What are some of the best ways to use exaggeration in character animation?

"Why exaggerate in animation?" Well... because we can! That might sound silly. But it's true. Animation has the capability to represent fantastical ideas, in a believable way. This is a potent combination. For millennia humans have told stories. From cave markings to oral tradition to canvas painting to photography and film, we have always found a way to share ideas with each other. And now animation, barely 125 years old, allows us to accessibly represent our ideas for all to experience. And the key is exaggeration. Reality is too defined, too exact, too easily made narrow and personal. Only animation has the capability to go beyond those limitations, and unite everyone as our last, best hope for humanity. So exaggerate away!

The exaggeration mainly serves to cause contrast in the animation. Contrast is important to draw the viewer's attention, highlight what is relevant and convey emotions and ideas more effectively. Contrast can be used to emphasize an action or emotion, or to create a dramatic or comedic effect. For example, a character might exaggerate their movements to show surprise or fear, or they might exaggerate their facial expression to create laughter. This way, the viewer quickly understands the character's emotional state and becomes more involved with the story.

L'exagération est cruciale car elle amplifie les émotions et actions. En exagérant par exemple les traits ou les actions d'un personnage dans une animation, on comprend tout de suite son univers psychologique. On a plus d'empathie et l'animation a de suite un impact plus important. Cela est d'autant plus important dans mon métier, où je dois expliquer des messages dans un temps très court avec une animation.

How to exaggerate? "I did it ALL by myself." "I did it ALL by myself." "I did it ALL by myself." 'I did it ALL by myself." 'I did it ALL by myself."

"How to exaggerate in animation". Animation has incredible potential to tell stories, convey ideas, and communicate emotion, independent of language and culture. When expanding into the realm of the fantastical and imagined, exaggeration of what is known to be true and familiar is key in maintaining believability. But how to do it? I use a simple process: 1) Identify and analyze the real-life physics of a given motion, including follow through, shape change, silhouette contrast, overlapping body parts, and weight shifting/gravity. 2) Push the heck out of them. I hope this doesn't sound overly simplistic. My method may not suit everyone, as it depends equally on feeling as much as on logical thinking. But that's animation for you.

En général, pour montrer l'exagération dans une animation, j' accentue les gestes et expressions faciales. j'ajuste le timing pour créer des effets dramatiques. Et je privilégie bien entendu les poses extrêmes, plus dynamiques et expressives.

"When to exaggerate in animation"? This is a subjective question. So my subjective answer is "always!" I'll do my best to justify that answer. First, I assume a non-realistic animated project. Realism could be defined as normalizing reality; i.e. not exaggerating it. So if we're going to animate something... ...and it's not intended to look real... ...then we'd darn well better exaggerate it. Or else why are we animating it? In that case, we might as well just film it in live-action with human actors and be done with it. Animation has the capacity to represent any idea we can possibly conceive of, regardless of language, geography, and age. So assuming we're going solely for believability and not realism... Exaggerate away!

One of my animation mentors back in the school days always shared with us about true proportion of human body, real performance and acting in film for us to understand a few things before we exaggerate: - Realism as base first and foremost: understanding body mechanics, language and real expression would help in giving a strong base for the right amount of exaggeration - Proportion: Often called foreshortening in animation/art. We use this to exaggerate a certain part of body without having to alter the real proportion. This could be one way to create a believable exaggeration

I highly recommend picking up a copy of the Animators Survival Kit book, it talks in detail about some of the best ways to implement exaggeration into your work and covers the fundamentals of animation. Building on the fundamentals and learning things like pacing will help you tremendously across all aspects of animation.

On n'a pas fait mention des effets sonores. Or la musique et les effets sonores sont des outils efficaces pour renforcer l'exagération dans une animation. Une musique dramatique ou comique peut amplifier les émotions ressenties par le spectateur. Mélanger musique, déformations visuelles, effets sonores et même une voix off dans un style cartoon contribuent à créer une expérience unique grâce à l'exagération.