Animate a Cartoony "Take" with "Mr Buttons"

Reaction shots are the bread-and-butter of junior animators.  On a feature film, once an animator has graduated from walk cycles and crowd shots, they get given reaction shots.

In this series of video tutorials, we show how to go about blocking out an animated scene, in this case a reaction shot, or "take", with the cartoony cat rig "Mr Buttons" by Keith Osborn.

Reaction Shots

Thumbnails for a cartoony "take" 

A reaction shot is where animators first start to get to grips with acting and performance. Just like live-action actors, animated characters on a screen must listen - and react.

Animating a "Take"
An exaggerated reaction shot is also sometimes called a "take".  In this series of videos, we show how to animate a reaction shot - a cartoony "take". The tutorials uses the free cartoony cat rig "Mr Buttons". You can read more about how to use Mr Buttons here.

Reaction shot with "Mr Buttons"

The series of short videos shows an approach to building and blocking the shot, how to imagine the scene, so that you start by making positive choices about the character's state of mind, carefully planning what is going to happen.

Animators are actors, and we need to create a memorable performance, but we also need a workflow that we can depend upon.

Mr Buttons Rig
The tutorial uses the excellent free character rig Mr Buttons. created by Keith Osborn, and available for free download. There are eight short videos to watch:

Vimeo Channel
To find the videos follow the links below:

• 01_Setting your Scene Up https://vimeo.com/320214065 
• 02 Setting Your Character Up. https://vimeo.com/320215232
• 03 Blocking Keys. https://vimeo.com/320215461
• 04 Blocking Breakdowns. https://vimeo.com/320215642
• 05 Blocking Antic, Ease-in, Overshoot & Settle. https://vimeo.com/320215872 
• 06 Splining and Offsetting. https://vimeo.com/320216160
• 07 Extra Finessing. https://vimeo.com/320216652
• 08 Adding a Prop. https://vimeo.com/320217658

The password is the same as for all our video tutorials.

More Resources

• Mr Buttons rig introduced and explained
• Animate a "take" with "Monty"

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our November 5th classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.