SOME ANIMATION EXCERSICES....

ANIMATION EXCERSICES

 Try to Display the Emotions of a Character Might Go through While Waiting for a Bus that’s Late. Pay Close Attention to Facial Expressions, Body Language and Detail.

 Have A Character Try To Open Something (Ie, A Present) That Refuses To Open. The Character Can Only Use Body Parts For The First Minute, But May Resort To Other Measures (I.e., Tools And Explosives) Thereafter. Note, The Character Will Be Affected by the Tools Used (Ie, Blast of an Explosion).After You Have Masters This Try to Do the Same Thing with a Normally Inanimate Object (I.e., Lamp) As Your Lead Character.

 Animate Someone Riding A Pogo Stick Or Some Other ‘Fun’ Object(I.e. Using A Hoola Hoop)

 Have Your Character Use A Weighted Objecct, Such As A Hammer Or A Shovel. Demonstrate How The Weight Of The Object Affects The Stance And Demeanor Of The Character Using It.

 Create A Walk Cycle Then Vary It To Accommodate Different Attitudes And Character. For Example: Angry, Happy, Sneaky, Drinked, Carrying A Heavy Object, Sleep Walking Etc.

 Animate Two Characters Swaing A Log.The First Character Is A Big Muscular Brute. Animate Him Pose-To-Pose First And Cycle His Animation. The Second Character Is A Scrawny Little Guy Who Gets Yanked Around Grabbing Onto The Saw For Dear Life.

 Have A Character Bend Down Pick Up Something Heavy And Trow It. This Excersise Can Help You With Timing Emphasizing Weight And Anticipation.

 Put A Short Character In A Tall Room With One Window One Door One Light And Switch And A Hanging Ceiling Fan With Hanged Switch. The Room Contains 3 Boxes A Ball And A Board. Imagine The Different Ways Your Character Could Figure Out How To Reach The Hanging Switch And Then Animate The Most Outrangeous. Next Subtract Two Boxes And Add A Skateboard And Try Again.

 Two Character Dialogue – Introduce More Staging And Interaction Standing Or Sitting Character Doing Nothing, Body Language Should Suggest Thought Process Without Any Interaction With An Object.

 A Bunch Of People Waiting For A Bus, All With Different Ages And Or Professions.

 A Character Walks To A Mailbox,Deposits An Envelope And Walks Away. Now How Is That Action Different If The Envelope Contains (1) A Heartleft Love Letter,Sent Without Knowing Whether The Recipient Feels The Same Way About The Sender. (2) This Year’s Tax Return, Which Includes A Big Fat Check Made Payable To Uncle Sam. (3) The Last Mortgage Payment On A House, Or The Last Alimony Check To An Ex? The Basic Goals Are The Same (Approach Mailbox, Etc), But The Motivation Behind Them And The Mood Expressed Will Be Dramatically Different For Each One.

 Character Goes To Pick Up An Object They Think Is Light But Its Heavy And Vice Versa.

 Character on the phone but not talking listening to a person on the other end talk about something : important,sad happy and or “fill in the blank” . Choose the subject matter to really express how the receiver of that information reacts. The exercise is designed to help people develop a character’s thinking through eye movement,subtle facial expression and pantomime with body language.

 Display the feelings a character would experience while waiting for something or someone.Gender specific reactions can be really revealing here.How a man would react vs a women? This is a good exercise because it demands pure acting outside of dialogue.

 Thinking Time : A Character ALWAYS thinks before it does anything.

 Primary & Secondary Actions : Easy examples in a walk – the legs are the primary action – then arms are the secondary action.

 Anticipation or Antic : In a grab, the hand comes up and backward before it goes forward.

 Compensation – If a character is running and stops – you have to compensate for the forward momentum (usually by driving the forces up or down and then up).

 Reversals : Try to work as many reversals into the spine as possible ( as long as it make sense to the action). The spine is curved forward – then curves back during an antic and then curves forward when the character picks up a stone.

 Cushion or Settle : Is where you move passes a key frame into an extreme/extreme and the cushion back into the original key frame.

 Moving Hold : Is a very very slow out of an action – to where the movement is coming to a creeping halt.

 Staging : How the action is composed within the frame.

 Character Design : The ability to caricature a person utilizing good design skills and have appeal

 Dialogue would be a plus.