Channel Frederator Blog

Staging refers to the presention of an idea in a way so that the action is clear to the audience. In the 1937 Mickey Mouse short The Worm Turns, you can see this principle in action. At the start of the cartoon, do you notice how Mickey holds the cups out from his body? This is to allow them to show up better. If he had held them in front of his body, it would obscure his face and form. By staging the action so that it happens out away from in front of his body, we get a much better look at what is happening.

If you are animating a bit of business for your character, and it isn’t reading well, have another go at your staging. Maybe you can display the action in a much clearer way.

-Floyd Bishop

Most action has three parts.

1. Preparing for the action (the anticipation)
2. The action itself
3. Ending of the action

The anticipation can serve several purposes. The most common is to show the viewer what is about to happen. You are also building up the energy for whatever is about to happen next. You see this a lot right before a fast run or quick motion, like when Tom tries to hit Jerry with a log from the fireplace.

This is also an opportunity for humor. Many times, the anticipation of a move or action is not equal to the result. Look at how Jerry anticipates the ripping of the book (around the 3:50 mark). You are setting up the audience for one result, and then showing them something they are not expecting.

Anticipation is an important part of animation, otherwise you are going to end up with a lot of quick motions with little or no continuity. [Read more…]

In an effort to cover some educational topics, I thought it might be worthwhile to go over the 12 basic principles of animation here on the blog. The first of these is the idea of Squash & Stretch.

This does not mean to mush things around just for the sake of squishing things! Squash and stretch has to do with the idea of having a preservation of mass. If an object is a certain size, and gravity or some other force acts upon it, that mass has to be maintained. For example, if the object gets squeezed down from above, the sides will bulge out a bit,  allowing the mass someplace to go.

You can see this idea in action in the real world as well.

The cat is lying on the bed prior to running. As the cat leaps off of the bed, he extends his body, stretching out. WHAM! When he [Read more…]