"There is something I feel when I animate something; you can never really understand the character you're animating unless you've had the opportunity to turn it around. Once you've done that, you know it is a three-dimensional object"
About this Quote
The subtext is a gentle indictment of surface-level character work. You can fake charm in a single strong drawing, but you can’t fake coherence across time. Turning a character forces continuity: how the jaw hinges, how weight sits on a hip, how clothing drapes when the torso twists. Davis is pointing at the animator’s real job, which isn’t illustration but sustained belief. The “three-dimensional object” line sounds clinical, yet it’s basically a manifesto: the audience senses when a character has an interior logic, even if they can’t name it.
Context matters here. Davis was a key Disney animator during the era when the studio was professionalizing “the illusion of life,” absorbing lessons from live-action reference, sculpture maquettes, and an industrial pipeline built to make drawings behave like actors. His comment captures the bridge between draftsmanship and performance: a character becomes understandable not when it’s prettiest, but when it survives rotation without breaking.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Davis, Marc. (2026, January 15). There is something I feel when I animate something; you can never really understand the character you're animating unless you've had the opportunity to turn it around. Once you've done that, you know it is a three-dimensional object. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-something-i-feel-when-i-animate-54623/
Chicago Style
Davis, Marc. "There is something I feel when I animate something; you can never really understand the character you're animating unless you've had the opportunity to turn it around. Once you've done that, you know it is a three-dimensional object." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-something-i-feel-when-i-animate-54623/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is something I feel when I animate something; you can never really understand the character you're animating unless you've had the opportunity to turn it around. Once you've done that, you know it is a three-dimensional object." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-something-i-feel-when-i-animate-54623/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
