What is Character Animation:

Character animation is the process of bringing animated characters to life. It focuses on the performance of the character rather than the narrative of its subject. This is produced by using accurate timing and spacing techniques. It is similar to the movement and fluidity of an actor on stage or film. A successful example of character animation is able to portray the subject’s emotions, thoughts and personality without any text or audio.

In the context of gaming, animated characters are generated as fully interactive and interesting. A good animated character will be able to engage with its environments and react to social rapport and dramatic changes in their surroundings. This creates an immediate ‘effect and cause’ relationship with the gamer and their character. This is a very rewarding and successful method of character animation as it achieves high levels of audience engagement within the game. All game characters have a collection of specific yet basic movements for them to perform. For example, running, walking, crawling, jumping, attacking or reacting to injury are the fundamental and necessary controls most characters posses in games.           

There are many approaches to successfully animating a character. One approach is the ‘Pose to Pose’ technique. This is when the animator creates key frames and then fills in the passing poses and midway actions of each movement. This will make the character appear to move from pose to pose with very specific timing and spacing elements. This is a very traditional way of animating and is used regularly in 3D animation. However in the 3D universe it is referred to as inverse kinematics. ‘Straight ahead’ animation is the opposite to ‘Pose to pose’ and is a concept which exudes more artistic freedom. This approach has little or no planning to the character’s animation. This creates a spontaneous and wild animation style, however results in the animator having less control over timing as a consequence of having no key frames.  

Character Animation for children’s films focuses on the simplicity and expression of it’s characters. A young audience responds to vivid colours and simple designs with minimal detail. Teen film ‘Coraline’ manages to create an alternative world full of horror. It’s full of Edgy angles, straight lines and elongated characters. The characters are animated as if they were moving and talking toys, however it still conveys great heights of realism and this adds to the horror and unnerving narrative of the animation.

The two important aspects of character animation is the use of timing and spacing. Timing is the aspect of animation which gives meaning to a movement. Newton's first law of motion stated that things do not move unless a force acts upon them. So in animation the movement itself is of secondary importance; the vital factor is how the action expresses the underlying causes of the movement.  Good timing is split up into sections. The first is the preparing the audience for an incident. The second is constructing the action itself. And finally recording the reaction to the action. Different audiences react to different timings when engaging with visual entertainment. For example a children’s education show would have a slow pace in order to correctly connect to the young viewers. However for an action packed film for adults, the frames would be faster and more edgy.

            Character animation is bringing life, energy, movement and expression to any character. It is approached in the same way through many mediums and to create successful character animation, the focus is on the performance of the character as well as capturing accurate timing.

References:

Popovíc, Zoran. (2000). Controlling Physics in Realistic Character Animation.. Controlling Physics in Realistic Character Animation.. 43 (7), p50-p58.

McKay, R. (N/A). Game Character Animation using Armatures. Available: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Books/GameKit_2/10.Character_Animation. Last accessed 27th March 2014.

Giang,T. Mooney, R. Peters, C. O'Sullivan,C. . (2000). Real-Time Character Animation Techniques. Real-Time Character Animation Techniques. N/A (N/A), P1-P11

TED-Ed. (2014). Animation basics: The art of timing and spacing - TED-Ed. Available: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/animation-basics-the-art-of-timing-and-spacing-ted-ed. Last accessed 27th March 2014

Animation Tutorials. (2008). STRAIGHT AHEAD AND POSE-TO-POSE ACTION: 2D Animation principle - See more at: http://www.animationbrain.com/straight-ahead-and-pose-to-pose-action-2d-animation-principle.html#sthash.A1MOdLhl.dpuf. Available: http://www.animationbrain.com/straight-ahead-and-pose-to-pose-action-2d-animation-principle.html. Last accessed 27th March 2014.