Online course
Characters in Motion

Strong posing

A strong pose is the foundation of every great animation and it can help your audience understand what’s going on without a single word. You will learn the techniques and tricks to creating a strong pose by adding a clean silhouette and line of action.

Overlapping actions

Overlapping and Secondary actions are tools we use every day in the studio to add fluidity and texture to our animation. These actions typically follow the movement of your primary action.

Transfer of weight

The most believable part of any animation is making sure your character's weight is properly distributed from one part of his/her body to the other. When a character moves forward in a scene or makes any movement, his/her center of gravity and weight also shifts. If it’s not done properly you can quickly lose your audience.

Balance

Along the same lines as “transfer of weight”, your character always has to remain balanced. When you lift your leg up in the air you have to account for the weight you just had leaning on it. We will go over where your character's center of gravity is and how to track and maintain it within each frame of your animation.

Timing

Timing, both physical and emotional, often determine the meaning of an animation. As an animator you have to give the proper amount of time to anticipate, execute and complete an action.In relation to mass, if a character is lifting a heavy object it would take him/her more time; if the object is lighter, it would take less time. You will learn when and how to apply this principle.

Power centers

Every character has a force from which s/he expresses his/her emotion. The power center from every character originates from his/her internal emotion. You can determine whether a character is excited or melancholic all by properly applying his/her power center.

Appeal

This is one of those elusive principles that is hard to explain. However, you look at any great animation and it is undoubtedly there. We’ll talk about the theories, go over tips and show examples of appealing shots, character, and poses.