Animated Performance

Description

Animated Performance guides you through the fascinating process of bringing animated characters to life. Throughout the book, Nancy Beiman demonstrates how animated characters need not be constrained by the limitations that restrict human actors and shows how species, weight and design affect character actions. Youll also discover the many ways in which a characters movements will vary according to the emotional or narrative context of their situation. The many tips, examples and exercises will help you harness the flexibility of animation to portray an almost unlimited variety of characters and ensure that no two performances are ever alike. In addition, more than 200 illustrations show how animal and fantasy characters can live and move without losing their non-human qualities and interviews with Disney animators Art Babbitt, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ellen Woodbury make this a unique insight into bringing a whole world of characters to life.

CONTENTS:

Foreword by Lynn Johnston
 Preface: We're Not in Live Action Any More

 Chapter 1: Design for Living

 An Introduction to Thumbnails
 Good Actors: Designs that Animate
 An Introduction to Dialogue Animation

 Chapter 2: Don't Just Do Something…

 Setting the Stage: Character and Story Context
 Within You, Without You: Analysing the Character
 Character Volume, Size, and Movement

 Chapter 3: Is Sex Necessary?

 Masculine and Feminine Character Acting
 The Ages of Man (and Woman)

 Chapter 4: Animal Actors

 Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better? Creating Animal Characters
 Flights of Imagination: Animating Winged Characters
 Portraying Animal Qualities in Human Characters
 Look, Ma, no hands! Animating Snakes, Worms, and Other Crawlers

 Chapter 5: Fantastic Performance!

 Natural Inspirations for the Supernatural
 Dual Natures: Human/Animal Combinations
 Floating Worlds: The Weightless Actor

 Chapter 6: The Performer as Object

 Moving the Furniture: Bringing the Inanimate to Life
 Material Girl: Fabric and Paper Characters

 Chapter 7: Double Timing: Animating Character Interactions

 Blocking the Action: Follow the Leader
 Changing Leads in Multiple-Character Scenes
 Potemkin Villages: Crowd Scenes and How to Fake Them

 Chapter 8: Character Arcs

 Character Development Over Time

Inspiration and Reference

 CASE STUDIES AND CONTRIBUTORS

 Includes never-before-published interviews with legendary Disney animators:

 Art Babbitt, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and story artist Floyd Norman.