the characters better, and we come to admire them more. What’s hidden along the way from
your characters or from the audience? What things do some characters hide from them-
selves? As all this information comes to light, the choices become ever more difficult, leading
to the most difficult choice of all, the critical choice, near the end of the story. These choices
make your characters drop their masks. They react instinctively, revealing what’s been
hidden. What do we learn about a character then? What does that character learn about
himself? How does he change because of it? Characters change each other. Does your char-
acter always stay in character, acting and reacting in ways that only he would do?
In the end, this is what’s important: What event/circumstance/decision in the past is still
affecting your hero today, making him who he is and driving the plot of the story you’re
writing today? Anything that you discovered about your character in developing him that
doesn’t relate to this is unimportant and doesn’t belong in your story.
Animated Characters Live
The technology exists to control animation and lip-sync of characters in real-time. What this
means is that kids can call into a show and speak to their favorite character on the air live
as an actor/animator controls the animation and lip-syncs in a booth. Interactive games can
become a part of a live show with callers using telephone keypad game controllers.
Actor/animators could develop their own characters for this kind of production. Or writers
could provide a cast of actor/animators with detailed bios, backstories, and guidelines for
the characters they portray.
Animated Characters as Icons
Internet providers are just one source of supply for animated character icons with person-
ality. These characters have built-in animated behaviors that respond to real-time input. They
can accompany instant messages, responding to the text with motion, sound, color, and
humor. File size for these characters must be small, and many of the character expressions
are exaggerated to give them more visual impact in the limited space. There appears to be
a great future for characters like these in cell phones, sales pitches, and so many other areas.
Changing technology will continue to open up new opportunities for animated characters.
Market Research
Studies seem to show that kids like characters that they can identify with, characters that
appear to be like them in one or more ways. The youngest children like characters that are
safe and nurturing or that they can nurture in return. They like characters that they can
emulate: heroes and heroines, teen or adult role models, sports figures, entertainment figures.
Children, too, are fascinated by the dark side of life and are entertained by villains. Perhaps
it’s a way of learning to deal with life on a more adult level. Children generally prefer char-
acters who are older than they are, or at least that’s what they want other kids to think. Boys
often prefer male characters, although girls apparently have no preference. Boys are more
72 Animation Writing and Development