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Writer's pictureJosiah Forbes

12 Principles of Animation

Updated: Dec 3, 2022

1: Squash and Stretch

This principle is when the object is morphed into a stretched shape to give it more idea of mass and velocity, the lighter something is the more it will squash and stretch as it's bouncing off surfaces.

When using this teqnique you must remember to keep the mass of the object the same at all times or you will get very unrealistic weird looking movements.





2: Anticipation

Anticipation is where the action is wound up before happening, to show the viewer what

is about to happen and to give it emphasis. it can help make a clear distinction between different actions. anticipation can also help direct focus or attention to a specific area or object, for example from a head-turning and looking to the right, the viewer will also look to the right to see what is about to happen there. the head communicates with the viewer that there will be something interesting to look out for.

one of the most commonly see example of anticipation is characters winding up to run.


3: Staging

It's crucial in animation to have the viewers

looking where you want them to. All the different elements of the scene help guide the viewer's eyes to the correct place.

Staging is making sure that any main actions are happening around the centre of the screen, and the camera is close up or far away at the right times. guiding the viewers eyes from one place to another across the screen, and making sure there aren't many different places conflicting for the attention of the viewer.



4: Straight-Ahead action and Pose to Pose

Straight Ahead refers to animating every frame from start to finish, the problem with this is u could start accidentally gradually changing the overall size of the character or position, and if u want to change it later u would have to redraw many frames, if on one frame the drawing is off, it will make all future drawers be off as they as just based on the previous frame.


Pose to Pose animation is drawing all the key movement frames such as the highest and lowest parts of a jump, and the final position of the object/character then adding in between frames. this can ensure your character does not accidentally get resized or positioned, and if your key frames aren't well draw you would be able fix them first before filling in in-betweens.



5: Follow-Through and Overlapping Animations

Extra appendages or parts of a object/character will still move after the main body has stopped moving, these help keep the animation from looking stiff and basic. examples, hair flowing after someone jumps.



6: Slow In and Slow Out

A constant fast or slow would be rather boring to watch, plus it wouldn't make much sense for a car to accelerate instantly to full speed and stop to a halt. instead if we adjust the speed of a animation to ease in and out we can make it more interesting and it can add to the springy fast pace feel of animation. By drawing more frames at the start and end, and less in the middle, it will go slow, fast, slow.



7: Arc

The arc is the line of direction that an object follows to complete its movement,

arcs can be useful to plan out how the movement is going to happen and to break the animation down into different parts.






8: Secondary Action

Adding a second action to support the first main action. this makes it seem more realistic and overall makes it better. it can help portray the same effect of the original action but with more emphasis, in this walk the man is clearly angry as seen by his stomping feet the main action, and his swinging arms all in a strong controlled movement. and his face also gives the same effect.



9: Timing

Timing can have a huge impact on how the movement will be portrayed. the more frames in the animation the longer it will be, and the less frames the quicker.

its good to work with lots of different timings In your animation so its not all slow or fast as it can seem very stiff and clunky.




10: Exaggeration

Actions in animation can be further exaggerated to make it more entertaining and to give more of an impact. the exaggerated hit in this GIF looks much more goofy and fun but also powerful.






11: Solid Drawing

Breaking down characters and objects into basic shapes to get the perspective right can make it easier to draw proportions and them from different angles, and help making rough sketches.





12: Appeal

Making your character have some sort of appeal will make the viewer be more interested in watching them and can be more eye catching. Adding something to a characterand really exaggerating it to make it a big deal to the characters overall look and feel as if it was its personality.

Examples, big, small, mysterious, scary, handsome, cute, friendly, gloomy,


From just looking at this characters I can assume the first is Loud strong and proud, the 2nd is grumpy and Rude, 3rd is Sassy , and 4th is mischievous or laid back.


See how these characters don't have much appeal to them, they are rather boring and basic shapes and can't convey as much characteristics from looks alone.

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