Acting and Performance for Animation

Chapter 4

Character and Personality

In the previous chapter, we took a little look at audiences and formats, and in doing, we so established the importance of storytelling to the cultures and societies around the world. One of the assertions made was that the real essence of storytelling could be summed up simply by saying a compelling story was one that had interesting things happening in interesting places to interesting characters. The key here is the word interesting. Without that interest, a character is in danger of becoming reduced to the status of manikin. At the heart of any great story are the characters that inhabit, shape, and determine the story.

This does not simply apply to performance-based stories; the same holds true of all ...