Principles of Animation

Squash and Stretch

Squash and Stretch is the action that makes it seem that the object has a weight to it. It can be used to help convey certain motions such as jumping up or landing after falling. This technique can also be used when characters are talking, as it can help clearly define the emotions on a character.

Timing and Motion

Timing helps establish how fast or slow a motion occurs. It also establishes actions and their reactions to make sure they are received in a natural way. For motion, timing can be done in the frames. How many frames per second and how many of a similar frame that stays changes how it all works. A frame that lasts for a bit before moving onto the next conveys slower actions, but can also be seen as smoother. Frames that last briefly can convey sudden actions and can be seen as sharp. You can mix the two to make scenes look more realistic.

Anticipation

Anticipation is the way of establishing a motion before it occurs. For example, a person shifting from a walking position to leaning forward and taking a much wider step suddenly. This leads into a person running. Another example is of a standing person bending their knees, crouching low to the ground right before they jump into the air.

Staging

Staging is setting up how the viewer will be lead about your story. It conveys the mood, setting, and major ideas. Similar to that of stages in live action theaters, having a good stage gives you a solid base for the story to be told upon.

Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Follow through occurs after an action ends. The clothes, hair, and other similar things, have to finish the main action, even if the main body has already stopped. This can be seen as when a character stops running suddenly, their clothes still need to catch up to them since they don't stop immediately when the character does. Overlapping action occurs during follow through. Our running character suddenly stopped and changed direction, their clothes still have to finish the original action before doing the next.

Straight Ahead action and Pose-to-pose Action

Straight ahead, as it name implies, is doing an animation straight on. You plan the whole scene as it occurs, drawing the next frame immediately after the last. Pose-to-Pose requires some planning and key frame layouts, making this somewhat easier to animate later on.

Slow in and Out

Slow ins and Slow outs give the animation a smoother effect. This puts more drawings at the start of an action and at the end of the action, leaving a fewer drawings on the inbetweens. The more drawings there are the slower the action will seem versus the fewer there are the faster the action appears.

Arcs

Generally all motions can be carried through an arc or elliptical path, especially when dealing with humans and animals. It gives the animation a smoother, more natural like effect as well.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration can be an extremely distorted figure, or it can be used to help clarify the emotions of a character. It can be more than that though, exaggeration of an action can help tell if, for example a character is suddenly given a heavy object, how heavy the object possibly is.

Secondary action

Secondary action is an action that is being caused by another action. An example would be the swinging of a person's arms as they walk, or the blinking of their eyes. It can help emphasize the main action as well, such a person stomping their feet when upset while walking, or shuffling when they're sad.

Appeal

An appealing character is not necessarily a handsome or beautiful character. An appealing character is one whose design is clear to the viewer, as well as one whose personality is one they can understand and appreciate.

Solid Drawing

A solid drawing is one that gives illusion to the object being three dimensional in its space.

Resources/Links:

http://www.animationtoolworks.com/library/article9.html

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html