For character animation, the animator plans out the action with strong poses and facial expressions which tell how the character is thinking and feeling at every moment in a scene. The animator works roughly, utilizing classic techniques like squash and stretch, timing, weight and mass, and overlapping action. This is all to give the characters unique personalities through the way that they move. The rough animation is then given to expert clean-up artists who redraw the animation with a clean line, being careful to retain the animator’s intentions, but also refine the drawings and put them “on model” so the character remains consistent throughout a film. They also add details and complete missing drawings indicated by the animator (“inbetweens”) to smooth out the action.

In Moana 2, Maui is animated with CG techniques, but his tattoo conscience, Mini Maui, is hand-drawn, using these classic processes. The animation is drawn and cleaned up, then inked and painted digitally and textured onto Maui’s body. The hand-drawn and CG animators work closely together to coordinate eyelines and expressions between the two, and how each character acts and reacts toward the other, down to the very frame. And since Mini Maui doesn’t speak, all of his actions must express his feelings in pantomime, using his entire body to convey his thoughts.