1. Squash and Stretch - defining the rigidity and mass of an object by distorting its shape during an action. The volume of the object must stay the same when it has been distorted otherwise the object will appear to get larger or smaller. Every object will squash or stretch in some way when in motion, and in animation you have to show the forces working on an object to make it realistic, this does not apply to object that are made of rigid materials such as wood or rock, these items would stay rigid while in motion. Squash and stretch is also used when animating characters, especially their faces. Animators pay attention to hoe the muscles in your body and face move while making different expressions and movements. To make a character look alive and “animated” these movements are exaggerated. For an example of squash and stretch I have used an animation by Adam Phillips, it is completely animated on Flash and follows a creature that is the last of his kind. He is extremely fast and squash and stretched is used to enhance the illusion of speed. Sometimes the character can be so deformed that it hardly looks like its original form anymore. In my second example the character is stretched so much to demonstrate the speed which he travelling. 
2. Timing and Motion - spacing actions to define the weight and size of objects and the personality of characters. The heavier the object the longer it takes to gain momentum and the lighter the object the faster. The weight of objects can affect the way another object interacts with it, if a lighter object hits a heavier one it will bounce off. The amount of force used on the object is also an important factor that needs to be addressed; if something is thrown the harder it is thrown the further it will travel. When drawing the animation is the smaller the movement between the frames the slower the movement of the character or object that is being animated, but then the bigger the difference in movement the faster the animation will be.
3. Anticipation - the preparation for an action. This is pretty self-explanatory anticipation is building up the scenario that is about to happen; it prepares the viewer for an action that is going to happen. This could be a character crouching down in preparation to run or them reacting to something that the viewer cannot see yet as it is off screen, like the panic before they are going to be hit by a ball. In the example the character is pulling his arm back in preparation to throw something. 
4. Staging - presenting an idea so that it is unmistakably clear. Making sure the viewer is directed to where the action is going to happen. The attention of the audience must be drawn to the most important part of the frame or sequence. There are many ways of achieving this such as the placement of a character in the frame, camera angles and placement of the camera, using shadows and light to emphasize something. In this example the focus is on the main character that is all by himself looking longingly at his reflection. The scene is meant to clearly show the audience that he is lonely.5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action - the termination of an action and establishing its relationship to the next action. This is used as a way to make the animation more realistic, other parts of the character will continue to move when others have stopped, like the tail on a cat or hair blowing in the breeze. It is the movement of an object that is a reaction to another movement.
6. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action - The two contrasting approaches to the creation of movement. Straight ahead animation is when the animator just draws the animation frame by frame as it comes, however with pose-to-pose animation, key frames are drawn first then the gaps are filled later.
7. Slow In and Out - the spacing of the in-between frames to achieve subtlety of timing and movement. Every action has to accelerate and slow down when in movement. By expressing this in animation it gives a more realistic feeling to the movement. Like a bouncing ball that speeds up as it is falling but as it goes back up it slows down as gravity takes hold again and pulls it back down.
8. Arcs - the visual path of action for natural movement. When in motion things don’t usually travel in straight lines, like when an object is thrown it will arc upwards and then come back down to the ground. Another example would be the movement of limbs if the movement were drawn in straight line the animation would stiff and jerky, by giving the movement an ark it makes it look more realistic.
9. Exaggeration - Accentuating the essence of an idea via the design and the action. Exaggeration is used a lot in animation as a way to express motion and make it more obvious. The extent of the exaggeration depends on the style of animation, if it is more realistic then it might be very subtle but if it is a very cartoon like and stylized it might go to the other extreme.
11. Appeal - creating a design or an action that the audience enjoys watching. This all comes down to the individual that is watching; everyone has different interests and likes and dislikes.
12. [Solid Drawing] - The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight. The animator has to be aware of the environment that the character is in and how it would react to that situation. This would also include perspective and relation of size to other objects.
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