Marco Farace

The basics of animation:

the 12 principles and other key concepts to
start animating from scratch
INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome everyone! This ebook is an

introduction to the basic concepts of animation dedicated
to students who aim to be part of this wonderful world or
even simply curious.

In my studying and working years I have had the

opportunity to meet many incredible artists from Pixar,
Disney, ILM who taught me some animation features I
would have never understood on my own. I was able to
visit the big Studios where they work, until one day I was
completely blown away: a Pixar director introduced me to
a new method of animating, the Layered Method. I
immediately understood that it was something
revolutionary, but no online course in the world
explained it. I wanted to share it with other animators
and students, so I decided to create an on-demand online
course to show it to everyone. I asked some of those great
Pixar artists for help...

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Thus Animators' LAB was born and consequently this
introductory guide.
You have probably arrived here directly from the course
website, but in any case this is the address if you want to
know details :
www.animatorslab.net

I wrote this ebook with the help and support of Federica

Stancato, animator and collaborator of Animators' LAB.
We hope it will stimulate your curiosity towards
animation.

Enjoy the reading

-Marco Farace

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ANIMATION FUNDAMENTALS
v.1.0

INTRODUCTION ………………………………………… 2

THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION……………… 6

PLANNING & BLOCKING …………………………… 11

TIMING & SPACING …………………………………… 13

OVERLAPPING ACTION …………………………… 14

ANTICIPATION ………………………………………………… 15

SQUASH AND STRETCH …………………………… 15

ARCS & PATH OF ACTION …………………………… 16

POSING ……………………………………………………………… 17

FINAL NOTES ………………………………………………… 21

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The pencil iiss an extension of your arm,
which is an extension from your body
to your heart.
Glen Keane

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THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION

1) SQUASH AND STRETCH

It’s the change of shape of a moving object which gives
it flexibility and organicity. Squash & Stretch gives
meaning to the mass/weight of a body.

2) ANTICIPATION
It prepare the audience for an action that's about to
happen. It can be created with a movement of the
body that precedes the action and also, for less
physical actions, with a change of expression or eyes
movement.

3) STAGING
It’s about how we stage objects and actors. We can
direct the audience's attention and make it clear what
is important in a scene. A good staging makes any
idea or action to be shown unequivocally clear.

4) STRAIGHT AHEAD & POSE TO POSE

We could divide the Principles of Animation into
Artistic and Aesthetic. The artistic ones give us
information on how we can move the characters or
parts of them. For example: sq&st, anticipation,
timing, arcs. The Aesthetic ones instead suggest how
to make a shot more beautiful and clear to see. For
example: staging, appeal, solid posing.
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Then there is this principle that tells us how to
technically create animations. Today, however,
technology has gone a long way, we use computers
instead of drawing paper and in addition to Straight
Ahead and Pose to Pose we also have the newest
Layer Method that is becoming more and more
popular in the big animation studios. This is the
innovative method we teach in our courses.
So let's quickly see the differences between the 3
approaches:
Pose to pose = it means starting to create only a few
key poses of the story we want to tell. When the key
poses are 100% ready, we can work on the fill frames
(breakdown and later inbetween) until we get a fluid
movement.
Straight Ahead = scenes are animated frame by
frame from beginning to end.
Layered Method = with the new Layered approach
you initially work less on the poses and more on the
timing of the entire animation. The character to
animate, which can also be very complex, is broken
down into small sections that are easier to manage.
We begin to animate these small sections in the
simplest way possible and then we gradually add new
layers of complexity until we quickly arrive at the final
animation.

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 5) FOLLOW THROUGH & OVERLAPPING ACTION
It means breaking down the movement of a body into
several parts that move organically together.

Follow Through = secondary body parts follow the

movement of the main body. They keep moving even
after the character stops, until all their internal
energy is exhausted.
Overlapping Action = movements that overlap the
main. The different parts that make up a body do not
begin to move or stop all together at the same time,
there is always a part that moves first and then
another.

6) SLOW IN – SLOW OUT

Acceleration or deceleration that an object undergoes
when a movement begins or ends.

Slow in/Ease in = deceleration

Slow out/Ease out = acceleration

7) ARCS
Everything that moves in nature follows a smooth
arched trajectory. An object, that is not a robot or a
mechanical part of an object, in most cases doesn’t
move in straight lines and doesn't moves out of its
arched path for no apparent reason.

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8) SECONDARY ACTION
Secondary movements added to a character with the
sole purpose of bringing him more life.
life They must
strengthen the main action and the idea to sell and
never go against them.

