Response - The Surprise and Wonder of Early Animation

It's interesting to look back to the beginnings of animation and see how much from that time is still relevant today. Many of the guidelines we currently use are on full display in older works, especially visual exaggerations of movement and expression. If you have limited time or technology, finding more straightforward ways to make sense of a character's emotions or thoughts is an outright necessity. I think there are many good examples in the article, but the one that stood out to me the most was "The Breath of a Nation." Admittedly, my favorite is "Gertie the Dinosaur," but that's more of a personal preference for dinosaurs than the animation itself. 

Characters are brimming with personality due mainly to how they react to things. The judge's wife expresses surprise when her hair flies off her head and spins back down like a hat. It's short and simple; it gets the point across without having to take too much time showing a character completely changing posture to express any one emotion. It's also easier to animate hair or a hat flying in the air than to animate somebody, say, putting their hands to their face and leaning back in shock. When you're animating professionally, being economical is important. These small, expressive animations are frequent - another example would be the different ways characters become drunk. One starts flashing in various shades, and another starts rippling as if he's made of water. 

Another little detail I liked was that sometimes a character's line of sight will be animated into the film - something you would typically only use as a guide before erasing. It's a tiny thing, but it makes a world of difference in making the story more coherent. The line acts as a transitional cue to lead our eyes to a specific area before making a cut to what the character is looking at. It helps contextualize things so that it doesn't seem as random when there's a cut to a poster or another room. If you can't rely on audio cues or character conversations, it makes sense to use visual tricks to get your point across. (While these cartoons often include text cuts for dialogue, I'm under the impression that it's done sparingly to avoid ruining the flow of the story.)