All you can do sometimes is just press harder on your pencil to try to make the drawing express what you’re feeling in your heart, and you hope that the audience can feel it as they’re looking at it.

— Glen Keane

The stunning animation of the characters in this video quickly make you forget that you’re watching pencil tests, scribbles of graphite on paper. And hearing Glenn Keane explain his process makes you realize why he is a master animator: there is thought and emotion behind every stroke of the pencil. There is nothing random about the work you see here.

There’s an interesting parallel between bringing animated characters to life and infusing characters on the page with spirit. Both mediums, even at their most simplistic, are capable of stirring emotion in an audience. A screenplay is a lot like a pencil test, in much the same way that a frame of film is like an animation cel. And yet both forms can affect us.

There should be thought and emotion behind every keystroke of our screenplays. That will give our characters shape and solidity, transforming them from vaporous imaginings into real people.

949 Notes/ Hide

  1. too-rude-for-school reblogged this from dmcondolora
  2. serenity08 reblogged this from fadingchildhoodmemories and added:
    All you can do sometimes is just press harder on your pencil to try to make the drawing express what you’re feeling in...
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  12. modrockerbee reblogged this from keaneart and added:
    that last part where he mentions his daughter is just omg…so cute!
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  16. fantastical-forests reblogged this from keaneart and added:
    Ughhh my hearttt when he talks about Claire in the end. :’)
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