Acting for Animators on Friday 18 January

Sarah Perry of Shapes in Motion is returning to Escape Studios to teach a one-day "Acting for Animators" workshop on Friday 18th January.  The workshop lasts all day and is primarily for our 2nd year animators, who are now embarking on their Specialism Module.  Sarah is an expert on teaching acting skills to animators, having taught acting classes at MPC, Framestore, and many other leading UK animation and VFX houses.  To find out a little about the class, and about Shapes in Motion, watch the video above.

Sarah Perry

What is Shapes in Motion?
Shapes In Motion is an acting school run by classically-trained actor Sarah Perry, offering acting and movement classes specially tailored for animators.

Why should animators learn acting?
Because animators are storytellers. We act with a pencil or a mouse - not with our bodies - but what we do is still acting, and it needs to be done well. Bad acting looks just as bad in animation as it does in a live action performance.

Video reference
Many animators shoot video of themselves acting out a line of dialogue, or a bit of pantomime acting, as reference for our animation. If our acting isn't up to scratch, then the animation performance is unlikely to be any better.

Sarah Perry (bottom right) with students at Escape Studios

What do the classes involve?
Students get introduced to the fundamentals of Laban Movement Analysis, which is to say "the analysis of character in terms of body, effort, space and shape" which can be used for both human and creature animation.

Animators learn to observe and analyse a range of physical qualities, so as to develop character, and understand character "from the outside in".

Sarah helps animators to look at character types, but also to understand subtle gesture performance choices too. The class is a combination of theory, practice, games/exercises, play and group work.

Where and when?
Sarah's class takes place on Friday 18th January at 190 High Holborn in room 2.6 on the second floor, from 9.30am until 4.30pm.

Official site
Visit the Shapes in Motion website at http://www.shapesinmotion.com/ to see more about their work and what they do.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our new BA/MArt starting in September 2019, follow this link.