Walt Disney created his own educational program and it included action analysis. Don Graham was hired from Chouinard to put these classes together. They examined the films of artists such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, frame by frame and discussed how the gags were set up and how they communicated with the audience. They looked at all kinds of films including German Expressionism, films by Leni Reifenstahl, sports films, Hollywood films, nature films, documentaries. They used bits and pieces of everything, and learned communication principles from that.

In the `30s there were a few instances of dancers being referenced for characters. Danilova of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was brought in to the studio to pose for the Ostrich in Fantasia. Snow White's model was Marge Champion, and you can see her balletic grace in the character's posture and mannerisms. Marge Champion was also referenced for the blue fairy in Pinocchio and for the hippos in Fantasia.

I was an actor for about 10 years. So I knew about performing and communicating and posing. I am trying to get people who may not have had that experience to do these things. I encourage students to take acting classes. I encourage them to look up the method, or study Uta Hagen, or go see a musical comedy, or watch mime performers. There is a world out there that we can draw from literally and figuratively.

Because body language and expressions in great classical animation are so refined, direct and expressive, it isn't necessary to hear the sound track to understand what is being portrayed. In classic Disney films you understand just through the movement, how the characters feel and relate to each other.

Courtesy of ArtToday.

Brett Varon
Assistant Director, Fox's Family Guy

I took acting in high school but not at CalArts. The best way for me to stage a scene is to act the scene out myself. If I act something out, I invent things that I wouldn't have done drawing. I think an animator has to have a sense of physical comedy and acting. There has to be an interest in expressing an idea visually, like dance in that way. A dancer, like an animator, has to be a physical imitator. I think everything you do helps in animation. If you can, and you have access to it, an acting class is a really good thing.

Watching references is one thing but then doing it gives you a more thorough understanding. It takes things to the next level. The more you research and the more time you put into something the better it's going to be in combination with the talent you have.

Jim Duffy
Director/Creative Producer, Klasky Csupo

At Klasky Csupo, we believe to be successful, directors and storyboard artists should possess strong acting and composition skills so recently we've offered acting classes to enhance their work. The classes aren't meant to teach them acting as such but more to increase their awareness of what motivation and emotion a character might be experiencing so they can better construct each scene.

When an artist gets a script and voice track, they begin to envision composition as well as what actions the character might be doing. To engage an audience, the scene must be interesting to watch. Today, we often see animation that's simply talking heads with little acting and boring composition. Like live-action, the job of the director and artist is to enhance the actor's vocal performance with more visual clues to what's happening in a scene. We hope the classes we're offering can support our artists, giving them more tools with which to work.

Courtesy of ArtToday.

Frank Gladstone
Director of Training, DreamWorks SKG

The voice performance can establish the timing for your character. If there is a pregnant pause or a rush of words or something like that, then it gives a hint to the animator of what the character is going to do and what his or her emotions are. Animating becomes a kind of a pantomime synchronized with a voice. The voice gives a lot of the timing and much of the character's attitude. The animator is responsible for making a performance that fits the voice. The interesting thing happens when there isn't a voice and the animator has to deal with a scene or a sequence where they are acting true pantomime. That's why the animator has to get to know the character, so that not only can they perform when they hear the voice of the actor, but they can also perform when there aren't any voice or timing cues.