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The twelve principles of animation aren't just historical artifacts from Disney's golden age—they're the foundational toolkit you'll use to make audiences feel something when they watch your work. Whether you're animating a bouncing ball or a complex character performance, these principles explain why certain movements read as believable while others fall flat. You're being tested on your ability to recognize these principles in action, understand when to apply each one, and explain how they work together to create compelling animation.
Think of these principles as falling into three categories: physics and weight, timing and rhythm, and performance and appeal. Don't just memorize definitions—know what problem each principle solves. Can you identify why a walk cycle feels stiff? Explain how anticipation builds comedic timing? That's the level of understanding that separates technical competence from true animation literacy.
These principles convince the audience that animated objects exist in a physical world with gravity, mass, and momentum. Without them, even beautifully drawn animation feels like paper cutouts sliding across the screen.
Compare: Squash and Stretch vs. Follow Through—both create the illusion of physical properties, but squash and stretch shows material flexibility while follow through shows momentum and drag. If asked to animate a character landing from a jump, you'd use squash on impact and follow through on their hair settling afterward.
These principles control how fast things happen and when key moments land. They're the difference between animation that feels alive and animation that feels like a slideshow.
Compare: Timing vs. Slow In and Slow Out—timing determines how many frames an action takes, while slow in/slow out determines where those frames cluster. An action could have perfect timing but still feel robotic without proper easing.
These principles ensure the audience understands what's happening and where to look. Even brilliant animation fails if viewers miss the important moments.
Compare: Anticipation vs. Staging—anticipation prepares the audience temporally (something's about to happen), while staging prepares them spatially (here's where to look). A well-staged anticipation pose does both simultaneously.
These principles transform technical animation into emotionally engaging storytelling. They're what make audiences care about drawings on a screen.
Compare: Exaggeration vs. Appeal—exaggeration is a technique (pushing things further), while appeal is a result (the audience wants to watch). Exaggeration often creates appeal, but over-exaggeration can destroy it by making characters unreadable or grotesque.
| Concept | Best Examples |
|---|---|
| Creating weight and mass | Squash and Stretch, Slow In and Slow Out, Timing |
| Natural organic motion | Arcs, Follow Through and Overlapping Action |
| Preparing the audience | Anticipation, Staging |
| Controlling pacing | Timing, Slow In and Slow Out, Straight Ahead vs. Pose to Pose |
| Adding believability | Follow Through, Arcs, Solid Drawing |
| Enhancing performance | Exaggeration, Secondary Action, Appeal |
| Workflow approaches | Straight Ahead Action, Pose to Pose |
| Character design | Appeal, Solid Drawing, Exaggeration |
Which two principles both deal with how objects move through space, and how do they differ in what aspect of motion they control?
A character jumps off a diving board. Identify which principles you'd apply at each stage: the preparation, the jump itself, and the landing.
Compare and contrast timing and slow in and slow out—why do you need both, and what happens if you master one but ignore the other?
Your animation of a sad character walking feels technically correct but emotionally flat. Which three principles would you revisit to add more feeling, and what specific changes might you make?
Explain how anticipation and follow through work as bookends to an action. Using a baseball pitch as an example, describe what each principle contributes to the sequence.