The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of the renown Twelve Principles of Animation in the process of animating the characters of three selected video-games that are produced based on a cut-out animation production pipeline. In order to adhere to a solid theoretical framework, the study is mainly based on two invaluable pieces of literature The Illusion of Life (1981) and The Animator’s Survival Kit (2001) as a basis.

One of the main aspects of this research is to investigate the Five Fundamentals of Video-Game Animation, as established and defined in the book GAME ANIM: Video Game Animation Explained, that aims to revisit the Twelve Principles of traditional animation in order to apply the in the production of video game; A medium that is, in contrary to the animated films, is an interactive medium that requires to respond to the commands and inputs received from a player.
The outcome of this very research, indicates that, in order to benefit from the Twelve Principles of Animation in the process of giving life to video game characters, considering the interactive nature of the medium, some subtle changes and tweaks are needed to be made so that the game characters can respond to the player’s action throughout believable, readable and yet, fluid and disrupted animations. Such adjustments are addressed in the book GAME ANIM, , which includes some recommended techniques that may help video game animators to maintain the fluid feel of the characters movements in the game world.