The following 12 basic principles of animation were developed by the pioneers of Walt Disney Studios, amongst them Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, during the 1930s. They were young men who were at the forefront of exciting discoveries that were contributing to the development of a new art form. These principles came as a result of reflection about their practice and through Disney's desire to devise a way of animating that seemed more 'real' in terms of how things moved, and how that movement might be used to express character and personality.
It needs to be said that many brilliant moments of animation have been created without reference to, or knowledge of, these principles. However they are appropriate for a particular style of cartoon animation and provide the means to discuss and critique the craft in a language that animators have come to understand - "you need to anticipate that action to give it more punch" - "why don't you put more follow through on the coat tail?"
The following has been paraphrased from the "Illusion Of Life" by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston (pp.47-69). For a more extensive explanation of these principles, refer to this seminal text.
1. SQUASH AND STRETCH
This action gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves. Also squash and stretch is useful in animating dialogue and doing facial expressions. How extreme the use of squash and stretch is, depends on what is required in animating the scene. Usually it's broader in a short style of picture and subtler in a feature. It is used in all forms of character animation from a bouncing ball to the body weight of a person walking. This is the most important element you will be required to master and will be used often.
2. ANTICIPATION
This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump or change expression. A dancer does not just leap off the floor. A backwards motion occurs before the forward action is executed. The backward motion is the anticipation. A comic effect can be done by not using anticipation after a series of gags that used anticipation. Almost all real action has major or minor anticipation such as a pitcher's wind-up or a golfers' back swing. Feature animation is often less broad than short animation unless a scene requires it to develop a characters personality.
3. STAGING
A pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character as it relates to the story and continuity of the story line. The effective use of long, medium, or close up shots, as well as camera angles also helps in telling the story. There is a limited amount of time in a film, so each sequence, scene and frame of film must relate to the overall story. Do not confuse the audience with too many actions at once. Use one action clearly stated to get the idea across, unless you are animating a scene that is to depict clutter and confusion. Staging directs the audience's attention to the story or idea being told. Care must be taken in background design so it isn't obscuring the animation or competing with it due to excess detail behind the animation. Background and animation should work together as a pictorial unit in a scene.
4. STRAIGHT AHEAD AND POSE TO POSE ANIMATION
Straight ahead animation starts at the first drawing and works drawing to drawing to the end of a scene. You can lose size, volume, and proportions with this method, but it does have spontaneity and freshness. Fast, wild action scenes are done this way. Pose to Pose is more planned out and charted with key drawings done at intervals throughout the scene. Size, volumes, and proportions are controlled better this way, as is the action. The lead animator will turn charting and keys over to his assistant. An assistant can be better used with this method so that the animator doesn't have to draw every drawing in a scene. An animator can do more scenes this way and concentrate on the planning of the animation. Many scenes use a bit of both methods of animation.
5. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION
When the main body of the character stops all other parts continue to catch up to the main mass of the character, such as arms, long hair, clothing, coat tails or a dress, floppy ears or a long tail (these follow the path of action). Nothing stops all at once. This is follow through. Overlapping action is when the character changes direction while his clothes or hair continues forward. The character is going in a new direction, to be followed, a number of frames later, by his clothes in the new direction. "DRAG," in animation, for example, would be when Goofy starts to run, but his head, ears, upper body, and clothes do not keep up with his legs. In features, this type of action is done more subtly. Example: When Snow White starts to dance, her dress does not begin to move with her immediately but catches up a few frames later. Long hair and animal tail will also be handled in the same manner. Timing becomes critical to the effectiveness of drag and the overlapping action.
6. SLOW-OUT AND SLOW-IN
As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose. Fewer drawings make the action faster and more drawings make the action slower. Slow-ins and slow-outs soften the action, making it more life-like. For a gag action, we may omit some slow-out or slow-ins for shock appeal or the surprise element. This will give more snap to the scene.
7. ARCS
All actions, with few exceptions (such as the animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or slightly circular path. This is especially true of the human figure and the action of animals. Arcs give animation a more natural action and better flow. Think of natural movements in the terms of a pendulum swinging. All arm movement, head turns and even eye movements are executed on an arcs.
8. SECONDARY ACTION
This action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation, supplementing and/or re-enforcing the main action. Example: A character is angrily walking toward another character. The walk is forceful, aggressive, and forward leaning. The leg action is just short of a stomping walk. The secondary action is a few strong gestures of the arms working with the walk. Also, the possibility of dialogue being delivered at the same time with tilts and turns of the head to accentuate the walk and dialogue, but not so much as to distract from the walk action. All of these actions should work together in support of one another. Think of the walk as the primary action and arm swings, head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action.
