The 12 animation principles, explained with stick figures. The same rules the pros use — in simple words and simple drawings, so your animations stop looking stiff and start looking alive.
Why your animation feels stiff — and the 12 fixes
A stick figure drawing for every principle
A "try it" exercise for each one
One page per idea — print it, keep it next to you
Get all 12 principles free
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1
Squash and stretch
Things squash when they hit or push, and stretch when they move fast. It makes motion feel soft, bouncy and alive instead of stiff.
A stick figure can't change thickness, so squash with the whole pose: bend the knees, curl the back, pull the arms in.
Stretch the pose right after: legs straight, arms reaching, body in one long line.
Keep the size the same — a squashed pose gets wider, a stretched one gets taller.
Try it: Animate a jump: crouch (squash) → launch (stretch) → land (squash again).
2
Anticipation
Before a big move, there's a small move the other way: pull back before a punch, crouch before a jump. It tells the viewer what's coming, so the action reads.
Wind up in the opposite direction of the action.
The bigger or heavier the action, the longer the wind-up.
Hold the wind-up pose for a few frames so the eye catches it.
Try it: Animate a punch twice — once with no wind-up, once with a 6-frame pull-back. Watch which one hits harder.
In Diamond Animator: The AI Animator plans wind-ups for you before punches, jumps and throws.
3
Staging
Show one idea at a time, as clearly as possible. If the viewer can't tell what's happening in a single paused frame, the pose isn't staged well.
Silhouette test: keep arms and legs away from the body so the pose still reads as a shadow.
Side views are the clearest for stick figures — use them for important actions.
Keep the background quiet where the action happens.
Try it: Pause your animation on any frame. Can a friend say what the figure is doing in two seconds?
In Diamond Animator: The AI Animator aims for readable poses — limbs clear of the body on the key frames.
The rest of the cheat sheet
Principles 4 to 12 — pose to pose, follow-through, ease, arcs, timing, exaggeration, weight and appeal — open as soon as you sign up above. Free.
Type your idea — "two stick figures have a sword fight" — and Diamond Animator's AI Animator plans the key poses and animates it, with wind-ups, ease in and out, follow-through, weight and planted feet built in.