How to Train an Animator, by Walt Disney
lettersofnote.com
lettersofnote.com
Disney, and a few artists under his direction, more or less created the system and criteria used to create and judge animation; at least in the USA, from a professional standpoint. Anyone in the west who is taught "animation principles" is taught material developed pretty much as ordered in this letter. What was known as "Disney Animation" and later "Hollywood Animation" was developed to Disney's specification and taste. (Despite what many think, Disney _was_ an animator, just not a very good one. However few would argue that he was a fantastic producer and aesthete.)
Now...
There _are_ other systems and "principles" and methods of staging for animation that are _very_ different from the ones Disney helped to develop. Some of them use some of the same tools developed by Disney Studios and their followers, but take them in very different directions. This is particularly true to animators working in countries other than the USA. (Take a look at films from Russia and the former Easter Block countries for some interesting counter examples. Or hell, at some of the fantastic stuff coming out of Japan these days.)
When I see a Pixar movie I see animators using "Disney" techniques as applied to the new medium; Disney is very much in their DNA. I'm still looking for the 3D animators to grow a set of principles for designed 3D, as opposed to those developed for "pencil" drawings.
What illusion does that person, fat with pot-belly, give you as you see him? What do you think of as you see him walking along? Does he look like a bowl of jelly? Does he look like an inflated balloon with arms and legs dangling? Does he look like a roly-poly?
In other words, analyze the fat person's walk and the reasons for his walking that way.... BUT DON’T STOP UNTIL YOU’VE HAD THE GROUP BRING OUT ALL THE COMEDY THAT CAN BE EXPRESSED WITH THAT FAT PERSON’S WALK; also all the character - but drive for the comedy side of the character.