Squash and stretch

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.

Squash and Stretch is a technique used in animation. It is very popular with traditional cel 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). A good example of squash and stretch would be a classic cartoon "take" (figure 1.2). 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 cartoony; we squash and stretch every day. When we crouch down in anticipation for a large leap, we squash. When we spring into the air, we stretch. As said above, a half-filled four sack is an excellent example of a little bit more cartoony squash and stretch. When you drop the sack, it squashes a lot; when you pick it up, it stretches a lot.Still, throughout the entire action, it's volume never actually changes. For more information on squash and stretch, read Disney's animation book titled "the Illusion of Life".