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.

TIP #1: Get Inspiration From The World Around You

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 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.

TIP #2: Study Film Clips

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 characters to express. Movies are a great teaching tool that animation artists can use to their greatest advantage.

When watching movies or animation, you can also use that time to study how the actors and characters express themselves and act in certain situations.

TIP #3: Film Yourself To Make Your Own References

Online references will only get you started. You can also use yourself as a reference. This way you get to study from life. Using your camera or phone, you can record yourself acting out. You don't have to be a perfect actor. Just record yourself performing the action that you need and build on it while animating.

TIP #4: Try To Understand The Psyche Behind Human Movements

You can tell how a person feels or how they are likely to act by how they move or approach a person. Yes, that is psychology at work! Every action has a motive behind it or inner workings. No one behaves without a purpose. So when animating your characters, ask yourself these questions to give your character’s actions purpose:

• What is giving birth to my character's action?
• How can I use body positions and gestures to add meaning?
• How can I use positions and gestures to emphasize what my character is feeling internally?
• What is on my character’s mind and going unsaid at this moment?

For example, if your character is shy, she will shrink away and speak nervously. Her being shy gave birth to the action of shrinking back, walking timidly, and speaking nervously.

TIP #5: Let The Eyes Lead The Way

"The eyes" are our sense organ of sight. How does it affect the way our character turns out to be? Yes, the eyes look at the direction your character wants to go, then the neck, and finally, the body follows. So it will go a long way to take note of the eyes as the first thing to move before the body.

TIP #6: Pay Attention To Gravity

Gravity is the most common force you'll need to represent in animation. We interact with gravity daily, so your audience will know if your visual effects or character movement is off by the lack of “weight” in your work.

A character holding a light object will move differently from a character holding a heavier object. The character holding a heavier object tends to bend down. They will carry the heavy object struggling to lift it properly from one position to another.

TIP #7: Timing

The set limit of time you allow an action to take place is very important, as it adds meaning to a character’s movement. You can use timing to suggest weight and force. For 2D animation, you can achieve this by taking notes of the drawings you need and how you will space them effectively.

If you are to animate a giant, the timing has to be slow. A giant has weight and is massive, so the movement is also slow. Whereas, if you are to animate a character like a small fairy or sprite, they’re tiny, so their timing tends to be quicker.

You can also use timing to suggest mood. A depressing mood depends on slower timing for its effect. Joyful moods require quicker timing.

TIP #8: Create Anticipation

Movement attracts the attention of the audience. If your action lacks anticipation, the audience will miss the point of the movement or action. A character that wants to blow a candle would not just go ahead to blow it. It will first draw back to gather air in its mouth, creating puffy cheeks. It will bend forward while maintaining the same position, slowly releasing the air while the lower part of the body goes backward, then releasing the air in full force.

All these little movements are what we call "anticipation" of the main action.

TIP #9: Synchronize Your Animation To Speech

This part can be challenging, whereby your characters have to act in a way that fits the speech made by the voice actors.

When doing this, you'll need to first make the character's actions fit the words. Next, plan the lip sync. Know when the voice rises and falls, as this can affect when the character should open or close his mouth.

TIP #10: Exaggeration Never Hurts

Though you want to make your character movements as realistic as possible, it never hurts to apply creative exaggeration to make your movement still appealing within the animation medium. You can exaggerate specific movements by caricaturing the poses of your characters or adding little extremes to them.

TIP #11: Add Specific Style Movements To Build Your Character's Personality

How a character carries themself says a lot about them as a person. The way they move can tell the audience how they behave. An angry-looking character can be always seen walking tight-fisted and stomping their feet as he walks. A proud villain walks pompously, pushing out the chest to denote pride and always putting a smug look on his face.

Bringing your characters to life takes time, so don't be in a hurry, take your time to learn and get it right. Animation artists spend hours in the studio to ensure their characters act realistically.

Creating characters can be a truly rewarding and satisfying experience. You will be surprised how many different aspects of your artistic skillset you will use to create fully developed and realistic characters.

What do you think it is that makes your favorite animated characters the most visually realistic? I'd love to read your thoughts and how this process makes you feel!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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