Animators... are actors

I'm sure that many animators have heard people say after watching 'Toy Story' that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen did a wonderful job portraying Buzz and Woody. Non-animators will accept this but animators know the performance came not from the voice actors but the animators.

On Saturday I had the privilege of being a part of an all day master class taught by Ed Hooks. Animators know him as the author of the 'Acting for Animators' books.

If there are 3 essential books an animator must have they would Acting for Animators, The Animator's Survival Kit, and The Illusion of Life.

So to be a part of this class was amazing and I learned so many new things and approaches to animation.
Performance and acting is far more important than gags.  Ed told us that many reasons students don't get hired is because their characters don't act. He said if we have a reel full of dialogue shots, body mechanics, and cheap gags we won't get hired. Studios want to see acting and story.

He taught us a lot of really cool tricks to apply in getting a believable performance from our characters that I will share in a later post.

He also deconstructed several films that many of us know and love and pointed out why they were films with bad acting and story. Most notably of this was 'UP'. Shocking right!! Who does not love UP?

But he was right about UP. It really is a poorly made film and it shows.

He also stated how with Pixar being acquired by Disney, we will see the further decline of Pixar. He pretty much said Pixar has not made a good film since Monster's Inc.


He also offered words of encouragement and inspiration in light of further decline of Pixar.

He said to us, we don't want to be Pixar anyway, we want to be the un-Pixar. He said to us this is an exciting time for us to be animators. We are the next generation of animators and the innovations that create a giant leap forward in animation will come from us. He told us we are the ones who will bring a something new and fresh to animated films. I took this to heart and firmly believe that.


Stay tuned for Part 2 of my day with Ed Hooks.