Animation Cliches

I've been thinking a lot about how to open my animation. The first shot needs to establish the scene and also that of the character and environment. I came across this article that talks about an animation cliche that crops up in the beginning of a film, "This is me..." - it tells the audience about a character rather than showing their personality through engaging with the environment. It has appeared a lot of the years in many different animations, and the video below shows how often it has been used. The article mentions that this cliche comes across are artless and lazy, however I think when it's done well it works. I've never really had a problem with it myself and until now, not noticed how often it has been used. Yes it may be classed as a shortcut, but it makes it clear what the character is about, but at the same time not give their whole personality and goals away at the start.

For my own animation, as there is no dialogue or voice over to the story it would seem very disjointed if I had a 'This is me..." opening. Instead I need to come up with a clever way of introducing the character and engaging the audience from the start. Cliches to do with story aren't the only ones, when it comes to performance, cliches can arise too. I was able to attend an online lecture hosted by Andrew Gordon, animation director and Sam Hood, story artist, who both work at Pixar. Andrew Gordon spoke about animation cliches within performance and how they can become the most boring of choices, and also the most over used. When it comes to the animation stage, I want to try and avoid these cliches and create a performance that represents the character's personality and emotions. The neck rub is most commonly used, along with the point and looking at your watch. Where these are not really possible to achieve with a quadruped, there are other actions or gestures that I might come across which may feel cliche. If this is the case I want to try and find another route round it. It will also give myself good practice expanding my acting skills.