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Principles of Animation

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84 views

Principles of Animation

Uploaded by

renz dave
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION

By Sunil Talekar
PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION

1 Squash and stretch


2 Anticipation
3 Staging
4 Straight ahead action
and pose to pose
5 Follow through and
overlapping action
6 Slow in and slow out
PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION

7 Arcs
8 Secondary action
9 Timing
10 Exaggeration
11 Solid drawing
12 Appeal
Squash and stretch
Squash and stretch

This is probably the most important rule of animation:

it refers to the natural deformation, weight and flexibility


of objects.

It's a phenomenon we can observe in real life, watching a


ball bounce, for example.

If you apply a lot of squash and stretch, you'll get a


cartoon-type of animation, pleasing to the eye, often
wanted in motion design video.
Squash and stretch
Squash and stretch
Anticipation

Anticipation is the rule of animation where you


introduce a movement by another one.

For example, a baseball player, before throwing the


ball, will prepare for the action by moving his arm
back (and in fact his whole body will take a special
"pose").

This allows you to prepare your audience for what will


happen next and get a more "realistic" impact. In
motion design, for example, if you want to animate a
rotating object, make a slight rotation in the opposite
Anticipation
Anticipation
Anticipation
Staging

A process that actors know really well:

showing something in an explicit way on screen and directing


the viewer's attention on it to make the purpose of the scene
really clear.

The position from the camera and the orientation of what you
want to show can completely change the understanding of an
element.

A good way to know if your staging is going to work is to


imagine your scene as a silhouette.
Staging
Staging
Staging
Staging
Straight ahead action and pose to pose

These are two different ways to animate something. "Straight ahead" animation is
when you animate a character or something as it is moving, like when you move in
real life, you animate it frame by frame, without a plan.

On the other hand, "pose-to-pose" animation is when you begin by placing the most
important states, or "keyframes" of your animation, creating the transition between
two keyframes.

That way, you have a preview of what your animation will look like without having
to animate the whole thing.

This allows you a lot more flexibility, if some pose has to be changed; you don't have
to re-do the whole thing.

Nowadays, all animators work in "pose-to-pose", and computer animation software


allows us to be even more efficient as it automatically generates the "in-between"
frames.
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
Follow through and overlapping action

Follow-through and overlapping action are ways to give a more


"believable" look to your animation.

The overlapping action is the tendency for the different


parts/elements of your object to move with different timings
(e.g. the arms of a character are not animated with the same
timing as its legs.

Doing such a thing would give a really robotic-look to your


animation, and that's one of the most common problems with
animations today). Also bear in mind the fact that some
elements continue to move when the "main" one stopped.
Follow through and overlapping action
Follow through and overlapping action
Follow through and overlapping action
Slow in and slow out

When you move your arm, it won't move at a defined speed all
the time.

The movement is like a robot's where it starts slowly,


accelerates and then slows down to get to its final destination.

It also allows us to emphasize the key-poses of our animation


which in a way, gives more time for the viewer to see it.
Slow in and slow out
Arcs

Here we are talking about the trajectory of your animated


element through time.

An arched trajectory really helps when it comes to the realism


and the impact of your animation,
as the movement appears smoother and gentler.
Arcs
Arcs
Arcs
Arcs
Secondary action

It's always good to add some secondary animation to your


character/object.

For example, a female character running will have her hair


moving according to the speed of her run.

Another is to imagine a bull with a ring in the nose.

The ring is an independent object that deserves his own


animations but are related to the bull's face movement.
Secondary action
Secondary action
Secondary action
Timing

this is one of the most important rules.

Timing is the number of images it takes for an animation to


move from one key image to another.

This will set the rhythm of the animation and allow you to have
some non-linear action.

That will increase a lot the quality and generate more interest
for your animation.

Spacing is the difference between two frames. In other words,


it’s the detail of the timing.
Timing
Timing
Timing
Timing
Timing
Exaggeration

When it comes to cartoon or non-realistic


animation,

exaggerating a movement will always bring more


quality to your animation.

It allows your object or character to not look static


and fixed but fluid and with their own way of
thinking.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration
Exaggeration
Solid drawing

This is mostly applicable to 3-dimensional elements.

If only talking about 3D objects, but every object has its own
thickness, shape, reaction to lights and shadows.

In traditional animation, this requires a lot of skills, but in CG


animation, it is much easier to give life and importance to an
object with for example, a simple drop shadow.
Solid drawing
Solid drawing
Solid drawing
Appeal

Here we are talking about the charisma of your animation.

If we we’re talking about an actor, we would refer to it as their


acting ‘game’.

If you want something to be positive, design it with the


appropriate features:
a smile, round shapes, light colors…
and if you want to express a bad thing, use de-saturated dark
and sad colors, mad eyes, spikes, triangle and square shapes.
Appeal
Appeal
Appeal
Thanks

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