“Bears”
“Heads” - next up “Bears”
lana del rey - million dollar man
Sketching quite a bit lately, and loving it! I’m gonna try and put up as much as possible. First we begin with “Girls”, soon “Space!”.
no running allowed in pool area
2012 resolutions
Ahoy!-Lose weight, well, this is more of a lifelong type of thing it seems
-Draw more, which i’ve been trying to
-Learn Spanish, and also about the culture, so hopefully other things will come to mind than dancing when I think about Spain
-Get back to playing the Piano, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, hopefully this year i’ll be able to do.
Well, let’s not call them resolutions, but things to strive for. One of them is definitely to try and draw more, so I drew the things to strive for in 2012.
Here’s a little summary:
Anyhoo, here’s hoping for a good new year!
Here’s a completely random sketch project I’ve started.
Injured People Chilling
Gear Change in Animation
Disclaimer: Lately I don’t get much of a chance to discuss about animation and acting so I figured I might discuss here on the blog, an “out-loud thinking” if you will. These are merely some of my observations and things that stick to my mind about acting and animation so none of it should be taken as if “set on stone”.
Gear change or change of emotion in character was one of the very fundamental things we were taught. Most of the time, it’s given as an assignment to show emotion change in a character and then as an animator, you are expected to implement it into certain shots/scenes and make it work as the story keeps going. You’re supposed to show thought process and change of emotion while melting it with the rest of the scene so it doesn’t come across disconnected; both from the scene and the character.
And this is true for good acting we’re objected to, audience usually doesn’t mention a specific emotion change but rather a scene with great emotion and believability. But while watching The Office, one the greatest shows out there for character-driven acting, I came across a scene by Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) which could almost be defined as the inception of gear change shots: a gear change within a gear change within a gear change within a … and I thought it was share-worthy so here we go. Attention though, it’s quite spoiler-ish from now onwards.
Below is a little scene from the episode where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is leaving Dunder Mifflin and Dwight is annoyed at Michael for not recommending Dwight for his position. We see Michael hand him a letter, which turns out to be a letter of recommendation and the whole scene is Dwight realizing that the letter is actually a very heartfelt genuine letter.
Honestly here is some great acting of Dwight being sarcastic/annoyed in the beginning and as he keeps reading the letter, he realizes that it actually is meant to be very heartfelt so he gets teary eyed but tries to maintain opposed. Though he totally gives in once he hears about the paint-ball proposal. We see him reading a bit and then looking at the camera, making remarks and sarcastic comments about what he’s reading. The eye connection he keeps making with the audience shows that he’s not caring so much about what he’s reading and really emphasizes the situation.
As he keeps reading, we see him get more and more immersed into what he’s reading, reaching a point where he tears up and doesn’t make eye contact at all. Also the timing of the whole shot is a perfect addition to the acting to show gear change. In the beginning, it’s all quick movements, quick reading and there’s some great texture in timing & holds as it gets slower and slower almost reaching a still point as he gets emotional. This also helps because we’re not able to see his eyes so the timing of him reading helps make it very clear.
Towards the end of the emotional part of the scene, there’s a great tiny gesture, a lip-purse which again is a very good way of communicating with the audience. Since we can’t see the eyes, the lip-purse shows him trying to pull himself together and maintain his stand about the whole situation as it was in the beginning, mad and annoyed at Michael but he can’t. Until he sees the little card that invites him to paint-ball which is a 180 degree turn-around in his emotional state. He get joyous, we get eye contact, fast movements, and off he goes. This shot really stood out to me as a very complex gear change scene and wanted to share it. Oh and, The Office is a must watch for character studies.
I think it’s about time I tried paint-ball, seeing how happy Dwight gets :)
Over and out.
I’m trying to cook something up, but it’s taking time. Just a tiny teaser here.
Acting Choices and Overacting as a Character Trait
Disclaimer: Lately I don’t get much of a chance to discuss about animation and acting so I figured I might discuss here on the blog, an “out-loud thinking” if you will. These are merely some of my observations and things that stick to my mind about acting and animation so none of it should be taken as if “set on stone”.
A few weeks ago, I got to watch Micmacs directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and I tell ya, it was a fantastic movie. It was a great story with rich characters and amazing visual style. I don’t know if it’s the French or not, but it also had some very very interesting acting choices so I jotted down a few.
