28 Principles of Animation
28
Principles of Animation
There are some principles of animation that can be
consciously used in any scene. We should familiarize ourselves with them for
both animation and animation-cleanup.
To illustrate these principles, I have chosen a supposedly
simple scene. When the scene is analyzed, it is apparent how far one may go in
using these principles.
The action in this scene is quite broad, making the
principles easy to find, but they should be applied to subtle scenes also.
Rarely in a picture is a character doing nothing- absolutely nothing. Snow
White and Sleeping Beauty spend a short time in complete inactivity, but even
then certain of these principles were used.
The use of held drawings and moving holds can be very
effective, but only if they contain the vitality of an action drawing. Again,
the use of these principles makes that possible.
The purpose of
studying and analyzing a scene like this is to acquaint oneself with the possibility
in the use of the principles of animation. I have listed 28 principles, though
there well may be more. At first these will have to be used consciously, then
hopefully in time will become second nature. These are the tools of animation
and should be incorporated whenever possible. Some of them are accidentally
stumbled upon while animating in an emotional spurt, but when the emotions are
lax, knowing these principles will enable the artist to animate his scene
intellectually, logically and artistically as well as emotionally.
Here is a list of things (principles) that appear in these
drawings, most of which should appear in all scenes, for they comprise the
basis for full animation.
-Planes
-Solidity
-Arcs
-Squash
and Stretch
-Beat and
Rhythm
-Depth
and Volume
-Overlap
and follow thru
-Timing
-Working from extreme to extreme
-Straights
and Curves
-Primary
and secondary action
-Staging
and composition
-Anticipation
-Caricature
-Details
-Texture
-Simplification
-Positive and negative shapes
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