Acting and Performance for Animation

Chapter 8

Working with Actors

In this chapter, we will be taking a look at how animators work alongside “real” actors in their efforts to gain more from their animated performance. We shall look at some of the practical considerations of working with actors and how this impacts on production. To this end, we will go on to explore the differences and similarities in the disciplines of live-action and animated acting and performance and look at how technology is being used to create an emerging new form of animated actor.

It has usually been the case that working with actors in animation has involved recording them to provide voices for our characters, and this is still the way that animators and directors most often engage with actors. (I’m ...