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The 12 Principles of Animation are the most crucial techniques you must master as an animator. Created in the 1930s (and first introduced in The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation) by the pioneers of animation, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, these 12 principles of animation adhere to the basic laws of physics and also account for emotions and appeal.
While originally developed for pencil sketching, the same principles apply to digital animation as well. They should be your ultimate guide for creating appealing and realistic character animations. The 12 Principles of Animation
Timing and Spacing
We are going to complete a series of short animation projects that utilize and highlight these principles so students will gain awareness and proficiency in these skills.
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the 12 principles of animation
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the first mini project we will be doing is call the magic dots. Students will create at least 4 different moving dots where they will explore timing, position, spacing, slow in and slow out. Timing Timing refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film.On a purely physical level, correct timing makes objects appear to obey the laws of physics. For instance, an object's weight determines how it reacts to an impetus, like a push: a lightweight object will react faster than a heavy one. Timing is critical for establishing a character's mood, emotion, and reaction. it can also be a device to communicate aspects of a character's personality. Slow in and slow out The movement of objects in the real world, such as the human body, animals, vehicles, etc. needs time to accelerate and slow down. For this reason, more pictures are drawn near the beginning and end of an action, creating a slow in and slow out effect in order to achieve more realistic movements. This concept emphasizes the object's extreme poses. Inversely, fewer pictures are drawn within the middle of the animation to emphasize faster action.[12] This principle applies to characters moving between two extreme poses, such as sitting down and standing up, but also for inanimate, moving objects, like the bouncing ball in the above illustration |
Squash and stretch animation
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After students create a one day bouncing ball, students are going to take the principle of squash and stretch one step further. Creating a character or stylized object there are going to create a squash and stretch effect. what the character does is up to student and how the animation ends is their choice
Squash and stretch The purpose of squash and stretch[4] is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn or computer-animated objects. It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or more complex constructions, like the musculature of a human face.[5][6] Taken to an extreme, a figure stretched or squashed to an exaggerated degree can have a comical effect.[7] In realistic animation, however, the most important aspect of this principle is that an object's volume does not change when squashed or stretched. If the length of a ball is stretched vertically, its width (in three dimensions, also its depth) needs to contract correspondingly horizontally.[8] Anticipation Anticipation: a baseball player making a pitch prepares for the action by winding his arm back. Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic.[9] A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend the knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first. The technique can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick up.[10] Appeal Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor.[36] A character who is appealing is not necessarily sympathetic; villains or monsters can also be appealing. The important thing is that the viewer feels the character is real and interesting.[36] There are several tricks for making a character connect better with the audience; for likable characters, a symmetrical or particularly baby-like face tends to be effective.[37] A complicated or hard to read face will lack appeal or 'captivation' in the composition of the pose or character design. Exaggeration Exaggeration is an effect especially useful for animation, as animated motions that strive for a perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull.[12] The level of exaggeration depends on whether one seeks realism or a particular style, like a caricature or the style of a specific artist. The classical definition of exaggeration, employed by Disney, was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.[29] Other forms of exaggeration can involve the supernatural or surreal, alterations in the physical features of a character; or elements in the storyline itself.[30] It is important to employ a certain level of restraint when using exaggeration. If a scene contains several elements, there should be a balance in how those elements are exaggerated in relation to each other, to avoid confusing or overawing the viewer.[31] |
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pose to pose: transformation
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in this animation we are going to focus on transformation ining the pose to pose. using a frame by frame drawing method students will start with one thing that then transforms/ morphs into something . Students will decide what is the thing that makes the character or object transform. is it a jump, a magical gust of wind etc. This project will utilize appeal, squash and stretch, exaggeration, and anticipation and pose to pose animation
What is pose to pose animation? Pose to Pose: The pose-to-pose technique is a bit different as it means to draw the key poses first and then fill in the in-between drawings to smooth out the animation later. This is the most popular approach in animation (2D hand-drawn, 3D, etc). Pose-to-pose allows animators to tightly and effectively control the stages of production. Usually, using the straight-ahead method is much harder to keep the scale of the characters and objects consistent. It’s more time-consuming if you want to go back to do any retake when you’re already finished. |
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