipation is an essential principle of animation that adds depth, meaning, and realism to characters’ movements and actions. It helps to build up tension and excitement for the viewer, making the main action more impactful when it occurs. Anticipation can be used for comedic effect or exaggeration, adding personality and style to characters’ movements. To create effective anticipation in animation, it is important to pay attention to timing, spacing, and other animation principles such as squash and stretch, exaggeration, and secondary action. By incorporating anticipation into every movement, animators can create engaging and believable animations that capture the viewer’s attention.

← Anti-AliasingAspect Ratio →

Animation Terms

2

2D Animation

3

3D Animation

A

Alpha Channel

Animation

Anti-Aliasing

Anticipation

Aspect Ratio

B

Bezier Curve

Bitmap

Blue Screen

Bone Animation

Bounce

Broadcast Standards

C

Camera Angle

Camera Shake

Cel Animation

Character Animation

Claymation

Clean-up

Color Correction

Compositing

Composition

Concept Art

Cutout nimation

D

Depth of Field

Dialogue

Distributed Rendering

Dope Sheet

E

Easing

Emitter

Exaggeration

Eyedropper

F

Foley

Follow through

Forward Kinematics

Frame Rate

Frame

Freeze Frame

G

Ghosting

GIF File Format

Golden Ratio

Graph Editor

H

Hue and Saturation

I

Inertia

Infographic Animation

Inverse Kinematics

J

Joint

JPEG File Format

K

Keyframe Interpolation

Keyframe

Kinetic typography

L

Layers

Lens distortion

Level of Detail

Lighting

Line of action

Lip syncing

M

Matte painting

Morphing

Motion blur

Motion capture

Motion graphics

Motion path

Motion trail

Mouth shapes

N

Network rendering

O

Occlusion culling

Onion skinning

Overlapping action

P

Parallel rendering

Particle system

Persistance of Vision

Phonemes

Playback speed

Plot

PNG File Format

Pose-to-pose animation

Puppet animation

R

Render farm

Rendering

Resolution

Rigging

Rotoscoping

Rule of thirds

Run cycle

S

Safe zone

Scene

Screenplay

Script

Shot

Silhouette

Skeletal animation

Slow Motion

Smears

Sound Design

Soundtrack

Special Effects

Squash and Stretch

Staging

Stop Motion Animation

Storyboard

Straight-ahead Animation

T

Time Remapping

Timeline

Timing

Title Card

Title Sequence

Tweening

V

Vector graphics

Visemes

Voice acting

W

Walk cycle

WebM File Format

Weighting

Z

Z-depth

Icon for Brush Ninja Brush Ninja Make Animated Gifs
Icon for Code Ninja Code Ninja Make Art with Code
Icon for Emoji Art Emoji Art Make Emoji Art
Icon for Photo Collage Photo Collage Make Photo Collages
Icon for Comic Maker Comic Maker Make Comics