tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76484693560705694602024-03-19T02:39:18.662-07:00James P.W. Saunders AnimationAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-18473661299399776802017-09-21T14:07:00.001-07:002017-09-21T14:07:24.797-07:00Life Drawing Updates - Covent Garden<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Been getting back into the swing of drawing things again. When being so involved in a 3D digital world it's fun the break open the pencils and draw on paper. </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-70530579451797699242017-08-31T03:45:00.002-07:002017-09-10T23:50:28.327-07:00A New Animation - WIP Nervous Phonecall<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's a new animation I've been working on in my spare time between Jungle Book and Thor Ragnarok. It's still in stepped a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t the moment</span> so the spline stage will come next.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/231666685">WIP - Nervous Phonecall - Acting Piece</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For this animation I really wanted to focus on animating visible thought process without dialogue.<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span>I like the challenge of communicating an idea or story <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">without dialogue as it really helps me focus on what is important in <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a good animation.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also wanted to incorporate a story into the animation. Rather than have a static camera and a full body acting shot it felt more interesting to build a whole scenario around this character trying to phone a girl.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I learnt a lot by forcing myself to work in a stepped mode since it's the workflow I use the least. It helped me focus in on the key poses but also figuring out more interesting breakdowns. We'll see how it translates once I've moved into spline. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's some notes I scribble<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">d as I tried to <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">think of a good backstory to my character that I was animating<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (hope you can read them!) : </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaZFdcl0sOAmMhNdTREelNvMnHH7_31QaUeXHAKls6mbrs8Uh-XWU_LRiFYfEzpdfQYk72JoXTDl14qkk3eFmC4qiVqvOE9Z-BVmoeLjZJPaUxwUzYPMEWEECqEVq69Qmhbf7ZvF4VMct/s1600/IMG_2937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1198" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaZFdcl0sOAmMhNdTREelNvMnHH7_31QaUeXHAKls6mbrs8Uh-XWU_LRiFYfEzpdfQYk72JoXTDl14qkk3eFmC4qiVqvOE9Z-BVmoeLjZJPaUxwUzYPMEWEECqEVq69Qmhbf7ZvF4VMct/s400/IMG_2937.JPG" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKdYv3Bw0CU-KettSjov-2bxBMOkiW2x69CO1xkFgq7QcWy3JCjnOwQzstIfwV3dzDxT_-lr_XEn6jSQDr-aEK1WtX1gdWIA1CEnexpvI-2Iseq-RXxxKFkXws6q3xKIjYRramagk9Ga6A/s1600/IMG_2939.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="1600" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKdYv3Bw0CU-KettSjov-2bxBMOkiW2x69CO1xkFgq7QcWy3JCjnOwQzstIfwV3dzDxT_-lr_XEn6jSQDr-aEK1WtX1gdWIA1CEnexpvI-2Iseq-RXxxKFkXws6q3xKIjYRramagk9Ga6A/s400/IMG_2939.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So far i'm happy with the block so will try and get this one finished as soon as poss!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-55475465039920944092017-08-29T12:55:00.003-07:002017-08-30T13:07:49.104-07:00An Old Animation<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I watched this old animation I did from two years ago. It made me laugh and wonder why I'd never published it before. So here it is:</span></span><br />
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Door Walk</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometimes i think it's good to publish old work or even work in progress sometimes. </span></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-60391605098010297422017-03-29T13:05:00.001-07:002017-03-29T13:05:11.198-07:00Behind The Scenes - Making an animated film 2016<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Throughout the last year of uni I thought it'd be fun to film a "Behind the Scenes" movie about us making our short. Just some fun but i'm quite pleased with how it turned out :)</span><br />
