11 Principles of Animation

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11 Principles of Animation

• Squash and Stretch
• Timing
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-post Action
• Slow In and Out
• Arcs
• Exaggeration
• Secondary Action
• Appeal
• Notes from ACM Computer Graphics, Volume 21,
  Number 4, July 1987, Digital Character Animation
  2, Volume 1 Maestri, Digital Character
  Animation 2, Volume 2 - Maestri

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PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION

• With Snow White Disney brought animation from
  novelty to art.
• Artists studied nature, motion.
• These studies led to the creation of the rules
  of the trade the 11 principles of animation.

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11 Principles of Animation

• 1. Squash and Stretch - Defining the rigidity and
  mass of an object by distorting its shape during
  an action.
• 2. Timing - Spacing actions to define the weight
  and size of objects and the personality of
  characters.
• 3. Anticipation - The preparation for an action.
• 4. Staging - Presenting an idea so that it is
  unmistakably clear.
• 5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action - The
  termination of an action and establishing its
  relationship to the next action.

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11 Principles of Animation

• 6. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-To-Pose Action
  - The two contrasting approaches to the creation
  of movement.
• 7. Slow In and Out - The spacing of the inbetween
  frames to achieve subtlety of timing and
  movement.
• 8. Arcs - The visual path of action for natural
  movement.
• 9. Exaggeration - Accentuating the essence of an
  idea via the design and the action.
• 10. Secondary Action The action of an object
  resulting from another action.
• 11. Appeal - Creating a design or an action that
  the audience enjoys watching.

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Squash and Stretch

• Defining the rigidity and mass of an object by
  distorting it's shape during an action.
• The most important principle!
• When an object is moved, it emphasizes any
  rigidity in the object. In real life, only the
  most rigid objects remain rigid during movement
  anything composed of flesh will show a change of
  shape during movement. A standard test for
  animators is to draw a bouncing ball, represented
  by a simple circle. This test introduces the
  principles of squash and stretch as well as
  timing. The trick is to elongate the ball as it
  falls, flatten it as it hits, and return it to
  it's circular shape near the top of the next
  bounce.
• You do not need to deform all objects to show
  this principle in the case of Luxo, Jr., you
  have a hinged object that is capable of folding
  in on itself (squash) and extending itself
  (stretch).

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Squash and Stretch
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Squash and Stretch

• Bouncing ball has a lot of flexibiliity
• Furniture is more rigid.
• Expression/Facial changes
• These express changes in volume, but not mass!
  Volume ALWAYS remains constant!

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Timing

• Spacing actions to define the weight and size of
  objects and the personality of characters
• Gives meaning to movement!
• In order to make your idea's readable, it's
  important to spend enough (but not too much) time
  preparing the audience. This is done through
  three objectives
• Anticipation
• The action itself
• Reaction

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Timing

• Timing can define the weight of an object
• Hit a heavy ball vs. hit a bouncy ball.

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Timing

• If too much time is spent on any of these, you
  loose your audience. For example, with just two
  drawings, using this principle, we can illustrate
  many different things. Let's use a head that's
  facing first one direction, then another. Each
  "inbetween" drawing added between the two
  extremes changes the meaning of the scene.
• No Inbetweens The character was hit with
  something that almost took his head off.
• Three Inbetweens The character is dodging a
  brick or frying pan
• Five Inbetweens The character is more friendly
• Six Inbetweens The character sees a good looking
  girl or sports car
• Seven Inbetweens The character is trying to get
  a better look at something
• Eight Inbetweens The character is searching for
  something
• Nine Inbetweens The character is thoughtful
• Ten Inbetweens The character is stretching

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Timing

• One thing at a time is also an important
  concept. Perceptions come best sequentially.
• Character stubs toe, recoils, reacts gives
  audience time to see and understand the action.
• Draw attention to whats about to move before it
  does.

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Anticipation

• The preparation for an action.
• There are three parts to an action
• Anticipation
• The action itself
• Reaction
• Anticipation has several facets without it, the
  audience does not know what to expect and can get
  lost. Animators use this principle to direct the
  audience to the right part of the scene at the
  right time. For example, in the short "Luxo,
  Jr.", the "dad" is looking off stage and then
  reacts. This lets the audience know something is
  coming.

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Anticipation

• Direct the audiences attention
• Reveal what a character is going to do
• Shifty eyes something criminal? Lying?
• To Mislead prepare audience for one thing and
  then jump to a surprise outcome.

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Staging

• Presenting an idea so that it is unmistakably
  clear.
• The eye of the audience must be led to exactly
  where it needs to be at the exact moment so that
  they will not miss the idea.
• Only one idea should be seen by the audience at a
  time.
• The object of interest should contrast from the
  rest of the scene. (something is moving at a
  different speed something is a different color
  something makes a different sound)
• Each idea or action must be staged in the
  strongest and simplest way before going on to the
  next idea or action.
• Actions should be staged in silhouette.

