Uploaded January 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
MORE FREE LESSONS AVAILABLE at tr4ckit.com/1iwq
Hi, this is Sydney Poniewaz for 2D Animation 101 dot com. And today I’m going to talk about Staging and Body Language.
There are 3 Principles in Character Animation: Staging, Exaggeration and Appeal. This lesson will focus on the Staging.
Definitions
For those who are unfamiliar with the 12 animation principles, let me clear them out real quick:
Staging (pause): Staging is a way for the animator to draw the attention to the character. Thomas and Johnston define it as the presentation of the character.
Exaggeration (pause): Exaggeration is what makes a character to be “cartoony” or to be more realistic. And in this case, what are you exaggerating if you have no clue in how to express with body language? Right?
Appeal (pause): Appeal in a character inside any animation would correspond to the charisma. And the only way to improve your character’s charisma would be to know how to show its feelings, in other words, how to master its emotional expression.
Let’s see how Body Language helps us improve our animation in those three areas. And as I said earlier, this lesson will focus on the staging.
Staging
Staging is composed by various elements.
Such as the placement of the character on the screen, in which cinematography has its influence, frame composition, how the character is illuminated, and many others.
But in this lesson I will focus on how body language can help us improve the staging of our character.
Your objective is to draw the audience’s attention to your character.
And one very powerful way to do this is by expressing the emotional state of your character.
In other words… YOU HAVE TO SHOW WHAT YOUR CHARACTER IS FEELING!
This is why understanding body language is SO important, because, for the staging, the audience has to be interested in your character before he says anything. Before we hear any words. Before we hear his voice.
Yes. Before Words or Voice, we have the BODY.
And yes, from the three parts of communication: Words, voice and body… Body is the most important.
In future lessons, you will learn about different gestures that you can apply to your characters. So don’t worry, we will get to those.
Why Body Language for Staging
Ok… let’s see if you have been paying attention. Can you answer:
Why is body language important when staging a character in animation?
So… Can you answer?
Well, the answer is simple: Because before it says a word, we need to know what the character is feeling.
And how can we know how the character is feeling?
Through body language. The way the character is standing or walking, or doing whatever the character is doing.
Example
Let’s have a SAD little rabbit called Stinky in the center of the screen.
He has been in his little wooden house, just staring at the empty space in front of him about to cry.
Someone knocks the door.
He suddenly gets out of trance and looks at the door and starts crying.
He inhales and says…
See that? We are interested because of the staging. We express the character’s deep emotion through body language.
We use his eyebrows, his trembling lips, his shoulders down, his head tilted to the floor. Then he snaps out of his sadness and has his eyes WIDE OPEN, with tears forming in them.
All of these elements are part of body language, and help us draw the audience’s attention to the character BEFORE he even says a line.
Wrapping up
So you see, showing the deep emotion is necessary. And to show emotion, we need to understand body language and know the different gestures of every part of the body and its meaning.
Coming up next
In the next lesson, we will cover how exaggeration can be improved when we know about body language. See you in the next lesson.
MORE FREE LESSONS AVAILABLE at tr4ckit.com/1iwq
Hi, this is Sydney Poniewaz for 2D Animation 101 dot com. And today I’m going to talk about Staging and Body Language.
There are 3 Principles in Character Animation: Staging, Exaggeration and Appeal. This lesson will focus on the Staging.
Definitions
For those who are unfamiliar with the 12 animation principles, let me clear them out real quick:
Staging (pause): Staging is a way for the animator to draw the attention to the character. Thomas and Johnston define it as the presentation of the character.
Exaggeration (pause): Exaggeration is what makes a character to be “cartoony” or to be more realistic. And in this case, what are you exaggerating if you have no clue in how to express with body language? Right?
Appeal (pause): Appeal in a character inside any animation would correspond to the charisma. And the only way to improve your character’s charisma would be to know how to show its feelings, in other words, how to master its emotional expression.
Let’s see how Body Language helps us improve our animation in those three areas. And as I said earlier, this lesson will focus on the staging.
Staging
Staging is composed by various elements.
Such as the placement of the character on the screen, in which cinematography has its influence, frame composition, how the character is illuminated, and many others.
But in this lesson I will focus on how body language can help us improve the staging of our character.
Your objective is to draw the audience’s attention to your character.
And one very powerful way to do this is by expressing the emotional state of your character.
In other words… YOU HAVE TO SHOW WHAT YOUR CHARACTER IS FEELING!
This is why understanding body language is SO important, because, for the staging, the audience has to be interested in your character before he says anything. Before we hear any words. Before we hear his voice.
Yes. Before Words or Voice, we have the BODY.
And yes, from the three parts of communication: Words, voice and body… Body is the most important.
In future lessons, you will learn about different gestures that you can apply to your characters. So don’t worry, we will get to those.
Why Body Language for Staging
Ok… let’s see if you have been paying attention. Can you answer:
Why is body language important when staging a character in animation?
So… Can you answer?
Well, the answer is simple: Because before it says a word, we need to know what the character is feeling.
And how can we know how the character is feeling?
Through body language. The way the character is standing or walking, or doing whatever the character is doing.
Example
Let’s have a SAD little rabbit called Stinky in the center of the screen.
He has been in his little wooden house, just staring at the empty space in front of him about to cry.
Someone knocks the door.
He suddenly gets out of trance and looks at the door and starts crying.
He inhales and says…
See that? We are interested because of the staging. We express the character’s deep emotion through body language.
We use his eyebrows, his trembling lips, his shoulders down, his head tilted to the floor. Then he snaps out of his sadness and has his eyes WIDE OPEN, with tears forming in them.
All of these elements are part of body language, and help us draw the audience’s attention to the character BEFORE he even says a line.
Wrapping up
So you see, showing the deep emotion is necessary. And to show emotion, we need to understand body language and know the different gestures of every part of the body and its meaning.
Coming up next
In the next lesson, we will cover how exaggeration can be improved when we know about body language. See you in the next lesson.
