The Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project is one of the annual awards given by the Visual Effects Society, starting from 2002. Since its inception, the award's title has gone through several title changes, and one major category shift. First awarded in 2002, the award was titled "Best Character Animation in a Live Action Televised Program, Music Video or Commercial" and given to the best character animation in a televised program, with no specific character cited. This would change in 2004, when the category was re-titled "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program", and given to visual effects artists for work on a specified character. The category was again re-titled the following year,