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12 Principles of Animation

  • Writer: Matthew Leonard
    Matthew Leonard
  • Oct 11, 2020
  • 3 min read

1. Squash and Stretch - In this clip squash and stretch is used as the child on the see-saw gets flung up to the sky and shot down on the slide. This movement is used to exaggerate the velocity of the child during these actions.



2. Timing and Spacing - In a slow-motion effect the spacing of each frames is further apart which makes the timing of the scene appear slower. However once the rock hits the characters the spacing of the frames are condensed and make the action happen a lot quicker and make it appear that the rock hit the character a lot harder than it would in slow-motion.



3. Anticipation - In this scene the character moves her arms back in preparation for the sparkling pen. This movement is important as not only does it build energy for her to swing her arms but it helps give the audience enough time to notice what she is about to do.



4. Staging - Staging in this clip is used effectively as the camera focuses it's attention on what the main action is in the scene. Although there is a lot of activity taking place in this scene the principle of staging helps us on what the audience should be focusing on.



5. Follow Through - Follow through helps make sure that if characters are doing an action, them and their accessories must follow the law of physics. In this clip the character falls down a fireman's pole and the principle of follow through is shown by the cape as the cape starts to lift up as the character falls down.



6. Straight Ahead / Pose to Pose - This refers to how the frames are animated, straight ahead means the frames are drawn one after another whilst pose to pose means that the extreme frames are drawn with in-betweens in the middle. In this scene we will see a mixture of both of these with the character running can be described as pose to pose, whereas straight ahead will generally be used for particles like fire, smoke and sweat which would be hard to draw in-between frames for.



7. Slow In + Slow Out - This movement describes each point having a lot of frames to slow down each side, whilst the portion during the action will have not as many. This frame pattern will create an easing in movement which in this clip is seen by the ghost's arm as they grab a towel.



8. Arcs - In this clip the characters hair bouncing back from being stuck behind the top of the door frame can be perfectly described as an arc movement as the hair uses drag to bounce back and forth from the pivot which is the character's head.



9. Exaggeration - This scene perfectly describes exaggeration as it uses smear frames to help show ridiculously fast movement as the character gets thrown out the car. The events that occur after further display exaggeration as it portrays ridiculous activities which would never happen in reality.



10. Secondary Action - The secondary action is what supports the primary action and gives the audience a better idea on how this character feels about a situation. In this scene the primary action will be the character's fist clenched and his secondary action will be him stomping his feet on the ground to further imply how unpleased he is in his situation.



11. Solid Drawing - Solid drawing gives us a sense of depth within our character to make them appear 3D and real, This is used effectively in this scene as the camera pans around the characters making them appear spherical instead of flat which is how we normally see the character,



12. Appeal - This is what we enjoy in the character, what makes them interesting and unique compared to any other character. For this character we see that she is targeted to look cute and quite imprudent, however from time to time you will notice her sinister side and that she has more to show for than just her looks.



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