12 Basic Principles of Animation

The 12 Basic Principles of Animation

The 12 Principles of Animation are THE most important things you should master in order to be a successful animator. They were developed by the masters of animation, the Nine Old Men from the Walt Disney Studios. The 12 basic principles of animation were best defined by two of the Nine Old Men, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in their book The Illusion of Life.

There are some in the animation world that believe the 12 basic principles of animation are outdated or need to be revised. They feel that with the ease of making animation on a computer makes those principles old and not needed. All I got to say to them is get the hell out of here with that noise! First of there is nothing easy about making animation whether it 2D or 3D or whatever the format is.

All you new animators and animation students listen up! The 12 basic principles of animation are the fundamental corner stone of any great animator. I agree that there might be some additions to the 12 principles, but they are never replaced.

After all there really 28 Principles of Animation that the Disney animators used in the past. Now with available software like Maya, 3DS Max, and others, there are more principles to be added but like I said... it will never replace the basic 12 principles.

So here are the 12 Basic Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch

2. Anticipation

3. Staging

4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action

6. Slow In and Slow Out

7. Arcs

8. Secondary Action

9. Timing

10. Exaggeration

11. Solid Drawing

12. Appeal

So, I will go over each one of these principles at a later time. But these ARE the principles of animation... PERIOD!