Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The 12 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. Johnston and Thomas in turn
based their book on the work of the leading Disney animators from the
1930s onwards, and their effort to produce more realistic animations.
The main purpose of the principles was to produce an illusion of
characters adhering to the basic laws of physics, but they also dealt
with more abstract issues, such as emotional timing and character
appeal. The book and its principles have become generally adopted, and
have been referred to as the "Bible of the industry." In 1999 the book
was voted number one of the "best animation books of all time" in an
online poll. Though originally intended to apply to traditional,
hand-drawn animation, the principles still have great relevance for
today's more prevalent computer animation.