This week in Ting’s class we focused on hands in animation. The main idea was that hands are never “doing nothing”. Even when the body is still, the hands should show what the character is feeling and help define their personality. A well-posed hand can make the acting more believable and help the audience connect with the character, even if we cannot see the face.
We also talked about grouping and lazy fingers. Real fingers like to rest together instead of spreading perfectly straight. Keeping the hand fully open actually takes effort and looks tense, not relaxed. So in many poses, some fingers should gently lean on each other or form small groups. Another important idea is the leading finger: one finger starts the movement and the others follow slightly behind, which gives the hand motion rhythm and direction instead of a stiff “all fingers move together” feeling.
