All images are from Producing Independent 2D Character Animation: Making and Selling a Short Film by Mark Simon. Reprinted with permission.

This is the fourth in a series of 12 excerpts from Mark Simon’s book, Producing Independent 2D Character Animation: Making and Selling a Short Film. This book is a full-color concept-to-pitch guide that teaches animators, students and small studios the art and business of producing short, cel animated films. Animation producer Mark Simon has detailed the process in an accessible how-to manner using his award-winning series, Timmy’s Lessons In Nature, as a guide. This 432-page book contains more than 600 full-color images, interviews and a CD-ROM containing sample animation, animatics, and sample software described in the text.

The most important part of a production is a good script. Next you have to have good acting. Without great voices, even the best animation will seem flat and uninteresting.

Actors need to have the emotions of a scene explained to them. If you don’t give an actor much information, they are less likely to give you much in return. Try having table readings with all the actors together. Table readings are early read-throughs of a script with all the actors, director and producer sitting at a table. Read through the script to see how it sounds with actors, and take notes. This is a great time to make last-minute script changes so that it sounds more natural. Once the actors really get into their characters, they will often make suggestions as to what their character would or would not say, and those suggestions are usually very good ones.

Early sketch of the fox character.

All actors respond differently to direction, but none of them like being given a reading. In other words, don’t demonstrate how they should say a line. They feel it’s demeaning, and you are likely to get a very poor reading from them afterwards. Instead, give them direction by referring to other film or TV projects, relating a scene to real-life incidents, or anything you can think of to help them relate to the character’s situation.

Actors should stand while delivering their lines to keep their energy up and help them project from their diaphragms. They should also be encouraged to act out the action during the session. You do not want low-energy actors unless the scene calls for it.

Audio sessions should also be fun. Try to avoid yelling at people during a session — it affects everyone who is involved. Sessions should also not go longer than three or four hours with each actor, with a number of breaks. Longer sessions are tiring and performances are likely to suffer, as well as being hard on someone’s voice.