“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.” - George Lucas
1) Squash and Stretch
2) Anticipation
3) Follow Through and Overlapping Action
4) Arcs
5) Slow In and Slow Out
6) Timing
7) Secondary Action
8) Exaggeration
9) Staging
10) Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
11) Solid Drawing
12) Appeal
Squash and Stretch
When an object moves, unless it is completely rigid, it will deform as it moves. This is especially true of things composed of living flesh. For example, when a character is crouching down, his body becomes squashed, and then when he leaps into the air his body becomes stretched. One thing that is important to remember is that no matter how much the character squashes or stretches, he must always maintain the same volume. The amount of squash and stretch will depend on the pliability of the material concerned. Traditional animation usually contains very exaggerated amounts of squash and stretch. In 3D animation people tend to be a bit more reserved in their use of exaggerated squash and stretch, as it doesn’t always complement the realism of the medium. A good example of squash and stretch is a bouncing ball: when it hits the ground it squashes, and the then it propels itself up again by stretching.
Anticipation
People watching your animation will not understand the actions taking place on screen unless they are expecting them. It is up to us to create a clear sequence of events that lead from one action to another. We can do this by preceding each action with a movement that anticipates the action for the audience, so that when the action actually occurs, they are ready for it and expecting it. Confused? It’s really very simple! Sometimes, the anticipation move is something that we physically cannot do without. For example, stand with your feet together and then jump forward. The jump was the action, but before you can jump, you simply have to crouch. Try jumping without crouching. You can’t do it can you?! However, when we’re animating, we can jump without crouching, but it just won’t look real. As well as anticipation being something that can be “physically” required, most of the time we just use it as a theatrical tool. It is used to make sure each of our actions creates maximum impact. Most actions take place very quickly, and if we do not give the audience time to prepare for the action, they may miss it completely.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
This is quite a complex principle, so it is broken down into a few different sub-headings. The fundamental idea behind all of these is that different parts of an object will move at different speeds depending on their mass.
A: Appendages
Appendages such as a cloak or long flowing hair will “lag” behind a character due to their lighter mass, and will continue to move after the character has stopped.
B: The Body
The body does not all move at once. The arms, for example, will continue to swing after the body has stopped. If a character suddenly turns to his right, first his head will move, then his shoulders, and then his arms will follow. When the head and shoulders stop, the arms may still be swinging around to catch up with them. Then, if the character suddenly turned to look in the opposite direction, the arms could still be moving in their initial direction before they are affected by the new movement. This is what we mean by “overlapping action”.
C: Loose Flesh
The loose flesh on a character must move slower than the skeletal parts. We sometimes refer to this as “drag”.
D: Completion of an Action
The way an action is completed can often reveal far more about a character than the action itself. The action itself happens very quickly, whereas the aftermath can take as long as you like.
E: The Moving Hold
This is really important so listen carefully! In order for the audience to really absorb a certain pose or expression, it is often necessary for us to hold that pose for a short while. However, if you just freeze the character, then he no longer looks alive. Living things just don’t stay still!! So, those clever people at Disney developed something called the “moving hold”. This involved taking two very similar poses, one slightly stronger/more extreme than the other, and then interpolating between them. By doing this, we hold a certain pose, but the character never stops moving.
Acceleration and Deceleration (Slow in Slow Out) [Easing]
In the real world, nothing really moves at a constant speed. The best example to explain this is once again the bouncing ball. Imagine this: we hold a ball 30cm from the ground. We then drop the ball.
The first thing that will happen is that the ball will begin to accelerate because gravity is affecting it.
Then it will hit the ground traveling at top speed. When it hits the ground it will squash, and then propel itself back up into the air almost immediately and at much the same speed.
Then gravity will begin to affect it again, this time making it decelerate, until it eventually comes to a standstill and the process begins again.
So, we can see that there is a lot of acceleration and deceleration going on. Now consider this picture:
Arcs
Almost everything in the natural world moves in arcs. There are two major reasons for this:
1: Rotational Joints
Your body is made up of a series of rotational joints, so when you move your body, it’s actually the result of your various limbs rotating around your joints. Because of this, our movements tend to follow arcs. A human walk cycle is full of arcs. The body moves up and down, as well as moving forward, tracing an arc through the air:
2: Gravity
Gravity also causes objects to move along Arcs. Take the example of the bouncing ball. If you throw it forward, it is also pushed down by gravity, making it move in an arc.
The main lesson to learn from "Arcs" is to try and avoid having any truly linear motion in your animation unless it is mechanical.
Timing
Timing is one of the most crucial aspects of animation. Even very small changes in timing can completely change an animation. I like to think of timing in two different categories: “Physical Timing” and “Theatrical Timing”.
