The 12 Priniciples of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch

The principle squash and stretch will animate objects to get longer or flatter to emphasize their speed, momentum weight and mass.

2. Anticipation

Anticipation gives the character to prepare for an action so it can give the audience a clue of what is going to happen next as well as making the action more realistic.

3. Staging

Staging is the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear.

4. Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose

This term describes two methods to animate drawings. The first method straight ahead is when you draw the first drawing, second drawing, third and so on. The second method pose to pose is when you draw the beginning and end of each main pose and go back later to fill in the drawings in between.

5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action

This technique is about having body parts and appendages dragged behind the rest of the body so they can move as the body stops. Follow through refers parts of the body that continue to move after the body has stopped. Overlapping action describes the opposite of the timing of the main body and other parts. Drag describes the delaying of body parts in relation to the main body.

6. Slow In Slow Out

This principle refers to the way how all movements start slowly builds speed and finishes slowly.

7. Arcs

Very few organisms are capable of movements that have a mechanical in or out or an up or down precision. Most living creatures move in a circular path otherwise known as an arc.

8. Secondary Action

Secondary action describes gestures that support the main action to add more dimension to the character animation.

9. Timing

This principle states that the personality and nature of an animation is greatly affected by the number of frames inserted between each main action.

10. Exaggeration

Every action, pose and expression can be taken to the next level to increase an amount of impact to the viewer.

11. Solid drawing

This principle is about making sure of three dimensional space with volume weight and balance.

12. Appeal

Characters that are animated should be pleasing to look at. They should have some kind of charismatic aspect to like about them. Giving the character a dynamic design can increase its appeal.