12 Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch- its purpose is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. An example of this is a bouncing ball.

2. Anticipation- is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic.

3. Staging- Its purpose is to direct the audience's attention, and make it clear what is of greatest importance in a scene.This can be done in different ways such as the placement of a character in the frame, the use of light and shadow, and the angle and position of the camera.

4. Straight ahead action / pose to pose- means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end, while "pose to pose" involves starting with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the intervals later.

Pose to pose-

5. Follow through and overlapping action- "Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. "Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates. A third related technique is "drag", where a character starts to move and parts of him take a few frames to catch up.

6. Slow in and slow out- The time it takes for the human body and other objects to accelerate or slow down. This principle goes for characters moving between two extreme poses, such as sitting down and standing up, but also for inanimate, moving objects, like the bouncing ball.

7. Arcs- Arcs give animation a more natural action and better flow. 8. Secondary action- Adding secondary actions to the main action gives a scene more life, and can help to support the main action. A person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets, he can speak or whistle, or he can express emotions through facial expressions.

9. Timing- refers to the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film.

10. Exaggeration- is an effect especially useful for animation, as perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull in cartoons.The classical definition of exaggeration, employed by Disney, was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.

11. Solid Drawing- means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight.

12. Appeal- in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor.