READING & WRITING
Before you start to animate, you need to consider whether the technique you are using is the right one. In any kind of creative work, it’s easy to feel tied to what you know, but that might not be what is best for your project. In Liz Blazer’s Animated Storytelling, she recommends returning to the creative brief to review what it is you want your audience to feel when they see your piece.
After that, you must evaluate your technique of choice. These can include hand drawings, stop motion, and 2D or 3D CGI. While it is difficult to be an expert at all of these, Blazer recommends adapting as best you can. For instance, if your story is best suited for 2D CGI, but you don’t know this technique, consider workarounds.
If you get too hung up on your technique, it could take away from your story! Ultimately, the story and the style need to blend seamlessly.
RESEARCH TO INFORM
This week, I also reviewed the 12 Basic Principles of Animation for ICM 504 — introduced by two animators at Disney in the 1980s. Although animation has evolved a lot since Disney started animating, these 12 principles still apply. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Of course, it’s easy to find examples in Disney animations. This first one of Simba from The Lion King showcases squash and stretch because it gives a sense of flexibility to his body. When Simba swallows the grub you see his throat contort to demonstrate the food moving down throat and into his stomach.
When it comes to Genie, there is no better example of the exaggeration principle, in my opinion. Disney animators wanted to create animations that were realistic — but not so realistic that they appeared dull. In this example, Genie’s ear extends way past its normal size to show that he is listening to Aladdin. It’s also very in line with his (and Robin Williams’) eccentric personality.
My Neighbor Totoro is packed with animation techniques, but this specific one deals with secondary action. The girls’ hair is blowing in the wind which emphasizes the fact that they are flying and moving pretty quickly through the air. You also see their shirts blowing, which further illustrates this point.
The Pixar opening is a classic example of anticipation, particularly when the little lamp gets to the letter ‘I.’ You see it shrink down in preparation to jump on top of the letter. It is preparing us for the action by doing that.
This one I found when I was researching more about the ‘staging principle.’ In this case the animators are directing our attention to where the story is being told. First, the camera follows Jerry as he scurries to the piano. Then it follows Tom as he starts to dance with the bear and then back to the piano as he wacks Jerry with the shovel.
CREATE
For my own logo stinger I decided to create a logo for a fictional company that I could own, maybe someday! My initials are ALL and my expertise is in storytelling and media production. In Illustrator I created a film strip and embedded an ‘A’ in the center along with a play button. I cut the film strip so that you can see two upside down ‘L’s in the top right and left corners. I have a little experience in Illustrator, from a certificate course I took last year and I do some design work in my job.
I underestimated the difficulty of animating the logo. I knew immediately that I wanted to animate the film strip to enter the frame from off camera. The first issue I noticed was that when the film strip was separated from the ‘A’ cutout, the appearance didn’t look great. To correct this, I went back to Illustrator and created a full film strip. When the ‘A’ lands in its final resting place, I faded in the cutout version of the film strip by changing the opacity.
I then wanted to animate the ‘A’ with a slicing effect. This took the longest to create. I wanted to give it a squash and stretch effect, one of the 12 Basic Principles of Animation, but it took a while to get the keyframes in exactly the right place. I’m sure I could have done even more adjusting to make it look more realistic.
I also used the squash and stretch effect on the play button at the beginning.
Finally, I added some sound effects including the film strip noise, the clicking sound, the slicing sound, among others. I didn’t feel like music was necessary because I had the other sound effects, but it is definitely something I could revisit!
WORKS CITED
Blazer, L. (2020). Animated storytelling: Simple steps for creating Animation & Motion Graphics. Peachpit Press.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2025, January 30). Twelve basic principles of animation. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_basic_principles_of_animation
Allison Lucas 