Chapter 8 Acting for Animation Real-Life Acting It is beneficial for animators to do some stage or film acting to round out their skill set. Good animation is nothing more than acting in extremely slow motion where every gesture and movement is micromanaged. There is no better way to get a sense of proper timing in animation than by actually being an actor on stage. The way to gauge a successful performance is twofold. If your humorous performance elicits laughs, you have achieved proper timing. If your dramatic performance yields an anxious and attentive stillness in the crowd, you are also successful. The powerful feedback loop between a live audience and a performance is a great way for an animator to learn dramatic or comic timing. By timing I mean the breakdown of when move- ments and reactions occur so that they convey a comic or dramatic statement for the stage or screen. A common example of comic timing is the double take, which occurs when an actor reacts to a statement in a habitual manner, pauses to think about what was said, and then gives a second "take," reacting more appro-