Guides you through the process of bringing animated characters to life. This book demonstrates how animated characters need not be constrained by the limitations that restrict human actors and shows how species, weight and design affect character actions.

Preface : We're not in live action any more -- Design for living : An introduction to thumbnails ; Good actors: designs that animate ; An introduction to dialogue animation -- Setting the stage: character and story context : Don't just do something ... ; Within you, without you: analysing the character ; Character volume, size and movement -- Is sex necessary? : Masculine and feminine character acting ; The ages of man (and woman) -- Animal actors : Four legs good, two legs better?: Creating animal characters ; Flights of imagination: animating winged characters ; Portraying animal qualities in human characters ; 'Look, Ma, no hands!': animating snakes, worms, and other crawlers -- Fantastic performance! : Natural inspirations for the supernatural ; Dual natures: human/animal combinations ; Floating worlds: the weightless actor -- The performer as object : Moving the furniture: bringing inanimate objects to life ; Material girl: fabric and cloth characters -- Double timing: animating character interactions : Staging and composition ; Changing leads in multiple-character scenes ; Potemkin villages: crowd scenes and how to fake them -- Character development over time : Character and story arcs -- Inspiration and reference.