Category: animation

“This is how I organize the 12 principles in my head. Not being pretentious and reinventing the wheel or anything, I just use it for myself, with some different names for a few that are better adapted to CG or more concise in one word.
Organizing them in layers helps me keep track of it a lot easier. The layers I separated them into are pretty self explanatory. Appeal rules over everything and I know I have to keep the “Mindset” ones alive in my head as much as I can, and the others I can turn to at the proper moments and as a group, so instead of tackling all 12 at once and getting overwhelmed, I can look at the “Technique” and “Observation” groups separately at times for a more organized approach.

I use “Mixed Workflows” instead of “Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose”. This principle is not necessarily to use SA and PP, it’s a reminder to variate, have a planned approach, but not leaving aside the natural feel of other workflows. like Layered Animation, etc.

“Contrast” I decided to branch this into a new principle coming from Exaggeration. It’s to remind myself that to keep my shot interesting I need variation and contrast on everything, motion, poses, timing, spacing, etc.

“Slow in and out” I prefer to call it “Spacing” because it’s just one word and it’s a broader concept that includes Slow in and out. Not to mention in and out always confused the heck out of me.

“Solid Posing” instead of “Solid Drawing”, more applicable to CG.

“Inertia” instead of “Follow Through and Overlapping Action”. Inertia is the same as Follow Through and Drag combined in one word. And Overlapping Action I separated into its own principle because it has another meaning, actions overlapping and having varied timing, (even though everyone uses “Overlap” as a nickname for everything anyway, I still like to separate it).

In the end I realized they weren’t 12 anymore lol, so I call it 12ish, because 13 is bad juju.

TLDR: Organizing the principles in layers and changing some names because I’m too lazy to write big words.

Hope this is useful to someone. Cheers!

Fernando Herrera”