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Acting and Animation
By Doron A. Meir
"An animator is an
actor with a pencil", goes the oldest and truest
animation cliché. Not "a draftsman that acts", but
first and foremost - an actor. If you're trying to
tell a story through a character, inevitably you're
an actor. The only question is whether you are a
good actor or a bad one.
My feeling is that in the past few years, while
there's been great progress technology-wise, the art
of acting in animation has been abandoned. Compared
with the acting quality of characters such as Shere-Khan
(The Jungle Book), Captain Hook (Peter Pan) and
others, today's characters are pale, dull, and lack
personality. In better cases, an exceptionally
interesting voice-talent saves the day (Robin
Williams as the genie in Aladdin); but usually the
script alone is responsible for providing the
characters with some sort of personality.
In the various internet forums one can find threads
concerning software, design, textures - some even
talk about movement - but it's rare to read
something about acting. I haven't yet seen a comment
saying something like "the animation is good, but
the character has no personality". It seems that
the level of expectations is so low, that it's
enough for an animator not to make technical errors.
Would you consider praising a writer simply because
he made no spelling mistakes?
In the following article I have put on paper my
thoughts considering acting in animation, which
apply to any form of character animation - including
3D. The article is not meant to provide a "good
acting in animation" formula - simply because such a
formula does not exist. Every animator has his
personal attitude, every film has needs of its own,
and undoubtedly there are other ways of getting good
acting. The goal is to propose a "toolbox" for the
actor/animator, and maybe raise - even a little -
the animators' awareness of acting in animation.
What is good acting?
When I ask my students what they think good acting
is, the first answer is usually "believable acting".
But credibility is only one side of the story. Good
acting is believable and interesting. In my opinion,
these two attributes wholly define good acting. With
this idea as an axiom, we will try to separately
analyze what makes acting believable, and what makes
it interesting.
I. Believable acting
In the life of an animator there are short and rare
moments of true magic. Those moments are the reason
I became an animator, and they are the reason I
still am one. I'm talking about a moment in which
you look at the animation you've just created, and
suddenly you believe your own character. Suddenly
it's alive, it's there in its own right. Those are
the moments of believable acting.
Believable acting holds a great power over the
viewers, because the character they're watching gets
a sort of meaning. Every man has meaning to us -
even if we don't always think about it: If a total
stranger sitting next to you on the bus suddenly
collapses, you will not be indifferent - because the
very fact that he is a flash and blood human earns
him that meaning. This is why we feel sorry when
Bambi's mother dies: we believe her and we believe
Bambi, and both of them mean something to us. On the
other hand, the characters in South Park are
anything but believable, which is why there's no
problem killing Kenny in each chapter.
(This might be the right place to reemphasize that
the animator is of course not solely responsible for
contributing meaning to the characters - script has
an important part in it too. This article, however,
is dealing with animation).
Believable acting means that the audience feels that
the character's actions are the result of its own
inner motives, and not the animator's inner motives;
that the character feels, thinks and reacts
consistently according to its personality and mood.
I emphasized the last sentence since it encapsulates
many of the ingredients of convincing acting:
Feel.
The aim here is not just to portray clear and
defined feelings (happy, sad, etc.) but to look for
a kind of inner feeling that we have in us all the
time - maybe it can be called "consciousness". Try
to "feel" your character when you create animation,
not just move it around according to the principles
of animation.
Think.
Your character shouldn't always act on immediate
instincts. Look for opportunities to show thinking
process, which leads to decision and action. It will
enrich your animation with depth, complexity and
believability.
React.
Acting is actually more or less a series of
reactions - the character reacts to its environment,
to other characters, to stimulus. Every action must
have a reason. Make sure you know what your
character is reacting to, and that the reaction is
reasonable (in other words: it's reasonable that
this particular character will react in this
particular way).
Consistency.
Retain a consistent attitude to your character's
reactions. A shy character (small, timid movements)
that unexpectedly acts in an extroverted way with no
clear reason, will suffer great damage to its
credibility.
Personality.
The character's personality dictates its reactions -
i.e., its acting. Again, we are not necessarily
talking about a definite personality such as
"arrogant", "grumpy", etc. Try to get to know your
character the way you know a family member or
someone you work with. What makes him tick? What is
he afraid of? What are his problems?
Mood.
Mood resembles personality - it, too, dictates the
character's reactions - but unlike personality, its
effect is temporary. For example: a guy who's
hurrying to work acts and reacts in a very different
way than the very same guy as he calmly walks his
dog in the evening.
* * *
Reading the above notions, one might think - "hey,
all those things belong to the script and
storyboard! Reactions, personality, mood - I can't
control that! I'm just the animator here, my job is
merely to move the character around and make sure
there's a lot of anticipation!". My answer is in the
following example:
The storyboard shows a character entering the frame,
and looking angrily at another character. You're
assigned to the scene, and the questions that should
arise are: does the character enter slowly? Quickly?
Determinedly? Hesitantly? Does he stop suddenly or
gradually? Did he know the other character would be
there, or does he spot it in the scene? Is he
furious, or merely dissatisfied? What sort of anger
is it - helpless (like a child's anger towards his
parents), or superior (like a parent's towards his
child)? And so on and so forth.
The actor/animator's task is to carefully read the
script, study the storyboard, and try to "get into"
the character. In other words: to find the
character's inner feeling and to "wear" it for a
while as if it was his own - so that he can get to
know and understand the character. A good actor
doesn't invent his acting - he discovers it. And
still the animator faces the tough challenge of
putting the experience into his animation, keeping
the principles of motion. It isn't easy, but the
reward - that magical moment of believable animation
- is worth the effort.
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