Basic Principles to Start Animation

The basic principles of animation, as described by the legendary animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. 

So, the first principle is "squash and stretch". This is the principle that animated objects will get longer or flatter to emphasize their speed, momentum, weight, and mass. The amount that an object squashes and stretches says something about its mass. The more squash and stretch, the softer the object. The less squash and stretch, the stiffer the object. You can also use squash and stretch to exaggerate facial expressions. To make an understanding with squash and stretch let me give you an example:

if the ball gets longer, it also gets narrower; when it gets flatter, it also gets wider. and the same thing goes with cubes. If you master "squash and stretch" with cubes, the next step is to try to do it in 3D.

The second principle of animation is called Anticipation. This is when a character prepares for an action to give the audience a clue as to what is happening next as well as to make the action appear more realistic. One example is when a character is about to jump. Before leaping into the air, he has to prepare for the action by crouching down to build energy. It's like a spring that coils up before releasing. Anticipation helps communicate actions to the audience by preparing them for the next action. This can happen in many ways If a character is about to take something out of their pocket. They make their hand very visible and up in the air before going into the pocket. Otherwise, the audience might miss it and wonder how they got that object in the first place. The most important thing is that the viewer notices the hand and the pocket so the character cannot be performing any competing actions.

So the third principle of animation is called staging. Staging is the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear. This is a very broad principle because it covers so many areas of animation. It can apply to acting, timing, camera Angle and position and setting. So when you're animating you want to be in full control of where the audience is looking. You're essentially saying look at this, now look at this and now look at this. This control is achieved through staging. All of the elements of the scene work together to move the viewers eyes around the screen. 

for example: Let's move the camera down below him to make him look bigger. And let's change his acting so that his weight actually gets in the way of his eating. So, he can't even reach for the soda without falling over. Now let's make sure to time it right. So, he notices the soda and then reaches for it. Now the idea is very clear.

So, the fourth animation principle is called straight ahead and pose to pose. This term describes two methods used to animate drawings. The first method straight ahead is where you draw the first drawing and then you draw the second drawing and then the third drawing and so on. It's basically animating as you go. The second method post a pose is where you draw the beginning and end of each main pose and go back later to fill in the drawings in between So there are benefits to both methods. Pose to pose is generally better for most actions because it gives you the most control. 

Alright, so the next principle of animation is called follow through and overlapping action. This is a technique of having body parts and appendages dragged behind the rest of the body and continue to move when the body stops. Follow through and overlapping action are often associated with another technique called drag These names all describe the same thing but in different ways. Overlapping action describes the offset between the timing of the main body and its other parts. Drag describes the technique of delaying the movement of body parts in relation to the main body. All three of these are basically describing different aspects of the same thing. Follow through and overlapping action add a great deal of realism to a character. Here's a character with and without follow through and overlapping action. Basically when the main body moves, the tip of the appendage should be the last to catch up. And when the body stops, the tip should follow through the farthest before settling back. This is true of not just appendages, but the whole body as well. When coming to a stop often the body will follow through and then come back. Just as the character needs to anticipate his jump he also needs to follow through his land. Sometimes the extra skin on the character can be treated as a separate entity with Drag and follow through. Similar to squash and stretch the amount of drag that you give something says something about its mass

Overlapping action helps break up an animation to make it more interesting. If we offset the movement of the arms and legs the animation appears more graceful. If a character is standing up from the ground, we could offset the top half from the bottom half to make it look less easy and more realistic.

Furthermore, the next principle is called slow in and slow out. This principle refers to the way pretty much all movement starts slowly, build speed and finishes slowly. This is one of the most important principles to achieving lifelike motion without slow in and slow out, things feel mechanical. That's because robots are one of the only things that actually move their parts at a constant speed. To use this principle in 2d animation, you take your extreme poses draw a single in-between and then draw in between those then only in between the drawings closest to the extremes until you're satisfied with the amount of slow in and slow out.

With 3D animation and motion graphics adding slow in and slow out as a matter of changing the motion curves from linear to spline by adjusting the Bezier handles. As time progresses the object starts slow, gets fast, and then slowly. Use it wisely.

For example you wouldn't add a slow out to a bouncing ball as it's colliding with the ground But you would add it as it's bouncing back up. You wouldn't add it to a bullet coming out of a gun. But you would add it as the gun comes up due to whiplash. Using this principle can allow you to only have to draw one in between if the motion is quick enough. This kind of motion can be achieved in 3D with very extreme curves.

The next principle is called Secondary action. This principle is often associated with overlapping action. Although according to Frank and Ollie it means something very different. Secondary action describes gestures that support the main action to add more dimension to the character animation. 

For example a character may be walking angrily. The primary action is the legs and the secondary action is everything else: the arms swinging, the head bobbing and the facial movements.

So the next principle is called exaggeration. Basically every action, pose and expression can be taken to the next level to increase the amount of impact on the viewer. So the early animators that Disney would get confuse. because Walt would tell them to add more realism, but then when they changed it he would criticize the result because it wasn't exaggerated enough. In Walt's mind, there was probably no difference making it more realistic didn't mean make the physics and proportions more consistent with reality. But rather make the idea or essence of the action more apparent and real. So if a character was sad, make him sadder. Bright, make him brighter. Worried, make him more worried. Wild, make him wilder.

Exaggeration doesn't mean more distorted, but more convincing. It's amazing how you can always add exaggeration. 

The last principle of animation is called appeal. Basically characters that you animate should be somewhat pleasing to look at. They should have some kind of charismatic aspect to like about them. This doesn't only apply to the hero of the story, but also the villain and every other character Appeal doesn't always mean good-looking. It can also mean interesting. So the villain should be likable in the sense that they are interesting to look at. The tricky thing about this is that everyone has a different standard for what is appealing. However, just giving your character a dynamic design can greatly boost its appeal.