The Challenges of Learning to Animate the Body

I've just finished my second term at Animation Mentor and honestly, it was a very challenging class. The first class, "Basic Foundations," was not too hard. Taking the principles of animation and applying them to simple objects is pretty easy. But applying them to actual characters to give them a sense of life? That's hard!

The second class is called "Psychology of Body Mechanics." We have three shots we work on during the quarter so we work on each shot for about four weeks. We can pick from a list of different themes but we're restricted in which character we can use and the length of the shot. Every week, we have to submit our progress on the shot and get feedback from our mentor.

I think the setup of the class makes a lot of sense. The shots don't vary too much in difficulty but you gradually move into animating with more complex characters. The final character is still very simple when compared to a real character you'd use on a film but there are plenty of body parts for a student animator to control.

The feedback from my mentor was invaluable and I learned so much. But I think the bulk of the learning process is actually just practicing animation and improving it over time. It's not really like we're learning secret things. As long as you put enough time into it and get professional feedback, you improve.

I chose to do a walk with a 180-degree turn for my first assignment. But you can see that we're just dealing with legs and a hip. For my second assignment, I did a character without arms stepping on sticky gum. Jumping from no body or head to having a body and head was overwhelming at first but I got the hang of it in a couple weeks. Then finally, I did a "simple dance," and I chose to do a Michael Jackson dance.

MJ's dances seem to be really popular with the other students too. I chose one of his because there's a real sense of fluidity in his entire body. Plus, the music's great, even though it's from the 80s. "Captain EO" is really awesome--super cheesy--but really awesome. Look it up on YouTube if you've never seen it. It has such an idealistic message, which was very characteristic of the era, but it just makes you feel good.

For the next quarter, I'll be moving on to "Advanced Body Mechanics," where I'll be refining my skills in animating body movements. Looking forward to it!