Overlapping / Follow-through animation - Pendulum

Today we were given a scene to animate, the task was to create an overlapping / flow-through animation using the ready made pendulum rig.

The red path shows where the object moves

In creating this animation, I first drew out a plan of what my animation will be on paper. In 3ds Max I set the Auto Key on and moved the box to the start position, I then selected key-frame 10 and then I moved the object to the 2nd position; repeating this process of changing the key-frame and moving the object until I had all 7 movements key-framed in. I used shift + drag (copy key-frame) from frame 0 to frame number 100 so that the animation would be looped. Next I animated the pendulum objects by rotating them with 'Use Pivot Point Center' selected in the Rotate tool.

The pendulum swings backwards as the platform moves forwards

When the platform comes to a halt, the pendulum swings back and forth

As the platform moves faster, the pendulum moves back further

After the platform stops, the pendulum swings and continues to do so as the platform moves downwards

Follow through means that separate parts of an object may continue moving after has stopped. It adds the feeling of there being weight and physics into the animation; when a pendulum moves, the ball will swing back and forth even after the object carrying it has stopped.

In animating a human character, various body parts will move at different times meaning the different limbs may overlap other movements. If the character comes to a complete stop, their hair might follow through the main action to convey it's light weight and improve realism. Limbs can have their movement frames delayed by a few frames.

"It is not necessary for an animator to take a character to one point, complete that action completely, and then turn to the following action as if he had never given it a thought until after completing the first action. When a character knows what he is going to do he doesn't have to stop before each individual action and think to do it. He has it planned in advance in his mind." – Walt Disney