The basic principles of animation

There are 12 basic principles of animation developed by Walt disney studios. These 12 principles make  animation seem more realistic to viewers.

Anticipation 

Anticipation tells the audience what the character is going to do. This makes the animation more realistic, and this creates an observation which shows movement.

Staging

Staging is a pose or action which communicates which the audience. Staging consists of different camera angles and shots to create the movie or scene. Changing the different camera angles is very effective in animation. Staging gets the audiences attention and awareness of what they are watching.

Squash and stretch 

Squash and stretch gives of the illusion of the characters volume and weight. It is useful in animation to show many facial expressions and movement. Squash and stretch is used in animation  make the characters or object seem more unrealistic. This creates the animation to be less boring instead of making characters look like a robot.

Appeal 

An animated character has appeal. All animated characters have to have appeal to show the audience their personality, characteristics and what type of character they are. The design of the character has to be clear and this will add more to the character so the audience knows what they are like.

Solid drawing

Solid drawing is the basic principles of what you are drawing and its form. Transforming from sketches to colour and then the movement of the character to create an illusion.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration doesn't just make scenes more of a violent action most of the time. It's like the characters facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Exaggeration in walking, eye movement and head turn gives the animation more appeal and imagination which makes the animation seem more realistic how the character is moving different parts of the body.

Timing

The basics to timing are; more drawings between poses slow the smooth the action. The less drawings produce a more faster and crisper effect. Changing to slow and fast timing adds more of a depth of texture and makes the animation interesting. Making animation consists of taking lots of pictures frame by frame getting the same time is quite hard. 

Arcs

All actions follow the same pattern which is an arc or a slightly circular path. This is actually the action of a human figure and the action of animals. Arcs help the characters be more flexible and have more movement tot them. It really does make the animation seem more realistic than having arms that move like a robot.

Secondary action

The Secondary action  adds more dimension to the animation. For example if a character was in a specific mood like 'angry' walking toward another character. The walk would be forceful, aggressive, and forward leaning. Secondary actions consists of arms swinging when you walk, leg actions and head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary action.

Straight ahead and pose to pose animation

Straight ahead animation consists of drawing and the drawing works drawing to drawing till the end of a scene. Pose to pose is a more accurate way of animation using key drawings done at intervals throughout the scene.The proportions, volumes, and sizes are controlled better this way using numbers so that it is perfect. Most scenes use a bit of both straight ahead and pose to pose in animation.

Slow-out and slow-in

Slow-ins and slow-outs change the action of the animation. In animation their are more drawings at the begging of a character moving, less in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose. The less drawings make the animation action faster than having  more drawings which make the action move at a slower pace.  

Follow through and overlapping action 

After a character is walking and the main body stops all other body parts catch up to the mass of the character like the clothing and arms and hair. These follow the path of action. Not all body parts stop at the same time. This is called follow through and how body parts move. Overlapping action is when a character changes direction while their clothes or hair continues forward. Overlapping action shows that everything doesn't happen at the same time. Timing becomes critical in the overlapping action because you need to have the right timing to achieve what action you want or how something is going to move after another like a domino effect.  

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html