Floyd Bishop

Many times when you’re an animator, you’ll get a script or some notes with a very vague description of the action you need to create. In the above clip (which wasn’t scripted), you can see lots of great little moments that could help you out on a shot or scene later on. Observation is very important in animation, so let’s look at this clip a bit to see why it is entertaining.

The description of the clip could have been something like: “Two brothers, one older and one younger, are sitting in a chair. The younger brother bites the older brother.” Many times, it’s up to the animator to make that entertaining.

•  Watch how the older brother offers his finger to Charlie. Surely he cannot be hurt by his baby brother.
• As Charlie (the baby) starts to bite, watch the older brother’s face as he starts to realize that putting his finger in his brother’s mouth was not a good idea.
• Charlie’s face hardly does anything during the bite. Instead of a helpless baby, he’s a finger biting machine, easily capable of making his older brother scream.
• When Charlie really starts to bite down hard, the older brother’s face tells us exactly what is happening. This really hurts! There are no sound effects, visual effects or the like. We get everything we need to know from the situation and the older brother’s face.
• After the bite, the older brother scolds Charlie, who smiles with the satisfaction of having shown his older brother who is really in control.
• After a bit of a pause, Charlie laughs a Muttley type of laugh. It’s not evil, but a very “I’m happy with what I have just done!” kind of feel.

The next time you’re animating, take a few moments to think about your shot and how you can pull entertainment from it. The most seemingly boring situations can often be the most stunning examples of character animation.

-Floyd Bishop