Animation Tips & Tricks, Volume I - Animation Mentor

23TIPREVERSALSWell hello there!Last month was all about muting your character. Remember that? If you don't know this principle or that principle, then you aren'tready to animate acting tests yet? Well, you might remember that one of those principles was called "reversals."Reversals aren't terribly complicated, but I know a lot of people haven't heard of them before if they aren't in a good animationschool, so let's dive in!What the heck is a reversal?! When you first hear that word, you probably think of someone changing their mind. They wantedpizza, but now they want fried chicken (and come on, who wouldn't?!) - they've reversed their opinion. They've flip-flopped, right?Well, in animation, a reversal is essentially the same exact thing.A reversal generally refers to an arc or line of action through the body mirroring into it's "opposite" shape. More specifically, areversal is usually associated with the curve of the spine mirroring in shape.Get it? Ok, cool - see you guys next month!Just kidding. That probably didn't make sense at all, huh? Ok, let's go through a more practical example. The most common wouldbe the good ol' box lift. It's hard to find a better animation assignment than the classic, tried-and-true box lift. A box lift tests yourskills in a wide variety of animation principles, and reversals are definitely one to look for in any box-lift assignment.Buckle up, by the way, because I'm about to hit you with one of my shockingly primitive drawings. While I'd love to pretend that thisdrawing is so unimpressive merely because I'm feeling too lazy to re-draw this first thumbnail of my ideas, the truth is that itwouldn't really get much better even if I re-drew it, so you might as well just stick with this one...77Copyright 2008 by AnimationMentor.com. All rights reserved. This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or other format withoutexpress written permission.