Animation Glossary

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Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch is a fun animation technique where characters change shape as they move around. When a character squashes, they get shorter and wider, and when they stretch, they get taller and thinner. This makes the character look like they're bouncing or stretching like rubber! It's a great way to make animations look more lively and interesting.

Squash and stretch is one of the most fundamental principles of animation, and it is often considered the cornerstone of the art form. It involves exaggerating the shape of an object or character to create a sense of movement, weight, and impact. This technique is used in both traditional hand-drawn animation and computer-generated animation.

The purpose of squash and stretch is to add more life and realism to characters and objects, making them appear more dynamic and fluid in their movements. When you watch a character in an animated film move, you should feel as if they have weight, mass, and momentum. Squash and stretch helps to create this illusion by giving characters an organic sense of motion.

There are many different ways that squash and stretch can be used in animation. For example, if a character jumps up into the air, their body will squash down as they land on the ground before stretching up as they propel themselves back up again. This creates a sense of impact and momentum that makes the movement feel more realistic.

Another way that squash and stretch can be used is to convey emotion. For example, if a character is scared or surprised, their body might compress into a smaller shape before bouncing back up again. This creates a visual representation of how the character is feeling, without having to rely on dialogue or other cues.

Squash and stretch can also be used to create anticipation. For example, if a character is preparing to run, their body might stretch out slightly before contracting as they launch themselves forward. This gives the audience a sense of what’s about to happen before it actually does.

One thing to keep in mind when using squash and stretch in animation is that it needs to be balanced with other principles like timing and spacing. If you overuse squash and stretch, it can make your animations look too cartoony or exaggerated (which might be what you want). However, if you don’t use enough squash and stretch, your animations can look stiff and lifeless.

Squash and stretch is a fundamental principle of animation that is used to create a sense of movement, weight, and impact. It can be used in many different ways to convey emotion, anticipation, and other aspects of character and story. When used correctly, it can help bring your animated characters and objects to life.

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Animation Terms

2

2D Animation

3

3D Animation

A

Alpha Channel

Animation

Anti-Aliasing

Anticipation

Aspect Ratio

B

Bezier Curve

Bitmap

Blue Screen

Bone Animation

Bounce

Broadcast Standards

C

Camera Angle

Camera Shake

Cel Animation

Character Animation

Claymation

Clean-up

Color Correction

Compositing

Composition

Concept Art

Cutout nimation

D

Depth of Field

Dialogue

Distributed Rendering

Dope Sheet

E

Easing

Emitter

Exaggeration

Eyedropper

F

Foley

Follow through

Forward Kinematics

Frame Rate

Frame

Freeze Frame

G

Ghosting

GIF File Format

Golden Ratio

Graph Editor

H

Hue and Saturation

I

Inertia

Infographic Animation

Inverse Kinematics

J

Joint

JPEG File Format

K

Keyframe Interpolation

Keyframe

Kinetic typography

L

Layers

Lens distortion

Level of Detail

Lighting

Line of action

Lip syncing

M

Matte painting

Morphing

Motion blur

Motion capture

Motion graphics

Motion path

Motion trail

Mouth shapes

N

Network rendering

O

Occlusion culling

Onion skinning

Overlapping action

P

Parallel rendering

Particle system

Persistance of Vision

Phonemes

Playback speed

Plot

PNG File Format

Pose-to-pose animation

Puppet animation

R

Render farm

Rendering

Resolution

Rigging

Rotoscoping

Rule of thirds

Run cycle

S

Safe zone

Scene

Screenplay

Script

Shot

Silhouette

Skeletal animation

Slow Motion

Smears

Sound Design

Soundtrack

Special Effects

Squash and Stretch

Staging

Stop Motion Animation

Storyboard

Straight-ahead Animation

T

Time Remapping

Timeline

Timing

Title Card

Title Sequence

Tweening

V

Vector graphics

Visemes

Voice acting

W

Walk cycle

WebM File Format

Weighting

Z

Z-depth

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