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/210483538">Behind The Scenes - Making an Animated Film 2016</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-22101468822135642622017-02-26T17:01:00.000-08:002017-02-26T17:01:04.801-08:00Thumbnailing Video Reference<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, it's been a while since my last personal animation project but i felt like the time was right to do another one again. It's been tough to find the time alongside work but i'm having a lot of fun! Hopefully it will be finished soon and look half decent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I began as per usual by sketching out some ideas and then filming some acting reference. Once I was happy with my performance I blocked out the shot in maya. However, there was a particular part of the scene where my character just felt really off. The performance wasn't as clear as it needed to be. Since I wasn't sure how to approach the issue in maya I began to explore more options through thumbnailing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The result was the picture below: . </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF6o9eSgcIh3D_qBlRDU_jilvhpKTfZTDfFBdcfh3DxWlYio-wyQ63R8GshCdUSLwtEWfdvAz_OGVtVJ65UxeNDTg81asHZhWEto_9M5OnEvl_rvZbwewMDxSgmtz6fZRKdUMYr3LQW26i/s1600/16880602_10158646054335179_122357558_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF6o9eSgcIh3D_qBlRDU_jilvhpKTfZTDfFBdcfh3DxWlYio-wyQ63R8GshCdUSLwtEWfdvAz_OGVtVJ65UxeNDTg81asHZhWEto_9M5OnEvl_rvZbwewMDxSgmtz6fZRKdUMYr3LQW26i/s640/16880602_10158646054335179_122357558_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(the animation reads left to right too)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I thumbnailed an exaggerated version of my reference which really helped my understanding of the mechanics and the performance that I wanted to achieve. Now I could have done this in maya but it would have taken an awful lot longer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;">I took these exploratory thumbnails and then re-blocked it into my scene. The result turned out to be a bit too exaggerated but that was okay because it's much easier to tone down an exaggerated animation than ramp one up. Anyway, this thumbnail process is very helpful and I highly recommend it for people to use it in their projects too!!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-36661372096723926542016-12-17T08:22:00.001-08:002016-12-17T08:26:13.243-08:00OVERLAP - I thought i knew...<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When it comes to the principles of animation I feel like most people can grasp the concepts behind them pretty easily. After all that's the way objects move in real life. Overlap for example; objects at rest tend to stay at rest and objects in motion tend to want to stay moving. When an elephant stops walking, his trunk will swing forward and then back again. Simple! Or so i thought...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The other day at work I was trying to animate some tentacles moving around and overlapping. As I was struggling away</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">my friend and colleague sat next to me (</span><a href="https://vimeo.com/kayngarcia" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Kayn</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">) saw what I was doing and decided to give me an old school Disney lesson in overlap. Which went as follows:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">He handed me a sketch which looked like this one below:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">He then asked me what would happen to the string if the top were to start moving to the right, as if someone pulled it. I drew this...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKQTf_N8gJMPU1KK0KlpA9Cgo0TVLEiCG6q-bIqt13FtLhyphenhyphenRc4e1ocVrTEkkoy3BsgJwsXAAniar97f1QgAol5TOFpH8pzopxRbGL0VcTWmQmm343p0o28uwBkA4-zfJEN6zGtjpxlVAz/s1600/IMG_0234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKQTf_N8gJMPU1KK0KlpA9Cgo0TVLEiCG6q-bIqt13FtLhyphenhyphenRc4e1ocVrTEkkoy3BsgJwsXAAniar97f1QgAol5TOFpH8pzopxRbGL0VcTWmQmm343p0o28uwBkA4-zfJEN6zGtjpxlVAz/s400/IMG_0234.