Animation - Animators are Actors Too!
Using References as an Animator
Really, if you want to be a 3D animator, we should think of ourselves as an actors!
When animating, it's common (and often expected) to record ourselves (or friends) emoting actions in real life, and then use that video as reference to animate.
To some extent, we can potentially get away with using other real-life recordings as reference. But it really is much better to use our own!
Reference Plagarism
Just make sure not to use other people's animations (movies, youtube, etc) as reference. That's considered a HUGE industry no-no, and can get you blacklisted.
That's because the industry considers it plagarism. A big part of animation is "how do you interpret the action? What's your take on it?" By using someone else's animation as reference, you're skipping that and using their interpretation as your own.
So if an animated movie really inspires you, it might be okay to reference it for self-learning. But if you do that, do NOT put it in your portfolio, list it on social media (at least without explicitly giving credit to the original and stating it's for learning), or otherwise claim ownership in any way.
As soon as you try to claim ownership in any way, the industry will look down upon you.
