EXAGGERATION!
hello ...
Animations can exaggerate anything from posture, movement, colour and scale of a character or object. Its accentuating human or animal behavior to convey the essenence of the action. The basic idea of this is to make it larger than life. If a character is angry, make him fuming. If a ball is bouncy, make it super bouncy. Doing this in an animation not only emphasizes the movement and expression. its create a more extreme emotion. making each character wear their heart on the sleeve makes the audience feel for their plight an awful lot more. a great example of exaggeration is from a droopy cartoon created by Tex Avery... lets watch!
The Chump Champ- Tex Avery 1950
Obviously A lot can be said about the extreme movement and outlandish poses of the announcer and the antagonist here. but for me the really good example is droopy himself. His whole character is about being sleepy and calm, so he's exaggerated to the point where he hardly moves and never changes expression. This makes his character traits far more extreme and the parts where he wins each contest far more effective and enjoyable.
My shark above demonstrates how a simple bit of exaggeration can turn a character from feeling happy to feeling ecstatic. But exaggeration isnt just about making every movement exaggerated. Its not just extreme distortion of every posture and action. An animator has to choose what parts to exaggerate in order to best convey the mood or action they want to replicate. finiding the heart of the movement, what makes it still seem real.
APPEAL
The appeal of a character can be anything from design to personality. The appeal of a character is crucial to a shows success. If you hate everyone in a cartoon, then you'll probably hate the show itself. Making a character cute is effective because we are all naturally drawn to cute things like puppies and babies. this is why warner brothers and disney seem to make their films and cartoons full of anthropomorphic animals. However a characters appeal doesn't necessarily mean the character is cute and nice. Villains like Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan become the more likable and enjoyable to watch than the protagonist because audience see him with a vary of emotions and soon the audience relate to his plight in some way.
Oliver and Company- Disney- 1988
Oliver is a fantastic example of this. every other characters design is jagged and unattractive, his is rounded out and bright coloured. this means he stands out and we already have an attachment to him. the fact that he's cute makes us care. giving the film and him more appeal. He may not be your favorite character but he's perfect to wrap a story around.
This character guide was created by Preston Blair who worked at dinsey and warner brothers. this shows that creators deliberately create characters to fit an appealing demographic... this guide was used when creating Thumper for Bambi.
ANTICIPATION
This principle prepares the audience for the action! its the pull back before a baseball swing or the knee bend before a leap. An animator uses his skills with timing to draw out the ancipatoon for the best effect possible in a movement.
This little animation nugget is a great example. The anticipation of each movement makes the movement far more effective and comical. When the fellow with the smiley face is about to smack his head on each letter, the parts where he isnt stamping his head down are the funny bits.
Anticipation is also a good way to define a rapid action. for example if a character does a stereotypical pull back before a run, it means the audience will know what is happening without amazing animation for the actual run.
Anticipation is also a good way to define a rapid action. for example if a character does a stereotypical pull back before a run, it means the audience will know what is happening without amazing animation for the actual run.