Acting for Animators

        "Animators should focus on the acting...make the characters think

and act...start with the body first, next focus on the eyes, and last focus on the mouth.

When reiewing reels we look at the acting first."

-John Lasseter

        Animators are performers. They act through their drawings, through their puppets, through all of their creations. They use mirrors to constantly check poses and gestures, and record video footage as reference. It is through these techniques and an in depth understanding of how bodies move and communicate that they imbue their creations with that magic ingredient...a sense of life.

        A character's performance should be so refined and expressive that the audience can understand what is being portrayed, how the character feels in themselves and about those around them without even hearing the soundtrack.

        It is no surprise then that many classic animators took cues from the giants of silent film. Disney's animators attended workshops analysing the performances of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton; hugely expressive performers who manage to communicate with audiences with minimal to non existent dialogue.

        Aside from highlighting Chaplin's powerful performance, this clip also demonstrates the importance of timing. The contrast between the frantically spinning corn spit, the temperamental soup bowl and the calm, collected napkin emphasize the comedy, but also allows each component of the feeding machine to have its own simple personality.

        The eating machine scene largely relied upon facial performance, but body language is just as important a tool for communication, not just of mood and emotion, but also for creating anticipation and expectation, whether it be for comedic or horrific purposes.

 

        However, I am not a natural performer. I used to greatly enjoy being in school plays and dressing up to be a different character, but somewhere in between then and now an extreme sense of shyness has developed in me and I find it near impossible to perform what I envisage in my head. Consequently I struggled greatly to record a video reference of my rough storyboard, and had to do it on my own at home rather than in front of my classmates. After much practice and many takes it was by no means perfect, but good enough I think to inform how my character will move, particularly in conjunction with my observations of searching poses.