Animated Performance

Beiman, NancyNancy Beiman is a professor at Sheridan College in Oakville, Canada. She has produced, directed, designed, storyboarded and animated for television commercials, specials, features, and new media projects. Her employers have included The Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers Animation and Bill Melendez Productions.

Animated Performance shows how a character can seemingly 'come to life' when their movements reflect the emotional or narrative context of their situation: when they start to 'perform'.

The many tips, examples and exercises from a veteran of the animation industry will help readers harness the flexibility of animation to portray a limitless variety of characters and ensure that no two performances are ever alike. More than 300 color illustrations demonstrate how animal and fantasy characters can live and move without losing their non-human qualities and interviews with Disney animators Art Babbitt, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ellen Woodbury make this a unique insight into bringing a whole world of characters to life.

New to the second edition: A new chapter with introductory exercises to introduce beginner animators to the the world of animated acting; dozens of new assignments and examples focusing on designing and animating fantasy and animal characters.

A fascinating guide to the process of bringing animated characters to life through believable performances, well-developed personalities and effectively explored relationships and motivations.

Foreword by Lynn Johnston
Preface: Driving the Jet Plane

Chapter 1: Animation's Basic Movements: The Bouncing Ball and the Pendulum
Outer Space: Defining and Distorting Volumes
Inner Space: Defining and Distorting Time
A Brief History of Time
Acting: The Beginning
The Line of Action and the Arc

Chapter 2: Designs That Animate'Look Ma, No Hands!' Animating Snakes, Worms, and Other Crawlers
An Introduction to Thumbnails
Good Actors: Designs That Animate

Chapter 3: Setting the Stage: Character and Story Context
Don't Just Do Something...
Every Move You Make: Analyzing the Character
Character Volume, Size and Movement

Chapter 4: Is Sex Necessary?
Masculine and Feminine Character Acting
The Ages of Man (And Woman)
An Introduction to Dialogue Animation

Chapter 5: Animal Actors
Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better? Creating Animal Characters
Flights of Information: Animating Winged Characters
Portraying Animal Qualities in Human Characters

Chapter 6: Fantastic Performance!
Natural Inspirations for the Supernatural
Floating Worlds: The Weightless Actor

Chapter 7: The Performer as Object
Moving the Furniture: Bringing Inanimate Objects to Life
Material Girl: Fabric and Cloth Characters

Chapter 8: Double Timing: Animating Character Interactions
Staging and Composition Changing Leads in Multiple-Character Scenes
Jazz Hands: Acting Out Your Scenes without Using Your Body
Potemkin Villages: Crowd Scenes and How to Fake Them

Chapter 9: Character Development Over Time
Character and Story Arcs
Inspiration and Reference

Index
Acknowledgements