Post
Interrupting an attack animation before it finishes to act again sooner, because the coolest part of the swing is the damage, not the follow-through.
Most games lock you into animations when you attack, use items, or perform actions. Animation cancelling finds ways to interrupt these animations early (usually by performing another action at the exact right moment), letting you act faster than the game intended. Methods include jump-cancelling (jumping to interrupt recovery frames), dash-cancelling (dashing out of an attack), or using specific items or abilities that override the current animation state. In some games, animation cancelling is so central that it becomes a recognized skill gap between casual and competitive play.
Example
In Dark Souls, after attacking with a weapon, there's a recovery animation before you can roll. By quickly toggling a menu item or performing a specific input sequence, runners cancel the recovery animation and roll immediately. This lets them attack and dodge faster than intended, trivializing encounters that are supposed to punish aggression.
Why it matters
Animation cancelling shows up in almost every action game's speedrun and competitive scene. It reveals the tension between animation fluidity (which designers want) and player responsiveness (which competitors demand). Games that embrace animation cancelling often develop deeper competitive metas.
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