In animation, there are twelve
different principles of animation. The
first (and most important), Squash and Stretch, is a simple term detailing the stretching
or squashing of a fixed shape. Think of
a ball bouncing up and down on the floor.
When animated, the ball will squish when it makes contact with the
'floor', followed by stretching when it lifts from the ground and back into the
air.
The second principle is Anticipation, which is a planned sequence of events. For the most part, many
animations are a sequence of planned events with which the audience may expect
to occur between each key frame of animation.
Going back to the ball, we know that objects have a certain weight to
them. With a ball, we expect it to drop
from its starting point (either from a hand or a table) and hit the ground,
followed by the resulting motion of it bouncing back into the air.
Staging is the third principle of
animation that focuses on the presentation of any idea that it is both unmistakable
and completely clear. A good example of
this would be any Tom and Jerry cartoon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVW_rTqo4bs).
Straight Ahead Action / Pose to Pose
is the fourth of the twelve principles.
While 'Straight Ahead Action' focuses on working straight from the first
drawing in the scene (think of a batter in Baseball and how he will swing the
bat when the baseball comes by the home base).
Pose-to-pose, however, relies on the animator planning the action out,
figuring which drawings will be needed to animate the action, drawing the key
frames, relating them to each other in both size and action, then giving the
scene to his or her assistant to draw the in-between frames.
Follow Through / Overlapping Action,
the fifth principle, is a rather interesting one due to it being broken into
five main categories. In base terms,
however, the concept is that a figure and all of its appendages (whether it be
a feather or a coat or what-have-you) must carry some weight and therefore must
be animated along with the object or figure to give a sense of the believability,
regardless on if the action is broadly cartooned or not.
Slow In / Slow Out is a principle in
which in-between frames of an animation are so close together (almost extremely
close to each pose frame) that they make a smooth transition from one frame to
the next without the animation having to
suffer from pauses when transitioning from frame to frame.
Arcs
are the seventh principle in which most living creatures will follow a circular
motion (albeit slight). A good example
of this is watching a walking animation and taking note of the almost circular
motion that the object makes after taking each step.
Secondary Action, the eighth
principle in the set of twelve, is one that gives a scene its characteristic
'life'. Not only that, but the main focus
is that they emphasize the main action (instead of taking attention away from
it). An example of this would be a woman
walking whilst rummaging through her handbag.
Timing, the ninth principle, refers
to the number of frames for a specific, given action, which then translates to
the actions speed when processed into a film.
This is one of the most important principles of the twelve, as it
heavily influences not just the object's perceived weight, but also how it
mirrors the laws of physics by giving the figure or object a perceived motion
and weight.
Exaggeration, the tenth, is the
style of giving a realistic item or object an exaggerated look to give said
object or item a sense of 'life'. To
note, the level of exaggeration is varied by the artist's style and whether one
seeks to create something using realism or a caricature.
Solid Drawing is to give the object
or item a sense of being three dimensional in the sense of both space and
weight. In animation, this applies to
the artist/animator knowing and understanding the fundamentals of
three-dimensional shapes, the shape's anatomy, its weight, and its effect of
light and its resulting shadow, among others.
Appeal, the final principle of the
twelve, is the act of making the character a sense of realness - that is,
making it so that the viewer or audience is attracted to the character(s) due to the character's behavior, likability, and is interesting to the viewer.
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