The Walt Stanchfield Lectures

 1. Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is essential in any form of animation. One thing animator must be good at is gesture drawings. Necessary to good gesture drawings are acting, caricature, anatomy, body language, perspective etc.

Your mental and emotional processes are you.

Without motivation you would accomplish nothing, and without enthusiasm, motivation would atrophy before you could make a quick sketch. A good example would be that your mind is a projector - Whatever you choose to put into it is what will be seen on the screen.

"Enthusiasm is the mainspring of the mind which urges one to put knowledge into action"  
                                                                                                                              Wally "Famous" Amos

2. Principles of Animation

There are some principles of animation that can be consciously used in any scene. You should familiarize yourself with them for both animation and animation clean up. These rules can be applied in any scene as very rarely is a character doing nothing. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty spend a short time in complete inactivity, but even then certain of these principles were used. The following list of (principles) are what should be found in all animation.

Pose and Mood                                      Planes
Shape and Form                                     Solidity
Anatomy                                                 Arcs
Model and Character                            Squash & Stretch        
Weight                                                    Beat and Rhythm
Line and Silhouette                                  Depth & Volume
Action and Reaction                              Overlap and Follow Through
Perspective                                             Timing
Direction                                                 Working from Extreme to Extreme
Tension
Straights and Curves
Primary and Secondary Action
Staging and Composition
Anticipation
Caricature
Details 
Texture
Simplification
Positive and Negative Shapes

The purpose of studying and analysing a scene is to acquaint oneself with the possibilities in the use of the principles in animation. Above is 28 principles, although they may be more at first these will have to be consciously, then hopefully in time will become second nature. When emotions are lax, knowing these principles will enable the artists to animate his scene intellectually, logically and artistically as well as emotionally.