The 12 Basic Principles of animation

The Twelve Basic Principles of Animation is a set of principles of animation introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

They are

Squash and stretch

Anticipation

Staging

Straight ahead action and pose to pose

Follow through and overlapping action

Slow in slow out

Arcs

Secondary action

Timing

Exaggeration

Solid drawing

Appeal

Unfortunatley they don't all apply to stop-motion, as they where written by drawn animators.  Most will cross over, some need a little tweaking but 2 don't apply ("Straight ahead and pose to pose" and "Solid drawing"), so I've tried out a couple of my own.

1. TIMING

Expertise in timing comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the trial and error method in refining technique. The basics are: more frames between poses slow and smooth the action. Fewer frames make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Timing is critical for establishing a character's mood, emotion, and personality.  On a purely physical  level, correct timing makes objects appear to abide to the laws of physics.

2. ANTICIPATION
Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic. A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first. The technique can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick up.

3. STAGING
The purpose is to direct the audience's attention, and make it clear what is of greatest importance in a scene; what is happening, and what is about to happen.  This can be done by various means, such as the placement of a character in the frame, the use of light and shadow, and the angle and position of the camera.
Every pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character.  Do not confuse the audience with too many actions at once. Use one action clearly stated to get the idea across, unless you are animating a scene that is to depict clutter and confusion.
The essence of this principle is keeping focus on what is relevant, and avoiding unnecessary detail

4. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION
"Follow through" means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. "Overlapping action" is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different rates (an arm will move on different timing of the head and so on). A third related technique is "drag", where a character starts to move and parts of him take a few frames to catch up. These parts can be inanimate objects like clothing or the antenna on a car, or parts of the body, such as arms.

5. SLOW-OUT AND SLOW-IN
As action starts, we have more frames  near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more frames  near the next pose. Fewer frames  make the action faster and more frames  make the action slower. Slow-ins and slow-outs soften the action, making it more life-like. For a gag action, we may omit some slow-out or slow-ins for shock appeal or the surprise element. This will give more snap to the scene.

6. SECONDARY ACTION
Adding secondary actions to the main action gives a scene more life, and can help to support the main action. A person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets, he can speak or whistle, or he can express emotions through facial expressions. The important thing about secondary actions is that they emphasize, rather than take attention away from the main action. If the latter is the case, those actions are better left out. In the case of facial expressions, during a dramatic movement these will often go unnoticed. In these cases it is better to include them at the beginning and the end of the movement, rather than during

7. EXAGGERATION
Exaggeration is an effect especially useful for animation, as perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull.  The level of exaggeration depends on whether one seeks realism or a particular style. Use good taste and common sense to keep from becoming too theatrical and excessively animated

8. ARCS
Arcs give animation a more natural action and better flow. Think of natural movements in the terms of a pendulum swinging. All arm movement, head turns and even eye movements are executed on an arcs.

9. SQUASH AND STRETCH
It can help give a sense of weight and flexibility to objects such as a bouncing ball, or can be useful in animating dialogue and doing facial expressions.  Taken to an extreme point, a figure stretched or squashed to an exaggerated degree can have a comical effect
You’re going to get more from this if you use replacements or plasticine, but with an armatured puppet you can help give the illusion of squash and stretch.  Keeping the character flexible, exaggerate the bend at the knees and waist on runs and jumps, or even putting small knee bends into talking shots when shooting from above the waist will give more bounce and life to your animation – just because the joints aren’t in shot doesn’t mean you can ignore them.

10. APPEAL
Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to what would be called charisma in an actor. A character who is appealing is not necessarily sympathetic - villains or monsters can also be appealing - the important thing is that the viewer feels the character is real and interesting.


These next two are my own, I'm trying to keep them in the vain as the original, but basically I'm winging it.

11.  POSE AND PERFORMANCE (CHOREOGRAPHY)
Unlike drawn or computer animation the only way to do Stop Motion is through straight ahead animation, so planning ahead is essential.  Act out your scene or sketch important poses you need to hit on your barsheet.  Make sure you know your destination before you start, it’s easy to become distracted and go off and tangents.

12. CONSIDERED DESIGN
You’ll have to make everything you need from the characters, the sets, the props, to the sounds.  Make sure the characters and the props are designed and made to do all that they need to do.  The set’s should complement characters and not distract from them.  The sound will make up 50% of a film, don’t think it’s all about the visuals.