12 Principles of Animation

Twelve Basic Principles of Animation

There are twelve basic principles of animation based on the book called ‘The Illusion of life: Disney Animation’ by famous animator from Disney, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. They are “Squash and stretch”, “Anticipation”, “Staging”, “Straight ahead action and pose to pose”, “Follow through and overlapping action”, “slow in and slow out”, “Arcs”, “Secondary action”, “Timing”, “Exaggeration”, “Solid drawing”, and lastly, “Appeal”.

The first principle is Squash and stretch, which is considered as one of the most important principle of animation. It is commonly seen a lot in many old popular animation such as “Mickey Mouse”, “Tom and Jerry”, “Pinocchio “ and etc. It is commonly applied to simple objects such as a bouncing ball or to the character itself. The purpose of this is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to the object, stretched and squashed is exaggerated in cartoons. In realistic animation, the most important aspect is to make sure that the object’s volume does not change when squashed or stretched.

The second principle is Anticipation. Anticipation is used for the audience to let them be prepared or anticipate on what is going to happen or if an action is about to take place. It makes the action more realistic this way. For example, before you shoot a gun, first you need to reload, aim, and then shoot or before you throw a ball, first thing you do is move your hand backward and throw.

The third principle is Staging. The purpose of this principle is to get the audiences attention to the importance in the scene being played or shown whether if its an action, personality, or an expression of the character; what is happening, and what is about to happen. The angle or position of the camera, basic details of the characters, light and shadows can show this. The goal of this principle is to make the audience focus on relevant or important information and avoiding unnecessary detail.

The fourth principle is Straight ahead action and pose-to-pose. It is often used together. Straight ahead action means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end. It creates a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement, and is better for producing realistic action sequence. Pose-to-pose means drawing out few key frames and then filling in the intervals later, which works better when the scene is dramatic or emotional.

Appeal

Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor. It is not necessary for the main character to be the only one who is appealing, it can be a villains or monsters .The important thing is to make the audience feel the character is real and interesting are several tricks for making a character connect better with the audience; for likable characters a symmetrical or particularly baby-like face tends to be effective. A complicated or hard to read face will lack appeal, it may more accurately be described as 'captivation' in the composition of the pose, or the character design.

Slow in and out

Slow in and slow out makes the animation more realistic and fantastic if the body movement, or any other objects that requires movement, takes time to accelerate or slow down. This principle goes for characters moving between two extreme poses, such as sitting down and standing up, but also for inanimate, moving objects, like the bouncing ball. Slow in and out is popular to used in scenes like; Fighting scene, marathon, or throwing.

Arcs

Arcs makes the action of the character looks more a natural movement and realistic. This works by rotating joints while a limb is moving, or an object thrown moving along a parabolic trajectory. The only exception is mechanical movement, which objects moves in straight lines. As an object's speed and momentum increases, arcs tend to flatten out in moving ahead and broaden in turns. The goal of this principle is to make the objects movement more fluid than erratic.

Secondary action

Secondary actions main goal is to make a scene livelier or make it look like the characters have life. It is better to do the movement in the beginning and end. This can be shown by adding few simple actions like, walking with arms swinging, a person talking, or by expressing emotions through facial expressions. The importance of secondary action is that it emphasizes the main action, rather than taking it away.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is an effective and useful in animation. It makes the animation less dull or boring but it depends on the animator on how will it be used or what style of animation your working on.  It’s used by involving and altering the physical features of a character or giving them super natural powers but needs to put a level of restraint. Before using Exaggeration in an animation, make sure there is balance in how the elements were exaggerated in relation to each other. The goal of Exaggeration is to “remain true of reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.”

Solid drawing

This principle involves good sense of imagination and good at art. You’re taking forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight which required for the animator to be a skilled draughtsman and has to understand the basics of three-dimensional shapes, anatomy, weight, balance, light and shadow.

Timing

The principle of timing is a very efficient way to make the animation look more lively and for the characters to look like they have emotions or feelings. Timing refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film.

Follow through and overlapping action

This principle are two different technique combined together to make it look more realistic and the characters look like they are following the laws of physics. "Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. "Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates. Exaggerated use of the technique can produce a comical effect, while more realistic animation must time the actions exactly.