Character Performance by Hugo Hernandez, Manuel Bover

Character Performance is where animation stops being about mechanics and starts being about making an audience believe. This intermediate course from AnimSchool pushes you past body mechanics and pantomime into full dialogue acting. You’ll pick an audio clip, break down the subtext, plan your staging, and build a complete performance from blocking to final polish. Expect heavy critique sessions, practical Maya demos, and a structured workflow that turns acting theory into a finished shot for your reel.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Craft believable dialogue performances with clear acting choices
• Analyze audio clips and break down subtext for animation
• Use video reference effectively to inform performance decisions
• Create strong storytelling poses with readable silhouettes
• Block, spline, and polish a dialogue shot in Maya
• Direct audience attention through staging and choreography
• Coordinate facial animation with body performance

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Completion of Body Acting course or equivalent understanding of body mechanics, posing, timing, and animation principles
• Tools: Autodesk Maya, video recording equipment for reference
• Hardware: Computer capable of running Maya smoothly

📝 Description

Dialogue animation is a different beast. It’s not about syncing mouth shapes to audio—it’s about making the audience forget they’re watching a rig. This course forces you to think like an actor first, animator second. You’ll learn to look past the literal words and find the subtext driving the scene. What does the character actually want? How do their thoughts shift mid-sentence? Those answers shape every pose, glance, and gesture you animate.

The workflow is structured like a real production. You start by picking an instructor-approved audio clip, then break it down beat by beat. Video reference becomes your playground for exploring performance ideas before you touch the rig. From there, it’s blocking, critique, spline, more critique, and polish. The recorded Fall 2020 classes include 39 sessions split between Hugo Hernandez and Manuel Bover, with lectures, Maya demos, and regular reviews that show exactly how professional feedback translates into better animation.

What sets this course apart is the emphasis on acting and reaction. You’ll learn how pauses, eye darts, and subtle posture shifts reveal a character’s thought process. Choreography and staging keep the audience’s attention where it belongs. By the end, you’re not just delivering lines—you’re building a performance that holds up even without sound.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Intermediate animators who understand body mechanics and want to tackle dialogue acting
• Students who have completed AnimSchool’s Body Acting course or equivalent training
• Animators looking to strengthen their acting choices and storytelling abilities
• Anyone wanting to produce a strong dialogue shot for their demo reel

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Hugo Hernandez and Manuel Bover are professional character animators and instructors at AnimSchool. Both bring years of industry experience to the classroom, with a focus on performance-driven animation. Their teaching approach combines practical Maya demonstrations with detailed critique sessions, giving students direct insight into how professional animators solve performance problems. The Fall 2020 term recordings capture their full teaching process, from initial audio selection through final polish.

🏁 Final Result

• A completed dialogue animation shot featuring believable acting, clear storytelling poses, and polished body and facial performance
• A portfolio-ready piece demonstrating your ability to create a character-driven scene with subtext and emotional depth
• Practical experience with a professional critique workflow and production pipeline

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.