A commenter on my previous post asked me this:

Hey, so how have you and other interns found this subtext animating?
This is certainly an area of animation that is hard to teach, and the learning of it usually comes down to the individuals talent. I know people who can learn the basics and principles very well, but dont have the born with talent to progress onto great character performance through acting.

I think the larger question that might be at play here is how to be “original”or “unique” with your acting choices- or anything else you do. Well there is certainly no definite answer here… professionals are generally very vague in this area as well. I don’t know how many times I’ve just been told to “be more original”. I usually nod… then 2 hours later I’m wondering what the hell that means.

I lived in the constant fear that my “originality” might suddenly leave me, and every project I would feel terrible until the moment I finally thought of something. I had one basic assumption: Originality was the creation of new ideas in my head using no outside ideas. I had read this in art books and books on writing. “Sit in a room with nothing in it and think!” It wasn’t until I started studying how to write arguments and papers that I completely changed my idea of originality.

Originality is attained by integration, NOT by creation from nothing.

What do I mean by this? When I wrote papers in school I quickly realized I couldn’t think of a good thesis that wasn’t already explored. So I started taking other papers and mixing them together. For instance, I wrote a paper about making video games using methods from argument structure.

How does this apply to my post on subtext? Well, it is a way to think about your acting choices. Instead of trying to come up with completely new gestures from nothing, think about gestures you know and mix them together. You might take an iconic gesture like shaking your fist when you are angry. I see this ALL THE TIME. So here is my thought progression:

Step 1) What is my character’s personality? If she is shy, the fist shake might be very small and barely noticeable. How does she hold herself? If she is broad and large, her whole body may go into the fist shake.

Step 2) What is my character feeling? (Well in this example she is angry, but what kind of anger?) What context is she in? Is she in public, alone? She might be trying to hide her anger, or maybe she wants everyone to know. Maybe she is angry and disappointed- her fist might go limp after a few shakes. What just happened?

Step 3) What is my character thinking? Once you have the context write the actual thoughts. “I can’t believe he forgot my birthday” is very different from “I would kill you if I could”. And show the thoughts through body language rather than through vocalization. The birthday example: the fist shake might be purposeful and short. The murderous example: the fist shake might be more involuntary and sustained.

Step 4) What is my character doing? Once you have all these elements in your fist shake, combine it with the environment. Is your character washing dishes? Conducting an orchestra? Writing a letter? If you can, make the gestures are affected and affecting the physical context of the scene. A character washing dishes might shake their fist as they pick up a sponge.

At the end of all of this, you hopefully won’t have a very recognizable iconic “fist shake”. Ideally, you’ll have a new movement much more unique to your character. At Pixar I have not been told to be more original: there is a slightly better maxim “be more specific“.

Here is a very appropriate clip a friend of mine showed me from a French film called Moleire.

Again, this is more of a rough way to frame the word “original” in our minds. I’m sure there are many ways to come up with ideas, this is something that seems to work for me.

-Tom

So I’ve been at Pixar for about 6 weeks, and there is one main point that just keeps getting slammed on me over and over again.

SHOW YOUR CHARACTER’S THOUGHT PROCESS WITH THE BODY LANGUAGE

Typically, animators will animate “to the dialog” -> the motion will be pretty, the arcs will be wonderful, the polish will be exquisite, but the acting just sucks. The body language is redundant and generic. Animators will take the wonderful language capabilities of the body and say the same thing that the dialog says. It’s redundant… really redundant… redundant… very redundant… completely redundant… boring, huh?

So how do you escape that? Well, this is something I’m always learning as well, but here are a few notes I’ve gathered: Think about the personality, feelings and thoughts of your character.

Personality: what is your character generally like? how does she hold herself? is she an introvert or extrovert? Personality will dictate your initial posing of the character, and how the feelings and thoughts are framed.
Feeling: what is your character like right now? what is the context of the scene? Feeling is layered onto the personality, an introvert who currently feels outgoing will look very different then someone outgoing who is feeling outgoing.
Thoughts: What is your character thinking? Thoughts are shaped by the personality, feeling and context. Thoughts are the last internal process. For instance, when you touch something hot, your body reacts first, then you think “SHIT, THAT IS HOT!” and it isn’t until after you think that you speak.

So, the actual spoken words are the final part of the process. The body says much more than words. And if you use the body to say different things than the words, you really start to hit empathy and entertainment with your animation. Imagine the entertainment in a scene where the body language says “SHIT, THAT IS HOT!” and the spoken line is “hehe, nice day isn’t it?”

Unfortunately, animators seem too caught up in the actual movement to think about the performance. Ultimately the performance is the key to animation- because as hard as it is to move characters believably, the average person won’t give a shit. The audience came to see a performance, they shouldn’t notice your character’s fluid wrist overlap and buttery movement.

Here is a music video in which Ben Stiller acts with no subtext (on purpose). It is sad, but his mock performance is strikingly similar to how many animators approach dialog.

Ben Stiller’s section is from roughly 1:08 to 2:15.

Questions? Anything need clarification?
I’ll find some good examples of showing thought process in my next post!

-Tom

My first swipe at the clip for this month:

or get the higher res file HERE.

-Tom

If you do not know what the 11 second club is, check it out here: www.11secondclub.com

This is my submission for January:

Or download a Higher Res version here (right click, save as)

-Tom

So I’m finally getting into this 11 second club thing…

Here is my first hack at the clip. I went a bit goofy with it, but I’ve enjoyed working on it so far.

This clip is just composition and color (no animation). It’s confusing as hell, but I aim to clarify with good animation. I’m hoping to make this a buttery 30 frames per second. So try to picture it as amazing

Picture lots of helicopters and crumbling buildings too…

Any thoughts?

-Tom

The next iteration of the Legal Squirrels animation. The project is getting near the end now.

There are still many sound problems. Distracting background noise, unadjusted levels, no music, missing sound effects, etc… but the visual quality is nearing completion.

Lo res:

But I suggest this yummy HD version HERE- 35mb (right-click and save-as)


-Tom

I’ve decided to throw another cover up here. I really, really like this song. It’s called Sideways by Citizen Cope. Citizen Cope is one of my favorite artists, very soulful. Anyway, the following video is my take on the song:

It’s more of an out-pour than a song, really. I made up some of the words on the go, I rarely memorize the correct lyrics to songs… But maybe that’s a good thing.I also like the songs Penitentiary and Son’s Gonna Rise (both by Citizen Cope).

If you can’t see the video, here’s an mp3

All the best,

-Tom

Still a bunch of issues to work out… but it’s getting there-

Download it HERE. (31mb)

Right click and “save as”

-Tom

So I’ve been trying to nail down this project. As always, it takes longer than I expected.

Here is a lower-quality render:

Download a little higher-quality file (right-click and save as) HERE. -36.1mb

Feel free to take a verbal swing at it. There are many things missing (text representing the legal end, for one). Sound clips are missing, but the general feel/animation is there.
enjoy!

-Tom

As some of you may know, I am working on an animation that reflects legal jurisdiction issues. The animation uses a metaphor of squirrels living in a big tree…

The audio levels need to be messed with, it’s a bit quiet. And the voice will be slightly higher in pitch.

In any case, I have to animate like a madman if I want to pump out 2 and a half minutes this week. So here is my first whack at the animation- The first segment of the film:

I’m fairly happy with it. I’d love to make the branch shake and such, but I may have to go back and do it later. For now I need to get a bare-bones version done for next week.-Tom