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.
