History Main / TheTwelvePrinciplesOfAnimation

# '''Squash and Stretch''': Gives the drawings weight and flexibility while maintaining volume, making them look very organic and natural. The classic bouncing ball test is a perfect demonstration of this principle (among others) and is often used as an entry lesson exam for beginning animators. Squash And Stretch is not "cartoony" in and of itself (some realistic animation has been known to use it, albeit in a much more subdued form), but it can be, and is often, exaggerated for comic effect. This principle is usually avoided or downplayed in TV cartoons, save exceptions like ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', being percieved as "Too expensive", or, misguidingly, as "Too cartoony".

# '''Solid Drawing''': Not "Solid" as in "Solid like granite", nor necessarily detailed or realistic drawing, but as in "solid geometry": space-occupying shapes with a defined form and an animatable, pliable mass. This essentially means having a mastery and proper understanding of drawing construction, perspective, form, anatomy and line control. Easily the most important of the principles, as it ideally allows the artist to draw and animate anything that comes to their mind -- it is also highly encouraged by animators to learn to draw as well as possible before one should even consider learning how to animate. Disney films are commonly used as shorthand examples of solid drawing, such as Bill Tytla's animation of dwarfs in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', or just about any animation done by Creator/DisneysNineOldMen.

# '''Anticipation''', '''Action''' and '''Reaction''', AKA '''Antic''': The preparation of what action is going to happen next. This allows actions to read for an audience, and it gives breathing room for the next action, so that the illustrated actions have contrast against each other and don't bleed together. For example, a baseball player readies his bat before he swings, or WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck prepares to launch himself into a run. A classic example of an antic is demonstrated [[https://web.archive.org/web/20161128210330/http://www.viz.tamu.edu/faculty/parke/ends489f00/section6/donald.gif by this image.]] Antics not only provide readability for an action, but can also enhance them or be interesting in and of themselves--from something as typical as a lurch before a WildTake, or as broad as a "Shrink Take" pioneered by Creator/{{Terrytoons}} animator Creator/JimTyer. Sometimes an antic can be avoided to add spontaneity to an action--an example of this would be a scene from the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "Bugs Bonnets", when, as "Indian Bugs", he snaps out his arms to grab Elmer's rifle, with no antic. Animator Creator/BillTytla added two more steps to complete this principle; "Action", and "Reaction", all three serving as his basic rules of animation--an example of the latter two steps would be Fred Moore's animation of Donald Duck about to swing a bat at a piñata in "WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros", where he anticipates, swings the bat and then abruptly screeches to a halt in mid-air.
# '''Staging''': The presentation of an idea, scene, or action so that it is unmistakably clear, or directing the audience's attention to what is most important in a scene, what is happening, or what is about to happen. Only present one idea at a time to ensure your audience does not get confused and can register the presented idea clearly. This can extend from using negative spaces and broad gestures in your characters' movements and expressions, to as far as tailoring an entire background and layout around an action for the sake of clarity. Has close ties to the "Anticipation" principle. Timing also plays an important role in staging--Creator/TexAvery for instance would have certain poses "held" on screen for a few frames, giving certain takes just enough time for the audience to read them clearly.

# '''Follow Through and Overlapping Action''': Not all parts of the body move evenly together. Hard, bony parts move first and the fleshy parts have to catch up--this is demonstrated in the cheek animation of the Dwarfs in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. For another example, when a character swings from a rope, the legs drag behind the body. Clothing also drags with movement.
# '''Slow In and Slow Out''': A more specific variation of the Timing Principle--Every object needs time to both accelerate and slow down and everything is either accelerating or decelerating. This helps out with spacing in animation, which is essential for life-like smoothness and keeping your animation from looking mechanical and weightless.

# '''Secondary Action''': An extra action that helps support the primary action (i.e. walking). For example, a man is whistling while he walks, or Doc the Dwarf's cheeks drag as he turns his head.

** The second is Theatrical Timing, used both in dramatic situations and comedy. This is developed through natural experience, or could theoretically be learned by studying live action films--animators like Norm Ferguson of Disney and director Dave Fleischer of Creator/FleischerStudios for instance applied much of their vast knowledge of vaudeville timing to their cartoons and animation.

