12 principles of animation
1. 1. Squash and Stretch: This principle gives the character/ object the appearance as if it has weight and size. Depending on the extremity of the movement, requires differing degrees of the squash and stretch; it is vital in animation as it gives much more realistic movement for the character/ object, without it the animation would be stiff and less dynamic. Example: Invader Zim: The Christmas episode while Zim is wearing the Santa suit, Dib hits him but the suit has a jelly like recoil to it, so it squashes in, and then out drastically knocking Dib backwards. The suit is entirely made out of some gelatinous substance so most movements it makes has uses squash and stretch frequently
2. 2. Anticipation: The preparation for a major action; for example jumping from the floor, the character must crouch down slightly before pushing themselves off of the floor to make the jump. If there was no anticipation for this the character would just float up into the air. Anticipation is basically the backward motion before executing the action. Example: Ghost in the Shell (1995) Motoko is back flipping her way, away from the onslaught of bullets.
3. 3.Staging: Communication to the audience of the characters current mood, through expression, camera angle or reaction to the current setting. Example: Invader Zim – The girl who cried gnome. The girl is selling cookies, one particular man says no thank you to her offer, the staging here is the aftermath of it. The girl holding a wad of cash and the man in the background is slumped against the door with his face stuffed full of cookies. The whole setting shows how forceful the cookie girl is.
4. 4.Straight ahead and pose to pose: Straight aheads are usually used for more frantic, faster paced parts of animation. Proportions and size are sometimes compromised along with this. Pose to pose however proportions and other factors are paid closer attention along with the animation itself, the whole animation is planned out and key drawings are made.
5. 5.Follow through and overlapping: Follow through is that the focus of the animation stops and the smaller features that concern the focus are catching up with its path of action. Like a character running and their hair moves along, or clothes. Stopping moments after the character. Overlapping is the opposite however the focus and the features that follow them are going in opposing directions, the character changes it’s direction but the features are still taking the same path the focus was originally taking; still catching up to the focus.
6. 6.Slow in and slow out : Basically the more drawings used for movement the slower it will be, the less used the quicker. More would be used for a particular pose, and the next pose; but less for the transition from one to the other. This makes the movements much more lifelike. Example: Invader Zim. The point where Zim yells at Dib, “Can it protect you from this?!” The scene is fast paced, with speedy animation, making the watcher panic at which point Gir bends over firing a sandwich out of his head the animation goes in slow motion getting a considerable more amount of detail an creates comic unnecessary drama, as the sandwich gets closer to Dib the animation speeds right back up, with a lot of motion blur added.
7. 7.Arcs : Actions in animations pretty much always follow and arc shaped (or circular) path; this particularly apply to animating humans and animals. Arcs in animation make the action much more natural. Example: Invader Zim; Mortos Der Soulstealer: Zim is throwing mutant vermin at people’s houses, the motion has an arc as it flies through the window, also in the same episode Gir bounces in an arc motion from his feet to head repeatedly.
8. 8. Secondary action: The action after the main action that enforces the main movement. Enhancing the action more so to make a simple action much more characteristic. The girl who cried gnome- The cookie girls are throwing ninja star cookies at Dib, this being the primary action, the cookies flying towards him and also Dib dodging them work as the secondary action. A more common occurrence in the Zim series of secondary actions is when Dib runs in a frantic fashion, he suddenly stops; his hair however still moves afterwards for a brief moment.
9. 9.Timing : The amount of frames an action takes, usually done in ones (24 FPS) or twos (12 FPS) depending on the kind of movement wanted, will affect what kind of timing is needed. Example: Invader Zim, A gopher is dropped from a spaceship, falling in a fast paced animation, landing in a fairly soft way in comparrision to the escape pod falling at the same height and falls considerably quicker.
1010. Exaggeration: This gives expression, movement, pose etc. Much more character, without exaggeration the character appears nigh on mechanical. Just making the movement more animated simply put. One form of exaggeration is Gaz’s reaction to when the beans explode in the microwave, after her dad said that they if they explode it would end all life on earth. Another is as Iggins bursts through the remains of a broken elevator, his eyes actually extend from their sockets, as short as a moment it is, it is extremely exaggerated.
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1111. Solid drawing:
1212. Appeal
