About 85 years ago in 1981, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and some others at the Walt Disney Studios drew up the ‘12 basic principles of animation,’ giving birth to the illusion of life. This in turn, help create a new art form all together.
Although Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston released these basic principles as a book, aptly titled — ‘The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation’ A.K.A “Bible of animation,” intended to be used for traditional, hand-drawn animations, the 12 principles are still valid, and are used today with computer animation. In 1999, in an online poll, this book was also voted as the number one of the “best animation books of all time”.
Right, not what this post is about though.
The Illusion of Life
About three odd years ago, Vincenzo Lodigiani took these 12 basic principles of animation, and created a movie that has successfully translated the book itself into a series of animations that further depict each of the principles within The Illusion of Life.
Vincenzo Lodigiani applied these principles to basic, simple shapes; animating them in such a manner that anyone could understand these principles within a span of minutes, if she is so inclined.
The illusion of life by Vincenzo Lodigiani
There’s more; Vincenzo Lodigiani also has made available an animated gif gallery, on tumblr, which showcases these principles as individual gifs; these are super useful to explain these principles and/or to better understand them.
Check Out The Animated Gif Gallery
Vincenzo Lodigiani
After landing on his website, I was blown away with his work, and portfolio. Count me extremely impressed with his design, and animation skills.
