12 Principles of Animation (Official Full Series)

Hey, guys...

So, I decided to make a video series dedicated to the 12 principles of animation,

as described by the legendary animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

So the first principle is "squash and stretch".

This is the principle that animated objects will get longer

or flatter to emphasize their speed, momentum, weight, and mass.

Here's a bouncing ball that has squash and stretch.

And here is one without squash and stretch.

See the difference?

The amount that an object squashes and stretches says something about its mass.

The more squash and stretch, the softer the object.

The less squash and stretch, the stiffer the object.

This first one looks like a water balloon and the second one probably would be a bowling ball.

Squash and stretch applies to characters, too.

Look at how this figure is stretching from the speed that he's coming down with,

and then he squashes after he lands before settling in his pose.

You can also use squash and stretch to exaggerate facial expressions.

Let's add some squash and stretch to this face:

when his eyes are closed, his face is squashed,

and when he opens his eyes in disbelief,

his face stretches up and settles back to normal.

It's very important to keep the volume of the object consistent.

This is what a lot of people mess up with when they're first trying to do "squash and stretch".

They'll elongate the ball like this, and flatten it like this.

This is what you should NOT do.

The overall volume of the ball must be the same:

so as the ball gets longer, it also gets narrower;

when it gets flatter, it also gets wider.

The same goes with cubes.

If you're going in with one line, the other lines must go in the opposite direction.

The cube should start out narrow, get flat, get narrow again, and then rest.

In -betweening with cubes is easy because you can measure the line in between the two lines

and then connect them to make the cube.

If you master "squash and stretch" with cubes, the next step is to try to do it in 3D.

Another important note is that the ball does not have to be stretching the entire time that it's falling.

When it's just starting to fall, it should have its normal shape for the most part,

and then when it's just about to hit the bottom,

that's when it has the most stretch.

So, do not overdo "squash and stretch" in this sense.

Alright! The second principle of animation is called Anticipation.

This is when a character prepares for an action to give the audience a clue

as to what is happening next

As well as to make the action appear more realistic.

One example is when a character is about to jump.

Before leaping into the air, he has to prepare for the action

by crouching down to build energy.

It's like a spring that coils up before releasing.

Look at this character jumping without any anticipation.

It looks very unrealistic because the energy to jump comes out of nowhere.

Here's another example: a punch.

To add power to the punch and communicate to the viewers that he is about to punch.

He reaches his arm back and then punches.

By contrast having no anticipation results in a very weak punch.

You'll see this in a lot of cartoons before running a character will wind up, before taking off.

In the previous video about squash and stretch this face actually uses anticipation as well.

Instead of immediately stretching up, the face squashes first to anticipate the stretch

and give it more power.

Anticipation helps communicate actions to the audience by preparing them for the next action.

This can happen in many ways

If a character is about to take something out of their pocket.

They make their hand very visible and up in the air before going into the pocket.

Otherwise the audience might miss it and wonder how they got that object in the first place.

The most important thing is that the viewer notices the hand and the pocket

so the character cannot be performing any competing actions.

Let's say that something is about to happen on the right.

A character may prepare for that action by pointing their eyes and head to look in that direction

leading the viewers to also look there

It's important to make it as easy as possible for the audience to understand what's going on

without having to watch it twice.

But this can also be used to trick the audience too.

If you lead their eyes in One direction

and then surprise them by having something happen on the other side of the screen.

Taking anticipation of step further

you can actually have multiple levels of anticipation

Let's go back to our punch animation where the character winds up before punching.

This animation has one level of anticipation

Now look at this one.

The character is actually winding out for his wind-up

by going forward then winding up and then before punching

he throws his other arm back to further anticipate the punch.

This punch is very complex.

It's actually similar to what a baseball pitcher does when he's getting ready to throw the ball.

So the third principle of animation is called staging.

Staging is the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear.

This is a very broad principle because it covers so many areas of animation.

It can apply to acting, timing, camera Angle and position and setting.

So when you're animating you want to be in full control of where the audience is looking.

You're essentially saying look at this,

now look at this

and now look at this.

This control is achieved through staging.

All of the elements of the scene work together to move the viewers eyes around the screen.

Here's an example of bad staging.

The characters are competing for stage presence, so the viewer doesn't know which one to look at.

The camera has a lot to do with this.

It's important to know when to be closed up and went to be far away.