Animation Practice - Principles of Animation

Principles of Animation - Basic Practice

The 12 principles of animation (paraphrased from the illusion of life) are: Squash and Stretch, the illusion of weight and volume; Anticipation, the audience preparation for an action an actor is about to perform; Staging, how the scene is laid out to focus the audience's attention and to make a visually pleasing scene; Straight Ahead, making each frame as you go, and Pose to Pose, making major poses and then the in-between frames to get to those poses; Follow Through and Overlap, the illusion of momentum in other pieces of an actor as nothing stops all together; Slow in and Slow Out, the illusion of acceleration and speed by making more and less frames between points to make an actor move faster or slower; Arcs, the movement all actions except for a select few follow to make the action visually pleasing and more natural appearing; Secondary Action, an action that complements the primary focus to make it seem more lifelike or to complement the main action; timing, making more frames to smoothen out an action or to make it appear to obey the laws of physics better; exaggeration, remaining true to reality but presenting it at the extreme for entertainment value; Solid Drawing, taking into account that the objects and actors are in a 3d space and giving that illusion; and Appeal, giving an actor a quality of charm and charisma to entertain the audience.

Pendulum Practice

To make this animation I have used some of the principles of animation to make the pendulum swing back and forth in a way that gives the illusion of weight. I have used slow in and slow out to give an illusion of speed and acceleration by making the pendulum slower and faster at certain points in a way that mimics real world physics.

Bouncy Ball

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