Stop-Motion How to: Illusion and Delusions

Animation is really all about creating illusions and even delusions. The illusion, of course, is the process of taking an inanimate puppet and making it an animated puppet. Creating the delusions is a bit trickier. What I would define as a delusion, at least in this case, would be when you're sitting in the theater watching an animated movie and, in the middle of it, you forget you are just watching an animated movie. You forget the person on the screen is nothing more than a sketch on a paper, a CG model, or a lump of clay. You forget that he doesn't even have any feelings or thoughts. You forget all these things, and, because of that you love, hate, abhor,despise or adore them. That is what i would define as a delusion.

Without these delusions, you would not care about what you're watching. Therefore, these delusions are just as important as the illusions. The delusions come from big things as well as small: the voice of your character, his facial expressions, his posture, his walk, his gestures, his twitches. Quirks are all these things smashed together to match your character's attitude. This is what creates the delusions.