Character Design in Cartoon Animation

Source: Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair

Early cartoon animators build their characters using circular or rounded forms because of its simplicity, while at the same time gave fluidity on the actions of the characters. The variations of proportions and positions of these rounded forms enables the early animators to define the personality of each of the characters that they made. Due the ubiquity of this practise, proportions of characters becomes a signifier to a character's personality to the audience. The trend has changed now as animators could creatively use this stereotypes either as a foreshadowing device or to create some twist to the story in their animation.

Character Proportions in Animation

Cartoon studios often uses head sizes to measure the height of a character, which helps them to keep the  character proportion consistent when making the animation. Preston Blair suggested animators to have a t-pose reference drawing of the character with the head size measurement on a separate piece of paper as a reminder of the character proportions when animating.

Line of Action

Solid drawing is one of the principles of animation as proposed by Walt Disney. Although the early animations are done on paper, they need to take into account the characters as 3 dimensional to create more believable characters, so the line of action acts like joints of the body parts of the characters. Line of action usually curves at the centre of gravity of the character when doing a particular action. The centre of gravity is the point at which the weight of the character is concentrated. Having a reference line of action helps to establish weight on a character, which makes its action more believable. 

Head Construction

Preston Blair had broken down how to make complex character's features by combining basic shapes, such as starting to construct a head by drawing an oval with perspective guidelines. This method has a lot of merits for animators to keep their character drawing consistent. For instance, the perspective guidelines can be used for a reference when drawing a character head from different angles and also adding in more details like the facial features, while drawing an oval, which is a basic shape, also helps the animator when adding shades the animation.

Squash and Stretch for Facial Expression

Squash and stretch are often used to exaggerate expression in cartoons. The example below is taken from Pinocchio; the squash and stretch of some areas of the face is prominently displayed. The exaggerated squash and stretch is generally used in cartoons produced by Walt Disney, but some animators, like Tex Avery prefer to use minimum squash and stretch with extensive effect.  

Jiminy Cricket from Disney Pinocchio

Doggone Tired Character Design by Tex Avery