12 Principles Of Animation

1
12 Principles Of Animation

• Squash and Stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Slow in and Slow Out

(7) Arcs (8) Secondary Action (9) Timing (10) Exag
geration (11) Solid Drawing (12) Appeal
2
Squash and Stretch
Squash and Stretch gives the illusion of weight
to an action. For realistic animated characters
squash and stretch is subtle, but for stylized
characters squash and stretch can create extreme
distortion.
3
Squash and Stretch
One important concept to keep in mind when
creating squash and stretch is to maintain
volume. If you consider a sack of flour, when
you push down on one part of the back the flour
moves to another part of the sack. This is the
same way squash and stretch should be handled on
a character.
4
Squash and Stretch

• The method used to squash and stretch a character
  is based on how the character is rigged. The
  character does not have to deform to produce
  squash and stretch. When a character takes a
  step and falls forward with the step they crouch
  down to simulate the weight falling on the front
  foot.
• Different Methods of Creating Squash and Stretch
• Posing the Skeleton
• Scaling
• Skeletal Deformation
• Lattices and other Deformers
• Dynamics

5
Anticipation
Anticipation prepares the viewer for an action
that the animated character is about to perform.
When an animated character is going to make a
long jump for example they wind up and and move
backward before they make a move forward toward
the jump. Anticipation is used for announcing
the surprise in addition to building suspense
for any action that is about to occur.
6
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
When a characters main body comes to a stop,
there is still movement in other parts of the
character like hair and arms. The weight from
the main body is transferred to the other parts
of the body and they continue to move even the
the main body has come to a stop.
7
Staging
Staging is the presentation of any idea so that
it is completely and unmistakably clear. An
animated characters location and position should
clearly communicate to the viewer the attitude
and mood of the character in that particular
scene. Staging directs the viewers eye toward
the intended action or story point.
8
Mise en scène
Staging is about the translation of the mood and
motivation of a scene into character positions
and actions, including camera locations. Staging
is sometimes referred to as Mise en scène. Mise
en scène can be defined as everything that
appears before the camera and its arrangement
which include sets, props, actors, and lights.
9
Slow In and Slow Out
In order to animated action more life-like,
animators put more frames at the beginning and
end of an action with fewer in the middle during
the main action. This allows the viewer to
clearly see the strong poses during an action.
10
Slow In and Slow Out
Slow In and Slow Out is achieved by slowing the
beginning and the end of a character action while
at the same time speeding up the motion in
between. Holding the beginning and end of the
action also creates anticipation and follow
through.
11
Arcs
The actions of most organic objects follow an arc
or circular path rather that an linear path.
Arcs create a visually pleasing action with
better flow. When a characters head turns, arm
moves or jumps the motion is created in a
circular path .
12
Arcs
Linear motion that does not follow an arc comes
off as sinister, constrained or mechanical. In
order to give animated character more organic
motion, animators pay specific attention to the
paths of motions.
13
Secondary Action
Secondary action reinforces the main action.
When a character is walking the basic walk is the
main action and arm swings, head, hair, and neck
movement are thought of as secondary action.
14
Secondary Action
Secondary actions are small motions that
complement the main action of the shot. They are
usually created after the main action has been
animated. Once the dominant action of shot is
completed, subtle motion is added to accentuate
the main action.
15
Timing
The amount of key frames in an animation
determines the amount of time needed for the
action to take place. It is important for the
action to not be too fast or too slow or it will
not read correctly. The length of time needed
for an action take place can also be used
communicate a characters attitude or personality.
16
Timing
Timing is the exact moment and amount of time a
character spends performing an action. Adjusting
timing allows animators to add emotion and reason
to a characters motions. Character actions can
be moved to different points in the timeline or
the action can be sped up or slowed down.
17
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is the caricature of realism. In
order to convey that a character is performing an
action, an animator needs to create a convincing
performance by exaggerating the action. This
involves pushing the action to extremes without
distorting it from its original intention.
18
Key Frames

• Keyframes are key moments that define an animated
  sequence. This process is based on traditional
  hand drawn animation where an animator draws the
  key positions of an animated sequence. In
  betweening is the process of filling in all the
  frames in between the key frames. In some cases
  a more experience senior animator creates all of
  the key frames for a sequence, and then a junior
  animator goes in a fills in all the frames in
  between.

19
Key Frame Interpolation

• In most 3D software packages key frame
  interpolation is used to fill in the frames in
  between key frames. This process involves
  averaging the animation information of the key
  frames to find the characters position at a
  position in time in between the key frames.

20
Linear Interpolation

• Linear interpolation is the simplest form of key
  frame animation. Linear interpolation averages
  the animation information from each keyframe and
  produces evenly spaced in betweens. This can
  produce mechanical looking motion due to the fact
  that abrupt changes in speed and direction occur
  at every keyframe. In the graph editor linear
  interpolation creates straight lines that connect
  keyframes to one another.

21
Curved Interpolation

• Curved interpolation averages the animation
  information from each key frame taking into
  account the change in variation over time. In
  the graph editor this produces a smooth curve
  that connects the key frames. By default most 3D
  packages use curved interpolation to create the
  frames in between key frames.

22
Animation Reference
Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair The Animators
Survival Kit by Richard Williams The Illusion Of
Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston Animals
In Motion by Eadweard Muybridge The Human Figure
in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge Digital
Character Animation 2 by George Maestri