11 Tips For Bringing Your Animated Characters To Life

We all have characters we love. The ones that stay with us, that inspired us when we were children, made us laugh as adults, and share memories with family as we watched

It is a truly rewarding experience when animation artists breathe life into their characters by creating movement as though they’re real humans.

But how does this happen? How can you make your characters alive in animation?

Here are 11 tips to successfully create characters that feel as grounded and realistic as they are “cartoony,” and that can entertain for generations.

Nature is the best place to go and get inspired.

I know it can be daunting to go and get real-world references. But trust me that this exploration can lead to the best explorations. Notice how people converse with each other, their body positions, expressions, and emotions when they hear and discuss certain topics. When put together, all these studies will give you a better understanding of how humans interact in the real world and how you can also implement them into your animated characters.

You can get tons of references and inspiration from studying your favorite clips or scenes from movies you enjoyed. Maybe you like a certain action, car chase scene, or burst of emotion you want your…