Todays excellent link: Commedia Acting Tip: It’s All About the Appetite. Adam uses the term “appetite” instead of “motivation.” I think the word appetite is way better for describing what drives a character. It’s more visceral, more from the gut.
This is commedia dell’arte week here on comedyforanimators. I found some interesting tips on clownlink.com, and will share one a day: Commedia Acting Tip: The Ghost of Chekhov. This article makes me want to learn more about the commedia acting techniques, because it sounds much more lively than what has become “modern” acting. In my … Read more
See update below. I’m not sure if there is a proper word for these characters, so I’m calling them “sub-verbal” which means any character who speaks in gibberish. The Tasmanian Devil is probably the most well known cartoon character to sound this way. He was occasionally able to get out some English, but is generally … Read more
It is an often repeated mantra in animation that story is king. I have read the book Story by Robert McKee, and if I were to write a feature screenplay I would probably refer to it often. But it’s hard to imagine Chuck Jones or Nick Park using it for a funny animated short. … Read more
When thinking of a funny animated character, sadness is probably not one of the characteristics that comes to mind first. But there is a long history of combining sadness with humor. Sadness is a fundamental human emotion and it can be the secret ingredient to creating a truly memorable character. Characters who are sad have … Read more