"Squash and Stretch"

Animation for “Crawford’s Classics – Cinderella” comes along nicely this week. The image above is from a scene that introduces the Fairy Godmother character in this show. The background art and animation is by G. Brian Reynolds. Brian used a lot of “squash and stretch” in the animation to create the character’s clumsy entrance. “Squash and stretch” is a great old phrase that refers to a time-tested animation basic. Today, an animator can easily squash and stretch the art in programs like FLASH. What does not come easily is that animator’s knowledge of where and how much to use this and other animation techniques. That knowledge only comes as the result of a lot of hard work and experience.

Nice “squash and stretch” G. Brian Reynolds!

Click here to see the CLIP.

Enjoy.

~ Russ Harris