1. SQUASH AND STRETCH
Squash and Stretch is what gives flexibility to objects. There’s a lot of squash and stretch happening in real life that you may not notice; in animation this can be exaggerated. For instance, there’s a lot of squash and stretch that occur in the face when someone speaks, because the face is a very flexible area.
The easiest way to understand how squash and stretch work is to look at a bouncing ball. As the ball starts to fall and picks up speed, the ball will stretch out just before impact, and as the ball impacts the ground, it squashes, and as it takes off again it stretches.
Squash and stretch can be implemented in many different areas of animation, like the eyes during a blink or when someone gets surprised or scared, their face squashes down, and stretches. Squash and stretch is a great principle to utilise to exaggerate animations and add more appeal to a movement.