12 Principles of Animation
1. Squash & Stretch
Objects are flexible because they are squashed and stretched. The simplest method to comprehend how stretch and squash function is to observe a bouncing ball. Just before impact, the ball will spread out as it begins to fall and gain speed.
The ball squashes when it strikes the ground and then stretches out once again as it lifts up. Please be aware that objects retain their original volume. The breadth and depth of the ball must match up appropriately when it is compressed or extended.
There are several instances of "squash and stretch" in daily life that you might not even be aware of. For instance, because to the face's extreme flexibility, squashing and stretching might happen while someone talks. Animation can make this more pronounced. To add humorous impact or additional appeal, squash and stretch may be used in a variety of animation contexts, such as for the eyes during a blink or when someone is startled or frightened.
2. Anticipation
Animation builds up the audience's anticipation for an upcoming action, which is necessary to sell genuine actions.
A simple illustration of this is that in order to have enough energy to pitch the ball forward, a baseball player must first shift their entire body and arm backward. Therefore, an animated person must first walk backward if they need to move ahead. Alternatively, the character must first pull their hand away if they are reaching for a glass on a table. This not only increases their velocity but also alerts the viewers to the impending movement of this individual.
Another instance of anticipation is when a character glances away as a visitor enters the scene or when they are preoccupied with something they are going to accomplish.
3. Staging
Staging is the process of putting up your scene, including where the characters are placed, what's in the background and front, how the actors are feeling, and how the camera angle is positioned. The audience is made aware of the animation's aim with the use of staging. To prevent confusion in the audience, you should keep the emphasis on the message you wish to convey to them (and avoid providing extraneous material).
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
Straight forward action is animated frame by frame from beginning to end and is highly spontaneous and linear in nature. By doing this, you may make each posture for the animation one at a time. Therefore, you would create the positions where your character is standing, then the poses where he is starting to kneel down, and finally the poses where he is entirely hunched, if your character is landing on the ground after jumping in the air. In order to make swift motion smooth and lively, you are essentially working your way through the animation.
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action
Follow through refers to the notion that various body components would keep moving even after the character has stopped. The arms may move forward as the figure slows down from walking before settling down. The same idea may apply to apparel items.
Similar to drag, overlapping action (sometimes known as "lead and follow") entails the movement of several bodily components at various rates. When a character waves with their arm up, for instance, the shoulder will move first, followed by the arm, the elbow, and then the hand, which lags behind by a few frames. This is also evident in the way that grass blades move in the wind. It moves in a wave manner because the base travels first and the remaining grass moves at varying rates in its wake.
Additionally, figures who are motionless must exhibit some form of motion (such as blinking eyes, breathing, etc.) to keep the animation from becoming "dead." We refer to this as a "moving hold."
6. Ease In and Ease Out
Acceleration and deceleration must occur at specific times as an item travels or stops. Movements become incredibly artificial and robotic when there is no ease in and ease out (or slow in and slow out).
A automobile does not immediately accelerate to its peak speed once it leaves a standstill. It has to get up speed initially. It doesn't instantly go from 60 to 0 when it comes to a halt. Instead, it slows down until it stops altogether.
The same has to be achieved in animation, and using the notion of spacing is the simplest approach to achieve ease in and ease out. The distance between each posture will initially be closer as a character stands up from a seated position so that they can get used to the movement. At the conclusion of the activity, they will relax out of the movement by separating the positions more apart. Everything would be quite sudden and jerky without this accelerating and decelerating of actions.
7. Arcs
In actual life, everything usually travels in an arcing manner. This animation technique should be followed to create fluid, lifelike motions as it isn't natural for individuals to move in straight lines. The flatter the arc and wider the curve, the faster something is moving. A robot is the only thing that could move in a straight path.
A character will lower his head downward while twisting his head to produce an arcing motion. Additionally, you want to make sure that more delicate movements follow arcs. For instance, even the tips of a character's toes should move in an arcing, rounded motion when they walk.
8. Secondary Action
The term "secondary action" refers to the activities that accompany or highlight the main action in order to give the animation more life and provide a more realistic performance. It's crucial to keep in mind that the secondary action should normally be quiet and unobtrusive—possibly even considered to be a subconscious activity—so as not to interfere with the primary action. Because of this, dramatic motions are given precedence over things like facial expressions.
Say a character is conversing with a different character in a waiting area. The primary action would be the two of them conversing, while the secondary action would be if one of them started tremblingly tapping their foot. Other instances include characters whistling, resting against a wall, or crossing their arms as the main action is happening.
9. Timing and Spacing
Animation relies on timing and spacing to give objects and characters the appearance of following the rules of physics.
Timing is the time interval between two poses or the rate of movement. Timing would be, for instance, if a ball moved from the left to the right screen in 24 frames. If you're operating at the film rate of 24 frames per second, it takes the ball 24 frames or 1 second to cross the screen. Timing may also define personality, mood, and emotion.
The arrangement of those individual frames is referred to as spacing. For instance, in the same illustration, the spacing would be determined by where the ball is placed in the remaining 23 frames. The ball goes more slowly when the distances are close together. The ball goes more quickly when the spacing is wider.
10. Exaggeration
Exaggeration should always be employed to some extent since it serves to promote motions and increases the attraction of an activity.
Extremely cartoonish motions, such as physical changes or supernatural components, can be produced via exaggeration. Alternately, exaggeration can be used with a bit more restraint for behaviors that are more in line with reality. Even so, exaggeration may be used to maintain truth while making a movement more reading or entertaining.
As a result, you may slightly lower a character who is about to jump from a diving board before they do so. As an alternative, you may augment certain actions or assist sell the weight of a figure or item by exaggerating the time.
11. Solid Drawing
A solid drawing in 2D animation involves accurately representing volume and weight, balance, shadow, and the anatomy of a posture. When using 3D animation, animators must consider how to lay out your 3D character rig to guarantee proper balance, weight, and a distinct silhouette.
Avoid "twinning," which is striking a mirror image position (both hands in pockets or both arms in hips), since this results in a fairly uninteresting and dull pose.
12. Appeal
This idea essentially just boils down to giving your animation greater appeal (charisma), especially in the pose. However, the most apparent example is the attraction of the character design, since you want to create a character that the audience can identify to or connect with, whereas a convoluted or confusing character design might lack appeal.
To make the character more distinctive and memorable in the eyes of your audience, you might select spots on the character to push and exaggerate. One illustration would be to just emphasize the jawline or the youthfulness of the eyes. Either of these can contribute to increasing attraction.
Keep in mind that villains also need to appeal.