The 12 principles of animation

The 12 principles of animation 

Squash and Stretch

Squash and Stretch is used to give weight and flexibility to a drawn object. This principle can be used for comic effect when the principle is exaggerated.

Anticipation

Anticipation is used so the audience is aware something is about to happen on the screen.

Staging

Staging is to concentrate the audience’s attention to what is most important in the scene occurring. This can be done in multiple ways such as; angle and position of the camera; placement of a character in the frame and the use of shadow and light

Straight ahead action and pose to pose

The principle references how the animation is drawn.”Straight ahead action" means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, while "pose to pose" involves starting with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the intervals later."Straight ahead action" creates a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement, and is better for producing realistic action sequences. On the other hand, it is hard to maintain proportions, and to create exact, convincing poses along the way. "Pose to pose" works better for dramatic or emotional scenes, where composition and relation to the surroundings are of greater importance. A combination of the two techniques is often used.

Follow through and overlapping action

This principle helps make movement look realistic and helps the audience believe the character abides by the law of physics. Follow through means that certain parts of a body should continue moving after the character has stopped and the parts should keep moving beyond the point where the character stopped to be "pulled back" 

Slow in and slow out

 

Slow in slow out is about how to make an animation look realistic. If it has more drawings near the beginning and end of an action, emphasizing the extreme poses, and fewer in the middle. 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.

Arcs

Arcs help realism in animation. Arcs allow movement to look real, for example limb moving can be obtained by rotating a joint, or a thrown object moving along a parabolic trajectory. The exception is mechanical movement, which typically moves in straight lines.

Secondary action

 

Adding a second action makes it look more realistic. For example a lot of people walk swinging their arms this is made by secondary action.

Timing

Timing is important for working out  a characters mood, emotion and reaction. The term timing refers to how many drawings or frames there are for a certain action.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is useful in cartoons because it makes them look more surreal and therefore more interesting to watch. The level of exaggeration will depend on what motivates the artist and what message he/she feels the audience should take from it.

Solid drawing

The term Solid drawing means the draughtsmen has to take in to consideration the three dimensional space, volume, weight when drawing the image.

Appeal

Appeal is all about how interesting a character is so that the audience will be captivated

The important thing is that the viewer feels the character is real and interesting. There are many tricks so the audience like the characters Baby like faces, for instance, are very popular in this respect.