12 Principles of Animation for Beginners

Designers and animators describe the basic 12 principles of Animation for beginners. While some principles are closely related to each other, there are also some differences that can be related to the design. Follow this blog to read them in details.

Concept of Animation

With the growing ambiguity in digital devices, moving objects, technology, and motion design has become an integral part of one’s creativity.

When a designer thinks of moving a object, various programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator or coding languages such as HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery comes to our mind. Understanding the methods of how to blend the different motions in a picture and understanding the reason why things are happening around is a key to success for creating a beautiful design. Isn’t it?

With this, role of animation comes into picture.

Animation is basically the process of generating the illusion of movement in still images that requires a subtle process of drawing designs and making layouts or the sequences to relate the world of multimedia or gaming industry.

The concept of motion has been evolved a long time ago but the advanced tools have evolved now which increased the usability of experimental Animation among users. This is what gave rise to some important animation principles.

• The book presents the stunning works done by world known Disney animators from the 1930’s and provides us in -depth information about 12 principles of animation.

Let’s have a look over them in detail.

12 Principles of Animation for Beginners

1. Squash and Stretch in Animation

It is considered as one of the most essential principles. The principles help animators to add the illusion of gravity, flexibility, weight and mass into the still object. .

Adding exaggeration to an object in motion gives it a greater sense of weight and volume. This principle is described with a bouncing ball, the ball appears stretched when it is falling and gets squashed when it hits the ground. By squashing and stretching the ball, an animator gives a more realistic feel.

The above figure uses Squash and Stretch to change objects, such as rounded corner rectangle. If we use Squash and Stretch in an object it will add weight and volume in the flat tone graphics through the motion design.

While using this principle, animators make sure that they maintain the same volume so that it looks more genuine and real. While stretching things they show how the object gets thinner and as soon as you leave that again, the process of squash makes it a bit wider.

2. Anticipation in Animation

Anticipation in animation is used for the target audience for an action that is about to happen.

An easy way to think about this is that if a character is about to walk forward, they will move it back slightly, this will raise their momentum and will also let the people know how this person will move.

For example, if a character is reaching for a glass kept on a table, it will move its hand back before moving it in the forward direction.

Anticipation prepares the audience for what is going to happen next. Imagine how odd your character would look if it jumps without even bending its knees. Right?

In the similar way, anticipation is a principle that makes aspiring animators understand the importance of making object’s more realistic even while staying in the virtual world.

3. Staging in Animation

It is a presentation of ideas for establishing good mood, creating focus and clarifying what is happening in the picture. Every step is clearly shown to justify the concept of staging in this animation.

The main objective of staging is to tell customers exactly where the action will occur so that they do not miss anything.

This means that only one idea at a time occurs, or else the viewers may be looking at the wrong thing. A good example of staging in motion is the eye, which is drawn in motion in an otherwise still scene. In a scene when we see everything is moving around, the eye is drawn as a still object.

4.  Pose to Pose & Straight Head Action in Animation

You can handle a drawing animation in two ways either straight head or pose to pose. Professional animators usually combine both the techniques to produce stunning and realistic movements.

Straight ahead action refers to the different techniques of drawing each pose, one after the other, which can yield a unique animation style.

Pose to Pose refers to the animation technique in which key frames are planned ahead of each other and then connected one after the other. Pose to Pose usually leads to a proportional animation that is very appealing and convincing to the eye.

Pose to Pose gives more control to you than straight ahead action but nevertheless, it is essential for animators to master both the technique to maintain the fluidity.

Combining both the techniques will help you to get a structured element with spontaneous control.

5. Slow In and Slow Out

In the physical world, objects and humans apply momentum before they can reach full speed. Similarly, it takes time to decrease speed before something can come to a complete stop.

For example, a bouncing ball moves faster as it approaches or leaves the ground and becomes slower as it leaves its position.

To understand it more effectively you can take an example from the practical world. Think about the process when a car starts or stops. It begins with a slow movement and then gains speed.

The similar process is there is animation. Animators to make the objects look more natural add several frames to the action sequence which balance the movement process.

6. Follow Through and Overlapping Action in Animation

Follow through and Overlapping action can be considered two different principles, but they’re closely related to each other. Follow through is the idea that separate some parts of the body and will continue moving even after the character has come to a stop also.

For example, if a character comes to a stop after a walk, every part of the body won’t stop at the exact same time, instead the arms may continue moving forward before coming for a settlement.

Understanding these principles is equally important in your animation process to make things look more realistic.

