Flip Books

        We have been tasked to create a series of flip book animations taking into consideration the 12 principles of animation developed for Disney in the 1930s by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Although there have been many great animations developed without these principles, they are helpful when you are a student taking your first steps into the world of animation.

 

        Thomas and Johnston's principles are:

• Squash and Stretch (illusion of weight and volume)
• Anticipation (the movement made before a major action)
• Staging/Mise-en-scene (presentation of an idea through framing, scenery etc.)
• Straight ahead (animating frame after frame without planning key frames) and Pose to Pose (work out key frames before drawing the in between frames)
• Follow through and Overlapping (actions that happen once the main body of the character/object has stopped moving i.e. hair, clothes, ears and jowls)
• Slow out and Slow in (more frames at beginning/end of pose to give more lifelike movement)
• Arcs (most actions follow arcs or circular paths)
• Secondary action
• Timing (more drawings = slower and smoother; fewer drawings = faster and crisper)
• Exaggeration (can mean more subtle, as well as more extreme. A contrast to normal)
• Solid Drawing (form, weight, volume, illusion of life etc.)
• Appeal (character personality, creates interest)

 

        The highlighted principles are what we were asked to focus on for our flip books showing a bouncing ball, however others such as slow ins, arcs and anticipation naturally began to work their way in.

        

        Above is a scanned version of my Spacehopper flip book, which in addition to timing and squash and stretch contains a little anticipation (could maybe have done with an extra page to make this more noticeable), follow through and hopefully appeal. After drawing so many faceless balls, I found it fun to be able to give the Spacehopper some character by changing his facial expressions.