Of course I was watching this highly anticipated boxing match between the Filipino People’s Champ, Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao and the proud Briton with a legion of UK fans, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton. Manny is the pound-for-pound #1 pugilist in the world, while Ricky Hatton was the lineal Junior Welterweight Champ and was supposedly one of the toughest fighters out there. Notice the past tense and the  “supposedly” when describing Ricky Hatton, because that dude got destroyed by the Pride of the Filipino People, Manny Pacquaio to the tune of a 2nd round KO! Watch the fight here:

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I thought it would only be appropriate to use this as a film study to look at 2 basic principles of animation: Squash & Stretch, and Anticipation. Hit the jump to watch the breakdown…

Let’s look at squash and stretch first. The human body might seem rigid with bones and such, so there are some folks who think squash and stretch doesn’t apply in real-life. However, there is plenty of squash and stretch that occurs in life. Let’s pretend Manny’s arm is a ball.

Now watch as the arm and muscles squash…

Then explode with a stretch!

Let’s watch that sequence animated…

Let’s do one more example of squash and stretch. Sorry Hatton fans, but I’ll use Ricky’s head during that devastating knockout as an example. Alright here is Ricky’s head..

Look at that squash once the force of Manny’s punch connects with Ricky’s head…

All that energy has to go somewhere, hence Ricky’s head then stretches. 

Let’s put it together…

Moving on to anticipation, which you will see is very much connected to squash and stretch. Here is Manny right before unleashing hell on Ricky…

To get more power, he has to anticipate, or cock back, to get more power, more omph!

Here’s the actual punch…That’s gotta hurt…

Alright, so without anticipation the action may not look right. Here’s the animated sequence WITHOUT anticipation…

Still devastating, but honestly Manny would not have enough power to knock out Hatton without anticipation. Let’s add the anticipation back in.

Still hurts every time I see it.

I should make one note before I end. Boxer’s do their best to hide their anticipations. I broke everything down into frames so you can see Manny’s anticipation, but if you go back and watch it atreal speed, it doesn’t seem like there is any anticipation at all. He’s that fast! Ricky Hatton, I read always pumped his shoulder being punching (anticipation), Manny knew this and always threw a right hook when that happened… that was one of the many downfalls of Ricky Hatton. Now Ricky Hatton IS a tough fighter, but the Pacman is just in another league! I mean Hatton was knocked the F&^K OUT! 

Oh BTW, here’s the British broadcast of the fight… I enjoyed these announcers more than the US ones, even though Harold Lederman was entertaining … “JIM!”

Hey, “I’m just doing my jab…”

EDIT: HBO has taken down the fight from youtube. It was to be expected…oh well, they were just doing their jab!