The 12 basic principles of animation
Animation is not something that can be mastered in a day or two. It takes tons of practice to become a good animator. However, if you learn the correct way to work on animations, such as by following a set of rules or principles, it will help you to achieve better results in a short amount of time.
The following are the 12 basic animation principles introduced by traditional hand-drawn animators from Disney back in the 1980's, which is now regarded as the Bible of animation by animators around the world.
Squash and stretch: Squash and stretch is a great way to exaggerate animations and add more appeals to the movement. It can be applied to everything, from a non-living object to a humanoid character. The best example of this is to look at a bouncing ball. As the ball starts to fall, it will stretch out just before impact, and as the ball impacts the ground, it squashes. Then, the ball stretches again as it takes off.
Anticipation: Anticipation is used...
