A Mentor's advice

Nicole Herr, a character animator, answered ten questions in which gave student animators insight on how character animators work as well as how to improve themselves. She explains firstly about herself, how she got into the job, why, and about the actual work. She first really knew what she wanted to do when she watched The Little Mermaid and had sent a message to Disney asking for advice. A Disney Senior animator had called her later and talked to her about it. After she explains the job, she goes into great details about how she decides to animate. First, she decides whether or not the little details are important. If they are for a more realistic project, she will use many details and get references of creatures with similar body types and study them. If it's a more cartoon-like animation, then she'll perform the movement herself and study it. After explaining the processes and steps she takes and the measures she goes to, Nicole gets into explaining what she often finds students doing wrong. Students do no plan well, they tend to over complicate their shots and forget to keep it simple. To fix these problems, Nicole states that you must know who you're animating and their motivations for their actions. One also must know the mechanics of the action, and the easiest way to do that is by doing them yourself. Another great idea would be to ask for others' opinions. Students should also remember that animating is a Team Sport so you need to act as a team. The last question asks Nicole what her dream shot is; she responds by saying it's the next one.


Nicole Herr sounds like an amazing animator with a lot to showcase. She has given great tips on how to go about animating a shot. One thing I can take for this is how she plans out her shots. I tend to give hardly any thought to it and it doesn't come out as well, so I will need to change that. Thank you Nicole for all the tips!