Character Animation

Character animation can be defined as the expression of emotion or behaviour of a live or inanimate object through the use of motion.

There are ten main ways of giving a character expressive behavior. These can be summarized briefly as follows:

Squash and Stretch

The change in shape of a character when a part of its body moves eg. head stretching and squashing as a character eats some food.Or a character's stomach enlarging and shrinking as he pants after running.

Anticipation

The positioning of a character before he performs an act eg. making his hand reach the sky before digging into his pocket.

Staging

Positioning of the camera, so that the viewer can see what the character is doing. This may also include selecting the correct background scenery in order to get the message across eg. Standing in front of a hot-dog stand while eating a hot-dog which flies across the screen when bitten.

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

Straight Ahead Action simply involves running one animation sequence after another without any pre-planning of animation sequences.

Pose to Pose is exactly the opposite. All the animation sequences are planned ahead of time. This allows the camera positions to be planned so that everything is in proportion.

Follow Through and Overlapping Action

This involves parts of a character to continue moving from a previous animation sequence while the character starts a new sequence.

eg. A character comes to a sudden stop, while his coat-tails continue moving forward.

Slow In and Slow Out

Accelerating and deaccelerating the motion of a character between animation sequences.

Arcs

Modelling the motion of every part of a character's body as he moves. eg. Making the head bob up and down as the character walks along

Secondary Action

Adding other smaller movements to emphasise any animation sequence eg.A character shaking his head after being hit by a falling object.

Timing

The number of frames required to complete a single animation sequence.

Exaggeration

Making the motion of a character more dramatic

Solid Drawing

Making a character appear solid and 3-dimensional. Avoiding "twinning" where two limbs of a character will have mirror symmetry.

Appeal

Making a character attract the viewers attention. This includes getting the colors right, avoiding clumsy shapes, awkward motion, and distorting the shape of the character.

Other attributes can include the behaviour of the character and the manner in which he/she speaks.