ABSTRACT
Weight is essential to creating good animation, and there are ways of applying the illusion of weight that will improve significantly the quality of animated movement. The effects of gravity (and therefore weight) can exert a significant effect on the way characters move or are posed. Weight pulls down on everything that exists in this world-often in the sense that they become shorter, slower, droopier, or more stooped. The effects of weight can also slow action down too. Therefore, before you observe real-world situations, use the next blank page to draw a number of thumbnail sketches that imply gravity affecting people and things. This is a random, stream-of-thought, brainstorming kind of thing, so don’t get too serious. As long as your thumbs suggest weight or the effects of weight on things, all will be good. Fill up the page with as many drawn ideas as you can. (Take no more than 1 minute per sketch.)
