Anatomy is the understanding of the physical makeup of your character or for that matter, any object that you happen to be animating. For characters its the bones and muscles, (or structure,) proportions, volumes and mass that make the character look the way they do. We all know that cartoon characters are just drawings on paper, so what the heck am I talking about muscles and bones for? Your characters are usually based on humans and humans usually have muscles and bones... I think you get where I’m going with this right? A thorough understanding of anatomy is absolutely essential to animating. This is why most animation programs and studios stress life drawing.
