Hey everyone!

Hope everyone had a great Easter. So remember possibly a month or 2 back when I talked about an animation projects? Well here it is! That post was in regards to a kinetic animation project using type to express something, now it is actual moving objects to create a short birthday video or gif.

This project really had me investigating and practicing my understanding of the principles of animation. What are they? Well the principles are 12 tenets set out by the original Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas on how to create an effective animation in their 1981 book, “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life”. This is the bible of 2d animation.

So Let’s get into some principles then. Squash and stretch, simple but possibly the most important one of them all. In order to express motion, an object must be stretched and squashed accordingly to represent how our brains moving objects in the real world. So if a box is dropped it will look momentarily as if it was elongated and stretched out from where it was dropped to the floor even though we know it isn’t actually stretching, our brains perceive it as so because of the sheer speed of gravity. Slow in and Slow out, a simple one simply meaning that an animator must think of momentum so for example there will be more frames to the build up to a jump as compared to the actual motion as it would in real life. And then there’s exaggeration which is again exactly what it sounds like, if a character is sad, have them bawling their eyes our and shaking rather than just a frown, if they are about to run, have them build up to that run like if they get into a running stance before the actual action.

So I’m not going to bring these all up as I don’t want to overload you. I feel like these though were the main principles in mind when I was creating my animation.

So notice the use of squash and stretch on both the dog and box as they fall and move around. Notice the build up to the dog’s jump and the seconds between build up and action.

The thing I may say needs work on however is a good use of solid animation and appeal which is simply just better draftsmanship and anatomy to my characters (more consistency on the jelly bean shape of the dog) but overall I’m happy and I think it is an improvement from previous animations I’ve made.

Hope you all enjoyed!