Squash and Stretch

Whether you know it or not, Squash and Stretch is a huge part of what makes animated characters, and the worlds they live in, so interesting and entertaining. Without it, everything in these animated worlds would be boring and stiff.

What is Squash and Stretch?

This principle says that features and actions must be exaggerated beyond their normal, realistic limits, in order to clearly convey ideas and make the work visually pleasing. In other words, the character must make bigger or smaller movements, and stretch or shrink further than could actually happen in real life, so that you can understand what characters are thinking, and make the action look better.

Squash and Stretch is put to work everywhere. From drawing characters and moving them to live acting (especially theater). Even our faces follow squash and stretch as we move from happy to sad, or bored to angry, and any other emotion.

Oh look, here is Edmond and his friend.

Here, Edmond is standing next to another llama, and there are major differences. Besides the fact that Edmond prefers to wear clothing, there are differences between them, created using Squash and Stretch. You can see how much larger Edmonds eyes are (stretch) and how much shorter his legs are (squash). Squash and Stretch refers to movement rather than character design. For more on how characters are designed, check out the post on Exaggeration.

Next is a terrific example of squash and stretch in action with this clip of the Disney's, The Jungle Book [2]:

Kaa's Sinuses

What am I looking at?

• At the very beginning, Sher Kahn (the tiger) is looking at Kaa's tail hanging down (the snake). He then reaches out and pulls the Kaa's tail to make the door bell sound. Watch again as the tail stretches with each pull. An actual snake could not actually stretch that way.

• Next you see Kaa's irritated face. His eyes and his mouth are scrunched together towards the center of his face, then these same features suddenly go in the complete opposite direction, and stretch to make a happy face. Watch Kaa as he does these actions over and over, depending on how he is feeling through the clip.

• As Sher Kahn reaches out again and grabs Kaa's throat, watch how his neck squishes under Sher Kahn's claw. This shows how powerful Sher Kahn is. 

• As Kaa continues to talk, you can see the wrinkles in his neck above Sher Kahn's claw, and how they stretch and squish together as he raises and lowers his head.  

• The most obvious example in this clip is when Kaa stretches his head all the way up to Sher Kahn's face, and Sher Kahn moves his neck back to get out of Kaa's view.

As you can see, this principle is used so much that one could go on for an hour about just one scene in a movie. Try to find some more examples on your own.

How can I apply this to my work?

• Study your face in the mirror
• Watch for places in movies that make you ask, "could that really happen in real life?"
• Make different features on your drawings bigger or smaller than what they would look like in real life (you probably already do this if you ever draw cartoons)
• If you are animating, make your actions HUGE instead of big, tiny instead of small, and so on.
• Next time you watch your favorite movies, look for this principle and see how it affects the scene. Then, try to imagine life without this principle. 

Happy hunting!

Sources:

[1] Atkinson, David. Animation Notes #5 Principles of Animation.  Retrieved from http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html

[2] Walt, D. (Producer), & Reitherman, W. (Director). (1967). The Jungle Book [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney.