12 Principles of Animation
8. Secondary Action
The 12 principles of animation are guidelines created by ex-Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. They were made to teach animators how to create lifelike characters. This post will explain one principle.
Secondary actions are actions that support the main action of a character or object. They are used to emphasize or accentuate the primary action, but they must be used carefully or they might take away from the main action.
For an example, imagine a character pushing a heavy box. How can we keep the focus on this movement and show that the box is heavy? This is where secondary action comes in. Instead of having the only action be the pushing, we can add smaller movements to the scene. So while he pushes it, what if we see him breathing heavily? On top of that, what if he takes a second to wipe away sweat from his brow every few seconds? The primary action is the pushing of the box, and the secondary actions are the heavy breathing and the wiping of sweat. These contribute to the primary action and give it more emphasis without distracting from it.
