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12 Principles of Animation - Timing #Tutorials





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 Secondary Action principle, so now with no further adieu, let's continue our series with the ninth principle: Timing

Timing in animation, refers to the number of frames between two poses. More drawings/frames between poses gives the viewer a slow and smooth action while fewer drawings/frames gives the viewer a faster and crisper action. A mixture of both slow and fast timing within a scene gives texture and interest to the movement.

In our example animation above, we apply timing to the brown bag on the right as the bags drop down to the ground, starting out slow and accelerating on the way down, as you can see from the image below:

Hope you've enjoyed our interpretation of the eight principle, tune in next month for principle number 10: Exaggeration and in case you missed it check out our version of the eight principle here: Secondary Action!


Anahita Tabarsi

Anahita is Brown Bag Films' Marketing Director, Digital & Social and drinks more than five coffees a day...

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