Character Principles
Character Animation Principles
Section titled “Character Animation Principles”Character Types and Story Role
Section titled “Character Types and Story Role”- Essential cast: Every story needs a cast of characters
- Protagonist
- Antagonist
- Sidekicks
- Background characters
- “They can be robots, whatever the case may be”
- Universal importance: “No matter how small the role, they each play a part in shaping the story that we want to tell”
This module focuses on “the protagonist, or the hero. Think of them as the main character, the good guy or gal, the driving force behind our story”
Hero Development Process
Section titled “Hero Development Process”Beyond Voice Acting
Section titled “Beyond Voice Acting”- Story propulsion: “The hero propels us forward, and in animation, our hero isn’t just the actor who voices him”
- Design iteration: “Character designers have drawn dozens, if not hundreds, of early versions of the hero before deciding on that final look”
- Movement choices: “Character animators have made deliberate choices on how the hero is going to move, from the way they walk to the smallest furrow of their brow”
What Makes a Great Hero
Section titled “What Makes a Great Hero”Emotional Connection
Section titled “Emotional Connection”- Core principle: “I think what makes a great hero is a character that has some kind of truth that an audience member can connect with”
- Understanding factor: “Whether or not you understand exactly that emotion, but you can understand why that character feels that way”
Authentic Struggle
Section titled “Authentic Struggle”- Real experience: “Seeing somebody go through their awesome life is great, but life doesn’t always feel awesome”
- Character depth: “So I tend to tap into characters that are going through something honestly and vulnerably”
- Personal resonance: “And if I can resonate with something that they’re going through, if it feels truthful to me, then that to me makes a great character”
Character Design Process
Section titled “Character Design Process”Initial Research Phase
Section titled “Initial Research Phase”- Character exploration: “When you’re first starting off designing a character, you need to look into the character and see who they are”
- Question development: “Asking as many questions as possible really, really helps you develop this character”
- What’s their age?
- What’s their personality?
- What fashion style they’re into?
- Are they an animal lover?
Information Gathering
Section titled “Information Gathering”- Comprehensive approach: “I like to get as much information as possible, and sometimes these characters aren’t super fleshed out yet”
- Ongoing discovery: “A lot of it is exploring along the way”
Main Character Challenges
Section titled “Main Character Challenges”Complexity Requirements
Section titled “Complexity Requirements”- Difficulty factor: “The main character is always the hardest, and tends to be the last, because they have to carry so much of the movie and have so many shades to them”
- Universal appeal: “And so many people have to connect to them. So we work the most on them”
Miles Morales Case Study
Section titled “Miles Morales Case Study”- Initial challenge: “Miles in particular was tricky”
- Generic approach failure: “When we played him like we would typically do in an animated feature, where he was a naive character learning about the world, it just didn’t feel right for the stakes of this world”
- Specificity need: “It didn’t feel specific enough”
- Character lens: “It made him paying attention, but paying attention with a degree of skepticism, and that was how we made him the lens”
- Audience perspective: “We were watching how he paid attention and how he learned, and that became the gateway”
Villain Design Philosophy
Section titled “Villain Design Philosophy”Creative Freedom
Section titled “Creative Freedom”- Design liberty: “Villains are more fun, they get a little bit more freedom”
- Relatability factor: “Because you don’t have the expectation that everyone needs to relate to them, and you’re not watching the movie through their lenses much”
Effective Antagonists
Section titled “Effective Antagonists”- Threat requirement: “So they’re a little bit free, but what makes them really feel powerful and really connected is when they feel like an actual threat but they have a point”
- Motivation understanding: “There is enough of a consideration of why they are the way they are, that the audience gets to feel like, okay, I don’t think you’re going about this the right way, but I see where you’re coming from”
Design Skills and Techniques
Section titled “Design Skills and Techniques”Essential Skills
Section titled “Essential Skills”- Observation importance: “I think observation is a really important skill to have as a designer”
- Daily cataloging: “I’ll observe things from day to day, and be like, oh, this could be a character in the future, and so you just kind of catalog that”
- Technical foundation: “I think having a good understanding of shape language and proportions is an important thing to have”
World Integration
Section titled “World Integration”- Design consistency: “We are designing in an imaginary space, and so we want these characters to fit that world”
Animation Principles Integration
Section titled “Animation Principles Integration”Core Requirements
Section titled “Core Requirements”- Principle awareness: “It’s important to be cognizant of the principles of animation”
- Appeal creation: “Because if you’re not making your key poses in a way that is following squash and stretch, that’s understanding timing, that’s understanding spacing, all the principles of animation, you are going to be creating things that are not appealing”
- Believability factor: “And things that are ultimately not believable, and that the audience won’t connect to”
- “Certainly squash and stretch is one of the biggest ones”
- “Because I think that is one that challenges the computer the most, and kind of breaks away from what reality is”
- “Think of the Hotel Transylvania franchise as kind of the pinnacle example”
- “Where you really need to do push-to-pose-to-pose, and get all of those elements in there”
- “So it’s super, super important to harness all of those principles and use them in your animation performance”
Achieving Iconic Status
Section titled “Achieving Iconic Status”Rarity and Requirements
Section titled “Rarity and Requirements”- Selective nature: “Iconic is a rare status, like that one we can only have so much choice in, the world gets to choose half of that”
- External validation: “Whether it really lands, but there’s some commonalities that always happen”
Key Characteristics
Section titled “Key Characteristics”- Bold approach: “There is bold swings, bold statements, you don’t get to stand out and reach icon status with middling and average”
- Uniqueness factor: “It has to be something unique, something that feels fresh”
- Symbolic meaning: “But also feels like a symbol of something larger than just that character, that’s how you get to iconic”
Development Strategy
Section titled “Development Strategy”- Unplannable nature: “And you can’t plan for that, it has to find itself”
- Achievable goals: “So all we can plan for is those bold swings, those things that feel meaningful and specific, and that they’re speaking to us, if not the culture we’re living in”
Quiz Question: What are some of the “Principles of Animation” that any animator should know?
Full Correct Answers:
- Squash & Stretch ✓
- Timing ✓
- Spacing ✓
- Perspective (not a core animation principle)
Animation Principles: Squash & Stretch, Timing, Spacing are core principles. Perspective is more of a drawing/design concept.
Character development requires deep emotional truth and specific details that audiences can connect with authentically. The most challenging aspect is creating main characters who must carry the entire story while remaining relatable, often requiring extensive iteration and exploration to find the right balance of vulnerability, specificity, and universal appeal.