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Academics Arena Animation Head Office Mumbai
Article Code: AR/25

TOPIC: 12 Principles of Animation

PURPOSE: Usage of animation principles

LEARNINGS: To understand the 12 principles of animation in a animated

movie. How this principles are applied to bring out realism in a animated
character or objects.

SCOPE/ OUTCOMES: The Faculties will be able to deliver a theory lecture

related to concept in Principle of animation.

12 Principles of Animation.

The 12 principles of animation were created in the early 1930s by animators in

Walt Disney Studio. These principles were used to guide and train young
animators and also it became the foundation of hand drawn cartoons.
The style and techniques of animation has changed since 1930s but these
principals are still relevant today as they help us to create more realistic
believable characters and situations, which we often see and notice in our daily
activities as well.
These principle were used in movies like Snow White (1937), Pinocchio and
Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), which were classics.

The 12 Principle are as follows.

1. Squash and stretch

2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Pose-to-pose action
5. Straight-ahead action
6. Follow-through and Overlapping action
7. Slow-in and slow-out
8. Arcs

By Zakirhussain Sothia ARENA Academics Head Office 110708

 9. Secondary action
10. Timing
11. Exaggeration
12. Appeal

Squash and stretch

Illusion of giving weight and volume to a character.

The very first principle of animation is used to exaggerate and give life to objects,
like a simple ball bouncing off the floor, if it doesn t have squash and stretch it
may not look like it is bouncing.
Similarly this principle can also be used to express grief and sorrow on a face in
3D and 2D characters.

Anticipation

This technique helps to guide the audience eye s to where the action is going to
occur. This is the major action the character is about to perform like Jump,run.
For example a batsman raising his bat before hitting the ball, when he raises his
bat we know the action which is going to follow next is hitting the ball that is
anticipation.

By Zakirhussain Sothia ARENA Academics Head Office 110708

Staging

Attitude, mood, reaction of a character and translating specific mood and

intention of a scene into specific character positions and actions.
Staging can be aided with techniques like slow motion, frozen time and hand
held cameras.
Camera movements like long, medium, close-ups and camera angle play a
important part in staging.

Straight ahead action and Pose-to-pose action

Drawings which starts from the first to the last, step by step in details drawing
each and every frame.
While pose to pose is a key drawing which depicts major action or pose change
of a character at regular intervals.
Pose-to-pose action became the standard animation technique in early days of
hand drawn animation because it breaks down structured motion into a series of
clearly defined key poses.
Both these principals can be blended/mixed together.

Follow-through and Overlapping

The reaction of character or object after an action is performed, for example

when the character stops after running or moving his cloths keep moving until it
comes to a complete stop, or a hand continues to move till complete halt even
after the ball is released.

By Zakirhussain Sothia ARENA Academics Head Office 110708

Overlapping is a start of second action before the first one has completely
finished. Overlapping action occurs when object or elements move and stops at
different point of time.

Slow-in and slow-out

Making the start and end slow while the middle action is speeded up to give more
realism to the action performed.
Example can be a runner starts slow and speeds up in the middle and while
stopping he slows down.
This is easily achieved with 3 dimensional software s, which can easily fine tune
this action.

Arcs

Most living beings and creature move in curve path and not straight, using Arcs
gives more realistic motion to characters in animation which helps achieve a
natural look.
Even the natural movement of our eye is in arcs, that is in certain degree of
rotation.

By Zakirhussain Sothia ARENA Academics Head Office 110708

Secondary action

Secondary action is an action which results from another primary action.

They are important for adding realistic complexity to the animation.
An example can be the facial expression of a character; the body can be the
primary action while the expression can be the secondary action.
Also hand and movements of head can be secondary action to the body
movement.

Timing

The amount of time the character spends in performing a certain action.

The animator must spend appropriate time on the actions and reactions of the
action on a character.
If too much time is spend then the viewer may loose interest or if too little time is
spend then the viewer may miss or misunderstand the action performed.
How much time a character spends in performing a certain action can be
perfected by observation and experiments.
For example if a person lifts a heavy object he will take more time to pick the
object, while it would be opposite if he lifts a lighter object.

Exaggeration

Facial expressions, movements, actions, poses and attitudes to explain and

define the scene in animation
The above mentioned principles can be used to achieve this like stretch and
squash.

By Zakirhussain Sothia ARENA Academics Head Office 110708

Appeal

Character personality as it is originally called.

A character must have a well developed personality and should be distinct from
all the other character in terms of desire and wants which reflects their behavior
and their actions.

They are the original principles but with today advancement in technology
they need some modification, but complete alteration of these principles
may not be advisable.
Remember that these principles are not just used in animation alone, but
you may find the reflection of these principles in graphics advertisements
as well.

By Zakirhussain Sothia ARENA Academics Head Office 110708