12 Animation Principles Every Animator Should Know

Animation gives stories a lifelike quality by enabling objects and characters to move. The 12 important rules followed by animators are referred to as the animation principles credited with being developed by Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their publication "The Illusion of Life". They help animators produce animations that simulate real-life entities and are fascinating, like a manual.

Knowing these principles is key to making great animations, whether you’re an experienced animator or a beginner. Animation is not just about moving things around, it’s about showing emotions and actions that feel real to the audience. These 12 principles help you do this by teaching you how to make movements look natural, create appealing characters, and add special touches that make your animations stand out.

In this blog, we’ll explain these 12 animation principles in simple terms. We’ll show you what they mean and how to use them to improve your animations. By learning and using these principles, you can create more lively, engaging, and fun animations to watch.

Here are the 12 principles of animation:

1. Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch offer characters and objects a sense of weight and flexibility. Animators can communicate the properties of various materials, such as the rigidity of a steel beam and the elasticity of a rebounding ball, by exaggerating these movements. This concept gives animations a lively sense by making movements more expressive and lifelike.

2. Anticipation

Anticipation prepares viewers for what will happen next, giving the action sense of reality and flow. Like a figure bends its knees before it jumps, this buildup helps prepare the scene for the action, ensuring it seems natural and in the right place.

3. Staging

Staging means establishing the audience's attention to the most crucial elements of a scene. Effective staging emphasizes crucial events or emotions through composition, lighting, and framing, ensuring viewers understand the story and the characters' goals.

4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

There are two ways to animate scenes: straight-forward action and pose-to-pose. In straight-forward action, you draw each frame from beginning to end, which makes the movement smoother and more natural. Pose-to-pose starts by drawing the primary poses and then filling in the gaps. This gives you more control over the animation and makes it more accurate.

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Using follow-through and overlapped action makes movement more realistic by showing how body parts move at different speeds. Overlapping motion shows how various body parts move at other times, while follow-through shows that parts of the body keep moving after the character stops.

6. Slow In and Slow Out

Slow in and slow out refer to changing the speed of an object's movement to make it more natural. Actions begin slowly, pick up speed, and then slow down again. This concept is essential for creating natural and smooth animations and can also be used to give movements weight and meaning.

7. Arc

Natural movements usually use a curved path rather than a straight line. The arc principle ensures that activities such as arm swings, head turns, and walking routes are more natural and fluid, increasing the animation's overall authenticity.

8. Secondary Action

Secondary actions support the main action and provide depth to the animation. For example, while walking (main activity), a character's hair may bounce, or their facial expression could change. These additional motions contribute to the story and provide context.

9. Timing

Timing refers to the number of frames dedicated to a particular action, affecting the movement's speed and rhythm. Proper timing can convey different emotions, reactions, and physical properties, ensuring the animation resonates with the audience.

10. Exaggeration

Exaggeration involves increasing specific components to make the animation more lively and exciting. This can be anything from mild exaggeration to make something look more authentic to extreme exaggeration to make something look like a cartoon. It helps to bring out actions and emotions, making the animation more interesting.

11. Solid Drawing

Solid drawing emphasizes understanding the basics, including anatomy, weight, and volume. Even in stylized animations, characters and objects should feel consistent and believable, with proper use of light and shadow to enhance their three-dimensionality.

12. Appeal

Appeal ensures that characters and objects are engaging and attractive to the audience. This doesn’t necessarily mean making them attractive instead, it’s about creating designs that captivate viewers and evoke interest, regardless of whether the characters are heroes or villains.

Conclusion

In conclusion, mastering the 12 principles of animation is essential for any animator aspiring to create engaging, lifelike animations. These timeless guidelines, from squash and stretch to appeal, provide a foundation that enhances creativity and technical skill. By incorporating these principles into your work, you can bring your animations to life, captivating and delighting audiences with every frame. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned professional, these principles are the key to creating animations that stand the test of time.

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