The 12 Principles of Animation

In week one, you will take a first look at the definition of animation. Kathleen will introduce you to all the materials needed to start your animating journey.

In week two, you will discover where the 12 principles of animation came from and take a closer look at the first three principles. To begin, Michael will briefly talk about the importance of sketchbooks and the handling of pencils. Then, Kathleen will demonstrate in detail the roles of timing, slo-in slo-out, and squash and stretch in animation.

In week three, Kathleen will teach you the fourth and fifth principles of animation; arc and anticipation. Michael will demonstrate various types of balls bouncing in place, so you can witness how the different weights and volumes affect the arcs.

In week four, Kathleen and Michael will teach you the sixth and seventh principles of animation. You will learn about primary vs. secondary action and overlapping action. The two principles often go hand in hand to help describe the continuity of a character’s movement.

In week five, you will study the eighth principle of animation. Kathleen will lecture on the differences between pose to pose and straight ahead animation. You will watch Michael demonstrate the advantages of each type of animation utilizing his simple characters.

In week six, Kathleen will introduce you to the ninth and tenth principles of animation; staging and exaggeration. You will learn how staging involves properties like environmental design, character performance, silhouette clarity, etc. Kathleen will share with you famous animators who pushed exaggeration to emphasize emotions. In addition, Michael will lecture on the leading edge.

In week seven, you will study the importance of applying attitude to your animation. Michael will explain how to use facial expressions and body gestures to push the attitudes of the poses. You will learn how to utilize the line of action to effectively capture a characters’ flow. Then, Kathleen will teach you the last two principles of animation; solid drawing and appeal.

In week eight, Michael will walk you through the beginning of his animation, Neo Opening a Pot. You will learn how to develop preparatory thumbnails to help figure out the poses and composition before jumping into animating on full pages.

In week nine, you will watch Michael continue on his animation, Neo Opening a Pot. He will go through the breakdowns of the arc, weight, and timing to adjust the drawings of his character. You will learn how Michael experiments with the different possibilities for the in-between frames, adding and editing things out.

In week ten, Michael will show you how he refines his animation, Neo Opening a Pot. You will learn how to tighten up the rough pencil test to get ready for clean-up animation. Michael will teach you how to change the performance, redesign the poses, and define the expression for completion.

In week 11, Michael and Marshall will give you a brief introduction to clean-up animation. You will learn how to indicate your drawing to ensure the clean-up artist understands the character’s key movements. Marshall will talk about the importance of communicating with his animator as he works on the clean-up.