QI's MA 3D Computer Animation' Blog

Understanding Moving Holds in Animation

Moving Holds are a subtle but powerful animation technique used to create realism and emotional tension. Rather than letting a character freeze completely, a moving hold keeps the character “alive” by introducing small, controlled motions while they appear to be holding still.

A moving hold is when a character appears to pause or hold a pose, but still shows tiny movements—such as breathing, slight swaying, blinking, or muscle tremors.

Instead of freezing on a still frame, the animator keeps the pose visually stable while letting the body continue to move minimally.

1. Start with a strong pose you want the character to hold.
2. Add small secondary motions:
   • Chest rising and falling (breathing)
   • Tiny eye and head movements
   • Fingers curling or twitching
   • Subtle weight shifts or spine adjustments
3. In the Graph Editor, avoid flat lines:
   • Use soft curves to create subtle motion
   • Allow easing in and out to keep the movement smooth

This week, my focus was on the blocking stage of animation, where I laid out the key poses that define the character’s movement and rhythm. The main objectives were to establish body mechanics, anticipation, and transitional techniques such as fades in and out.

This term, the animation work has mainly focused on the character’s body movements and some facial lip-sync animation.

What Is Body Mechanics?

Body mechanics involves understanding how a character moves through space and how different parts of the body interact during motion. Key principles include:

• Center of Gravity: Determines whether a character looks grounded or unstable
• Force Transmission: Identifies where a movement begins and how it travels through the body
• Opposing Forces: Every action has a reaction—jumping requires a squat, lifting requires tension
• Coordination: Body parts don’t move simultaneously—there’s overlap, delay, and follow-through
• Arcs of Motion: Natural movements tend to follow curved paths rather than straight lines

These elements bring a sense of weight, inertia, rhythm, and realism to animated motion.

Body Mechanics Plan:

Reference video:

In the final week, the issues with character pacing and poses were mostly resolved, allowing me to output the complete storyboard video.

I plan to use this storyboard layout as the foundation for my final major project. Moving forward, I will add more character models and environments. The project will feature a total of three environments and three character models: the protagonist — the Pilgrim, the mentor — the Priest, and the antagonist — a Demon.

In Week 9, my main tasks were continuing to revise character poses and adjusting some motion paths.

The issues in these shots mainly involve adjusting the characters’ poses during the finger-pointing sequence. Next is a pose adjustment related to the movement of the ring. Lastly, the pose of the crow during its flight needs some modifications.

Revisions continued in Week 8, still focusing primarily on timing and poses, along with some adjustments to anticipation and follow-through actions.

The revisions for these shots mainly focused on extending the character’s pause duration and improving the pose when the character falls, including adding a fade-out effect. Additionally, when the character reaches out with their arm, a preparatory action needs to be added. In the next shot, George suggested adding an illustration to the book to help the audience better understand the story.

The issues in these shots are as follows: first, when the character falls, a downward arm movement should be added. Next, during the fight scene, the character’s pose needs adjustment. Finally, when the character reaches out their arm, the gesture should be positioned higher.

This week’s revisions mainly focused on shot timing and action design.

The issues in these shots are mainly as follows: the first shot requires a longer pause; the next shot also needs a pause of about 24 frames. In the following shot, the character needs to add a book-flipping action. In the last shot, the character’s head-raising motion should pause for a longer duration.

This week’s revisions continued, focusing mainly on camera movement, character poses, and overall pacing.

The revisions for these shots mainly focused on the movement and pacing of the ring — George wanted it to move faster. In the following shot, he suggested changing the camera angle to shoot from the right side. In the next one, he recommended that the character pause for a longer duration. The last revision involved adjusting the camera movement.

This week, I continued refining my storyboard, focusing mainly on the silhouette of the poses and the control of the pacing.

George asked me to revise the character’s hand poses in these shots, as well as adjust the pause duration of the shots. He suggested extending the timing by around 48 seconds.

In these shots, George wants me to adjust the speed of the character’s turning motion and reposition the character’s praying gesture. In the following shot, he suggested extending the duration of the character holding the sword. Lastly, regarding the camera position, he recommended shifting it to the right.

This week, I continued working on my shot storyboard. I added camera movements to the content and expanded the story. Additionally, I revised some of the camera movements to make the transitions more logical and coherent.

The new semester has begun, and today George primarily introduced us to the assignment schedule for the term, as well as the composition of scenes and the different types of shot scales.

Extreme Long Shot: Shows a broad view of the scene, used to depict the environment or scale, with characters appearing small in the frame.

Long Shot: Displays the full body of the character along with the surrounding environment, used to set the scene or showcase action.

Medium Shot: Typically shows the character from the waist up, suitable for dialogue scenes and displaying character interactions.

1. Close-Up: Focuses on the character’s face or the details of an object, used to emphasize emotions or important details.

Extreme Close-Up: Captures very small details, such as eyes or fingers, used to intensify emotions or the significance of details.

Each shot scale has its unique narrative function and emotional expression effect. Directors and cinematographers choose the appropriate shot scale based on the needs of the plot and emotional expression. By combining different shot scales, a rich visual language and narrative rhythm can be created.