Pushing poses

Here's something I thought would be neat to pass along. One of my APT students emailed me expressing their frustration with when and how and how much to push a pose. They were struggling with making pushed poses that didn't feel broken, or just 'off'. As a result they tended to be very cautious in their efforts to push things. Here's what I wrote to them. See if maybe it helps some of you guys out there...

When it comes to poses you must always have a strong sense of balance. Even pushed poses need to have balance and proper weight. For any pose held for more than 2 frames balance is absolutely critical. So when you push a pose, don't push it to the point that it becomes awkward or off balance. You can go from big pose to big pose, but the poses themselves need to be functional. Another note on a pushed pose- you can push it, but the pose needs to feel like it wouldn't be breaking bones, pulling muscles or dislocating joints inside the body. A cartoon character can have more elastic anatomy, but they still have an anatomy. The poses you choose should be true to that anatomy. More normally proportioned and human the character looks, the narrower the range of what 'pushed' can be before things feel broken. The more cartoon the design the greater the range of pushed before things break. Push the pose, but honor the anatomy. Look at this Bugs Bunny pose...

That's pushed for sure, but it still has balance and it still looks like he's not broken inside. Would you or I look like that if we did that 'pose'? No, but we're made of different anatomical stuff. You need to respect the anatomy, but still not be afraid to make things with more energy. Here's a page from an old Disney 'How To Animate' book that really illustrates the idea.

I have another bit on pushing timing, but I'll save that for later.