CHARACTERIZATION (acting)

CHARACTERIZATION (acting)

Character animation is the ultimate achievement of animation art. It is a complex combination of

 craftsmanship, acting and timing.

Characterization in animation is concerned not so much with what the character do. The audience is conditionedto look at human characters in human situations. In animation this can only be a

 starting point. The cartoon character should not behave like a human being. Itwould feel and look. Human reactions and human actions must be exaggerated,sometimes simplified and distorted in order to achieve a dramatic or comiceffect in cartoon.

For these reasons the featuresof characters must be kept simple, allowing for maximum facial expression. Thekey positions should be efficiently expressive, and held for a long enoughperiod of time to transmit the message to the audience. In animation suchtransmission is easier in movement than in live action. When a movement is overexaggerated it tends to create a sense of comedy. This is especially the case i fast movement. A deliberate exaggeration of speed, therefore, is the basis of  timing for a caricature as for instance, in the case of Tom & Jerry cartoons.Slower pacing requires greater emphasis on expression and characterization of the subject it requires more subtle animation and it is infinitely more

 difficult to handle.

The Thinking Character:

When animating characters,every movement, every action must exist for a reason. If a character were tomove about in a series of unrelated actions, it would seem obvious that theanimator was moving it, not the character itself. All the movements and actionsof a character are the result of its thought process. In creating a “thinkingcharacter,” the animator gives life to the character by connecting its actionswith a thought process. Walt Disney said, “In most instances, the driving forces behind the action are the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character-or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot. We think of thingsbefore the body does them.”To convey the idea that thethoughts of a character are driving its actions, a simple trick is in theanticipation; always lead with the eyes or the head. If the character has eyes the eyes should move first, locking the focus of its action a few frames beforethe head. The head shoul move next, followed a few frames later by his body andthe main action. The eyes of a character are the windows to its thoughts; thecharacter’s thoughts are conveyed through the actions of its eyes.If the character has no eyes,such as an inanimate object like a Luxo lamp, it is even more important to lead with the head. The number of frames to lead the eyes and head depends on howmuch thought precedes the main action. The animator must first understand acharacter’s thought process for any given action. Consider a character wantingto snatch some cheese from a mousetrap; the eyes will lead the snatch by quite a bit because this is a big decision. The character needs time to think,

 “…Hmm. This looks tricky, is this cheese really worth it or is it just

 processed American cheese food? Oh what the heck…” he decides, and snatchesthe cheese.

Conversely, if the action is acharacter ducking to miss a low flying sheep, the anticipation of the eye leading the action should be just a couple of frames. “What the…” and the next thing, he is spitting wool out of his mouth.

The only time that the eyes orhead would not lead the action would be when an external force is driving thecharacter’s movements, as opposed to his thought process. For example, if thatcharacter was hit in the back by the low flying sheep, the force of the impactwould cause the body to move first, snapping the head back and dragging itbehind the main action of the body.

Emotion:

The personality of a character is conveyed through emotion and emotion is the best indicator as to how fast anaction should be. A character would not do a particular action the same way in two different emotional states. When a character is happy, the timing of his movements will be faster. Conversely, when sadness is upon the character, themovements will be slower. An example of this, in Luxo Jr., is the action of Jr.hopping. When he is chasing the ball, he is very excited and happy with all hi thoughts on the ball. His head is up looking at the ball, the timing of his hopsare fast as there is very little time spent on the ground between hops becaus he can’t wait to get to the ball.After he pops the ball, however, his hop changes drastically, reflecting his sadness that the object ofall his thoughts and energy just a moment ago is now dead. As he hops off, hishead is down; the timing of each hop is slower, with much more time on the ground between hops. Before, he had a direction and a purpose to his hop. Now he is just hopping off to nowhere. 1To make a character’spersonality seem real to an audience, he must be different than the othercharacters on the screen. A simple way to distinguish the personalities of yourcharacters is through contrast of movement. No two characters would do the sameaction in the same way. For example, in Luxo Jr., both Dad and Jr. bat the ballwith their heads. Yet Dad, who is larger and older, leans over the ball and usesonly his shade to bat it. Jr., however, is smaller, younger, and full of energy,he whacks the ball with his whole shade, putting his whole body into it.

Readability of Actions:

Proper timing is critical tomaking ideas readable. It is important to spend enough time (but no more) preparing the audience for the anticipation of an action; the action itself; andthe reaction to the action (the follow through). If too much time is spent on any of these, the audience’s attention will wander. If too little time is spent,the movement may be finished before the audience notices it, thus wasting the

 idea.The faster the movement, themore critical it is to make sure the audience can follow what is happening. Theaction must not be so fast that the audience cannot read it and understand themeaning of it.To make sure an idea or actionis unmistakably clear, the audience’s eye must be led to exactly where it needsto be at the right moment, they must not miss the idea or action. Timing, aswell as staging and anticipation are all integral to directing the audience’seye. A well-staged anticipation will be wasted if it is not timed properly.

It is important that theaudience sees only one idea at a time. If a lot of action is happening at once, the eye does not know where to look and the main idea will be overlooked. The object of interest should besignificantly contrasted against the rest of thescene. In a still scene, the eye will be attracted to movement. In a very busyscene, the eye will be attracted to something that is still. Each idea or actionmust be timed and staged in the strongest and simplest way before going on tothe next idea or action. The animator is saying, in effect, “Look at this, nowlook at this, and now look at this.”In most cases, an action should not be brought to a complete stop before starting another action; the secondaction should overlap the first. This slight overlapping maintains a flow andcontinuity between whole phrases of actions.

In Luxo Jr., it was veryimportant that the audience was looking in the right place at the right time,

 because the story, acting and emotion was being put across with movement alone,

 in pantomime, and sometimes the movement was very subtle. If the audience missed

 an action, an emotion would be missed, and the story would suffer. So the action

 had to be timed and paced so that only Dad or Jr. was doing an important action

 at any one time, never both. In the beginning of the film, Dad is on-screen

 alone and your eye is on him. But as soon as Jr. hops on-screen, he is moving

 faster than Dad; therefore the audience’s eye immediately goes to him and stays

 there.

Most of the time Jr. is

 on-screen, Dad’s actions are timed to be very subtle, so the attention of the

 audience is always on Jr. where most of the story was being told. If Dad’s

 actions were important, Jr.’s actions were toned down and Dad’s movements were

 emphasized then the attention of the audience would transfer to Dad. For

 example, when Jr., looks up to Dad after he’s popped the ball and Dad shakes his

 head, all eyes are on Jr.

Character reactions and

 ‘takes’:

A further advantage which

 animation can claim over live action is the ease with which characters reactions

 can be controlled and exaggerated. Without some degree of exaggeration, cartoon

 animation would not look right. The success of such effects lies in timing.

A character makes a ‘take’

 when he suddenly sees or becomes aware of something that makes him react in

 surprise. There may be a short or long time lag between when the character sees

 whatever it is, and when he message gets through to his brain. This would be at

 least five frames, but could be a lot longer depending on the character’s metal

 ability.

The first principle is to

 coordinate the character body movement with his facial expression. The legs,

 arms, hands, the position of the body, all must contribute to a reaction. The

 facial expression must be emphasized with adequate exaggeration, particularly of

 the eyes and mouth.

There are of course differences

 of reaction according to the type of character portrayed. A big brainless

 character requires a longer time to react than a small character. This is where

 character animation can excel on its own and where the art of animation begins.