Animation-directed embodied performance technique (ADEPT): A framework for creating better animation video reference
Researchers: Jason Kennedy
Across animation curricula, there is no unified or industry-recognised framework for developing students’ performance skills through either observation or direct embodied practice. Performance for animation remains a niche area of study. While some useful scholarship addresses how acting training may apply to animators, far less attention has been given to how animators engage with animation reference itself.
Many animation educators either do not recognise the value of embodied approaches when teaching reference or are unable to implement them. As a result, current educational environments often produce graduates who are technically capable but less developed in performance. This research outlines the narratological and performance utility of an embodied framework for teaching character animation, grounded in practice-led enquiry across acting, animation, tertiary education, and studio-based production.
Drawing on the researcher’s experience as both actor and animator, the study addresses several underexplored questions: what challenges animators face when engaging in embodied practice, which performance styles are accessible and safe for those without prior experience, how reluctance towards embodiment may be overcome, which strategies yield the most useful animation information, whether different forms of performance experience offer distinct benefits, and how pose and performance information may best be extrapolated from video reference.
These questions form the basis of the Animation-Directed Embodied Performance Technique framework (ADEPT), which integrates principles from Michael Chekhov and Rudolf Laban. ADEPT promotes nuanced physical and expressive strategies for producing animation reference, with those strategies shaped in relation to the narrative demands of each moment in a story. In doing so, the framework positions embodied pedagogy as a means of strengthening narrative appeal, helping animators create more believable character performances that foster audience engagement and empathy.
