Animation Blog #3 Consists of 12 Principles of Animation, Fred's 14 Points of Animation, 12 Additional Points. 9 Economical Ways That Animation Can Build Emotion In The Imagination of The Audience and 5 Points To Remember When Animating Emotion.

Ch 3, 6 Appendix Principles

Blog 3 (Remembering & Understanding) PRINCIPLES 1 What are the 12 principles of animation? Define each in one or two sentences. Include an example (you can link to work published online if you wish). Think of this blog as something you can go back to when working on a project that includes animation

The 12 Principles of Animation were created for all animators to use, and were discovered as new drawing techniques, over the years the techniques developed and are now used to this day. 

The first principle of animation is squash and stretch, the main goal of this technique is to have a fixed shape move about on the paper from one drawing to the next. In simple terms, it is a shape with a mass being transformed  or "squashed" and then it stretches back to its original form or mass, animators learned that elongating drawings made it easier to follow and give more snap to the action as well. One example (see picture below)  is a ball being thrown , as the ball is thrown and it hits the ground it transforms from a "regular ball", to a squashed shape and then returns to its regular form. 

The second principle of animation is anticipation, this is achieved by preceding each major action 

with a specific move that anticipates for the audience what is about to happen. When using this 

principle always anticipate in the opposite direction of the action, movements used could include 

running, jumping or change of expression. One example (see picture below) would be the rabbit 

preparing to hit the bulldog, in the picture you see the different ways that he is moving through to 

get ready for his action which is to hit the bulldog.

The third principle of animation is staging, the goal for this principle is for the audience to be 

directed to the story being told and of what is important to the story such as the main focus. An 

example ( see picture below) would be Remy from the Pixar film Ratatouille, he is the main focus of 

the shot because in this scene he is looking for a certain spice, but he is also discussing with his 

brother Emilie why he likes to cook.

With the cookbook sitting in front of him it demonstrates that the cookbook is important, but not 

important enough to be the main focus, take note that Remys brother is out of focus even though 

Remy is talking to him, showing that Emilie is not the focal point or figure of this shot. 

The fourth principle of animation is straight ahead action and pose to pose, there are two different 

approaches to this drawing process. The first is the straight ahead action where the animator draws 

out the scene from beginning to end. The straight ahead action is more fluid than the pose to pose as 

well. The pose to pose a sequence of key frames that are drawn and then filled in. 

This is demonstrated in the (picture below) this is the straight ahead action where the animator drew 

the actions as they came to him showing that the model never stopped walking. Whereas, the other 

picture shows gaps and numbers, the numbers are the key frames and mark where the animator also 

filled in the animations. 

The fifth principle is follow through and overlapping action, the principle of follow through is when 

the character stops, but everything else does not , basically the body parts continue to move where 

the character. The principle of overlapping is when the body parts move at different rates, meaning 

the torso will move but the head may not.  Eventually the head will move with the torso. 



The first picture, is of the follow through animation where the javelin thrower follows through, with the action. 

The second picture, is of Cinderella twirling, even though her torso is turned her head has not turned to the same direction yet.

 Eventually her head will turn with her torso. 

The sixth principle is slow in and slow out, the main goal for animation is to make it look realistic, 

with this in mind the animator's put more sketches  at the beginning of the animation than at the end 

which gives the appearance that the animation is slower in the beginning and then speeds up in the 

end. This principle is mainly used when the animation is transferring to a different action. One 

example of this is (see picture below), notice how the ball transitions from a crowded area where it 

looks like the ball is going slow and then speeds up as the the circles are more spaced out.

The seventh principle is arcs,  all actions follow an arc or pathway. Examples of this include head, 

arm and leg movements. Arcs also give a more natural flow than other animation techniques. 


An example of an arc, is an arm swinging back and forth. 

The eight principle is secondary action, this is used to bring life to the character.  Examples could 

include a person aggressively walking towards, another demonstrating that they are mad or someone 

chopping up onions, very quickly showing that they are annoyed.


An example of  secondary action, is a woman walking with her hips swaying and  standing tall 

and arms poised, shows that she is confident with her body language, her outfit also demonstrates 

that she confident as well. 

The ninth principle is timing, the goal for timing is the number of drawing used in any move 

determines the amount of time the action will take on the screen.  This will translate to the speed of 

action on film. Timing is also critical because, it establishes a character's mood, emotion and reaction. 




In this example, the gap demonstrates how much time is inbetween the spacing of the ball and how it 

will be animated as well. 

The tenth principle is exaggeration is used to push movements further to add more appeal to an 

action. This principle could be used to make animations look extremely cartoony, with certain 

movements.  An example of this is the dog with his eyes bulging out,(see picture below) this clearly 

demonstrates exaggeration with it being focused on the eyes, normal human like animations would 

not demonstrate certain movements, such as this. The picture is also very cartoony with the 

movements as well demonstrating exaggeration. 

