Boy this is a bummer. I wrote this whole article on entertainment and then IE crashed on me! Well let me try this again :)
What is entertainment? It is described by the dictionary as something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement. As animators, it is our jobs to make sure every shot we do is entertaining. Animation is more then making pretty moving drawings or nicely executed animations. It is about entertaining the audience! Without entertainment, you just have another boring shot for your reel. What's the point in that? Many young animators tend to forget about the overall idea about animation. They tend to think more about the way something moves vs. why something moves. Trust me, I was there before! Well Mr. Smarty pants how can I make something entertaining? Well, it's a difficult task. What may seem entertaining to you might not be entertaining to someone else. The goal is to cater to as many people as you can. Here are a couple ideas that might help. First off, try to avoid cliché ideas/poses. Try to solve your scene as uniquely as possible. Act it out and remember to stay true to your character. Try as many different solutions to a scene and choose the best idea. Secondly, show your idea to someone. It's hard to take criticism but it's something you will learn to love. Getting fresh eyes on your work will help you see your work differently. It's very hard to crit your own work when you have watched it a billion times :P Remember your audience. You can't have a character act out a joke that only you and your family will get. Make sure to cater to as many people as possible. Lastly, evoke some type of empathy with your audience. If your audience can relate to your character, they will feel a bond with him/her. The major problem besides story with feature films these days is character. The audience isn't connecting with the characters on screen. If you put your character in a scenario that we can't relate to in one way or another, we can't attach ourselves to them. Why should we care about something that we can't relate to in one way or another? If we can relate to something, it makes the situation more real. Animation is much deeper then moving around nicely. It's about telling good stories. If your shot is 1sec or even 50sec, make sure that it's entertaining or you will lose your audience. Hopefully this will help make you look at your work differently :) Happy Animating!
-Ray
