Personality

So today in my A.M QnA, we were on the topic of personality and how it helps us improve our animation and take it to the next level. Often time we hear the age old complain of "the rig doesn't allow me to show my character's personality." Personally, i think saying that is not being really fair to yourself. We talked about how something as simple as a bouncing ball can have a huge array of different personalities, be it sadness, excitement or disappoinment. When all that's been said and done, a ball has only one controller and is a basic shape. Pushing the boundries of what your rig can do will really help with pushing your poses and passing the "rig is the problem" mark.

Personality also helps differentiate one character from another. You may have pegged a certain character you're animating with a trait. Let's say he's a grumpy person. Animating your character being a generic grumpy person will only get you so far. What helps you get past cliches and stand out above the rest it to be specific. Perhaps he's a grumpy person who has a chicken and egg problem. He wants more friends and because he has none he is grumpy...which is why he has none. Sooo adding this in means that not only will he's poses be grumpy, there will be instances where he would probably try to make some kind of effort at being friendly but still being grumpy all at the same time. Your poses will change accordingly along with mannerisms and acting choices for that character.

Having a good backstory is also a good way to come up with acting choices that define the character's personality. If you have a character that is supposed to be annoyed, it could be for many reasons that may not be present in that shot you are animating. It could be because he already has been bugged for the 100th time today. Or maybe he's just had a fight with his wife. Perhaps he's trying to concentrate on something. All these reasons give life and change to the acting choices that you decide.