Animation can be broadly separated into to categories: 2D Animation and 3D Animation.
2D Animation
2D Animation can be as simple as a “flip book” on the edges of the pages of a book or use software to do the work of adding keyframes in between poses in the animation.
3D Animation
3D animation is accomplished with 3D modeling software such as Blender or Maya
Principles of Animation
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston worked as animators at Disney and contributed to the 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation which contains “The 12 Basic Principles of Animation” based on studio practices of themselves and other disney animators striving to make realistic and lifelike animations.1 The principles were written in a time dominated by hand drawn animation but the general concepts hold true in 2D and 3D computer animation.
Many of the principles help animators make sequences that convincingly follow laws of motion and physics. Simply having a “realistic” animation is not enough to engage an audience so the principles also cover creative animation components such as composition, timing, and basic character design.
- Squash and Stretch
- Movement follows arcs and curves
- Follow through
- Anticipation
- Exaggeration
- Ease In and Ease Out
- Secondary Actions
- Staging
- Timing
- Solid Drawing
- Appeal
- Straight Ahead vs Pose to Pose