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Squash and stretch is a common animation technique applied to characters or machinery in motion, giving it a cartoonish feel as opposed to realistic jerky motion. It was used to great effect in early 1920s American cartoons such as Felix the Cat and Betty Boop. It can also be used in comics or still cartoon art.

When done in accordance with the principles of animation, squash and stretch keeps the volume of the character constant. This is often explained by analogy to a half-filled sack of flour. In one episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, Babs Bunny mentions that the technique makes cartoons inherently funnier.

It is very popular with traditional cell animators, though not very practical for 3D animators. Squash and stretch is the principle of how an object squashes (figure 1.1, left) or how it stretches figure(1.1, right). An example of squash and stretch is a classic cartoon "take" (figure 1.2), where it helps make an animation more "life-like" and "solid". When squash and stretch is applied it creates the illusion that a drawing has dimension and volume. Squash and stretch does not always have to be cartoonlike - when we crouch down in anticipation for a large leap, we squash. When we spring into the air, we stretch. A half-filled flour sack is an example of a more cartoonlike squash and stretch - when dropped the sack squashes a lot; when picked up it stretches a lot - but throughout the entire action, the volume never changes.

[edit] See also

• 12 basic principles of animation
• Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life

[edit] References

• Thomas, Frank; Ollie Johnston (1981, reprint 1997). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Hyperion. pp. pp. 47–69. ISBN 0786860707.