# '''Exaggeration''': Distortion of the drawings from their real life counterparts, be it in their designs or motion, often for comedic effect. Classic cartoon tropes such as SuperSpeed, the WildTake and the [[MotionBlur smear]] are some of many examples of this. Some of the animation principles, particularly squash & stretch, can be exaggerated for not only comedic effect, but to bring out more timing, weight, power and emotion in one's drawings, bringing a rich subtlety to animation that allows it to hold its own against live action--the animation of Bill Tytla, Creator/BobClampett, Creator/JimTyer and Creator/DonBluth for instance demonstrates this clearly. Exaggeration is not limited to motion either: it can likewise apply to not only the design and art direction of a show, but its subtext as well, such as in Creator/RalphBakshi's WesternAnimation/HeavyTraffic, which is a semi-autobiographical animated film, but features plenty of surreal visual hyperbole to put across the film's satirical undertones.
# '''Solid Drawing''': Not "Solid" as in "Solid like granite", nor necessarily detailed or realistic drawing, but as in "solid geometry": space-occupying shapes with a defined form and an animateable, pliable mass. This essentially means having a mastery and proper understanding of drawing construction, perspective, form, anatomy and line control. Easily the most important of the principles, as it ideally allows the artist to draw and animate anything that comes to their mind--it is also highly encouraged by animators to learn to draw as well as possible before one should even consider learning how to animate. Disney films are commonly used as shorthand examples of solid drawing, such as Bill Tytla's animation of dwarfs in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', or just about any animation done by Creator/DisneysNineOldMen.
# '''Appeal''': Easily the most subjective principle, this essentially means giving the characters, good or bad, some charismatic aspect to like about them. Solid Drawing and carefully balanced designs and shapes can be appealing in and of themselves, although there are certainly far more ways to find appeal than that. It can range from being merely pretty or cute to being [[UglyCute sardonic]] or even [[NightmareFetishist eerie in its charisma.]] Animation artists with notably dynamic appeal included Fred Moore and Mary Blair for the cuter side, and Creator/WardKimball, Creator/TimBurton and Creator/RalphBakshi for the more sardonic side of the scale.

TropeNamer is the [[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston]] book ''Literature/TheIllusionOfLife: Disney Animation'', where the third chapter, the most famous part of the book, covers these principles.

** The first is Physical Timing. This helps objects appear to have a believable, but not always realistic, sense of weight and mass to them. One efficient technique animators use to keep the timing of their characters consistent and believable is to time the walks or runs to the tempo of a metronome beat (i.e. 12x beat=a step after every 12 drawings for a normal walk, an 8x beat for a fast chase scene). This was universally used by all of the Golden Age studios; one notable example is its constant use by [[Creator/HannaBarbera Bill Hanna]] in the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoons, which was part of what gave the shorts their break-neck, but crisp timing.

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/principles_of_animation1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The original list, taken from Literature/TheIllusionOfLife: Disney Animation.]]

# '''Solid Drawing''': Not "Solid" as in "Solid like granite", nor necessarily detailed or realistic drawing, but as in "solid geometry": space-occupying shapes with a defined form and an animateable, pliable mass. This essentially means having a mastery and proper understanding of drawing construction, perspective, form, anatomy and line control. Easily the most important of the principles, as it ideally allows the artist to draw and animate anything that comes to their mind--it is also highly encouraged by animators to learn to draw as well as possible before one should even consider learning how to animate. Disney films are commonly used as shorthand examples of solid drawing, such as Bill Tytla's animation of dwarfs in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhite'', or just about any animation done by Creator/DisneysNineOldMen.

# '''Follow Through and Overlapping Action''': Not all parts of the body move evenly together. Hard, bony parts move first and the fleshy parts have to catch up--this is demonstrated in the cheek animation of the Dwarfs in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhite''. For another example, when a character swings from a rope, the legs drag behind the body. Clothing also drags with movement.

** The first is Physical Timing. This helps objects appear to have a believable, but not always realistic, sense of weight and mass to them. One efficient technique animators use to keep the timing of their characters consistent and believable is to time the walks or runs to the tempo of a metronome beat (i.e. 12x beat=a step after every 12 drawings for a normal walk, an 8x beat for a fast chase scene). This was universally used by all of the Golden Age studios; one notable example is its use in the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoons, as [[Creator/HannaBarbera Bill Hanna]] used this technique constantly on the series, which was part of what gave the shorts their break-neck, but crisp timing.

** The third is [[MickeyMousing Musical Timing.]] Not unlike the metronome technique, this can help an animator to not only plan out their animation or even the entire cartoon, but enhance the feeling and mood of it in motion, thus giving it a sensible structure. This principle is generally disregarded by modern animators as predictable and corny save for use in musical sequences, but some animators like Creator/GenndyTartakovsky and [[WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy Danny Antonucci]] still use this principle to this day in any context they wish.