Emotional Memory
Make your performances personal
Emotional memory is the lifeblood of great performances. Animators have a unique struggle with being emotionally creative with their performances. We’re far too comfortable borrowing heavily from, expression sheets and the performances of other animators. It’s an easy trap to fall into.
When we’re blown away by another animator’s performance very often it’s because they bypassed the standard animation emotions and tapped into something that was unexpected, yet honest.
Strasberg taught that actors to make their acting personal. We should recall their own experiences to recall our own experiences and dig deep to draw from those deep emotions. What does my character feel? Who can I connect to that emotion? What can my own experience bring to the performance that makes it mine?
Tapping into our personal truth makes performances makes us unique. It keeps us from feeling like canned performances that are just as flat as canned laugh tracks. Canned work might do the job, but it will be forgettable, which will make you a forgettable animator.
Draw from your past. What did it feel like to fear being pulled over by a cop the first time? What did it feel like to be rejected by that girl you asked out on a date? What did it feel like when got your first raise at work? Add your feelings and experiences into your thumbnail explorations.
Emotion should be clear. It should be big. But it should also be rooted in your voice—your experience. You are the animator. Let those true emotional feelings invade your work. Don’t be afraid to inject yourself into your work. This will make it uniquely yours, and it will stand out with the feel genuine. Caricature it, yes, but let it be uniquely yours. Then it will be honest, believable, and resonate with the audience.