Carpool

“Are you sure that’s what he said?” Norm yawned noisily, stretching his arms toward his knees. Suddenly Norm laughed, “where did he even get the idea…?”

“It doesn’t even snow here,” said Kris, adjusting his grip on the wheel, “you sound like my wife- it’s not funny.”

Norm was laughing again, now bent all the way down gripping his toes. Kris glanced over, his scowl momentarily faltering in confusion, “what are… look, this kid was serious.” He directed his focus back to the road.

“He probably meant build… ” Norm put a foot up on the dashboard and started to laugh again, “I’m sorry, Kris, but it’s a little kid, he was probably just… you know, just saying crap,” Norm pushed against the roof of the car.

“Yeah, but this is different,” Kris took a long glance at his blind spot, “it isn’t just crap, it’s a… career goal or something, a dream.” Kris gripped the wheel again, hunching his small frame a bit closer to the windshield. A few cars passed on the right, which seemed to irritate Norm.

“Ok, so what did you tell him?” Norm asked after a few silent moments.

“You should have seen the kid, Norm, he was so certain,” Kris glanced into the rear view mirror.

“Kris, someone who wants to be a snowman when they grow up isn’t gonna pussyfoot around!” Norm was grinning, “Jesus, Kris, I hope you didn’t give the poor kid a science lecture.”

The car slowed into a toll queue, they were both silent for a moment while Kris rolled down the window. He awkwardly parted with a crinkled bill and a terse greeting before starting off again.

“Your car is so effin’ small,” Norm was adjusting the seat.

Kris slowed the car as someone merged into the lane, “I told him to go for it.”

My luck is unending. I am now working at Bungie as a contract animator. It has been a great experience so far, and I’m so excited to learn and grow at this company.

I’m still reeling from the kindness and talent of my coworkers, and I know it will be a fantastic place to work. Thanks again to my friends, family and of course to the people that read this little blog.

-Tom

“ ‘I have noticed,’ said Mr. K., ‘that we put many people off our teaching because we have an answer to everything. Could we not, in the interests of propaganda, draw up a list of questions that appear to us completely unsolved?’ ” -Bertolt Brecht, Stories of Mr. Keuner

Unsolved questions are often at the core of good story-telling. A scene or sentence that raises a specific question is what often keeps us enthralled in even the worst of TV shows and novels. Looking back at my education, I recall a similar atmosphere described in the Brecht quotation above- questions were all expected to have answers. In fact, it seemed an embarrassment to many professors and teachers to receive a question they could not answer. Students themselves are too self-conscious to ask questions, even though it is likely their classmates share the inquiry. Students entering the college or even the world are often completely unused to even being expected to ask.

A storyteller needs the audience to be asking questions. The audience and storyteller alike rejoice in mystery and unsolved questions (as long as they are specifically formed and not just “what is going on?”). Imagine if education was like that!! If your professor rewarded students who asked tough questions, and made clear the limits of their own  knowledge.

Fictional worlds are great, but the real world is important, too. We need to get the sense of wonder back into daily life. For instance, I was floored the other day by a video on TED. I link to the video below, I think it really puts into perspective just how much mystery is still in the world. I mean, crabs that live in 200 degrees centigrade, ninja cephalopods…

How did I go through 20 years of schooling thinking we’ve thoroughly explored the oceans? There is something fantastic about having so much uncharted territory to spark our curiosity. I am far more excited about the vast array of questions left in the ocean rather than the tiny amount of answers- especially when the ocean appears to be full of life.

It always seems far more interesting to ask a professor or professional “What are the questions you have yet to answer?”

-Tom

As I put together my applications and write out letters, I am reminded of one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips:

Best of luck to all of us.
:-)

-Tom

I’ve talked a bit about thought process in previous posts, like here. Now I thought I’d share an example that always shoots to my mind. The example comes from a film called A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum. It is a very silly film, but it has some GREAT moments (particularly for animators). The acting is very exaggerated and very clearly shows thought process through facial expressions.

In the following scene, we have various characters disguised as other characters. One man in particular has been disguised as a leper, a gymnast, and, at the moment, a bride. In this clip a violent captain, who is trying to figure out what is going on, realizes the person he is addressing is not the beautiful bride he expected…

(A bit of trivia, the old man with the wide brim blue hat is the one and only Buster Keaton- famed silent filmmaker, like Charlie Chaplin)

Here I broke down some minor thought “beats” :

1.  To me this pose reads:

“Something is wrong here…”

2.

“Disgusting!”

3.

“I’m in danger!”

4.

“HELP ME!”

5.

“I will KILL someone for this!”

Much of the entertainment comes from the character showing his thoughts with his body. Here are some more clips I like from the film:

Love Clip

Pretty self-explanatory. I just adore the way the younger character’s face lights up when asked about his love.

Might Win Clip

Again, no need for much context. The emotion change when he says “you might win” is great. (The woman in the background is pretending to be a statue… you have to see the movie)

Gladiator Training Clip

Here I really like the sincerity of the gladiator’s self satisfaction. You just feel it beam out of his smile.

