Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose

Summary

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose are the two opposing methods of animation. Straight Ahead Action is the method were the animator literally starts at the first drawing and works straight ahead from one drawing to the next until the action is complete. Pose to Pose is the method of planning out and perfecting the important key poses needed to convey the idea of the animation and then going back and filling the the in-between poses.

Straight Ahead Action

Straight Ahead Action allows the animator to be extremely creative and can help add a feeling of spontaneity and freshness to the animation and can be the most effective with wild and scrambling actions. This method runs into issues in some situations when there is a strong perspective in the camera and can cause certain key poses in the animation to lose clarity and appeal. 

Pose to Pose

Pose to Pose is the most popular method for animators in the industry because it allows for a large degree of control over the action. Animations that use this method are usually easy to follow and generally avoid issues with the scene or camera placement because each major point in the action is planned out before the animator invests too much time into it. When used correctly, Pose to Pose helps the animation to have a certain clarity and strength that is difficult to achieve with Straight Ahead Action. 

My Opinion

On a personal note I would advise any beginning animators to start learning using the Pose to Pose method because it is both the most common method used in the industry and it allows the animator to make corrections to parts of the animation without undoing much of their work. I found some examples of how this method is used in modern 3D animations to plan out the scene before adding the in-between frames for a dance and for a conversation.

Source

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.