Principles Of Animation

This material is a bit dry, but ultimately useful. For my example, I will be using "It's A Wonderful Day For Pie", A Family Guy song animated in the style of Disney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlk36vgygh4 

12 Principles Of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch – animated objects should change shape as they move, but retain volume, in order to look interesting to the viewer.

In the Family Guy clip, the way Peter's body stretches as he floats down from his flight to the pie as the song begins.

2. Anticipation – The pull back before motion in a living character.

Before the song begins, Lois's arms move toward her chest with the pie before they move toward the camera.

3. Staging – Where things go in a shot for best effect.

The way, throughout the song, that nothing enters the frame until it's ready to be the active element.

4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose To Pose – animating from start to finish vs. animating with key frames. 

This was clearly done with Pose to Pose, as certain shots are clearly composed as stills, then animated, as well as the fact that Family Guy is always animated Pose to Pose, as they draw the keyframes, then send those to South Korea for inbetweens.

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action – the whole body doesn’t stop or start at once.

The way the Bird/Quagmire moves his head before the rest of his body when beginning to fly is an example of this.

6. Slow In and Slow Out – the timing of in-betweens for satisfactory motion.

Motion in this whole sequence has slower in-betweens than most Family Guy episodes.

7. Arcs – living things move fluidly, not like the robot dance.

In the whole sequence, everyone is constantly moving in wide circles.

8. Secondary Action – Minor business of a character, not to upstage primary action.

The way characters move their hands while speaking in this video.

9. Timing – the number of drawings taken to show an action.

When Lois spins over to Teakettle/Joe, her spin is only really animated for 4 or so frames, as it happens very fast.

10. Exaggeration – Show the most emotionally effective version of an emotion or action.

The way they use facial expressions on all the characters to show contempt when Mort the Jew comes to the door is very exaggerated in a very Disney way.

11. Solid Drawing – One must be able to make good drawings to begin with in order to animate.

The whole of the scene is essentially a sequence of moving paintings of very high quality. Very solid.

12. Appeal – Creating images which a viewer wants to see, that stimulate the viewer’s imagination.

The image never stays the same for more than a few seconds, keeping the audience interested.

Fred’s 14 Points Of Animation

1. Appeal in Drawing – Essentially the same as Principle 12.

2. Staging – Essentially the same as Principle 3.

3. Most interesting way? - Essentially the same as Principle 12.

4. Most entertaining way? - Essentially the same as Principle 12.

5. Are you in character? - Does this character seem like he would do what you are making him do?

6. Are you advancing the character? – Does this contribute to the characterization?

7. Is this the simplest statement of the main idea of the scene? – Could this be done in a more efficient way for the audience to understand?

8. Is the story point clear? – Does this tell the story effectively?

9. Are the secondary actions working with the main action? - Essentially the same as Principle 8.

10. Is the presentation best for the medium? – Does this serve animation well?

11. Does it have 2 dimensional clarity? – Can the subject of the shot be understood alone?

12. Does it have 3 dimensional solidity? – Does the subject fit with the backdrop?

13. Does it have 4 dimensional drawing? – Does the subject move properly in time?

14. Are you trying to do something that shouldn’t be attempted? – Does the shot make sense?