Animatrix
Advanced

Character Acting

Push past mechanics into performance. Make your characters feel alive.

12 lessons180 min4.9 rating2,483 students
Maya Okonkwo
10 years at Pixar working on character animation.

What you'll learn

  • Acting principles adapted for animators
  • Body language and apparent weight
  • Lip sync timing
  • Walk and run cycles that have personality
  • Combat staging and crowd choreography
  • Working with performance capture

Requirements

  • Completed Basic 2D Animation or Rigging Fundamentals.
  • Comfortable keyframing in either 2D or 3D.

About this course

Push past mechanics into performance. Make your characters feel alive. This course breaks the topic down into 12 digestible lessons — about 15 minutes each. Every lesson has a hands-on exercise and a short quiz so the ideas actually stick. By the end you'll have practiced everything in Animatrix itself, not just watched it happen.

Lesson plan

  1. 01Acting Principles for Animators
    16 min
  2. 02Body Language and Weight
    16 min
  3. 03Facial Animation Basics
    14 min
  4. 04Lip Sync Techniques
    14 min
  5. 05Emotion Through Movement
    16 min
  6. 06Walk Cycles Advanced
    16 min
  7. 07Run Cycles
    14 min
  8. 08Jump and Land
    14 min
  9. 09Combat Choreography
    16 min
  10. 10Crowd Animation
    14 min
  11. 11Performance Capture Overview
    14 min
  12. 12Final Character Scene
    16 min