Guide:Animation
The Twelve Principles of Animation
Twelve basic principles of animation is a book written by early Walt Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. It outlines twelve general principles which are regarded as fundamental among animators.
To save you a lengthy, complicated explanation of each of these, here's a useful educational video by Alan Becker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4bF4
- Squash and Stretch
- Anticipation
- Staging
- Straight-Ahead and Pose-to-Pose
- Follow-Through and overlapping action
- Slow-In and Slow-Out
- Arcs
- Secondary Action
- Timing
- Exaggeration
- Solid Drawing
- Appeal
Animating for Weissblatt
Tips and Tricks
- Be sure to animate a good sketch first - it's easier to clean up when stuff goes wrong.
- Stage animations to be readable and express character. Viewers won't notice a little cheat to do so.
- Players are more likely to look at individual animations than full turnarounds. Focus on making good-looking animations first and then adjust them to look good from all sides.
- Most of the time there's no space for inbetweens. Focus on good key poses and breakdowns.
- Sometimes, the engine may play animations at different speeds. Consider the amount of frames in an animation as more important than the actual time.