Hey guys! It's January the 25th 2011 4:26 pm over here in Aussie land. Today's topic will be about Secondary actions. So wat exactly IS secondary action? Most people tend to get it mixed up with actions like: Arm dangling after and huge action. Tail dragging along. Hair trailing behind the head, etc. So just to clear the air, secondary actions are actions undertaken by the character that are seperate or apart from the direct action of the said character. Most often, these actions tend to either show the character's mood, habits, characteristics or thought process.
For example, if i would to say, animate a character saying "Hi" to someone. I could do this is many many different ways. I could have him be embarassed while saying hi. To show this i may have him rub his elbows while saying hi (Secondary action being rubbing elbows). Another example would be if a character is greeting some friends while he's adjusting his tie. (Secondary action being adjusting his tie. Maybe he's trying to appear neat)
Secondary actions are a really neat way of helping you phrase your key poses together. It ties in the action from one point to another all the while keeping the character focused on what state his mind or thoughts are on. It's always good to add some form of secondary action in your animations as this will really bring your characters to life and convince the audience that what they are seeing isn't an object moving but rather a character in a show or movie that is believable and one that can be empathized with.
Becareful however so as to NOT distract the audience with too much movement from your secondary actions. If it starts to move the focus of the shot away from it's original intention, then you've probably taken it too far.
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