In computer animation applications, simplifying the mesh is an important technique to reduce the workload of visualization processing. In this paper, we propose a new method to simplify the dynamic model using local area and deformation information control. Our method uses an improved quadratic error metric with the local distortion measurement as the basic level. In addition, the deformation parameters are defined to be embedded in the summarized quadratic error, so that the regions with large deformations during the animation can be successfully retained. The new method is efficient and easy to implement, and in average can generate high-quality animated models with well-preserved local and deformation features on eacn frame.