Hope the breakdown make sense for you; it’s difficult to explain in words to something that meant to be explain in motion

What I love most about your thoughts on animation is that it’s always driven by expression and the inner kinetics of the characters, which really makes a lot of sense to me. But with expression as the primary drive, how does one keep check of the character’s model? Do you ever sometimes stray too far from the model because you get too caught up in the expression, and subsequently ending up with strong animation on a character that’s off model?

I’ve found it hard to keep a balance between being on model (technique) without sacrificing expression. Or maybe it should be the other way round. I was hoping maybe you can shed some light on this.

Thank you very much for your frequent visits and interests in various post’s topics!

It really is a fine balance between being freely express in movement and stay on model. If one is very conscious with structures and forms, then the movement will stiff-up. It will take a bit of time to get use to, but if you think in term of the animated process of a scene is a building in layers. For me, it is a disciplinary skill to keep character’s volume in a fairly consistence basis.

But being human and not machine, there is likely inconsistency in volume, but the key is- long as the character volume and model appears consistent in motion, then thats what is relevant to me.

One way to stay consistent is to now and then refer to one designate drawing within a scene as a volume reference; another is to have a guide grid underneath scene to refer to in terms of character’s heights and relation to various compartments.

Often for me, first rough pass is to let the energy and emotion of scene unfold; making sure to only one thing- that character’s volume doesn’t strait too far off; a little is OK.

On second pass, i will then correct the model, but making sure that the model is contour to the initial force and emotion.

One other way of thinking along this regard, if you take a series of photo of yourself, you don’t always look the same in one single image; and if every drawing is perfectly ‘on model’ like a model sheet, it will certain to be very stiff and lifeless, just like a statue, no mater at what angle, it is perfectly the exact same. But then, we’re meant to appreciate scupture in diffirent way than motion pictures

In today’s world, we tent to put too much focus on the model sheet and reluctant to grant it variation on a theme, and letting it be free to express as needed; long as we don’t break the believability.

For example, Mickey Mouse in Sorcerer’s Apprentice, his hands often enlarge when he his giving command; by enlarging his hand, the animator point the viewers’ eyes to look at the hands, and other parts is supportive in certain cases.

Hope this helped a bit to generate some solutions on your end

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts on this topic. My hand drawn animation work in the past have often been stilted by too much emphasis on the character’s model. It makes sense that in the first pass, as long as the character’s volume is consistent, the correction of the model in the second pass should not pose too much problem (hopefully).

I can’t wait to try out this approach. Thanks again. Looking forward to your next post

I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now how you’d approach a much more subtle scene in comparison to one with a lot body mechanics. A dialogue scene for example in a shot closer to the character.

Your approach makes sense to me when it comes to a scene where body mechanics are the main focus and you through that can show a thought-process and will in the character.
However if you have a fairly stationary character acting through subtle gestures you’d have to put more emphasis on thought of the character right? Or would you still approach it the same way and let it unfold the as a scene with more action in the body?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the difference in approach to a subtle scene and one with action, should there be any.

Thanks again for taking the time to keep Rainplace a great inspiration.

Have fun animating in Ireland!!