The 12 Principles of Animation By Bethany Strong

7/29/2019 The 12 Principles of Animation By Bethany Strong

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The 12 Principles of Animation:

1. Squash and Stretch:The squash and stretch is mainly used to createthe motions become larger than life instead of

swift or realistic. This principle is normally

used when the object is in fact being affected by

either gravity or weight; the Stretch comesinto play when something is effect by

momentum or other such forces, in ways that

are actually impossible in reality.

2. Anticipation:Anticipation is the pre-movement, which

prepares the audience of a major action

from the character. For example; if a

dancer is made to jump, they must first

bend their knees. The act of anticipation

helps make the action seem more realistic.

If a comic effect is required anticipation is

not used.

3. Staging:Staging is a key point to animation because it

directs the audience to the idea/ story that isbeing told to them. The main importance of

staging is to highlight an important factor of a

scene whether that is an action, expression or a

mood. The placement of a given character, the

change in lighting or even the angles of the

camera, these are all different aspects of

staging. Using to many actions within in a scene

can in fact confuse the audience using one clear

idea to get the main point across.

If the camera is angled from the base of the

screen it can make the character appear larger.

4. Straight ahead and post to pose animation:Straight ahead animation is creating a scene

frame by frame, beginning to end. This creates a

more fluid scene therefore it is more used for

realistic scenes, though it is hard to maintain the

proportions when using this technique.

Pose-to-Pose animation is creating a scene to a

time scale. Starting with a few key frames andthe filling in the blanks at a later date. Pose-to-


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Pose is best used for dramatic/ emotional scenes where relating to the

background are of greater importance. This technique brings a high

advantage when it comes to using computers because it means that the sound

can be added at later date but will still sound in the right place. For example;

if a bomb goes off, the sound will be filmed and added after the animation is

created but the explosions sound will still sound when the explosion takesplace.

5. Follow through and Overlapping Action

Follow through is when certain parts of the body carry on moving even if the

character has stopped. Although it doesnt have to be the character stoppingit can in fact be an object. For example; if a car suddenly slams on the breaks

the character in the driving seat will continue to move forward, therefore the

motion is followed through.

Over lapping is when a character changes their direction and objects such as

clothing or hair do not follow the direction change straight away. Thedirection change will be followed a few frames later when the clothes/ hair

return to the same direction as the character.

Drag is also connected to over lapping; this is when a character such as goofy,

starts to run but his head, ears, upper body and clothing cannot keep up the

leg movements. In features this type of action is done subtly.

Timing is critical when trying to use drag and overlapping effectively.

6. Slow-Out and Slow-InThe movement of nearly all objects needs timeto accelerate and slow down. This is the reason

for animations looking more realistic and the

beginning and the end of an action, because the

extreme poses are emphasized and the middle

posses are not so much.When the action first starts there will be more

drawings, the middle will have 2 or 3 and there

will be more images near the end of the action.

Fewer drawings make the action faster and

more images make the action slower.


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7. ArcsMost natural movements follow an arched trajectory, therefore animation

has to comply with this principle, and this gives

the animation the realism. This applies to a

limb movement by rotating a joint or a thrown

object following a arched trajectory. The onlyexpectation to this principle is when animation

mechanical movements because they typically

move in straight lines.

As the speed/ momentum of an object

increases the arc tends to flatten out and

broaden in a turn. For example; a fastball is

more likely to move in a straighter line than

any other kind of pitch.

If an object in motion suddenly moves out of

their natural arc for no reason it appears to the audience as being erraticrather than fluid.

8. Secondary ActionBy adding secondary actions to a main action the scene will appear more

realistic. For example; a man-walking can either swings his arms or place his

hands in his pocket, he may even whistle. For realism if it was windy his hair

would have to blow in the wind.

The most important thing about the secondary action is that it in fact

emphasises the main action rather than take any attention away from it. If

the secondary actions happen to remove the attention from the main action

they are most probably better off left out. Both the secondary and the main

action should clearly link into each other fluidly without looking out of place.

Using the example above again; the main action is the character walking but

the secondary action would be the hair or arms (or both) moving as the main

action takes place.

9. TimingTiming is a technique that is vastly improved over time. The basics are; more

drawings between poses slow and

smooth the action. Fewer drawingsbetween the poses create a faster more

crisp action. By adding a mixture of fast

and slow creates more texture within

the action. The more accurate the

timings in action the more the objects

within the action appear to conform to

the laws of physics. Another thing that

timing is critical for is deciding on a

given characters mood, for example the emotion will all depend on the

reaction.


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10.Exaggeration:Exaggeration is a principle commonly used in cartoons; perfect imitations can

make the animation look statics and dull.

The level of the exaggeration totally

depends on whether the animation isafter realism or another particular style.

The classical definition of exaggeration,

employed by Disney, was to remain true

to reality, just presenting it in a wilder,

more extreme form. When using

exaggeration you have to be careful not to

overdo it otherwise the scene will become too theatrical and overly animated.

11.Solid Drawing (Poses):The bases behind this principle is giving the imagethe correct look, whether thats from the depth,

width and balance. The pose has to have this in order

to create a believable and interesting to watch. The

main base for any cartoon is classical drawings, done

using pencil sketches and various drawings of life.

These are then transformed by using colour and

movement to bring the characters to life using the

illusion of three and four dimensional life. Three

dimensional is movement in space and four

dimensional is movement in time.

12.Appeal:An animated character has appeal just like a performer has a

certain charisma. Appealing animation does not have to have

a cute and cuddly because the appeal can be whether they are

heroic, villain, comic or yes cute. The appeal is actually in the

personality, clear drawing and an easy to read design, all of

these things will capture the given audiences eye. Over the

years the appeal has change along with the technology of

creating the animation, years ago the appeal used to be short

gags strung together creating an animation, were as now theyare more based on an on-going story with a character as the

lead. Animation is no different to other types of storytelling;

the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as the eye.

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The 12 Principles of Animation By Bethany Strong