Why Animators Need To Hold Poses Longer

Animation by Sunny Asadi - hold that pose

One of the common mistakes made by junior animators is the “default face.” A character smiles, frowns, gasps — and then, almost instantly, snaps back to a bland neutral expression.  It’s as if the performance forgets itself. 

This also happens in lipsync; where the character will make a vowel or consonant; then snap back into a default mouth shape much too quickly. Much better to hold the vowel or consonant longer, and really get the most out of the pose. 

Live Action Reference and The Road to El Dorado

The Road To El Dorado was a Dreamworks picture that I worked on back in the late 1990s.  I was assigned to Tulio, one of the two lead characters, voiced by Kevin Kline and supervised by lead animator James Baxter, who I had worked with a decade earlier on Who Framed Roger Rabbit in London.  It was a great experience, and I learned a lot, especially about the use of live action reference to create believable animation.