Animation Principles
This principle involves accelerating and decelerating an object to make its movements look realistic, ensuring it doesn't just start and stop abruptly.
Slow In and Slow Out
This element is a continuous mark made on a surface by a moving point and can be used to guide a viewer's eye or create boundaries.
Line
This principle occurs when two or more elements on a page are different, and is used to create visual interest or emphasis.
Contrast
These critical drawings or shots define the starting and ending points of any smooth transition or major movement in a sequence.
Keyframes
This camera angle is positioned directly above the subject, looking straight down, often used to make characters look vulnerable, small, or part of a wider landscape.
High Angle shot (or Bird's Eye View)
Pushes movements, expressions, or poses past the point of reality to make an action look more impactful or comical.
Exaggeration
This element describes the tactile quality of a surface—how it feels, or how it looks like it would feel if touched.
Texture
This principle is the repeating of a visual element (such as a line, shape, or colour) in a consistent, predictable pattern throughout a design
Pattern
This three-letter acronym represents the number of individual images displayed each second in a video or animation to create the illusion of motion.
FPS (frames per second)
This specific type of lighting uses little light resulting in an abundance of shadows and darkness, frequently seen in Film Noir and horror movies.
Low-Key Lighting
Gives an object the illusion of weight and flexibility by distorting its shape as it moves and hits surfaces
Squash and Stretch
This element is three-dimensional, enclosing volume and having depth, width, and height.
Form
This principle involves organizing a design's elements in order of importance, guiding the viewer to look at the most critical information first down to the least critical.
Hierarchy
The 3 stages of the animation pipeline.
Pre-production, Production, Post-production
A sound that originates from within the world of the story, such as characters speaking or a car door slamming, which the characters themselves can hear.
Diegetic Sound
Different parts of a body or object continue moving even after the main action has stopped.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
This element refers to the hue, value, and intensity produced when light strikes an object and reflects back to the eye.
Colour
This principle refers to the size relationship between an element and the whole composition.
Scale
This style involves manipulating physical objects, clay figures, or puppets one frame at a time, photographing each minor change.
Stop-Motion
This symbolic code refers to the physical time and place where a scene occurs, which instantly communicates context, mood, or historical background to the audience.
Setting
This principle requires the animator to understand three-dimensional space, volume, and balance so that a character looks correct from any angle.
Solid Drawing
A type of shape that is irregular, free-form, and most frequently found in nature.
Organic Shapes
This principles describes the relationship between the main subject and the background.
Figure-Ground
This comprehensive master document contains all the character designs, environment concepts, scripts, and stylistic choices for a specific animation project.
Production Journal (or animation bible)
In print media like magazines and newspapers, this is the structural arrangement of text, images, and headlines on a page that follows a predictable, genre-specific grid.
Page Layout