Today’s lecture saw us introduced to the ‘Twelve Principles of Animation,’ published in the ‘bible’ for animation enthusiasts; Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s 1981 book, ‘The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation,’ that teaches the framework used by Disney animators since the 1930’s to add realism and believability to their work.
These twelve principles are shown below, with today’s workshop focusing on ‘bouncing ball’ exercises, used here to mainly illustrate the principles of timing, spacing and squash and stretch, but which also cover the principles of arcs, anticipation, and ease in and ease out.
Source: deedeecourse, 2021
Timing (the speed of the action or how many drawings we have in the frames) is important because it applies the laws of physics to give meaning how objects move. As described in simple terms by Richard Williams in his book, ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit,’ ‘as a ball bounces along, where it hits the ground – the ‘boing’ – that’s the timing of the action.’
Spacing too helps add meaning to movement, by creating the illusion of acceleration, or the slowing down of an object, with the ball ‘overlapping itself when at the slow part of its arc, but when it drops faster, its spaced further apart’ (Williams, 2001). This action happens in clusters, and spacing can be described as how close or far apart these clusters are. It’s also important to remember that spacing will reduce as the ball loses momentum and amplitude each time it bounces, until it will eventually roll, and come to a stop.
Source: Williams, 2001
Timing and spacing can also define the weight of an object, and help relay what its made of, if its large or small, or moving fast or slow. Realism and believability can then be added by using ‘squash and stretch,’ to relay the rigidity or flexibility of the object, for instance, in the case of a soft ball, it will elongate (stretch) due to the force of gravity as it falls, flatten (squash) on impact with the ground, stretch as it again gathers momentum, before returning to its normal shape towards the top of its arc. Losing momentum as it bounces however, will mean that the squash and stretch will not be as extreme as the movement continues.
Here are my animations from this tutorial, in which I’ve also used the principles of anticipation, by adding another frame to hold the ball in the air a little as it slows down towards the top of the arc on its way back up, and because objects don’t instantly accelerate or stop; ease-in and ease out at the start and finish of each arc, to consciously build up and slow down the momentum.
Simple bouncing ball:
Ball bouncing across the screen:
Bowling Ball exercise:
References:
deedeecourse (2021). 12 rules of animation: All about Exaggeration. [online] DeeDee Studio. [Accessed 28 December 2023].
Available at: https://www.deedeestudio.net/en/post/animation-exaggeration
Williams, R. (2001). The animator’s survival kit. London: Faber And Faber. [online]. [Accessed 28 December 2023].
Available at: https://archive.org/details/TheAnimatorsSurvivalKitRichardWilliams