Disneys 12 principles of animation

The 12 Principles of Animation

Squash and stretch

Where a person or object is drawn to look like they stretch by getting longer in mid air and then squash by by getting flatter when they land. This is all done without changing the original size of the object. It creates an illusion that the drawings have some form of weight to them when they don’t they are drawings. The squash and stretch is usually demonstrated with a ball which I will use the one I made in the lessons as an example. The ball stretches in mid air by becoming longer until it reaches the highest points of the jump where the shape returns to its normal round shape. When the ball lands it squashes in one frame to make it look like the ball has some form of weight when it does not.

Anticipation

The anticipation is the build up to an important action such as a character about to run or throwing a ball. Usually done by having a shorter action happen first such as stepping back before running or lifting there leg up before throwing a ball. Anticipation is fairly common in 2D animation. In this example with wile-e coyote and the road runner. The coyote stay in mid air briefly before falling.

Staging

Staging is mainly about where a camera should be in a scene as well as directing the audience’s attention to something specific in said scene. It also refers to the idea that every movement a character does should show us what the character is thinking or what they are about to do without needing to be told with words. In this image with Daffy duck and bugs bunny you don’t need to be told what the characters are thinking as you can tell in their body language. Daffy is angry and bugs is smug about it.

 

 

Straight Ahead and pose to pose

Straight ahead and pose to pose are different methods used to animate a scene which are fairly similar but yield slightly different results. Straight ahead is where you draw each frame starting from the first without any real planning, this method is all improvisation and can easily result in more frames being made than necessary. It's straight forward, hence the name and is good for more fluid scenes. Pose to pose is the same but planned and more organized. For this method you start by drawing the important frames which are referred to as the key frames that need to be done right. Then you do al of the frames that go in-between which can need a chart to get the correct timing. While this method is more organized the scene will look more unnatural. For example the GIF with the eye's was done using the straight ahead method while the transforming GIF was done as a pose to pose.

Follow through and overlapping

These are more about applying the laws of physics to make actions look more believable to the audience. Follow through refers to momentum, when a character moves forward and stops other parts such as the hair moves slightly after and doesn’t stop at the same time but keeps moving forward. It follows through hence the name. Overlapping is similar except it is where some of those other parts move faster than others.

Slow in and slow out

Also referred to as ease in and ease out, this is where more frames are drawn at the beginning or end of a sequence as well as less frames in the middle. This creates an illusion that the character or object is speeding up as well as slowing down.  This can be seen with center ball and pendulum in this GIF. They start slow as there are more frames closer together, however the frames are getting increasingly further apart towards the center. This creates the illusion that the objects are speeding up to this point. After the center point the frames start getting increasingly closer together which makes it look like the objects are slowing down again.

Arc

Arcs refer to the direction of movement being in a curve instead of a straight line such as a ball bouncing. But in reality most forms of movement have a curves to them such as someone moving there arm or pointing there figure. In reality most forms of movement are done so in a curve and very few use straight lines. This partly why curves are so important as they make whatever the character or object we are trying to animate look a lot more natural and by a short extension more believable to the audience. Re using the last example, a swinging pendulum does not move in a straight line like the coins do. Instead it arcs by moving down as it reaches the center of its string to then move up again in a fluid movement.

Secondary action

The first action a character performs can be followed up by a shorter secondary action immediately after. The idea being that the secondary action applies some context to the first one by showing more clearly what the character is thinking or feeling. Here I have used a close up of my Halloween scene  as an example. Here the eye opens as the main action and then moves to the side. This represent the eye waking up in confusion.

Timing

Timing and by extension spacing are probably the most important techniques used for animation. Timing refers to how many frames there are at each point of the animation to increase or decrease speed. The example here shows the frames for the bouncing ball I used earlier. As the ball reaches the top of its arks the frames are closer together to show it is slowing down. Then as the ball falls the frames are increasingly getting further apart which creates the illusion the ball is falling faster. As the ball bounces, the arcs get smaller and there are more frames used at a closer distances. This is the ball loosing momentum and appear to be slowing down.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is where actions are drawn more over the top for a more dramatic or comedic effect that it wouldn’t have otherwise. Usually used for movement but can also be used by stretching facial features or expressions to make the characters more memorable. Disney is known to use exaggeration a lot in its animations which is probably why it is easy to remember Disney characters. This is the genie from Disneys Aladin, if Disney does exaggeration the most than I might as well use one of there films as an example. Here the Genie is shocked which has been exaggerated by distorting his nose, hair and most notably the lower jaw to the point it oh most hits the floor. While they have been notably exaggerated they don't look unnatural which is the most important part of this principle. While is jaw extended it hasn't literally hit the floor but has only reached his upper torso.

Solid Drawing

At their core animations are 2D as there on paper or shown on a flat screen. Solid drawing is where the 2D characters or objects are drawn in a way that they appear to be 3D when there not. This helps show more clearly to the audience that the characters are in a 3D space while also applying some weight. Here the characters look 3D.

Appeal

As the name implies, appeal is where the characters are made to look appealing and interesting for the audience so they will more easily remember the character. This is usually done for the main characters but not every character. To make a character appealing the design should be kept simple and have different features of the face enlarged or if all else fails just nice to look at. Represented here by toothless from how to train your dragon.