Animated Shapes: the movement drawn in cartoon animation

Abstract

This research proposes an investigative clipping on the constitution of the shape of certain cartoon characters, selected from the functionality of drawing for animation, with the purpose of arguing how the visual project of certain figures exacerbates the creative variation between their poses to establish consecutive changes to the drawn movement, suggesting spontaneity to cartoon animation. Through a brief historical overview of the dynamic relationships that were established between shape and movement in American cartoons, mainly from the 1910s to the 1940s, the research delimits how certain variations in the external and internal structure of the figure were decisive in influencing this qualitative construction in character animation. From there, the research unfolds to analyze the configuration of some contemporary characters of cartoon animation in relation to the peculiarities of the movement performed by them, proposing to highlight the attributes of the qualitative result of these animations. Thus, we seek to reflect on how the shapes of these characters are reorganized to represent the animated movement, based on the practice of specific fundamental principles, conceptually analyzed, in its constructive structure, in this research.