9. TIMING
Expertise in timing comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the trial and error method in refining technique. The basics are: more drawings between poses slow and smooth the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Most animation is done on twos (one drawing photographed on two frames of film) or on ones (one drawing photographed on each frame of film). Twos are used most of the time, and ones are used during camera moves such as trucks, pans and occasionally for subtle and quick dialogue animation. Also, there is timing in the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion, and reaction to another character or to a situation. Studying movement of actors and performers on stage and in films is useful when animating human or animal characters. This frame by frame examination of film footage will aid you in understanding timing for animation. This is a great way to learn from the others.
10. EXAGGERATION
Exaggeration is not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time. Its like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical. In feature animation, a character must move more broadly to look natural. The same is true of facial expressions, but the action should not be as broad as in a short cartoon style. Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head turn will give your film more appeal. Use good taste and common sense to keep from becoming too theatrical and excessively animated.
11. SOLID DRAWING
The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it does to academic drawing. The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the classical sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life. You transform these into color and movement giving the characters the illusion of three-and four-dimensional life. Three dimensional is movement in space. The fourth dimension is movement in time.
12. APPEAL
A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest. Early cartoons were basically a series of gags strung together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye.
"My mum told me
never to forget my
principles"
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"My mum told me
never to forget my
principles"
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Walk Cycle
Stride and Passing Poses
The stride and passing poses are the main keys in a
walk sequence. There are four keys in a walk: the
stride, passing, opposite stride, and the opposite
passing. When laying out a walk sequence, it's best
to
lay out all the stride poses first. This will help
ensure that the planted foot does not slide. To do
this, lay
out the second stride pose after creating the first
one. Be certain that the foot rolls properly, so t
hat it
doesn't slide. In the stride pose, the character’s
front heel is touching down. On the opposite stride
, that
foot has rolled up onto the ball of the foot. Make
sure the contact point on the ground for the ball i
s the
same, or the feet will appear to slide.
Key and Breakdown Drawings define the action of an
animation.
Let’s examine how key and Breakdown Drawings define
the action of an animation. For example, a
character may be standing with his hand by his side
and then gesture outward and upward. This would
require only two key drawings. However, the breakdo
wn drawing would determine how that character
actually raised his arm.
The breakdown drawing is seldom in between the posi
tion of key one and key two. We might want the
character to cross his body first and then swing ou
tward before swinging up. In that particular case,
especially in studio work, it might be best to crea
te a key drawing for that particular pose to avoid
the
possibility that an assistant animator might not ch
oose that same position for the arc. In this case,
it might
be best to have three keys. The first shows the cha
racter's arm at his side. The second has it across
his
body at about the level of his waist. The third has
the arm outward and raised to the side. The
breakdowns would help define the arcs in which the
animator wants the arm to travel.
A good place to see the versatility of the breakdown drawing is in the simple walk cycle. It takes only four main key drawings to create the heart of the walk motion. The breakdown drawings between those key drawings will determine exactly how much personality we see in that walk.
If the breakdown poses are set merely inbetween the key poses, each key will transition directly to the next in a linear fashion. But if we want to create some eccentricity in the walk, our breakdown poses will have to take the character outside that direct line and linear translation. For example, consider the head. It may be upright and looking straightforward in the passing and stride poses. However, if in going up from stride to passing, our breakdown drawing has the head looking downward, then it will appear as if the head lags behind slightly as the body rises. Or if the head were jutting out in a more forward position, it would appear as if the head were helping to pull the body upward.
Between two key drawings, it can be an exciting revelation to try several different breakdowns and observe the differences in the motions between those two keys. Of course, a professional animator usually has a very specific idea of the motion he or she wants to create. So this animator might not need to experiment with variations on his or her breakdown drawings. A beginner, though, might experiment with breakdown drawings to create more lively action and to learn how crucial that breakdown pose truly is. Try it yourself and see just how many variations of motion are possible!
Hi class,
Here is some reference for you walk cycle. The most common
mistake that I see is that most walk cycles do not show the bounce in
the step at the highest point in the walk. Next time you are walking
notice how your movement is up and down. Your body's altitude is
constantly changing.
Walk Cycle Breakdown 1
Walk Cycle Breakdown 2
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