In the scene above, main character Bazil gets to meet the “mother figure” of the Micmacs, Tambouille. She’s cooking so trying not to shake hands, she leans her elbow forward which was something I’ve never seen before but felt quite genuine. I guess that means I’ve seen something similar beforehand so I could relate.
And there was another scene which I thought was very original and oddly entertaining. Below is Bazil whilst homeless, running after a street cleaning car and trying to use it’s water to wash his feet. What a brilliant idea to create interesting pacing (scenes prior were a bit subtle).
When I was looking through to see some other examples of interesting acting choices that stood out, I realized there were a few characters within the movie who overacted quite a bit. So this got me to thinking, how overacting can actually be a character trait. Studying animation, original acting choices is something you hear quite a lot and overacting is usually a big “no-no”. But I realized the characters in Micmacs who were overacting (La Môme Caoutchouc & Calculette) did so in a very convincing way that it added to their characters. I put up some shots below by Calculette which are not necessarily crazy overacting but when done in animation, would’ve most likely been criticized. But I do believe that in Calculette’s situation, this type of acting adds quite a bit to her playful and emotional character, which is almost child-like. Anyhoo, it’s something to think about. Again, watch the movie if you haven’t already.
Over and out.
Using External Factors to Introduce Characters
Disclaimer: Lately I don’t get much of a chance to discuss about animation and acting so I figured I might discuss here on the blog, an “out-loud thinking” if you will. These are merely some of my observations and things that stick to my mind about acting and animation so none of it should be taken as if “set on stone”.
Alrighty, here’s something else that caught my eye and I realized it’s very powerful. Most of the character driven examples of visual story-telling, whether it be in movies or tv, seem to let the audience in by slowly introducing the character. We usually see certain shots of them either interacting or reacting to situations/other characters and we slowly get to build an idea of that specific character in our heads. The process of “getting to know the character” and how much we relate to him/her is built through out the movie.
At least this is somewhat the case.
While watching “Devil Wears Prada”; really fun movie btw, some great acting in there; I realized that even before we get to meet the character Miranda (Meryl Streep), let alone see her, we form a strong idea about her character. And this is all done using external factors, other characters and how they react to her.
There’s a 2 minute scene, which is below, where they get the news that she’s arriving at the office and all hell breaks loose trying to ready everything for her with no mistakes. I think this is a great way to introduce a character without actually introducing them and try and build a first impression for the audience. Watching that scene, you’re already familiar with her and her character which leads to higher expectations. Higher expectations in the sense that, you already have an idea of what she might be like, given to you using the external factors and you expect her character to be that way. And in this example, it’s a perfect match because the performance is delivered brilliantly.
Thought it was an interesting point.
Over and out.
Self-correction in character
Phew, I finally got around to writing these.
Disclaimer: Now that I’m back in Istanbul, I don’t get much of a chance to discuss about animation and acting so I figured I might discuss here on the blog, an “out-loud thinking” if you will. These are merely some of my observations and things that stick to my mind about acting and animation so none of it should be taken as if “set on stone”.
Alrighty, so I do get to watch a lot of trashy t.v. stuff and I know that it doesn’t hold any value but one thing with shows where there are contestants aiming for a similar goal, you get to see their raw emotions whether it be them crying from sadness/happiness or jumping from joy. Usually, all these emotions get to be extremes on these shows and the contenders don’t come across as ordinary people but just bundles of emotion.
As time goes by in the show, they usually get themselves together and have much more control over themselves. Around this stage, I come across something quite frequently, “Self-correction”.
I find moments like these really believable in the sense that you can feel the person on the other end of the camera is thinking. I put up two examples I could remember below, where at first they seem to be speaking with emotion, them being right there at that exact moment. But right after they do tiny corrections to what they’re saying so that it doesn’t come across wrong or any other reason they have in their minds at that moment.
Usually when I’m animating, I pull a bunch of eye-darts out of the hat to try and make the character alive and thinking but I realize little things like “self-correction” also help quite a lot, if the voice-acting allows for it of course.
Over and out.
“Absolutely amazing. - Well I don’t know…”
“I’m gonna be dancing. - Not full-on dancing”
here’s something completely random.
2012 resolutions
Justice – Canon
justice album is out. go. listen. now.
Gear Change in Animation
Acting Choices and Overacting as a Character Trait
Using External Factors to Introduce Characters
Self-correction in character
