The Use of animation principles – Squash and stretch, anticipation, follow through and secondary action.

Here are some examples from “Nu, Pogodi” (A series of Russian cartoons made between 1969 and 1986 directed by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin.) of the use of squash and stretch to show anticipation and emphasise the movement such as how he sneaks up on the hare. As well as when he tries to reach out of his seat to grab the hare, these shots also shows the follow through (the action is carried on to add a sense of realism and complies to the laws of physics more to show the effort and weight involved in the action, which adds to anticipation as he leans back to reach out and springs back into his seat after lunging at the hare. Also in the first scene the hare’s ears swing back as she leans to prepare for the speed of the boat.

The secondary actions (a set of actions that is taking place at the same time as the main animation, which adds realism) in this piece are things like the wolf’s sleeves pushing further up his arm as he reaches out as well as his neckerchief being blown back by the speed of the ride they are on which adds to the feeling of how fast the ride is spinning.

All of these principles help to make the animation feel more realistic and make the characters motion more believable.

Here are some of my own hand drawn examples of these principles of animation.