ABSTRACT
C H A P T E RSEVEN Animation of Acting – Body Language Chapter Summary • Acting • Consequence • Emotions • Introduction to Laban Movement Theory • General Body Language • Basic Body Postures • Basic Modes • Palm, Hand, Arm and Leg Gestures
• Using Rhythm in Animation • Acting Out a Scene in Animation • Using Video Footage to Help Your Animation • Using Rotoscoping and Motion Capture
in Animation • The Seven Questions of Character • The Different Types of Animation Acting • Analysis of a Character • Exercises
Acting Developing a sense of the dramatic will help with your ability to depict what you want your character to express. All movement in animation must be exaggerated to make it more convincing, and the same is true of animated acting. I’ve found that animated acting has more in common with theatrical acting than live-action film acting. Theatrical acting has to be big and demonstrative for the audience to see and understand what’s going on. This exaggeration is similar to exaggerated cartoon movement, whereas film acting requires a certain amount of restraint: the camera can cut right up close to the actor’s face and a whole range of emotions can be put over with the movement of an eyebrow. This is something that animation finds very difficult to do. The closer you cut close to the face of your character, the more obvious it is that your character is artificial.
