This is an example of stop-motion animation: Another example of stop-motion animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfCUxeQ2VSE&feature=related
(In the 1960s and 1970s, independent clay animator Eliot Noyes Jr. refined the technique of "free-form" clay animation with his Oscar-nominated 1965 film Clay or the Origin of Species and He Man and She Ra (1972). Noyes also used stop motion to animate sand laying on glass for his musical animated film Sandman (1975).
Quote from: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation)
The Twelve Basic Principles of Animation is a set of principles of animation introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Johnston and Thomas in turn based their book on the work of the leading Disney animators from the 1930s onwards, and their effort to produce more realistic animations. The main purpose of the principles was to produce an illusion of characters adhering to the basic laws of physics, but they also dealt with more abstract issues, such as emotional timing and character appeal.
12 basic principles of animation
Video for Youtube:
Squash and stretch
For example in the picture below there are to different ways to bonce a ball however you would only use B beacuse off the exaggeration used in the bounce.
Anticipation
Anticipation is when a action is used to prepare the audience for an action this allows the motion to be more realistic. qoute from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation):
A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first. The technique can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick up.
Staging
Staging is used in film and theatre. It is used to captivate the audience's attention to make it clear, what is happening and what is about to happen. Staging can make the mood of the frame in a number of ways for example; the way the light is set to form shadows. Also the camera angle is postioned.
Straight ahead action and pose to pose
There are two different ways to use the drawing process. Straight ahead action means that you have to drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end. Whereas pose to pose involves starting with drawing a few key frames, and then filling in the intervals later.
"Straight ahead action" creates a more flowing illusion of movement, which means a better realistic action sequence. Pose to pose works better for dramatic or emotional scenes.
Follow through and overlapping action
These techniques help movement become more realistic.
Follow through; means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped.
Overlapping action; is when parts of the body move at different rates for example an arm will move on different timing of the head and so on.
The third technique is "drag", where a character starts to move and parts of him take a few frames to catch up
Slow in and slow out
Quote from :( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation)The movement of the human body, and most other objects, needs time to accelerate and slow down. For this reason, an animation looks more realistic if it has more frames near the beginning and end of a movement, and fewer in the middle. This principle goes for characters moving between two extreme poses, such as sitting down and standing up, but also for inanimate, moving objects, like the bouncing ball in the above illustration.
Here is an example from Youtube:(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PptuB4WWttk)
Here is an example from Youtube:(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PptuB4WWttk)
Arcs
Quote form (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation);Most human and animal actions occur along an arched trajectory, and animation should reproduce these movements for greater realism. This can apply to a limb moving by rotating a joint, or a thrown object moving along a parabolic trajectory. The exception is mechanical movement, which typically moves in straight lines.
Secondary action
Secondary action
Timing
Timing is a number of frames or drawings that are controlled by speed to make better action in the film. Quote from ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation);
On a purely physical level, correct timing makes objects appear to abide to the laws of physics; for instance, an object's weight decides how it reacts to an impetus, like a push.
The timing is you establish the characters mood and the emotions.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is used in animation, so that the animation doesn’t look dull. However, when exaggeration is used you need to know the level of exaggeration to use, with its realism or a particular style. Quote form (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation);
The classical definition of exaggeration, employed by Disney, was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.
Different types of exaggeration can involve the supernatural or surreal, alterations in the physical features of a character. It is important use the right amount of level when using exaggeration; for instance if a scene is using a number of elements, there should be a balance of exaggeration so that the viewer is not confused.
Solid drawing
Quote from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation)
The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight. The animator needs to be a skilled draughtsman and has to understand the basics of three-dimensional shapes, anatomy, weight, balance, light and shadow etc. For the classical animator, this involved taking art classes and doing sketches from life. One thing in particular that Johnston and Thomas warned against was creating "twins": characters whose left and right sides mirrored each other, and looked lifeless. Modern-day computer animators draw less because of the facilities computers give them, yet their work benefits greatly from a basic understanding of animation principles, and their additions to basic computer animation.Appeal
The characters have to appeal to the audience. A character who is appealing is not necessarily sympathetic it could be a villain or a monster can also be appealing. The important thing in animation is that the viewer should feel that the character is real and interesting.
