The 12 Principles of Animation - research

• Anticipation - The atmosphere of a setting and the actions of a character prepare audiences for anticipation, and they also initiate major actions in portraying character development and developing the scenario. Anticipation is known as the backward motion, and the backward motion has to occur before the forward motion can be executed. Almost all real actions involve using anticipation as a forecast.

• Appeal - Choosing an appeal for a character can be through their physical appearance, their personality or their intentions, and the appeal of a character encourages the audience to take an interest in their story. Appeal can even be established in motion design, such as using interesting typefaces or transitions. 

• Arc - the impact of displaying gravity in animations is important, as it means that objects in motion should arc between the start and end points of the animation. An example of this would be shooting an arrow as it rarely flies completely straight. This technique especially relates to many natural movements in the human body because arms, hand and fingers etc move in arcs.

• Exaggeration - Exaggeration can be as broad or as subtle as the animation requires, but it must still display genuine actions. Whether the animation is excessive or dramatic, exaggeration has to revolve around the mood of the character or the tone of the setting. 

• Follow Through & Overlapping Action - When nothing stops all at once. Whilst portraying movements such as dancing, the characters clothing for example catches up with the character a few frames later.

• Secondary Action - When observing primary movements in the physical world, secondary actions support the notion of the action, such as a person walking as a primary movement and swinging their arms as a secondary movement. Smaller actions such as blinking can still be considered as being secondary movements, but by little means are they meant to draw the viewers attention away from the primary movement.

• Slow In & Slow Out - This technique relates to the way in which objects and humans in the physical world pick up momentum before they can reach a full speed, so in animation, it should also take time to decrease speed before something can come to a complete stop.

• Solid Drawing - this means showing realistic drawing skills as a means to show good form when adding a three-dimensional feel to flat work. No matter what tool is used to create the drawing it must work in 3D.

• Squash & Stretch - often used through an object such as a bouncing ball, adding exaggeration to the object in motion gives a greater sense of volume and weight even if the object is displaying flat graphics. The ball appears stretched when falling and squashed when it hits the ground. This technique is also used to morph objects.

• Staging - this technique is influenced by staging positions within the theatre as it helps establish mood, create focus and clarify the plot of the animation. It also demonstrates the difference in values between characters and displays the impact of surroundings.

• Straight Ahead Action & Pose to Pose - this drawing technique allows a chosen amount of fluidity between the animations movement depending on how many frames there are. It involves planning key frames that are drawn ahead of others and are then connected to the rest of the frames afterwards. This leads to more realistic and convincing results.

• Timing - the timing of an animation is essential to displaying characters authentically and originally, and it is also an essential aspect in the way frames are drawn.