7. Arc in Animation

When a person is shooting an arrow, it hardly flies straight. Gravity causes objects in motion to arc between the start and end points.

Even many of the natural movements in the human body move on arcs, such as arms, hands, and fingers etc. In the visual poetry “Happiness,” the creator uses many full and half circle forms to draw, move, color, shape and reveal some of the letter forms.

8. Secondary Action in Animation

In the physical world, we can observe primary movement only in motion if a person is walking. Secondary actions, like a person who is swinging its arms while walking or “birds” rippling its feathers, helps support primary movements.

Even smaller actions, such as blinking of eyes are also considered in secondary actions. In secondary animation, it is important that it doesn’t detract from main animation.

9. Timing in Animation

To learn more about this animation process, we need to understand the laws of physics once again and this time, we’ll be covering the timing.

In a true animation, timing is an essential aspect of animation. Timing also helps in establishing the personality of characters and emotions they want to express.

They used timing as the main tool for communicating the personality through flat shapes that are representative of body parts.

The quality of your animation is highly based on the sense of timing of the animator. To become an expert in this principle, you need to do constant practice and training. Observe things more keenly in  your environment to ace this principle.

Overlapping action is very similar in the sense that means different parts of the body will move at different times. For example, if a character raises its arm upwards, he will move shoulder first, then arm, elbow, and hand.

10. Exaggeration in Animation

When you try to add too much realism to your element, it may end up making the element look boring. Add a pinch of exaggeration in your element and make it little dynamic and interesting. Push your limits and you’ll see your animating object doing wonders.

It forms an integral part of Animation as it has an effect that makes the picture look static and dull. It basically involves altering the physical features of a character so that it can catch audience attention.

11. Solid Drawing in Animation

It means that animator should have skills for understanding the 3 dimensional shapes in terms of weight, balance, light, and shadow. It means drawing your image in such a manner so that it looks alive.

12. Appeal in Animation

A character with appeal isn’t always attractive. He or she can have an ugly or evil character with a certain level of charisma so that it makes sense within the story. In motion design, appeal can be established before anything moves by choosing an interesting typeface, creating a visual translation, or transforming images.

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You obviously have become a part of the animation industry and that’s why looking for some ways to learn more about the basic and core fundamentals of the industry.

While you have joined the animation industry, you might want to know what the future holds for you and what you can do better to get selected by giant animation and production houses.

Lets see!

Career options for animators

If you have an aesthetic eye for visuals and a mind filled with oodles of creativity, then animation can become a right career option for you Animation industry opens up a lot of avenues for you.

Animation with time has definitely held a lot of opportunities because there’s a constant rise of animation and VFX in the media and entertainment industry.

If you know, a full length animation movie requires almost 500-600 animators to work upon, which means people in the industry have a lot of options for them. While some people choose to work under professional houses, others choose to become their own bosses and decide to opt for freelancing.

The available career options for you are:

• Modeler
• Background Artist
• Layout Artist
• Storyboarding Artist
• Assistant Animator
• Scanner Animator
• Compositing Artist
• Character Animator
• VFX and Special Artist
• Lighting Artist
• Image Editor
• 2D Animator
• Texture and Rendering Artist
• Rigging Artist etc.

Tips for getting hired

1. Keep improving your drawing skills

For animators, drawing skills are one of the most essential skills. No matter what your role in the industry is. Whether you are a 3d modeller, character animator or motion graphic artist, having an ability to sketch down your thoughts on paper is the finest thing.

Improved drawing skills will help you get an ace in the industry and keep you ahead of the competitors.

2. Enhance your software related skills

With the changing environment, technology is improving day by day. Latest software is coming everyday but that doesn’t mean you have to master all of it. Get a hold on all the professional software used by expert animators all across the world.

3. Develop a stunning portfolio

Stunning portfolio is a staple for any creative professional. Use your time to develop a stunning portfolio for yourself. When you will go for any interview, and having a smart looking and professional portfolio by your side will definitely help you to get that job.

4. Maintain your passion

 Creative industry is full of ups and downs. You’ll get a new challenge everyday and along with challenges, you will also get tons of opportunities. Do not lose your hope with one failed project or element.

Try to cheer yourself up and always maintain passion for your profession.

Author’s Note:

So, this was about the 12 principles of animation for beginners and I believe this article will be very worthwhile for those who are learning the basics of Animation.

Neglecting, reading this article would be like using a graphics program without knowing about color, design, and composition. No matter how good the software is, it will always depend on the person’s skills and ability.

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