Enjoy!

-Tom

Characters are predominantly defined by the decisions they make. The story-telling community tends to agree with this statement. It would follow that more interesting decisions make for more interesting characters. The major implication here is that an interesting character does not exist in a vacuum- the ability to create complex characters rests with the ability to create complex dilemmas.

Cake or Death

The biggest problem with many films is that the dilemmas are decidedly one sided and easy to approach. It is a waste of screen time to show a character making an easy decision. Say we put ten characters into a room, all with various character traits, religious backgrounds, political inclinations and personal histories and gave them a dilemma.  The most revealing and interesting dilemma would be one in which all ten characters would choose differently- so the viewer would learn the various differences. The least revealing dilemma would be one in which all ten would choose the identical path; like “Live or Die”. Comedian Eddie Izzard has a great take on the concept:

We can think of it like questions one would ask a prospective date. If we are trying to learn about them, why ask “Cake or Death?” (other than to be coy). As filmmakers, we only have the length of the movie to connect our audience to our characters, don’t waste time with easy dilemmas. So how does one go about making complex dilemmas? Here is a method:
Good vs. Good

The fastest way to create a flaccid dilemma is by making one choice “good” and another choice “evil.” It’s “Cake or Death” all over again. Instead, try putting values in conflict. For instance, it is hard to argue HONESTY is undesirable (It’s good!). Similarly, who wouldn’t want KINDNESS (Also good, but different). Once we place these values in conflict, we can start to think of complex dilemmas. Some small examples:

HONESTY vs. KINDNESS

Your best friend, a passionate musician, is gathering signatures for a petition to allow students to practice instruments in your college dorm. You do not enjoy the music your friend plays. She asks you to sign the petition…

The man who has replaced you at your dream job is at the center of media and press coverage for his success. You know the man (though qualified) lied on a part of his resume- you also know he has a family to support. A reporter asks about his resume, do you tell the truth?

Your daughter enters a talent competition and was decidedly outperformed. In a moment of sheer awe, you cast your vote for a child who does spectacular human beatboxing. Your daughter returns from the competition downtrodden with loss. She looks up and asks you if you voted for her…

Thoughtful people will disagree on the answers to these dilemmas. Your own answer will tell you if you value kindness or honesty more. Such decisions are more revealing of character: In what contexts will the character be independent or cooperative? curious or comfortable? free or secure? practical or imaginative? social or diligent? Value conflicts come in an unending palette.

You can probably improve upon my examples, feel free to do so.

Happy reading,

-Tom

I thought I’d share some of my recent animation tests. I completed these at Pixar this past summer. It was a fabulous experience, and I grew so much, both as an animator and as a person. Thanks to all of the other interns and to the wonderful artists and staff at Pixar who took time to help me! I owe them all so much.

Luxo Jr. test

Woody dialog test

Linguini dialog test

Cheers!

-Tom

I just finished reading a book called Story by Robert McKee. It was quite an insightful book (though I have many criticisms of it which I will go into later). In the following passage, McKee describes the creation of an original character:

Like Dr. Frankenstien, we build characters out of parts found. A writer takes the analytical mind of his sister and peices it together with the comic wit of his friend, adds to that the cunning cruelty of a cat and the blind persistence of King Lear. We borrow bits and peices of humanity, raw chunks of imagination and observation wherever they’re found, assemble them into dimensions of contrafiction, then round them into creatures we call characters. (McKee, 386)

The way I described originality as integration of existing ideas (in an earlier post) is analogous to how McKee describes character creation as the integration of ideas in existing characters.

The implication of integrative thinking is twofold. It means that we can research and observe to create “original” products. However, it also means that our products are only as strong as the wealth of ideas at our disposal. We cannot hope to be “original” (in the integrative sense) if we do not explore, study and read a wide breadth of material. And I don’t just mean other forms of art, I mean all sorts of disciplines.

But how do we find time to study all sorts of disciplines? I read another book recently that was a collection of essays from the philosopher Lord Isaiah Berlin called The Power of Ideas. In an essay on general education, Berlin writes about studying in a way to maximize breadth without completely sacrificing depth and specialization. He writes that instead of simply trying to absorb material from other disciplines (like making a chemist memorize poetry, or making an artist list out famous physicists) we should focus on the methodologies of different disciplines.

Simply put, we should at the least know how various disciplines go about answering questions- and what questions they are most interested in answering. Economics, for example, is largely a question of allocation- they assume that resources are scarce and try to figure out the best way to distribute them fairly. Capitalism is born from the pursuit of this question. Capitalism also assumes that people generally make rational decision, and that more choice and more consumption is good. Psychologists and sociologists often have completely different assumption about human beings- that we are governed by irrational emotions, and that we are molded by society. Many political scientists assume humans are corrupted by power, hence a major question in political science is how to best distribute power.

My point is, that there is a vast reservoir of ideas out there, and our creativity will be severely limited if we live only within the assumptions and methodologies of our own particular specialization.

