12 Orig­i­nal Principles

1. Appeal
2. Staging
3. Exaggeration
4. Timing
5. Anticipation
6. Ease In Ease Out
7. Secondary Motion/Action
8. Pose to Pose vs. Straight Ahead
9. Overlapping Action & Fol­low Through
10. Solid Draw­ing
11. Arcs
12. Squash & Stretch

Appeal - is where the char­ac­ter must ooze per­son­al­ity.  In other words, there must be some type of con­nec­tion between the char­ac­ter and the audience.

In order to estab­lish a con­nec­tion you must clearly under­stand and feel the char­ac­ters emo­tions. We must be able to see traits that we can iden­tify and relate too.  If we are sup­posed to root for the char­ac­ter the rea­sons should be clear as to why? The character’s visual design, per­son­al­ity traits, emo­tional responses, and the abil­ity to emote are all ele­ments that work together. They define the char­ac­ters per­son­al­ity and deter­mine if we are attracted or repulse by them.  There­fore, under­stand­ing the tar­get audi­ence and there inter­ests is cru­cial for estab­lish­ing this con­nec­tion.  Make sure you under­stand as much as pos­si­ble about who you are try­ing to con­nect with.  Remem­ber that peo­ples inter­ests change with time, from cul­ture to cul­ture, and between age groups — so do your homework!

3 rules to remem­ber when attempt­ing to cre­at­ing appeal in your animations:

1. It must be inter­est­ing to you.
2. Just because it may be inter­est­ing to you does not mean that it will nec­es­sar­ily be inter­est­ing to oth­ers. Reach out and relate to oth­ers
3. It must be inter­est­ing to some­one other than you and your mom! Show it to mul­ti­ple peo­ple and take a consensus.

Stag­ing -  is about com­mu­ni­ca­tion and opportunity.

3 things that should be con­sid­ered in staging:

1. Char­ac­ter
2. Envi­ron­ment
3. Sit­u­a­tion that unfolds

A strong sil­hou­ette is needed in order for a character’s pose to read quickly and clearly. Train­ing your­self to see form in an image will help you to rec­og­nize a stronger more suc­cess­ful pose. The fol­low­ing image has a pretty good silhouette.

Sil­hou­ette

Notice that when we take away the details of the char­ac­ter that the pose still clearly com­mu­ni­cates. I encour­age you to strive to make your Key Poses read quickly and clearly to the audi­ence. These poses will tell your story. With a strong clear idea you will then be able to build on and advance the com­plex­ity of your animation.

Lit­tle Black Rid­ing Hood

In the above ani­ma­tion, none of the char­ac­ters spe­cific details are nec­es­sary for telling the story. The envi­ron­ment will either aid or con­trast the sit­u­a­tion.  All you will need to deter­mine is which sce­nario will make your story more suc­cess­ful.  As an exam­ple: A fire mon­ster in the desert is not very inter­est­ing; how­ever, a fire mon­ster in an ice cave is much more inter­est­ing because of its con­trast. Con­flict is good because it will bring about change!   The audi­ence will take joy in watch­ing a story resolve it’s con­flicts and they will root for char­ac­ters to over­come the obsta­cles before them.

Goofy — How to Swim — Envi­ron­ment Staging

Exag­ger­a­tion - helps to bring empha­sis to spe­cific parts of an ani­ma­tion. Can there be to much exag­ger­a­tion? Yes.  Often times ani­ma­tors think that by mak­ing every­thing exag­ger­ated within their ani­ma­tions that it will breath more life into the char­ac­ter.  How­ever, if every­thing is pushed to it’s extreme then what actions will stand out?  The point of exag­ger­at­ing some­thing is to bring empha­sis and con­trast between actions.  Use this prin­ci­ple wisely.

Tan­gled Exaggeration

Notice the exag­ger­ated move­ments and expres­sions that read so well in the above clip.  Because the action is fast cer­tain actions are pushed to the extreme.  The fol­low­ing image is a clear take on exaggeration.

Tim­ing - is about the amount on time that it will take for an action to hap­pen.  Dif­fer­ent tim­ing can result in dif­fer­ent feel­ing, mood, and inten­tion.  In maya the space between keys effects the ini­tial tim­ing of an action.  The fol­low­ing exam­ples shows two dif­fer­ent tim­ings with very dif­fer­ent results.

Daffy Duck & Elmer Fud — Comedic Timing

Luxo — Emo­tional Timing

Antic­i­pa­tion - is about mak­ing the viewer wait to see the end result of an action.  A mov­ing hold is a way of cre­at­ing antic­i­pat­ing in an ani­ma­tion.  Usu­ally it is a hold in the mid­dle of an action but can be held over a longer story line as well.    A mov­ing hold is held for the length of time that feels right for the action.  This prin­ci­ple is very impor­tant for one sim­ple rea­son.  If you have it in your ani­ma­tion then you will win every sin­gle time.  If antic­i­pa­tion is miss­ing from your ani­ma­tion the audi­ence will never be allowed an oppor­tu­nity to par­tic­i­pate in the experience.

Lady and the Tramp — Emo­tional Anticipation

Daffy Duck Story Anticipation

Ease In Ease Out - is about accel­er­a­tion and forces. Actions often speed up and slow down over time which can spawn a more spir­ited results in your ani­ma­tions.  In the graph edi­tor, the steep­ness of the curve deter­mines the amount of accel­er­a­tion for an action.  As time ticks along at a con­stant rate value changes.  The flat­ter the curve is becom­ing the less change occurs.  The steeper the curve becomes the more change occurs. In addi­tion, accel­er­a­tion over a series of actions can also be effected by manip­u­lat­ing the spac­ing of keyframes which will effect your over all timing.

Gentleman’s Duel — Ease In Ease Out

12 Prin­ci­ples of Ani­ma­tion — Part I / Part III / Part IV