Physical timing:
This is to do with the world of Physics. The timing of an object can be affected by a great deal of real world physical laws. Its weight is always a huge factor in determining how it should move. Gravity is another. All of this kind of timing is basically trying to make an object's movement “physically” believable.
Theatrical Timing:
This is more concerned with the meaning of an action. All character animation is basically striving to make the audience believe that a character is actually thinking, and that the characters actions are the direct result of his thoughts. Tiny changes in the timing of an action, or the pause in between actions, can dramatically alter the meaning of that action.
Consider the following action: A man turns his head and looks behind him.
Now ask yourself WHY? Why did he turn his head? The answer will determine the timing.
Here are 3 scenarios for a character. Act out each one and note the difference in the timing of the action:
Scenario1: He is waiting for a bus and he is bored. He wonders if there is anything interesting to look at behind him. He looks over his shoulder.
Scenario 2: He is a burglar about to break into a house. He wants to make one last check that there is no one behind him watching. He looks over his shoulder.
Scenario 3: He is in a house full of vampires. He suddenly heard a snarl right behind him. He looks over his shoulder.
All of these actions should be different. I could talk for hours about this, so I’d better stop! I think you get the idea.
Secondary Action
Secondary actions are the little extra touches that you add in after you have created the main actions, just to bring your character to life even more. For example, your character is reading a book. He is studying the pages intently. The main action here is him looking at the book, and maybe running his finger across the page and moving his eyes. However, why don’t we also have him scratch his chin and then push his glasses up his nose? The important thing to remember is that the secondary action should never detract from the main action; it is just there to support it. Some people also tend to refer to some of the movement discussed in “follow through and overlapping action” as being “secondary motion”; for example, you might animate an alien’s head, and then afterwards animate his antenna waving around as well.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is an important part of most animation. It is used more in traditional 2D animation, and is sometimes not used at all in 3D these days, for example “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”, where the goal was ultra realism, and exaggeration would not have worked. However, most of the time, it’s best to overstate everything in an animation, or the audience tend to miss it. A character’s pose should be exaggerated at least slightly to make it clearer to the audience.
Staging
Staging is extremely important to all animation and film making practices. It’s almost impossible for me to discuss staging in any kind of detail here, but I’ll just try and sum it all up in one sentence for you!
Every shot should be staged in such a way that the message of the shot is as clear as possible.
1) Squash and Stretch
2) Anticipation
3) Follow Through and Overlapping Action
4) Arcs
5) Slow In and Slow Out
6) Timing
7) Secondary Action
8) Exaggeration
9) Staging
10) Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
11) Solid Drawing
12) Appeal
Squash and Stretch
When an object moves, unless it is completely rigid, it will deform as it moves. This is especially true of things composed of living flesh. For example, when a character is crouching down, his body becomes squashed, and then when he leaps into the air his body becomes stretched. One thing that is important to remember is that no matter how much the character squashes or stretches, he must always maintain the same volume. The amount of squash and stretch will depend on the pliability of the material concerned. Traditional animation usually contains very exaggerated amounts of squash and stretch. In 3D animation people tend to be a bit more reserved in their use of exaggerated squash and stretch, as it doesn’t always complement the realism of the medium. A good example of squash and stretch is a bouncing ball: when it hits the ground it squashes, and the then it propels itself up again by stretching.
Anticipation
People watching your animation will not understand the actions taking place on screen unless they are expecting them. It is up to us to create a clear sequence of events that lead from one action to another. We can do this by preceding each action with a movement that anticipates the action for the audience, so that when the action actually occurs, they are ready for it and expecting it. Confused? It’s really very simple! Sometimes, the anticipation move is something that we physically cannot do without. For example, stand with your feet together and then jump forward. The jump was the action, but before you can jump, you simply have to crouch. Try jumping without crouching. You can’t do it can you?! However, when we’re animating, we can jump without crouching, but it just won’t look real. As well as anticipation being something that can be “physically” required, most of the time we just use it as a theatrical tool. It is used to make sure each of our actions creates maximum impact. Most actions take place very quickly, and if we do not give the audience time to prepare for the action, they may miss it completely.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
This is quite a complex principle, so it is broken down into a few different sub-headings. The fundamental idea behind all of these is that different parts of an object will move at different speeds depending on their mass.
A: Appendages
Appendages such as a cloak or long flowing hair will “lag” behind a character due to their lighter mass, and will continue to move after the character has stopped.
B: The Body
The body does not all move at once. The arms, for example, will continue to swing after the body has stopped. If a character suddenly turns to his right, first his head will move, then his shoulders, and then his arms will follow. When the head and shoulders stop, the arms may still be swinging around to catch up with them. Then, if the character suddenly turned to look in the opposite direction, the arms could still be moving in their initial direction before they are affected by the new movement. This is what we mean by “overlapping action”.