9) TIMING
It is the speed of a moving object over time. It
depends on the physicality of the object to be moved.
With timing we also give emotional meaning to a
character. Eg. Happy = faster; sad = slower.

10) EXAGGERATION
ERATION
Exaggeration emphasizes a situation, a pose and make
animations more readable, beautiful and fun
fun. More or
less exaggeration depends on the style of animation
we want to achieve.

11) SOLID DRAWING / SOLID POSING

The pose of a character, in reference to the camera
that frames him, affects the way an observer
interprets the character's intentions and therefore on
the way of perceiving the idea we want to transfer
transfer.

12) APPEAL
It is about creating characters that are attractive,
interesting and with charisma.

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The principles of animation
were written by
Frank Thomas
and Ollie Johnston,
in the book:

THE ILLUSION OF LIFE

Disney Animation

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PLANNING & BLOCKING

Use half of your time

planning the scene and the other
half animating it
Frank Thomas &
Ollie Johnston
Johns

- Planning :

 OBSERVATION:: let’s observe the world around us

with curiosity. We
e have to grasp the movements,
actions and reactions, emotions and "unspoken"
messages with which we communicate continuously
continuously.
We use 3 different ways to communicate with other
people: body language (which affects 55% of
communication), sound of voice (38%) and finally
words (7%).

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  VIDEO REFERENCE: let's study a sequence of a film,
a photograph, let's film ourselves doing the action we
need. We must not copy, but observe.

 THUMBNAILS: small drawings that are used to

describe an idea quickly.

 FEEDBACK: we show someone the idea that we want

to animate as soon as possible and we consider advice
and impressions. Remember to always follow the
advice of the director or supervisor.

Useful link for planning and feedback

www.syncsketch.com
www.watchframebyframe.com

- Blocking :
It is the first phase of each animation regardless of the
method you want to use. In the first blocking phase, we
create only the few key frames necessary to communicate
the idea or we use as few keys as possible. As already
mentioned, the most used methods are essentially the
Pose to Pose and the Layered Method

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TIMING & SPACING

Timing is what gives life to an object and meaning to

movement.
Animations are measured in FPS (frames per second).
Spacing refers to the distance between frames and then
to the way an object moves in space.

- Terms :
o SLOW IN or EASE IN = deceleration to enter a key or
pose
o SLOW OUT o EASE OUT = acceleration when exiting
a key or pose
o FAST IN = get to a key with a maximum speed
o FAST OUT = starting from a key with a maximum
speed

- Classic exercise : THE BOUNCING BALL

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OVERLAPPING ACTIONS .

These are actions that overlap the main action. It serves to

give softness to the movement and realism to the action.
There are 4 types of Overlap:

1) Follow Through : it is a movement that continues

even after the main action has stopped. The easiest
example is found in all the lifeless extremities of a
body such as hair.
2) Successive breaking of joints : in an object
consisting of several joints, the main joint guides the
movement of the subsequent ones and so on, such as
the arm with the elbow and the wrist.
3) Drag (wave action) : the element of an object that
guides the movement "drags" with it all the other
elements of which it is composed. Often a wave-like
motion follows from a Drag. The time it takes for
the terminal elements to stop depends on their
weight.
4) Lead & follow : It essentially indicates who drives
and who undergoes the action. In a walk cycle, the
pelvis leads the action and the legs follow.

- Classic exercise: PENDULUM

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ANTICIPATION & SQUASH AND STRETCH

Anticipation prepares the audience for an action. It is

important not to lose their attention and suggests how
much force and energy a body will move. It makes the
action more realistic. It is also used to direct the
audience's attention to another object.
More Anticipation can make the animation more
cartoony. No Anticipation is almost always wrong.
Sometimes, in very cartoony animations, we can
anticipate the anticipation.

Squash and Stretch makes an action credible and realistic.

It is important not to lose the viewer's attention from the
object we move. It adds appeal to the movement and
suggests the material a body is made of.

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ARCS & PATH OF ACTION

An arch is the path that an object follows. Everything in

nature moves according to fluid arcs. Extremely
mechanical objects are the exception
exception.

We can identify 4 types of path shapes:

1. STRAIGHT LINE

2. C SHAPE OR REVERSE C

3. S CURVES OR W
WAVE LIKE ARCS

4. FIGURE 8

We can plan the arcs starting from the planning phase

and define them with Breakdown poses
poses. With the Layered
Method we can constantly trace the evolution of the arcs
arcs.

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POSING

When we draw a pose, we have to consider 4 fundamental

aspects:
balancing, line of action, silhouette, contrapposto.