The eleventh principle is solid drawing, the key to this principle is to make sure that the animation 

has weight, depth and balance, those are the three basics of solid three-dimensional drawing. When 

using this principle take into account volume and weight, that is what makes it a three-dimensoinal 

and solid drawing as well. As the example shows (see picture below) this a clear representation of a 

solid drawing, Bugs Bunny is illustrated with the balance of color and the smoothness of the lines as 

as the animation has volume and weight, as well as depth. 

The twelfth principle is appeal, the goal for this principle is for the animation to catch the eye of the 

audience as well as interest them. For example (see the picture below) the large bird from a   

short film, has the immediate attention drawn to it because of the large size and the bright colors used,

which contrast from the background. Even though, there are a multitude of small gray birds the 

viewers eye does not see them first because the small birds, are of course smaller and the dullness of 

the small bird, has the viewers eye not notice them 

Animation Blog #4

Blog 4 (Application) Walt Disney said (chapter 4), “I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real.” What does he mean? Is there a contradiction here with arguments made in chapter 2? Think deeply. Distinguish the two arguments: Do they conflict? Apply your example (create an example)

Realism was one of the many things, proposed in the Disney animation studio when they first started out, Walt Disney took the idea half heartedly, instead he pushed the idea of the 12 Principles of Animation. Later on in the years, Walt Disney embraced the idea of realism and pressed his animators to take it on themselves as well.  I feel that there is a contradiction between the arguments made in Chapter 2, basically Walt and his animators had no idea how to make anything except  spot gags, steretoyped figures and also their characters lacked personality as well.  Then suddenly later on,  Walt Disney  stated that he "definitely feels that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real," this demonstrates that suddenly Disney had a "magical idea" and then suddenly he decided to pursue the real, which was realism.  In the end, the Disney animations studio embraced the techmique of realism to its fullest. 

An example of the evolution of realism, was Disney's latest which was Frozen , compared to Sleeping Beauty, Frozen has come a long way in the realism world. 

Animation Blog #1

Blog 1 (remembering) INTRODUCTION

A primary theme of our discussions and chapter one of your reading is communication. What principles of communication can you recall from class discussion? [answers include discourse, ideology, hegemony, intertextuality, signification, literacy, audience]. Hint: If you're moving through the curriculum use Raymond Williams' Keywords as a guide.

Communication is the key to everything, especially in animation as said in the Illusion of Life," conveying an emotion is the essence of communication in any art form,"  keep in mind that any audience should be able to understand what you the animator are trying to communicate. Ask yourself does this make sense and what exactly am I trying to say? Of course communication is 

significant, because if we did not have communication, than how would the world work.  

Communication brought a whole new wave to the use of animations, it helped animators by giving animation an almost magical ability to reach inside any audience and communicate will people everywhere, regardless of language," whether a resolution to a language barrier or a way to evoke emotions without speaking, communication is key and the answer to everything. 

For example, around the world people know the song Let It Go, and the movie Frozen, this movie 

communicated to the world that it's okay to be different and embrace it. With the song, Let It Go 

becoming a worldwide hit, you can see Elsa's emotions being communicated that she feels like she 

does not belong, but in the end she accepts herself and basically tells everyone off. 

In the end communication will always be part of our culture, whether it's body language or through a 

movie screen, communication will rule all. 

Animation Blog #5

Blog 5 (Analysis) Walt Disney said, “In most instances, the driving force behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character--or else all three. Therefore the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them.” This chapter is a discourse on the last two sentences. What do the Disney artists mean by this idea? Follow a character through fairly substantial shot. What signs of the body show you the mind of the character?

The animators meant that, the idea of an action happens before the body reacts to it.  The key is to pay attention to the character's expression and movements to try and understand what they are thinking. 
 For example, when the idea of Pluto was first created, the animator Norm Ferguson thought 
of the idea of how the character ,would think before working on the body. Looking at the 

animation drawn out below Pluto has many different emotions and reactions shown on his face. 

If you look at the bottom right hand panel Pluto is shown having his body shaking but his brow is 

furrowed as well, giving the appearance that he is aggravated and is panting as well. Another way 

that the body demonstrates the mind of the character would be the panel next to the bottom right 

corner panel,  this animation is fast spinning showing that Pluto is aggravated, the brow is also 

furrowed showing that he is angry as well. Overall, to really see what the character is thinking 

look at the emotions projected on the characters face and also the way that the character 

is projecting their body that will give  the viewer the idea of what is going on in the characters mind.