12 Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch

-the object will stretch or flatten to emphasise the use of physics, momentum, speed, weight or mass.

-object must stay a consistent size to be accurate

-the amount flattened or elongated can show the mass of an object.

2. Anticipation

-preparation to communicate to the audience a clue to the next action

-eg. someone throwing their arm back before a punch

3. Staging

-presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear

-it can apply to acting, timing, camera angle and position, setting.

-let the audience focus on one thing at a time

-far shots are for larger full body action scenes, near shots are for expressions.

-exaggerate details and use pauses, when words are included, use enough time to read it 3 times.

4. Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose

-pose to pose is drawing the minimum important poses then filling in the actions after

-straight ahead is just animating every frame as you go along

-pose to pose has more advantages of being a consistent size and being able to spot

problems early on.

-straight ahead is better for unpredictable animations and better for physics eg. fire, water, clouds, explosions.

-pose to pose consists of keys (start to end scenes), extremes (main action points), breakdowns (how the extremes connect)

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action

-follow through refers to the way parts of an object continue to move after the body has stopped.

-the amount of drag relays to the mass of the object

6. Slow in and Slow out

-slowing down the first and last movements of a scene to portray realism.

-eg. a car starting slow, speeding up, the slowing back to a stop.

-to solve choppiness of frames, make sure the animation frames are consistently spaced.

7. Arcs

-most organisms move in a circular movement

-can add smear or full arc when movements are fast

8. Secondary Action

-gestures that add support to the main action to add more dimension to the character animation

-staging is important in secondary action

9. Timing

-the personality and nature of an action is greatly affected by the number of frames inserted between each main action.

-different number of frames can give different meanings

-standard films use 24fps, they usually draw per two frames (twos)

10. Exaggeration

-exaggerate a scene to make it more 'realistic'

-the frames in between can be less realistic as the eye will only perceive it for a short time

11. Solid Drawing

-too much detail can be confusing but too little detail makes it look too simple

-3D drawing is done by lines that follow the 3D shape

-use perspective lines

-overlap like clothes creases to define where surfaces come out.

-avoid symmetry, try to pair straight with curves

-avoid twinning: all movements copying each other, change it around to show that

theres weight and balance in a 3D environment.

12. Appeal

-animations should be pleasing to look at

-should give characters dynamic and interesting design: try different shapes and proportions.

-keep it simple: too much detail would be too confusing and difficult to animate.