2. ANTICIPATION

Anticipation -

prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump or change expression. A dancer does not just leap off the floor. A backwards motion occurs before the forward action is executed. The backward motion is the anticipation. A comic effect can be done by not using anticipation after a series of gags that used anticipation. Almost all real action has major or minor anticipation such as a pitcher's wind-up or a golfers' back swing. Feature animation is often less broad than short animation unless a scene requires it to develop a characters personality.

This example from Preston Blair's book "Cartoon Animation" shows Anticipation as the character pulls back before jumping forward to grab the butterfly:

Here is a diagram of the principle from Blair's book: 

You'll see anticipation when a character winds up to deliver a punch  ... first they pull their arm back , then thrust forward .  Or if a character is going to swing a golf club or a baseball bat , first they swing it up in the opposite direction before they take their swing.  

You can probably recall seeing this sort of thing a hundred times in various cartoons:  a character will demonstrate Anticipation before exiting a scene by pulling their body up and back in the opposite direction (with leg raised up) before launching into a walk or run out.  - 

  


Before he runs across to screen right , Donald Duck anticipates downward , jumps up in the air , and then launches into his run.  Using an anticipatory action accents the main action (fast run to the right).



In this second example ,  before he grabs the gun from Mickey , Donald moves upward and reaches back with his arm , before moving forward to grab the gun  -



Anticipation is also used for things like vehicles , such as this car anticipating and then rapidly accelerating , from the film "Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro"  -

This scene of Pablo the penguin demonstrates Anticipation (and also Squash & Stretch , and Secondary/Overlapping action)  as he reacts to something , jumps up (anticipation) , then scrambles into his igloo -



Elmer the Elephant anticipates by moving to the left and then moving down as he shoves his hands into his pockets,  before he turns to walk out towards screen right:


(this also shows the principle of "Slow-in" , as he moves up into the key pose reacting to the
off-screen laughter of the other kids taunting him, before he turns to walk away)

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In this scene you can see the principle of anticipation as Elmer pulls himself up and back before he kicks, and again when he moves his head up and back slightly before moving forward as he is blowing his nose -

(also note other principles at work:  strong poses/line-of-action/clear staging/follow-through/overlap/squash & stretch/exaggeration/appeal)




This animation of Tillie the tiger getting ready to blow out the candles on her birthday cake shows the principle of ANTICIPATION , as well as Follow-Through and Overlap and Slow-in (more about those principles later) .






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