Key Text: Animated Performance: Bringing Imaginary Animal, Human and Fantasy Characters to Life by Nancy Beiman

I thought this book was a great read, and I can definitely see myself referring back to it when it comes to writing my dissertation, as well as producing the practical side of it too. Beiman talks about the many ways in which character's movements will vary according to the emotional and narrative context of their situation, and the book is also filled with exercises to try that demonstrate these points.

There are a few chapters that I thought were too specific to be useful this time around, for example there is a section that demonstrates how you would bring inanimate objects to life, but I read them anyway as it really made me think differently about how I would approach animating a character. It got me thinking about the objects/character's personality, and things like "whether it likes its job", as things like this would effect how the object/character would move or act. The book also points out that things like gender and age will take a toll on this too.

Or then again, is this a road I could go down? Do I look at how inanimate objects are given life, and how even though they may not speak and are just objects, we are still able empathize with them?


Quotes I considered to be potentially useful/interesting:

"The weight of the fabric is shown by the movement of the cloth, not by the number of lines used to indicate wrinkles."
"Believably is more important than realism." (In regards to animating fabrics)
"One common mistake made by beginning animators is to have all the characters moving all the time." "Maintain 'life' in characters that are in held poses by using a moving hold. An occasional eye blink or slight tilt of the head breaks up the stillness and keeps the character 'alive' without distracting the viewer from the main action."
"Storyboard is mainly concerned with the WHY of a film. Animation is concerned with HOW the story points are put across."
"The animated character, like a human actor, does not stand alone. It is influenced by its background and its relationship with other elements in the scene."
"Remember that animation acting is movement with a purpose."
"Take a look at the reference footage. Then put it away and never look at it again" - Frank Thomas to Nancy (1985)
"A motion picture lets you see the [tennis] players in motion from different angles and study moves in sequential order, but filmed action cannot substitute for personal observation and artistic interpretation.
"Your sketches from life reflect your view of the world and its creatures rather than a filmed and edited depiction of action frozen in time".
"A photograph eliminates the third dimension; this leads to the notoious 'flatness' of animation that is traced directly from individual frames of motion-picture film."
"Newton's third law of motion states that 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.' Animation will vary from real life in this respect; while every action will generate an opposite reaction, it will not necessarily be an equal one. Unlike 'real life', an animated character's movement may emphasise or caricature the main action and underplay the opposing action for dramatic or comedic effect. An animated character's actions and reactions may be impossible in real life, but believable in the animated context."
"Weight is conveyed by varying the timing of overlapping action on different parts of the body after the initial contact."