It's no secret that the 12 Principles of Animation are the fundamental building blocks for any animator. Get the hang of these basic techniques and you'll be on your way to understanding the language of animation.

First introduced in The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, these 12 principles have remained the quintessential roadmap for aspiring and experienced animators alike. Our animators are no exception! In fact, they have created their very own series of animation tutorials to explain the 12 Principles of Animation, using what you ask? Why, a brown bag, of course!

Last month we demonstrated the Anticipation principle, so now with no further adieu, let's continue our series with the third principle: Staging

Staging is all about presentation! Whether it's an idea, a character, an expression or a mood, it's important to set up your staging for maximum effect. The main objective is to draw in the viewers eye.

In our example animation above, we apply the Staging principle to the brown bag as it appears on the screen, giving it more presence and impact by contrasting it from the background, as you can see from the image below:

Hope you've enjoyed our interpretation of the third principle, tune in next month for principle number 4: Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose and in case you missed it check out our version of the second principle here: Anticipation!