The ultimate goal for any animator is to create believable characters. Acting for animators is an essential skill that helps artists avoid creating lifeless or unconvincing animations, and arms them with the ability to empathize with their characters — before even opening up Maya.

In this 2-hour workshop, Sarah Arduini walks through the fundamentals of developing empathy for characters and teaches how to draw lessons from method actors to get into character yourself. From reading scripts to extract the important information about your character’s personality, to analyzing the subtleties of acting performances to inform your own work, this workshop discusses all the steps you need to become a better animator by embracing your characters before you even start animating.

After sharing her tried-and-tested theory, Sarah steps into Maya to deliver a step-by-step demonstration that walks through how to approach your acting shot, offering tips and tricks to speed up your workflow along the way, for better — and faster — results.