Acting in Animation: A Look at 12 Films

by Ed Hooks

Powerful and empathetic performance in character animation requires far more from the animator than an ability to manipulate pixels or draw characters. You must have a strong understanding of the relationship between thinking, emotion and physical action plus dynamic scene construction. Renowned for his now-classic Acting for Animators , Ed Hooks shows you in Acting in Animation what best-practice performance principles look like on celluloid. Keyed for use with the DVD versions of twelve animated films and loaded with spot-on analysis, acting tips, and valuable insight, Acting in Animation is like sitting down with Ed Hooks to watch the movies. Ed breaks each one down sequence by sequence and gives you useful notes on how the animators of classics successfully imbued their characters with feeling. You'll see firsthand how attending to essential acting principles like choice, negotiation, conflict, and empathy creates unforgettable characters and believable storylines. Hooks also deconstructs some not-so classics to illustrate how by neglecting good acting technique the filmmakers missed opportunities to have their characters bond with the audience. Want to make your animation more powerful? Go to the movies with Ed Hooks. Read Acting in Animation and find out how quality acting inspires great animation.

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 2005

About the author

Ed Hooks is a professional actor, acting coach, and writer. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous commercials and television shows.

Reviews

[Roxanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main principles Ed Hooks was trying to teach could be gained from the introduction, without the rest of the book being necessary. While it helped to break down the principles a bit by providing examples based on scenes of films, it seemed that there were many occasions in which I was unsure of whether or not this author had really watched the film - or understood that it's aimed at children. For instance, he belittled things he called 'cheap gags' in some of the movies such as Toy Story 2, in which Al belches in Woody's face, saying it was unnecessary. He also remarked that Kronk, in the Emperor's New Groove, didn't have to be such a simpleton throughout the entire movie, since it had already been established early on, but I believe that it was used not only to maintain the character's personality, but also because Kronk behaved in a way that would make kids laugh.

I tried not to take things personally when he complained about little things like these with some of my favorite movies growing up, instead finding myself benefitting by coming up with a good argument as to why I disagreed with some of the points he made, and learned a lot that way. So even though this book wasn't in and of itself as helpful as I would have liked, I still made the most of it.

[D'Com Bhuyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good read and yes the Introduction said it all. However, Animators should work more on the eyes and make the characters think and act !!! It definitely call for a load of detailing.