The 12 Principles of Animation

During the early days of animation, animators searched for a better way of relating their drawings to each other It took them a long time to come up with what it's now called The Principles of Animation. The twelve fundamental principles are Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight Ahead Action and Pose To Pose, Follow Through and Overlapping Action, Slow In and Slow Out, Arcs, Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing, and Appeal. Squash and Stretch is when a fixed shape is moved about from one drawing to the next,there was a marked rigidity that has emphasized by the movement. This only occurs in the most rigid shapes in real life. Anything that's made up of living flesh will show the movement within its shape in progressing through an action. An example would be a bent arm with swelling biceps so the sinews are shown. Anticipation prepares the audience for action. The action is supposed to look real. An example of anticipation is when a golfer prepares to hit the golfball. He takes his time to line up his shot before hitting the ball and when he does hit it, the audience prepares for the landing Staging directs the audience to the significance of a scene. The idea is to focus on what is relevant rather than any unnecessary details Straight Ahead Action is when animators draw out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end. Pose to Pose draws a few key frames and fills in the intervals later. Follow Through and Overlapping Action is heading for two closely related techniques. This process helps to render the movement more realistically. Slow In and Slow Out goes between poses. An example of this would be of a ball bouncing or the process of sitting and standing up. Arcs is the movement in trajectory. An example would be seeing a joint move in rotation. Secondary Action gives more life to a scene. The purpose of it is to emphasize on a scene rather than drawing attention away from it. Timing refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action. It is very critical to how the cartoons move. Exaggeration is an effect that can make a cartoon look static or dull. It all depends on the style like a caricature. A caricature often exaggerates on what a person looks like. Solid Drawing is the process of taking into account forms in three-dimensional space and giving them volume and weight. Appeal corresponds to the charisma in the actor that portrays a certain character. He or she can make a character appealing to the audience or not appealing.