Straight ahead is a term used in
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
that refers to a method that uses only the first key pose of a character, and then continues drawing the character to create the desired motion. It was first referred to in the 1981 book by
Ollie Johnson and
Frank Thomas ''
The Illusion of Life
''Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life'' (later republished as ''The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation'') is a book by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of the key animators at Disney during the Golden age of American animation.
Conten ...
'', and is a part of the
12 Basic Principles of Animation. It contrasts with its converse,
pose to pose animation, in that it does not use
inbetweening
Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate Film frame, frames, called inbetweens, between two key frame, keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly trans ...
. Straight ahead action is so named because the animator literally works straight ahead from the first drawing of the scene. Disney director-animator
Woolie Reitherman
Wolfgang Reitherman (June 26, 1909 – May 22, 1985), also known and sometimes credited as Woolie Reitherman, was a German–American animator, director and producer and one of the "Disney's Nine Old Men, Nine Old Men" of core animators at Walt ...
said, "When i didn't know what I was doing in an action, I always went straight-ahead. I'd just start on ones. Half the time I didn't know what I was doing. To me, it's fun. You find out something you wouldn't have found out otherwise."
Advantages and risks
Straight ahead animation is mostly used for wild, scrambling actions where spontaneity is important. Because the animator has no real guide to the target destination in the action, a character's form may start to shrink or grow, and the animator will have no idea it happened until after they are done. Although this technique is a lot more spontaneous and creative, it can create inaccurate results.
Advantages
* The animator gets a natural flow of fluid, spontaneous action.
* It has the vitality of improvisation
* It's very 'creative', the animator goes with the flow, creating all of the action as it comes along
* Often the unconscious mind starts to kick in: like when authors say that their character speaks to them and tells them where it's going.
* It can produce surprises; what animators call "Magic".
Risks
* Things start to wander.
* Time stretches and the shot gets longer and longer.
* Characters grow and shrink.
* The animator can miss the point of a shot and not arrive at the right place at the right time.
* The director can't see what's happening in the shot, and it's very difficult for more than one animator to work on the scene.
The best way for an animator to make use of the Straight ahead action, is to use it to animate things that have very erratic and unpredictable movement patterns. Fire, water, and fog are some examples of movement that are better animated with the use of the Straight ahead animation technique.
References
{{Animation
Animation