Acting in animation

Abstract: It is important to remember actors and animators are similar in many respects, but also very different in some. They both frame and provide life to a character, through thoughts and feelings. To obtain a better understanding of how professional animators work and what methods they use, this thesis contains general background information on animation and the Principles in Animation, as well as the analysis of acting and the different acting concepts. By studying these methods and utilizing them in my own work, a short animation was developed to visualize a characters personality through his actions. The result was then applied to a questionnaire to determine if the audience could pick out the characters personality only through the animation without dialog, music, or sound. According to the interviewed audience, they could feel some of the characters emotions and pick out some of the inner thoughts and feelings from the animation.