Week 4: Keith Lango

This is a three part tutorial of artist Keith Lango talking and explaining what overlapping and follow through means in animation. In this first part uses a simple animation just like the Pendulum homework assignment for this week and tells what overlapping is, which basically means something that drags behind when something moves. To me, the first thing that comes to mind is the tail of a flying kite. I agree with Lango that this is difficult to comprehend and even though I still have some trouble translating this fully to my assignment I also agree with him that it's so simple. Lango goes on to introduce the Breakdown Drawing and how this simple thing is the key to everything and defines how to get from one extreme (drag) to another extreme (overlap) and the combination of the two. This drawing is of three key parts; the drag extreme, the overlap extreme and the breakdown (combination of half drag and half overlap). I also learned that if you animate the drag too much it creates "a pop". The shapes are key. It's not really about timing but more on how the shapes move.

This second part continues with the breakdown drawing and when the animation makes a stop the breakdown almost forms an 'S' motion (easier to understand in Graph Editor). And the breakdown lessens everytime it goes from one extreme to the other extreme. Lango explains that if the animation is a little stiff on the back and forth movements it means that the extremes need to be more extreme and overlaps have more overlap.

This final part, Keith Lango basically explains how the Breakdown Drawing concept applies to things like tails, ropes, limbs, spines, etc., and applies this example to a simple character animation. Although Lango animated much of this by keyframes I think this becomes a little easier to understand by looking at the Graph Editor.