Animation Principles Teaching Others

This is for teaching animation fundamentals to others, not for animating yourself. It breaks down how to explain each of the 12 principles of animation at different skill levels, with specific teaching strategies for common student mistakes. You get concrete examples like using a bouncing ball for squash and stretch, or showing real athletes to demonstrate anticipation. Each principle includes a "show first" approach and a key phrase to make it stick. If you're mentoring junior animators or running workshops, this gives you a teaching framework rather than making you figure out pedagogy from scratch. The 42 GitHub stars suggest it's found an audience among animation educators.

GitHub stars: 70
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add dylantarre/animation-principles --skill 'Animation Principles - Teaching Others' --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Teaching the 12 Principles Effectively

Teaching animation principles requires meeting students where they are. Here's how to communicate each principle at different levels.

Teaching Strategies by Principle

1. Squash and Stretch

Show first: Bouncing ball exercise - universal, immediate, undeniable. Common confusion: Students preserve shape instead of volume. Use clay demonstration. Key phrase: "Volume stays the same, shape changes."

2. Anticipation

Show first: Video of real athletes - every jump has a crouch. Common confusion: Making anticipation too large or too long. Key phrase: "The audience needs a heads-up."

3. Staging

Show first: Silhouette test. If they can't read it as a shadow, it fails. Common confusion: Cluttering with detail before establishing clarity. Key phrase: "What's the ONE thing this frame says?"

4. Straight Ahead / Pose to Pose

Show first: Same action animated both ways - compare results. Common confusion: Thinking one method is "correct." Key phrase: "Pose to pose for control, straight ahead for discovery."

SKILL.md on GitHub