The 12 Principles of Animation

Within Animation, any kind of animation, it is best to follow the 12 principles of animation, this set basic guidelines to always include that will ensure that animation can be held to a higher quality.

This animation of mine shows several of these principles:

The first principle this shows is Squash and Stretch. This is an important principle of animation as it can show the weight of an object as well as a clue as to what the object could be made out of, for example, a soft rubber ball is going to squash a lot more than a hard bowling ball. A key thing to keep in mind with this principle is to ensure that the volume always stays the same, so if it gets shorter, it must also get wider, if it gets taller, it must get thinner.

The second principle this shows is Anticipation. This is when the object performs an action that is in anticipation of a following action, this is shown in the cube above as it squashes down in preparation to jump into the air. This can also be shown in other areas, such as pulling back an arm before it punches forwards. This can also be used to show the power and effort behind an action.


Staging isn't shown in this animation but it is a principle, staging is when an action or item is exaggerated to draw attention to it, for example, if a character is about to get something out of their pocket, raising their hand above their pocket for a moment before taking out the object would be an example of staging.

The next principle is Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose. This refers to the type of animation, Straight Ahead will animate frame after frame in order whereas Pose to Pose will do the key poses first and then do the in-betweens. Both have their strong and weak points however Pose to Pose is generally better as it allows for cleaner and well timed animations.

The next is Follow Through and Overlapping Action. This enables the animator to animate things such as hair and legs. It means that if a head is moved, the hair must be moved too but must be accurately moved a frame or so after the head.

The next is Slow in and Slow Out. This represents how objects move in real life, they will begin slow and speed up and then to stop they will slow down.

The next is Arc. Almost everything moves in arcs, without these arcs you get very robotic movements.

Secondary Action is used to give characters more life, however this secondary action should add to the scene, rather than draw attention away from the main action.

In animation, Timing is very important, and so this means how many frames/seconds are giving to an action as this will often influence how an action looks.

Exaggeration is important in animation as making an animation look 100% accurate will often make it appear static whereas adding exaggeration can even make the animation look more realistic. Exaggeration can also be used to emphasise certain aspects of characters.