Surprise !

I saw a pretty unusual YouTube video today. Kind of funny, kind of cheesy, but great for that reference that is really hard to come by. There are some golden little moments that you just simply don't see that often... but may have to animate!

This guy comes onto one of these American Idol style talent shows, and does something that nobody really expects. The reactions from the judges are priceless, but also his own gestures and mannerisms are great to watch.

Watch the video, then I`ll point out a few things that really stood out to me. I suppose these things can be interpreted any way, and are pretty subjective, but its all research in the end !



Try not to be distracted by the ridiculous voices of "Ant and Dec".

• ( for some reason embedded YouTube puts the time scale in remaining time )

• -1:42 - This is my favourite bit. The female judge ( Amanda Holden ) is genuinely shocked and amazed. The way she holds her hands together after finishing the clap, the half laugh, and the little blink of disbelief. She is truly touched, and its a nice little moment of genuine femininity ( compare to the relaxed but impressed male reaction of Simon Cowell to screen right ) . Its almost like she has to hold the moment in her hands, because she cant quite believe it! Compare this too with her contrasting attitude at -3:50 the difference is huge! at this point she is a little condescending ( the way she quickly looks him up and down, frowning, not particularly impressed by his appearance ), then a few moments later her attitude is transformed completely.
  

• -1:24 - Another great moment. Watch Simon Cowell's eyes and mouth after he says "fantastic". He really shows a number of things here. Firstly he is clearly humbled by the performance, but wants to retain his professional image and tries not to show it - but twice he looks down briefly and coupled with the blinking he gives this away. The fact that he smiles through this "submission" and also squints very slightly, shows how much he likes this guy, and not just his performance. Its almost like hes thinking "you just did something I could never do, even though I`m supposed to be judging you on it...". The way he holds his hand under his chin is like he's trying to raise his head, to keep his humility - in a "keep your chin up" kind of way. Very subtle stuff, but incredibly powerful if we could harness it and use it in our animation.

• -1:04 - This one is interesting. After she finishes saying "diamond" she does a slightly elongated blink. This is because she realises that shes actually said something a little stupid. Shes waiting for the reaction from the audience, and when it doesn't come immediately, a little tinge of embarrassment is seen, just in this single slightly lengthy blink.

• -3:12 - Back to near the start again. I like this little bit because it shows uncertainty and doubt in the guys eyes. After he sings the words "nessun dorma" ( or really at the start of "dorma" ) he does a very quick look down - I presume at the judges, and then quickly sets his eyes back to his little comfort zone that he clearly locks into right at the start of his performance. He is nervous here and wants a little token of reassurance. Its quick, but its there very clearly.

• -1:46 - Sorry to jump around. I like the change on the guys face as he realises his fate is in the hands of the judges. At first he taking in the applause, smiling, and recovering knowing he has done all the hard work - but then quickly breathes out and straightens his face as he realises he must deal with what is said in the next few moments. He also does a little nod, a little gesture of reassurance to himself that it will be ok.

• -0:36 - Look closely at the faces of the judges as they watch him walk off the stage. Once again I like the expression on the woman's face, and her body language. She has her hands flatly down on the table, which is kind of odd, but interesting. Its great too they way they all track him with their heads and not just their eyes as he walks off.

I think these subtle and hidden moments are much more powerful than any of the reactions, they edited together on the actual show. For instance the "half crying" and "face wiping" that the female judge is shown doing, says far less than a single pose that she holds around -1:42.

Anyway... I`m sure there's loads of things, of all different kinds you could pick out of any footage , I just thought that little clip had a nice set of unusual mannerisms and gestures I wanted to remember.

In the Works 1

Here's a few grabs of something I'm working on at home. It's a situational micro short about one guy teaching another inexperienced guy how to stake a vampire. Theres no dialogue, just facial expression and body language to tell the story.

This is gonna be the first real thing I create by working with a properly planned approach. I usually just dive into my animation, working layered and just letting stuff evolve from a loose idea in my mind. This is different. I've planned this thing out pretty detailed with thumbs, and I'm going through blocking my story poses now. To be honest - because I've never really blocked before - it taking me bloody ages. Can't wait to finish the blocking and get stuff moving. With hindsight though, I can't imagine how I would ever do something like this without blocking poses - its too complex otherwise.

It's super proxy right now - the background is totally temp, and the characters are deliberately low detail ( they're actually the same rig ). The grabs below don't really tell the full story at all - I`ve left a fair few chunks out - including the ending, but you a get a rough idea.

I really want to go for subtle animation in nervous versus confident body language, and the contrast between teacher and student. I`ll keep it comedic with broad and quick actions to spice things up a bit, and add some flair.

I plan to fully animate, render and audio track this little monster.. as well as set it all in a nice environment, so if you are reading this keep watching as I work towards finishing it.

Dont worry... Be Thinky !

When I'm working on a challenging animation, something that happens to me often, and must happen to every animator is a feeling of being overwhelmed; mainly by the millions of different ways you can approach a certain action within your sequence.

We've all been told over and over you must plan your animation. This is true of course, but I find no matter how much you think things through - there are always details left out, and spaces that you would prefer to leave to "evolve", after all that's part of the magic of animating... but these are precisely the bits that make us worry !

When I find myself worrying I'm often asking myself these questions:

• Does this bit fit with the rest of the shot ?
• Is there a more interesting way I could do this ?
• Is this action entertaining enough ?
• Does this really contrast to show any character ?
• Is this cliched ?
• How am I going to get this character to move to where he needs to be and look good ?
• Is this going to disrupt the pace of the shot ?
• Is this actually going to look any good when its animated ?
• Is my point going to be clear enough ?

These kind of thoughts are strong enough to make us want to switch off and do something easier. Like watch TV.. but I found something recently that really helps me through this.

Get away from the computer, and think objectively about what needs to happen. Its SO EASY to worry and waste an evening scrubbing back and forth through your poses trying to think of what could happen, or what should not happen. Just going over and over what you've already done.
The only real way to solve this is to get a pencil and paper and just have fun thinking about what would be really entertaining at that point.

These are the basic idea generators:

• What is the character thinking at this point ?

This is the real golden ticket. This is the blood and guts of what makes animation work or not, and its also the easiest starting point to help you think of ideas about what actions to animate. I always find that just by imagining myself in the character's scenario - that I suddenly get lots of ideas just from my own experiences. They serve as great starting points - then you can adapt those ideas you had to match what the character would do ( and not yourself ).

• What would I like to see ?

If you were in the theatre watching your shot ( but as animated by someone else - you've never seen this shot before ) , what would be really cool to see ? what would look really interesting ? or thought provoking or surprising ? what would you want to see if you were watching that shot for the first time ? not knowing what was going to happen next. What would you like the character to do to satisfy the way you feel about him ? This is really the nuts and bolts of filtering out whats entertaining.

• What does it look like ?

When I`ve filtered out a few acting choices using the 2 starters above - I find it really helps to act them out. In fact I find that acting it out is the best way to understand "what is the character thinking" .. act it over and over, with the webcam recording, and you will find that different acting choices evolve naturally. Things you would probably never have thought about on paper will start to happen as you act out ( i don't just mean body movements - but also actual actions that you would do it that situation ) - the key is to try and lose yourself in that moment and imagine yourself there - smelling the smells, feeling the rain, whatever it is that would effect how you act.
When you have a good basis, you can extend the idea to how your character on screen would act, and not yourself, but getting your own acting down first is the crucial step.

what about creatures / monsters / animals ? ( basically things that dont look like you ! )

All of the above still work. You will find that getting video reference of similar animals will help you a lot, just because you will see things you didn't think of or expect. I usually find that just taking the time to imagine myself in the creatures scenario is enough to generate ideas.

So that's it. I find that if I follow these three steps above I usually come out the other end of a frantic "worry fest" feeling much more confident, and with good solid ideas of what to do next. The most surprising thing is that its often clear as day what the right acting choice is, just because exploring by acting out ( in your mind or on video ) lets you understand what happens naturally, and not just pondering on what "moves well" or what "fits" or what will "look good".