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12 Principles of Animation

The principles of animation were introduced by Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston to guide people in creating the illusion of the laws of physics in simple cartoons.

1. Squash and Stretch

The distortion of mass (keeping a consistent volume) used to emphasize motions and collisions.

The spring in the video is shrinking by squashing together and stretches out afterwards.

2. Anticipation

Anticipation occurs before an action to guide the viewer’s eyes and to set up a motion.

Anticipation can be shown with the characters head not moving immediately as well as the balloon releasing some air before launching upwards.

3. Staging

The presentation of an idea through elements of the scene and camera angles.

The scene clearly shows Tom as a mad scientist type character with the environment, lighting, and angles.

4. Straight Ahead vs Pose-to-Pose

Straight ahead is drawing each frame in order while pose to pose starts with key positions and then fills in the frames missing in between.

The video demonstrates the process of both animating tactics.

5. Follow Through/Overlapping Action

An action that occurs after another reaction in a cause and effect way.

After Jerry throws Tom, he does not just freeze, he moves his arm further in a follow through and even jumps into the air.

6. Slow In and Slow Out

Motion starts slowly and builds up faster until it nears the end and slows down before halting. Usually applied when gravity is being shown.

Both Tom and his hair start slightly and slowly moving only to rapidly grow in speed.

7. Arcs

The main way of displaying natural movement by using arcs around pivot points or with spline curves to draw the motion, such as with an arm.

Jerry uses the wooden plank to slay Tom going in an arc, with blur lines showing the arc clearly.

8. Secondary Actions

Small actions that react to larger actions, such as transferred impact or facial expressions.

The jumping the coyote does causes the box to slightly move around as a secondary action.

9. Timing

The amount of frames between certain poses to show speed and to imply things like weight and emotion.

Both first clips show how long it take for the bolder to move up and how fast it moves downward, along with it not moving upwards or settling, implying it is heavy.

10. Exaggeration

Showing a motion or face clearly and boldly to insure that it is more easily recognisable.

Both characters facial expressions and movements are exaggerated to clearly show what emotion and action they are demonstrating.

11. Solid Drawing

The way of drawing something to appear 3D despite being a 2D drawing.

The trees and the bird bath both have shadows to help show their shape.

12. Appeal

The look of the end animation must be pleasing to the audience, not going overboard and making the animation hard to watch.

The clip shown is an example of something unappealing and disgusting that occurs in a normally not disgusting show, turning off most of the audience.