Understand the importance of analyzing dialogue to develop a strong storyboard that guides your key animation frames.
Advanced Animation: Separating Performance from Mechanics
Creature Art Teacher Course
Take your character animation beyond movement and into performance.
Join Aaron Blaise for an advanced animation course focused on separating mechanics from acting and performance.
You’ll learn how to create more believable, emotional, and entertaining animation by focusing on character intent, clarity, staging, and subtle performance choices.
Advanced Animation
Character Performance
Acting for Animation
Professional Workflow
Character Performance
Acting for Animation
Professional Workflow
What You’ll Learn
Explore how to separate physical mechanics from emotional performance to create stronger character animation and acting.
Performance First
Learn how staging, timing, posing, rhythm, and intent work together to support believable animated performances.
Course Journey
Follow Aaron through lectures, demonstrations, scene analysis, and professional animation workflows used in feature animation.
Meet Aaron Blaise
Learn from the Oscar-nominated director of Brother Bear and veteran Disney animator with decades of feature animation experience.
Lessons
02 Creating Performance: Part 2
Learn key animation techniques for smooth movement, emotional expression, and precise timing.
03 Timing Charts For Animation
Learn how to effectively number and chart frames. Body movements and dialogue mouth shapes are broken down.
04 Using Live Action Reference + Interaction with Props Part 1
Use live-action reference to identify key poses and animate a character with clarity.
05 Using Live Action Reference + Interaction with Props Part 2
Track body movements and break down actions clearly, using charts to ensure even spacing between keyframes.
06 Layering Complex Mechanics with Acting Part 1
Break down a complex scene from concept to dialogue, focusing on character design, background setting, and storyboard timing.
07 Layering Complex Mechanics with Acting Part 2
Continue animating the dog character using straight-ahead techniques and storyboard planning for structure and flow.
08 Layering Complex Mechanics with Acting Part 3
Build on the previous animation to add character acting, focusing on timing, flow, and syncing head movements with dialogue.
09 Layering Complex Mechanics with Acting Part 4
Revise the required adjustments for timing and acting to enhance performance, and recap the steps behind creating a complex animation.
10 Conclusion
Review the work completed in the course and recall how to approach complex animation through bite-sized steps.
