Principles of Animation

28 Principles of Animation

This article was given to me by Mark Kennedy (storyboard artist on Hercules and Tarzan).
Thank you Mark for all those handouts!!

Often times animators and story boarders in the industry are able to get handouts from some of
the artists who are great teachers. This is an example of such kind of handout that gets circulated
among the artists gradually. It took me quite a while to retype and scan the images from this
handout. Please don't reproduce this on the internet without permission. (if you'd like to print it
out and give it to another animation student, however, PLEASE do!) The entire article from here
on out is by Walt Stanch field (sp?) I included the images in approximately the same spot as they
were on the original hand-written article.

This is a wonderful article for not only beginners but also for practiced animators. Please read it.

28 Principles of Animation

There are some principles of animation that can be consciously used in any scene. We should
familiarize ourselves with them for both animation and animation-cleanup.

To illustrate these principles, I have chosen a supposedly simple scene. When the scene is
analyzed, it is apparent how far one may go in using these principles.

The action in this scene is quite broad, making the principles easy to find, but they should be
applied to subtle scenes also. Rarely in a picture is a character doing nothing- absolutely nothing.
Snow White and Sleeping Beauty spend a short time in complete inactivity, but even then certain
of these principles were used.

The use of held drawings and moving holds can be very effective, but only if they contain the
vitality of an action drawing. Again, the use of these principles makes that possible.
28 Principles of Animation

  The purpose of studying and analyzing a scene like this is to acquaint oneself with the
possibilities in the use of the principles of animation. I have listed 28 principles, though there
well may be more. At first these will have to be used consciously, then hopefully in time will
become second nature. These are the tools of animation and should be incorporated whenever
possible. Some of them are accidentally stumbled upon while animating in an emotional spurt,
but when the emotions are lax, knowing these principles will enable the artist to animate his
scene intellectually, logically and artistically as well as emotionally.

28 Principles of Animation

Here is a list of things (principles) that appear in these drawings, most of which should appear in
all scenes, for they comprise the basis for full animation

-Pose and Mood  -Planes  -Straights and Curves

-Shape and Form -Solidity -Primary and secondary action
-Anatomy -Arcs -Staging and composition
-Model or Character -Squash and Stretch -Anticipation
-Weight -Beat and Rhythm
-Caricature
-Line and Silhouette -Depth and Volume
-Details
-Action and Reaction -Overlap and follow through
-Texture
-Perspective -Timing
-Simplification
-Direction -Working from extreme to
-Positive and negative shapes
-Tension extreme

28 Principles of Animation

An example of the observations that might be made by flipping and studying just these two
drawings. By shifting your eyes from one drawing to the other you can see these things
happening. Watch the negative shapes also.

28 Principles of Animation-page 5
... To continue along this line of investigation...

This drawing would be called the "push off". Note that every line and shape on the drawing helps
the upward thrust. Even the tail, which is still following the path set up for it by its primary force,
the rump, helps by way of contrast and follow through. Pick any shape on the figure and
compare it to drawing #6 on the preceding page. Note how each shape changes to enhance the
overall shape and action: the neck, the chest, the legs, the back, etc.

Even though this is just one drawing, there is no doubt about the action that is taking place in this
part of the scene. This should be true of any drawing in any scene.

Consider Anatomy Alone:

Aside from its purpose in the scene each drawing can be analyzed for different aspects of
drawing. The whole body is a caricature of an animal, but all the parts of a real animal are
present i.e., head, neck, back, hips, tail, etc. And each of them work and move in a plausible way.
Anatomy Continued

Anatomy, of course is essential to any drawing whether it has a direct reference to nature or is
completely imaginary. Though a character and/or its action may be greatly exaggerated or
caracatured, anatomy in a sense remains fairly constant. An elbow is an elbow and only bends in
a certain way, and has its limitation. Liberties may be taken but the "reality" of even a cartoon
must be kept or it will lose plausibility or credulity. It is not an easy thing to convert one's
knowledge of structural anatomy to the cartoon medium.

It has been said that the location of a joint is more important than the joint itself. For instance if
an arm shape has been established, it cannot have an elbow bend in an improbable place, no
matter how well the elbow is drawn. Compare tiger's arm to that of a real tiger.
Consider Weight

The pull of gravity is one of the most important principles to deal with in animation. Everything
has a certain amount of weight and will act and react accordingly. One easy way to lose the
attention of an audience is to have feathers falling like bricks or bricks falling like feathers.

A certain humor can be gotten by bending the rules but should only be used where humor or
special effect is called for. In shorts cartoons defying the laws of gravity, weight, speed, squash
and stretch, etc., is a the rule of thumb. In Disney feature cartoons such flamboyant abandonment
must be handled more discriminately.