- Balancing:
One of the essential aspects of a pose, and therefore of the
success of the entire animation, is the balance of the body.
It is the perception that we give to the public that our
character really stands on his own legs. You need to know,
for each frame, where are the forces and weights acting
on the body. It is necessary to identify the center of
gravity and the support base of the object.

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- Line of action:
The line of action is an imaginary line that we can identify
within a body that suggests the direction of the forces
acting inside and outside it.

A good line of action has a simple form and an

unambiguous direction.

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We can identify these forms
forms:
C shape, reverse C, S curves
curves.

- Silhouette:
Silhouette is a black and white representation of our pose.
If it is clear and legible even in this condition,
condition then we
have done a good job
job.

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 - Contrapposto
A good character pose is also made up of contrasts
between the various parts of the body. Contrasts are
always good in animation, even when we work on timing.
Thinking of poses, parallelisms and twinning (mirror
poses) should be avoided. Contrapposto is always much
more beautiful.

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FINAL NOTES

If you have read so far, it means that you want to

become a professional animator, the most beautiful
and fun job in the world
world!

Of course, the teachings of this ebook cannot be

enough. With the collaboration of Pixar artists we
have created Animators' LAB
LAB, an online course that can
help you realize your dream as it has already
happened for others.
others.. I'll show you the main features of
Animators’ LAB:

THE MOST EASY, IMMEDIATE AND POWERFUL

ONLINE ANIMATION COURSE, MADE WITH THE
PARTICIPATION OF PIXAR ARTISTS TO LEARN TO
ANIMATE STARTING FROM SCRATCH.
SCRATCH

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 - Features

The on-demand lectures and live meetings with Pixar

artists teach you everything about animation with
practical examples, starting from the simplest concepts
up to the most complex topics. Gradually, without
wasting time and at your own pace, with the quality
assured by the instructors. You will also have
animation exercises to complete, you will have access
to the private group of students to receive, you will
participate in the Animation Challenges and much
more.

With us you will achieve the final Certification and

create a Demo Reel to introduce yourself to animation
studios around the world.

More info about the course:

ANIMATORS’ LAB HOME – www.animatorslab.net
STUDENTS GALLERY – www.animatorslab.net/Gallery

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 - Testimonials

“I joined this course last year and since then my perspective of

looking at a shot has totally changed. The layered method is great,
the mentors are from Pixar and they show their tricks directly to
you. The greatest prize is to have live sessions with them. This
course was really life changing for me. The tricks that Tim showed
us in 5 minutes, it took me almost 5 years to learn.
If you are looking to join the industry. Please have a look on this
course. And you won't regret it.” -Sayantan Mukherjee

“I purchased this course because the price was not expensive.

Really happy I did it!! Thanks to Marco Farace, Tim Crawfurd
and Animators’ LAB for their amazing work.” -Melissa Blake

“I love this course so much! After taking a break from animation,

this course was a really good boost up to and my workflow
increase drastically. It was mind blowing!! Also learning layer
animation used in the industry was a bonus!! Also love the Frame
by frame know that you get!! ♡♡♡♥♥♥” -Stephenie Mridha

“In my opinion, Animators’ LAB is one of the best animation

course in the world. When I started I had no skills in animation
and in just ONE day I learned a lot. You will learn the same
workflow that the largest animation studios use every day
including Disney and Pixar. This course is a must.
It’s outstanding: 10/10” -Angelo Logahd

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“This is by far one of the best 3d animation course out there. I
learnt more here in one day then the months on the college course
I was on. Don't hesitate to sign-up.” -Wayne Rutherford

“Choosing this course was the right option since the beginning. I
could see my animation improvements lesson by lesson! Thanks to
it I could start my carreer in the industry and I couldn't be more
satisfied!! :) ” -Anna Ventre

“I started from scratch, not knowing anything about animation

and Maya. In a few months, I started to animate and have my first
satisfactions. The course program is very effective and the mentors
are always available. I am fully satisfied!” -Maila Grimaldi

“I’m really happy to be part of this Amzing course. Thanks to

Marco Farace and Animtors’ LAB team for this great platform . The
last Live meeting with Tim Crawfurd (Pixar) was amazing like
water in desert. I’m really excited to see what will come next !”
-M Sarfaraz Hashim

“I was sceptical at first. Not just because of the name Pixar but
because this course has a surprisingly low cost. The support of an
instructor and the final certification is not something you get from
on-demand courses. Really glad I've made this decision, as a
complete beginner I've never expected to get this far so fast! The best
way to learn animation is through making animation and this
course provides a perfect environment to achieve this goal. I really
can't recommend it enough!” -Angela Ivanova

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