-Tom

If you are an art student, you probably have experienced the “critique”. When the other kids go take tests or write papers, art students drag themselves to a room with their projects and blather. Sometimes the blather is productive, many times the blather is just blather. And it is very hard to contain “critiques” into some sort of format. In my experience, art critiques have ranged from an art teacher orating alone for 3 hours to a bunch of apathetic students straining their vocabulary with feedback like “I don’t like the color”.

Most of the students probably do not care to be at the critique, and many of the professors are not very prepared or engaged either. Many critiques are painfully silent. Students start giving small comments simply out of pity for the professor’s futile efforts to stimulate the class. “So what do you guys think? Come on guys, I’m grading you on your participation!”

But there are larger problems than apathy. I often found that even when the class was very lively, and everyone seemed to be edging to get their say- the critique still felt frustratingly unhelpful. The professor would be sooo happy, but I did not feel like I was learning much. Even my own comments seemed to fall flat, no matter how exciting they were in my head.

What can we do about this? Who is to blame- the students or the teacher? Here is where you might rightly call me out on a false dichotomy. Both the students and the teachers are at fault. In the remainder of this post I’ll list out what students and professors can do to improve art critiques.

ART CRITIQUES

1) Accountibility: As a student, make sure you have reasons/goals behind your artistic choices. Reasoning is vital because you assert control of your project. Ideally, you open the door for people to critique based your reasoning- rather than stuff they just don’t like. I’ll illustrate in a mock conversation:

Student: I don’t like the nose

Artist: I chose to put the nose that way so it would lead your eyes to the vase

Student: Oh! well maybe you could move the vase a bit to the left and you won’t have to put the nose at such an awkward angle.

Sometimes finding reasoning is hard because our choices are often based on intuition. As a professor, try to show the student what methodology their intuition is based on. One of the most valuable things for an artist to learn, is why they make certain choices. Do not allow students to say “I just threw it on cuz it looked cool.” Well it might look cool because it follows the rule of thirds.

Showing students the “meta” generalities/principles behind their choices will allow them to take criticism and apply it to all of their future projects. Criticism that is too specific will only teach them what to do in that one instance. As a student, just ask “why? what principle are you referring to?” when you get a criticism. Look at the difference in utility between these two criticisms:

Unprepared Professor: Move the clouds up and the painting of the bird will look better. (now the student knows only how to fix this one specific problem that is unlikely to ever happen again.)

Prepared Professor: By moving the clouds up, you will be creating more appealing balance in image. Because large light colored masses closer to the center can balance out small dark objects further from the center. (Now the student know the larger principle that is guiding your criticism, you can go on to explain how lights and darks affect weight in an image)

2) Critical Engagement: Ultimately, a critique will go nowhere if no-one says anything- or if everyone is just patting each other on the back. Here is where being a teacher is tough. How do you get the students to be engaged? Well, I think there is a pretty simple solution, but the students will not like it. Call on random students to speak. One of my best professors was one who would just pull out the role sheet and asked a random student a question. EVERYONE WAS TOO TERRIFIED TO COME UNPREPARED. Make a critique stressful and uncomfortable- that is the best way I know to get students to prepare. Make the critique an exam- tell the students to demonstrate knowledge of class material when they speak in the critique. The students may not like a professor that does this, but learning is not a comfortable process- a professor should not have the delusion that students will love him/her.

As a student, a good way to promote critical engagement is to ask questions. Write a list of questions down before you go to the crit, if you have time. By focusing the subject matter, people will be much more likely to say something- and it will show the professor that you are thinking about your work.

3) Integration: Even if the students are all engaged the critique may not be very productive. A productive critique is one with definite strings of argument. Many times, students merely say what is on their mind, and the critique functions similarly to a “whack-a-mole” game. Students just pipe in with comments, not necessarily linked to the previous comment. Often times, students will noun-grab when they are in a critique- they will speak using the same word/words as the previous person, but there will be little else in common.

Student 1: Maybe you could help balance the image with some red reflecting in the corner.

Student 2: The object in the corner seems out of place, maybe move it left to help the composition.

Now Student 1 will feel frustrated because his/her feedback was pretty much ignored. Professors make this worse by adding “interesting comment!” after anyone says anything- which makes students feel completely ignored. So how can we avoid scattered “whack-a-mole” critiques? Haha, here’s another mini-list:

a) If you are a professor make the students always connect what they are saying to what the last person said. Hell, make them reiterate the previous comment if they have to. Alone, such an integrative exercise is a great skill to have anyway. Eventually the student will assume they are expected to maintain a thread of dialog when they speak.
b) As a professor and as a student, make sure YOU are connecting to what the last person said. And if you do not understand what they said, ask them to clarify. It will show them you are listening- and make them feel more responsibility and importance.
c) If you really want to stretch yourself as a professor- try having the students integrate their feedback with what professional artists have said and done (from research/readings I assume has been included in the coursework). This will help ground the conversation, and take it away from being random opinions.

I hope this post is helpful, again I am always learning so feel free to criticize or ask for clarification (or to ask me to stop making lists). Most of this information is from my experience in non-art classes. I have not tried it all out yet in an art class, so take from it what appeals to you.

-Tom

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