ABSTRACT
Acting is first and foremost storytelling. And mankind is a storytelling species. Stories are vital to train our survival skills. Stories make our life from childhood on: stories to warn kids of misuse of fire. Science Fiction stories about the conquest of space. In ancient times, the shaman was both storyteller and actor. Early on, there was a cave artist around to illustrate the shaman's stories. In animation, the archaic animistic tradition continues and reunites the shamanic purpose of acting, art, and foremost storytelling. Storytelling is the main ingredient of both expensive and cheap animation. There are different methods how to do story work for animation, different from country to country and different from studio to studio. There are really no writers in animation. A good exercise is to have a drawing and invent some story around the character drawn on paper.
