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How To Give Your Animation Depth


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A problem I see a lot with amateur animations is that the characters and stories seem conflicting, or undeveloped. Fortunately, these problems can be fixed easily, if given a slight bit of time and thought.

 

Characters

The single most important factor in giving your characters depth is making sure you know your characters.

You should know all there is to know about your characters. You created them, after all.

You should know everything, and I mean everything, about your character. Their name, their parents' names, their childhood home, their hobbies, religion, nationality, everything.

            I would recommend using this sheet, which I use for all my characters:

Spoiler

Basic Statistics 
Name:
Age:
Nationality:
Socioeconomic Level as a child:
Socioeconomic Level as an adult:
Hometown:
Current Residence:
Occupation:
Income:
Talents/Skills:
Salary:
Birth order:
Siblings (describe relationship):
Spouse (describe relationship):
Children (describe relationship):
Grandparents (describe relationship):
Grandchildren (describe relationship):
Significant Others (describe relationship):
Relationship skills:



Physical Characteristics: 
Height:
Weight:
Race:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Glasses or contact lenses?
Skin color:
Shape of Face:
Distinguishing features:
How does he/she dress?
Mannerisms:
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.)
Health:
Hobbies:
Favorite Sayings:
Speech patterns:
Disabilities:
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):
Greatest flaw:
Best quality:



Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes 
Educational Background:
Intelligence Level:
Any Mental Illnesses?
Learning Experiences:
Character's short-term goals in life:
Character's long-term goals in life:
How does Character see himself/herself?
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?
How self-confident is the character?
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?
What would most embarrass this character?


Emotional Characteristics
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?
How does the character deal with anger?
With sadness?
With conflict?
With change?
With loss?
What does the character want out of life?
What would the character like to change in his/her life?
What motivates this character?
What frightens this character?
What makes this character happy?
Is the character judgmental of others?
Is the character generous or stingy?
Is the character generally polite or rude?



Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God?
What are the character's spiritual beliefs?
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life?
If so, what role does it play?


How the Character is Involved in the Story 
Character's role in the story (main character? hero? heroine? Romantic interest? etc.):
Scene where character first appears:
Relationships with other characters:


1. Character's Name: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the story).
2. Character's Name: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the story).
3. Character's Name: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the story).
4. Character's Name: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the story).



How character is different at the end of the story from when the story began: 

Additional Notes on This Character:

 

You don't have to answer every question (like job salary), but I would highly encourage you to at least try to.

 

You're the puppet master; you can use what you know about your characters to exploit their weaknesses, add conflict to the story, and put the characters through challenges that might not be as challenging if you didn't know their weaknesses.

Once you know your characters, they'll seem a lot more believable to the viewer. It'll really help the viewer relate to the characters, and feel more - umm... feelings - when the characters go through conflict (be it internally or externally), or when they achieve something due to hardship and sacrifice.

 

In the end, remember that it's your job as the creator of characters and worlds for them to explore to be wary of what they're capable of (and what they're not). Give flavor to the screen, don't make every character a monotonous robot who just follows along the story. Give every character different attributes to spice it up a bit, and actually have them all involved in the story. Don't be afraid to exaggerate certain traits. That's how interesting story-telling is born.

 

Really, just have fun with it! If you're not enjoying your character, make them more interesting! Give them a tragic backstory or something for crying out loud.

 

Setting

Another important factor is where your story takes place. Have the characters explore different locations, spice it up a bit. If every episode of a series takes place in the exact same place, people start to lose track of what they're actually watching.

Make the setting interesting, please. I don't see this problem too often, but it should still be said. The location and elements of it should pertain to the feeling you're trying to give to the viewer while watching it. If you want the viewer to feel scared, use darker, colder lighting. If you want the viewer to be happy for the characters, use brighter and warmer colors.

There's honestly not much to say on setting. Just make sure your locations are interesting, with a lot of different layers to them and a lot of thought put into what they look like to the viewer.

 

 

That's all I've got. I hope some of my tips helped you guys a little bit. :I_approve:

Edited by Colonel Muffin
there -> their
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