C: Loose Flesh
The loose flesh on a character must move slower than the skeletal parts. We sometimes refer to this as “drag”.
D: Completion of an Action
The way an action is completed can often reveal far more about a character than the action itself. The action itself happens very quickly, whereas the aftermath can take as long as you like.
E: The Moving Hold
This is really important so listen carefully! In order for the audience to really absorb a certain pose or expression, it is often necessary for us to hold that pose for a short while. However, if you just freeze the character, then he no longer looks alive. Living things just don’t stay still!! So, those clever people at Disney developed something called the “moving hold”. This involved taking two very similar poses, one slightly stronger/more extreme than the other, and then interpolating between them. By doing this, we hold a certain pose, but the character never stops moving.
Acceleration and Deceleration (Slow in Slow Out) [Easing]
In the real world, nothing really moves at a constant speed. The best example to explain this is once again the bouncing ball. Imagine this: we hold a ball 30cm from the ground. We then drop the ball.
The first thing that will happen is that the ball will begin to accelerate because gravity is affecting it.
Then it will hit the ground traveling at top speed. When it hits the ground it will squash, and then propel itself back up into the air almost immediately and at much the same speed.
Then gravity will begin to affect it again, this time making it decelerate, until it eventually comes to a standstill and the process begins again.
So, we can see that there is a lot of acceleration and deceleration going on. Now consider this picture:
Arcs
Almost everything in the natural world moves in arcs. There are two major reasons for this:
1: Rotational Joints
Your body is made up of a series of rotational joints, so when you move your body, it’s actually the result of your various limbs rotating around your joints. Because of this, our movements tend to follow arcs. A human walk cycle is full of arcs. The body moves up and down, as well as moving forward, tracing an arc through the air:
2: Gravity
Gravity also causes objects to move along Arcs. Take the example of the bouncing ball. If you throw it forward, it is also pushed down by gravity, making it move in an arc.
The main lesson to learn from "Arcs" is to try and avoid having any truly linear motion in your animation unless it is mechanical.
Timing
Timing is one of the most crucial aspects of animation. Even very small changes in timing can completely change an animation. I like to think of timing in two different categories: “Physical Timing” and “Theatrical Timing”.
Physical timing:
This is to do with the world of Physics. The timing of an object can be affected by a great deal of real world physical laws. Its weight is always a huge factor in determining how it should move. Gravity is another. All of this kind of timing is basically trying to make an object's movement “physically” believable.
Theatrical Timing:
This is more concerned with the meaning of an action. All character animation is basically striving to make the audience believe that a character is actually thinking, and that the characters actions are the direct result of his thoughts. Tiny changes in the timing of an action, or the pause in between actions, can dramatically alter the meaning of that action.
Consider the following action: A man turns his head and looks behind him.
Now ask yourself WHY? Why did he turn his head? The answer will determine the timing.
Here are 3 scenarios for a character. Act out each one and note the difference in the timing of the action:
Scenario1: He is waiting for a bus and he is bored. He wonders if there is anything interesting to look at behind him. He looks over his shoulder.
Scenario 2: He is a burglar about to break into a house. He wants to make one last check that there is no one behind him watching. He looks over his shoulder.
Scenario 3: He is in a house full of vampires. He suddenly heard a snarl right behind him. He looks over his shoulder.
All of these actions should be different. I could talk for hours about this, so I’d better stop! I think you get the idea.
Secondary Action
Secondary actions are the little extra touches that you add in after you have created the main actions, just to bring your character to life even more. For example, your character is reading a book. He is studying the pages intently. The main action here is him looking at the book, and maybe running his finger across the page and moving his eyes. However, why don’t we also have him scratch his chin and then push his glasses up his nose? The important thing to remember is that the secondary action should never detract from the main action; it is just there to support it. Some people also tend to refer to some of the movement discussed in “follow through and overlapping action” as being “secondary motion”; for example, you might animate an alien’s head, and then afterwards animate his antenna waving around as well.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is an important part of most animation. It is used more in traditional 2D animation, and is sometimes not used at all in 3D these days, for example “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”, where the goal was ultra realism, and exaggeration would not have worked. However, most of the time, it’s best to overstate everything in an animation, or the audience tend to miss it. A character’s pose should be exaggerated at least slightly to make it clearer to the audience.
Staging
Staging is extremely important to all animation and film making practices. It’s almost impossible for me to discuss staging in any kind of detail here, but I’ll just try and sum it all up in one sentence for you!
Every shot should be staged in such a way that the message of the shot is as clear as possible.