Keri Rainock and Professor Kelly Loosli, Animation Program in the Visual Arts

Animation is a powerful and diverse art form that can make use of any genre and create magic. Character Animation is the process of bringing a character to life. This process transcends any number of media- from 2D hand drawn images to clay animation to puppetry to computer graphics.

Computer Generated Character Animation has become the preferred medium in today’s movies and commercials. Unfortunately, animator today will often use the software as a crutch. The software doesn’t make someone an artist and it certainly doesn’t make them a good Character Animator. Many people make the mistaken idea that owning the latest Lightwave or 3DS Max plug-in is going to make them a better artist. Computers do not animate, animators animate. This is why it is crucial computer animators have a firm education in traditional animation first.

For this Orca project, I was given the opportunity to work on an animated story based on Aesop’s fable “The Lion and the Mouse.” This film is a traditional animated piece, with digital and computer animation used throughout. My main responsibility for this project was creating traditional, hand-drawn animation for the main character, the mouse Owen.

Excellent Character Animation skills are something that takes a serious amount of time and research. Since our project required realistic “Disney-like” animation, we used a great deal of reference material. From books on anatomy to facial animation to digital cinematography to videos, we studied the material closely so we might be able to emulate correct motion in Owen.

During this project and through these studies I gained a greater understanding of the arts, such as Anatomy, Staging & Posturing, Weight & Movement, Timing, Lines of Action, Digital Cinematography skills, and more.

”The Lion and the Mouse” is an exceptional piece, that when it is completed, will be entered for film festival competition and as well as providing developed materials that will be used to apply for internships and other further opportunities for training in the industry.

Bringing a character to life convincingly, means doing so in a way which indicates a thought process. Simply moving a character does not qualify as Character Animation. In other words, the animated character needs to move in such a way that convinces the audience that it is thinking. That it is alive.