If there’s a dialogue track or music, the animation part is easier – the pacing and subtext are provided there for you. So when you animate, feel the rhythm, search for and feel the beat. Using your inner sense of sound and feel, you must be able to discern the tempo and force of the movement. It’s like a visual symphony – a concoction that moves the heart while your mind fills in the rest.Ĭats move silently – but there is elegance in timing and rhythm in how all animals move. You’re reminded of how beautiful movement is, how you can hear it in the footsteps and in the brush of movement in their costumes. The way their carefully practiced movements work in sync with the music can make your heart soar. That particular marriage of sensations is why I love to watch dancers – like in musicals, operas and ballets – whenever possible.

When paired with visuals, it can be an experience to behold.

So when I get the chance, I try to immerse myself in environments where the other senses shine, senses like hearing. Sound for instance is incredibly powerful – not only can it overwhelm you with feeling in an unsurpassed manner – it also happens to be the last sense to leave us before our final moments on this planet. But to be a good visual artist, one should use more than his eyes – in fact he should use all his senses to capture things his eyes might never be able to perceive. The legendary Mikhail Baryshnikov, here dancing at the American Ballet Theatre.Īs a society we’ve become more and more reliant on sight than almost anything else. “Hear with your eyes, see with your ears” – William Shakespeare, Playwright The giant Ear from China’s 8th century stone statue of the Buddha, the largest stone Buddha in the world.

Pencil animation no sound