Follow Through and Overlapping Action
In the section on anticipation, I mentioned that animation occurs over three steps and that the last step was follow through.
Follow through is similar to anticipation, except it occurs after the action instead of before it. Things don’t stop suddenly in the real world any more than they start suddenly.
When throwing a ball, your arm continues its motion after releasing the ball. When a ball bounces on the ground, it doesn’t stop. It continues bouncing until eventually coming to rest. Both are examples of follow through.
Overlapping action is similar. An example is your arms swinging as you run. The running is the major action and your swinging arms overlap it. The overlapping action should usually move at different speeds than main action.