4 Principles of Animation

Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch is a technique in animation used to give an object weight and/or movement. A person moving there whole head and even body around as they talk would be an example of squash and stretch. Basically, squash and stretch is the exaggeration of movement in animation.

Anticipation

Anticipation is a visual preparation for the audience to know what is going to happen next. In an animation of a frog leaping, instead of it suddenly flying through the air and landing, there would be a moment where it readies itself as it coils like a spring before making its leap. That would be an example of anticipation. So, instead of a movement occurring without warning, there would be a smaller movement before that, letting you know what is going to happen.


Staging

Staging is the compilation of camera angles, background, lighting, and poses to create the mood of the story and convey the message. It influences how you feel while you watch, and what you think the story will be about. In staging it is important that it should not be too complex, as it will distract the audience from the story. The key to successful staging is cohesiveness with the set and the animation.


Straight-ahead and pose-to-pose animation
Straight-ahead animation is an animation technique done by making drawing-after-drawing of an movement from beginning to end. It is sloppy though because in each image proportions, position, and size are changed more drastically. It is however preferred for wild action scenes.
   A cleaner way of doing an animation is pose-to-pose animation. Instead of drawing each image until the animation is over, several key poses throughout the animation are drawn, and then the space between each pose is filled in with slightly altered images.