The technical execution of believable movement fundamentally relies on the animator’s understanding of applied physics, particularly the concepts of weight, mass, and the shifting Center of Gravity (COG). An animator must convincingly sell the illusion that a character possesses weight by observing how a body’s mass reacts to forces like gravity, inertia, and momentum. A technically sound animation shows the COG shifting correctly—dipping for a jump, counterbalancing during a turn—to maintain balance.

Students learn to visualize the path of action and the COG’s trajectory, paying close attention to the principle of Follow Through and Overlapping Action, which dictates how secondary parts of the body (like hair, clothing, and floppy extremities) continue to move after the main body has stopped. This physics-based approach elevates character movement beyond simple motion to a demonstration of physical presence and interaction with its environment.