Popularly referred to as the “bible of animation”, the 12 principles of animation are a set of rules established by the early Disney animators. The principles establish a guideline for any type of animation, either hand-drawn or computer generated, so animators can bring inanimate objects to life and create the illusion that animations are not just shapes and lines, but characters with personalities.
Over my next two blog posts, I will introduce the 12 principles of animation and techniques to bring your animation to life. Part 1 will be focused on the first 6 principles. Part 2 will focus on the final 6 principles.
1. Squash and Stretch
The squash and stretch principle is the first and most important principle because it establishes the weight of the animated object by introducing elasticity. As the name indicates, an object squashes down and deforms from its own weight as it hits the ground, then stretches out when it bounces back up to its original location.
2. Anticipation
In terms of animation, anticipation refers to the preparation before a major action is performed. For example, a person bending his knees before jumping, or a baseball pitcher “winding” up before throwing a ball prepares the audience for an action. Incorporating anticipation in your animation can make movements more realistic and natural.
3. Staging
Staging is the presentation of an element, a character, or an idea in the clearest way possible so that the audience does not misinterpret it. In animation, staging is often achieved by comparing the element in the frame to the background. Staging goes beyond just animation, it is extremely important in film and theater as well.
4. Straight ahead action and pose-to-pose
This principle was created under the premise of traditional hand-drawn animation. Straight ahead action starts out with drawing each consecutive frame one by one from beginning to end. Pose-to-pose blocks out the animation with key frames and fills out the intervals at a later time.
In computer animation, the software will automatically fill out the intervals between key frames, so the pose-to-pose technique is more applicable in modern day.
5. Follow through and overlapping action
Follow through happens when part of an object moves after the whole object has stopped, thus, creating an “oscillation” effect. Overlapping action means one part of an object will move at a different pace than another part-such as the head of a character moving at a slower rate than the arm.
6. Slow in and slow out
This principle is also derived from the laws of physics. For an object to reach maximum speed, it has to accelerate first. Just like an object has to “ramp” up it’s motion before slowly coming to a stop. Nothing jumps and stops at a constant speed, so this principle allows animators to create realistic motions.
Gifs created by: Cento Lodigiani