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Staging
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Staging

• PersonalityA personality is staged so that it is
  recognizable an expression so that it can be
  seen. A shy child would turn their eyes down,
  and slightly rotate their upper body away for the
  gaze of another child. The child's actions reveal
  the fact that he is shy. When staging a
  personality, it is useful to use characteristics
  that clearly define the character.
• MoodA mood is staged so that it will affect the
  audience. The tight composition of dark trees in
  a dense forest, leaning in toward a scared youth
  eyes glowing from within the thick hurried
  breathing filling the air the childs eye wide
  open. All of these elements have been clearly
  staged to inspire fear.

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Staging
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Staging
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Staging

• In "Luxo, Jr.", the story, acting, and emotion
  were heavily dependent on this principle. The
  audience is asked to switch often from "Dad" to
  "Jr" and they do this because Jr. moves faster
  than dad (contrast from the scene).
• In "Andre and Wally B." Andre wakes up and
  scratches his SIDE, not his stomach, to help
  clarify what's happening and not confuse the
  audience (silhouette). In "Luxo, Jr." all the
  action is in silhouette the two characters are
  not overlapping each other.

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Staging and Symmetry
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Follow Through and Overlapping Action

• The termination of an action and establishing its
  relationship to the next action.
• Just as "anticipation" is the preparation for an
  action, follow through is it's termination. In
  any movement, actions rarely come to a direct
  stop instead, they are carried past a
  termination point. For example, when hitting a
  golf ball, you don't stop your club at the moment
  of impact, but follow through the swing.
• In "Andre and Wally B." this principle was used
  extensively with Wally B., on his feet, antennae,
  and stinger. They all dragged behind him. Also,
  instead of all of his feet leaving the scene,
  they left a frame or two apart (not really
  noticible to the naked eye, but it made the scene
  a little more believable). This is called
  overlapping action and helps the scene maintain a
  continuous flow.

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Follow Through and Overlapping Action
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Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose Action

• Two contrasting approaches to the creation of
  movement.
• straight ahead - animator works "straight ahead"
  from the first drawing to the last, knowing where
  the scene fits into the story and what it must
  contain. He does drawing after drawing, getting
  new ideas along the way until the scene is
  concluded.
• pose to pose - animator plans his actions,
  figures out what drawings are needed to complete
  the scene and creates them, concentrating on
  poses and the relationships between the
  characters.

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Posing the Characters

• Posing presenting the character to the camera
  gives the audience the first impression

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Slow In and Out

• The spacing of inbetween frames to achieve
  subtlety of timing and movement.
• In early animation, the action was limited to be
  either fast or slow however, as more pose to
  pose animation action came into play, animators
  wanted audiences to be able to see the poses.
  They therefore use this principle to achieve that
  goal. "Slowing out" of one pose and "slowing in"
  to another one refers to the timing of the
  inbetweens. If the inbetweens are grouped closer
  to one extreme, better results can come about.
  Animators use a "timing chart" to help determine
  where the inbetween drawings should be placed.

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Slow In and Out
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Arcs

• The visual path of action for natural movement.
• Arcs, in nature, are the most economical routes
  for something to move from one place to another.
  In animation, arcs are used to make the movement
  more smooth.

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Arcs
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Exaggeration

• Accentuating the essence of an idea via the
  design and action.
• The animator must go to the heart of his scene to
  decide what the audience needs to see
  exaggerated. If the character is to be sad, make
  him sadder worried, make him fret etc. When
  using exaggeration, all the parts of the scene
  must be taken into effect the action, the
  emotion, the color, etc. If only one thing is
  exaggerated, it will seem unrealistic likewise,
  if everything is exaggerated, it will be equally
  unrealistic. The animator must find that delicate
  balance that the audience will recognize
  something that seems natural to them but becomes
  their basis of comparison.
• For example, in "Luxo, Jr." the lamps were
  modeled after the real luxo lamp, but "Jr.'s"
  proportions were exaggerated to give him the
  appearance of a child. The movement of the lamps
  had the feel of real physics, but was very
  exaggerated in order to accentuate it.

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Exaggeration
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Secondary Action

• The action of an object resulting from another
  action.
• This principle brings heightened interest and
  realism. The secondary action is always kept
  subordinate to the primary action, so as not to
  draw away too much attention or conflict with the
  primary action. Examples we've seen include Wally
  B.'s feet dragging behind him and Luxo Jr.'s cord
  rippling behind him as he moves along.

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Secondary Action

• Watch the movement of the cord behind Jr. if it
  didnt move, we might not buy it!
• How about dealing with bed covers that are too
  short?

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Secondary Action
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Appeal

• Creating a design or an action that the audience
  enjoys watching.
• Appeal is really anything a person likes to see
  some charming quality or pleasing design that
  draws in an audience. "Luxo Jr.'s" feeling of a
  baby and parent lamp were important for the
  audience to feel. Also twins are unappealing to
  audiences -- twins are when both arms and legs
  are in the same position doing the same thing.
  This gives a very stiff appearence and audiences
  are lost. So, in "Andre and Wally B.", when Andre
  stretches, one arm is up and one is down at an
  angle his feet are rotated differently, and the
  action of his movements are timed such that each
  arm acts individually not at the same time. All
  of these efforts make Andre more appealing to
  audiences.

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Appeal