🎉 Spring Registration is OPEN! 🎉
00
DAYS
00
HOURS
00
MINUTES
00
SECONDS
REGISTER NOW
Back to Blog Index

Animation Principle: Communicate Effectively Using Anticipation

No items found.

Queue your audience's expectations with the animation principle, anticipation.

We teamed up with the very talented Jacob Richardson to bring you a hot new quick tip covering anticipation, one of the "12 Principles of Animation."

Mimicking life-like movements and fulfilling the expectations of our fickle brains can be tough. Using techniques like anticipation can greatly enhance your animations, and can quickly start to separate your work from beginner work.

Conceptually understanding anticipation isn't difficult, but knowing how much may be more of a challenge. After watching the super cool anticipation tutorial, make sure to download the free After Effects project file and read up on anticipation.

Less talky, more showy. Let's get this show on the road!

EXPLORE ALL COURSES ➔

Dive into real-time 3D with our Unreal Engine beginner's course by Jonathan Winbush. Master importing assets, world-building, animation, and cinematic sequences to create stunning 3D renders in no time! Perfect for motion designers ready to level up.

Explore this Course âž”

Unlock the secrets of character design in this dynamic course! Explore shape language, anatomy rules, and motifs to craft animation-ready characters. Gain drawing tips, hacks, and Procreate mastery (or any drawing app). Ideal for artists seeking to elevate their craft.

Explore this Course âž”

Elevate your freelance motion design career with our guide to client success. Master a repeatable method for finding, contacting, and landing clients. Learn to identify prospects, nurture leads, and develop a thriving freelance philosophy amidst chaos.

Explore this Course âž”

Rev up your editing skills with After Effects! Learn to use it for everyday needs and craft dynamic templates (Mogrts) for smarter teamwork. You'll master creating animated graphics, removing unwanted elements, tracking graphics, and making customizable templates.

Explore this Course âž”

Stand out with Demo Reel Dash! Learn to spotlight your best work and market your unique brand of magic. By the end, you'll have a brand new demo reel and a custom campaign to showcase yourself to an audience aligned with your career goals.

Explore this Course âž”

Illuminate your 3D skills with Lights, Camera, Render! Dive deep into advanced Cinema 4D techniques with David Ariew. Master core cinematography skills, gain valuable assets, and learn tools and best practices to create stunning work that wows clients.

Explore this Course âž”

Master After Effects at your own pace with Jake Bartlett's beginner course. Perfect for video editors, you'll learn to create stylish animated graphics, remove unwanted elements, and track graphics into shots. By the end, you'll be equipped for everyday AE needs and more.

Explore this Course âž”

Revolutionize your Premiere workflow with customizable AE templates! Master creating dynamic Motion Graphics Templates (Mogrts) in After Effects to speed up your team's work. By the end, you'll craft easily-customizable templates for seamless use in Premiere Pro.

Explore this Course âž”
Anticipation Project File
Follow along with this FREE project file!
Your download is in your inbox!!!
Check your email (spam, too) for the download link!
Please check the spam folder if you don't see the message within a minute or two. Google likes to hide your downloads, sometimes.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

What is Anticipation?

Anticipation is using a change of state to prepare for an action. And it helps to communicate what comes next. Winding up, squishing before hopping, and pulling back before a punch are just a few commonly cited examples.

In a very relatable example, let's take a look at what it can take to animate a hammer. When attempting to animate swinging a hammer, have it pull back before delivering that sturdy blow. The audience gets queued with the familiar motion of pulling back, and then expects, or anticipates, that the hammer is going to strike.

Does it ever end?

Swinging the hammer straight from point A to point B would only need a few frames. So, to help the viewer understand what is taking place, lead them. If you're looking to clearly communicate an action, and engage where the audience should be watching, queue their anticipation and set an expectation.

Why Should I Use Anticipation?

Early in your motion design journey, you set out to make an object move from one point to another point. Gaining this ability is just the beginning of your journey, and there is much more you can do to master movement and engage your audience.

As an artist you're always trying to communicate through your artwork! But how you communicate will vary and the tool you use will need to be appropriately chosen to suit.

Like eye-tracing, anticipation is a great way to help the viewer know where to look. What to expect is going to depend on the following action. Magically, without words, using anticipation helps you explain what is going to happen and can increase how much your audience will retain. Abrupt and unexpected movements may leave the viewer attempting to decode what just happened.

When you lay out a solid foundation, and understand anticipation, start bending the rules and use the common expectation to your advantage. Bring an element of surprise to your animation by doing the exact opposite of what's expected, like in this video!

And just for fun, here is more un-anticipated behavior that hopefully can drive this principle home.

Ready to Learn More About Animation?

Are you ready to take your animation skills to the next level? Check out Animation Bootcamp. Animation Bootcamp is one of our most popular courses, and for a good reason. It has helped transform motion design careers across the globe. You'll have the chance to learn the principles of animation alongside hundreds of other students.

If you're ready to dig deep, and take on a challenge, head on over to our courses page to find out more!

‍

Not sure where to start?

If you’re a beginner, here are some great courses to help you get started:

After Effects Kickstart

Dive into the fundamentals of motion design with our most popular (and recently updated) After Effects course.

LEARN MORE

Photoshop + Illustrator Unleashed

Master the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator and gain invaluable insights in this introductory level course.

LEARN MORE

Design Kickstart

An introduction to the design principles behind all great work.

LEARN MORE

More Advanced?

If you’re a more advanced student looking to up your game, here are some great options:

Animation Bootcamp

Learn the art and principles of creating beautiful movements in Adobe After Effects.

LEARN MORE

Design Bootcamp

Learn to design for motion in this intermediate-level, project-based course.

LEARN MORE

Cinema 4D Basecamp

Learn Cinema 4D from the ground up in this exciting introductory C4D course.

LEARN MORE

Now is the time to learn the skills you need to advance in your motion design career: