Q: What about tiny spine movements while acting within a pose?
A: Small tiny movements are mostly not blocked. Movements that are sooo small that they are “felt” and not seen are never blocked (by Nicole). Just add all that during polish.
In the subject of how far to take blocking before splining, on “I am legend”, Nicole had to animate the entire deer sequence just to show blocking to the director (crazy amounts of work).
Some animation directors can take sketches to approve blocking for a shot, some need entire animation without blocking. It all depends.
Character arcs and performance:
Some people were critiquing Doc Manhattan’s performance, rather than his animation. Good job!
Talking about what it takes to have a character act within his story arcs - going from happy to sad, etc..
It doesn’t happen over 1 or 2 shots (unless that’s the intent). It usually takes a lot longer to make that internal change. But the most important thing here is that each shot hooks up to the shot before and after. Not every shot is a beautiful snowflake. Some are only paths to the next and are not that important for “important acting choices”.
When working on the character performance, really listen to the audio. Sometimes you can tell certain mannerisms from the audio. Like, you might be able to hear the person say the line with a smile or in pain. Inflections are really really important to pay attention to. Also, method acting for your character performances
Don’t get married to video reference. Definitely don’t get stuck in it. Some people can’t seem to animate without it and then you end up with Polar Express. Really stiff animations with no exaggeration. Use it for a guide for natural lines of movement and motion.
Look up a local acting class and take one! There are even acting classes for animators out there (especially in LA). If you’re in LA, look up ASIFA. Check out “Inside the actor’s studio”, “Who’s line is it anyway”, etc… Go see Muppet Up.
You have to know acting to further your animating performances. It’s not just body mechanics. You need to have better performances.
Use video reference to explore different possibilities before sketching! If you’re not sure how the dude is standing on the curb while calling the taxi, go act it out! Shoot yourself doing everything you can think of the flag the taxi. You might see things you would have never though to sketch. Oh, if you have a shot that has 4 people in it, go grab 4 friends! If you are animating a female, get a female!!! If you’re animating a fat guy, GET A FAT GUY! See the pattern? lol
In I am legend, Nicole had to animate a rat. So they all piled in her car and cruised down to a pet store and filmed a rat. Borrowed a rat even and filmed it for a while to get the reference.
**bathroom break**
You can cheat cuts. When characters are acting from scene to scene, it is possible to cut into movements. Like, if a character had a hand that was moving down toward out-of-frame in one shot, the next could have the hand gone. It’s fine as long as the audience can’t tell.
Gotta make sure it’s NEVER noticed.
This week: Make sure your hookups WORK. Start facial animation.