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">WRONG!!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Though this felt like the only solution it was in fact incorrect. In my mind I thought "well the end of the string will want to stay at rest but I suppose it will have to move a bit". Well yes that is true but it won't look like the above. It will in fact look like the diagram below: </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkMh3H-HVSOdjJn2PbCiz3liIm3DmKx5pQ11zf63qZhcdtBzt5_geBxWc0EsrDgUsWc9pkC48i6w-ee2d2EKKOETGfN-jxgQOGgf6zCttyyR9i89DQ-VwPmir-3cbLEmA5KJbx1xVgyVpf/s1600/IMG_0233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkMh3H-HVSOdjJn2PbCiz3liIm3DmKx5pQ11zf63qZhcdtBzt5_geBxWc0EsrDgUsWc9pkC48i6w-ee2d2EKKOETGfN-jxgQOGgf6zCttyyR9i89DQ-VwPmir-3cbLEmA5KJbx1xVgyVpf/s400/IMG_0233.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The end of the string moves to the left!! </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My mind blew up a little bit at this point. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As the string is pulled it's height shortens causing the end to move up and left. Try this at home now by holding a pencil at one end and moving it right rapidly. The end will drag left first. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> It also gives us this really wonderful S curve and curve reversal in the end of the string. This S curve appears again if the string were to stop moving too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As Kayn corrected my drawing like the one above I could finally understand why my overlapping tentacles weren't looking too hot. Even though i felt like I grasped the concept of overlap, I didn't really understand it. And that's where the difference is. So, time to revisit all the principles and really understand the secret mechanics of them all.</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-21748108306768936992016-12-10T06:22:00.004-08:002016-12-10T06:22:40.113-08:00Life Drawing - Framestore Evening Classes<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The past couple months Framestore have been running life drawing classes in the evenings. Even after a long day of animation on the computer it's really nice to break out the pens and pencils and draw for a couple of hours. The drawings below are from a session where I just used pen. I did this to just mix things up a bit and force me to commit to my lines. The classes too really helped my animation as it trains the eye to be more analytical and precise when studying movement.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLhKxvDVTsp8Y4NSv4O6uiLzFxYKhjkOBGDQtmI23F5wOAgWPpdDekc6NSJX06Q9Og0qKHbNsJhD7-mzwHZaBQBtDCnaIJxhRuEBbyG9nSi6X6EvPgF2oKmgBlDifO_GsqKdqCGKe51UD/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLhKxvDVTsp8Y4NSv4O6uiLzFxYKhjkOBGDQtmI23F5wOAgWPpdDekc6NSJX06Q9Og0qKHbNsJhD7-mzwHZaBQBtDCnaIJxhRuEBbyG9nSi6X6EvPgF2oKmgBlDifO_GsqKdqCGKe51UD/s400/FullSizeRender.jpg" width="341" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoPMTP3FzuAy9z7IQbIR_YLWiAG64usIwytXdtwECmG_IyVran7c9sXoJZdvgnSv6mXH0alJoMBDBkvGJa1V4XYNwEPzZ3QZ7t3YnSv8-kvmKbRtH-nZ66gukRnxhyPsMt0lqHCTMSwjDW/s1600/IMG_0142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoPMTP3FzuAy9z7IQbIR_YLWiAG64usIwytXdtwECmG_IyVran7c9sXoJZdvgnSv6mXH0alJoMBDBkvGJa1V4XYNwEPzZ3QZ7t3YnSv8-kvmKbRtH-nZ66gukRnxhyPsMt0lqHCTMSwjDW/s400/IMG_0142.jpg" width="273" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzO4s7Szt_8f-vHBoct2xGJsnwWPnytwaBJYNuM0UIhFMCkbQs8gwut_lX0XV1u469zji6wbmnDgst96zTxog86f3GKJsWGJVhyphenhyphenTXYQwKFxIdbi6O17Xk5ux_bpF8V55-ebLn0deAbmuhb/s1600/IMG_0158.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzO4s7Szt_8f-vHBoct2xGJsnwWPnytwaBJYNuM0UIhFMCkbQs8gwut_lX0XV1u469zji6wbmnDgst96zTxog86f3GKJsWGJVhyphenhyphenTXYQwKFxIdbi6O17Xk5ux_bpF8V55-ebLn0deAbmuhb/s400/IMG_0158.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyAkuBH6flwxQNHpr6cZKoXgPX5DSqMRk-FG4_ZHQHrIj3Yx4BWOiYEEBw_xgKcj0V6vqq-s9yUPkiS_gylSuATJw2BFZUycEX40kQdBzPEevj-tbLA5x65mwDSN9P_6_rGpVIbKrU7Jb3/s1600/IMG_0164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyAkuBH6flwxQNHpr6cZKoXgPX5DSqMRk-FG4_ZHQHrIj3Yx4BWOiYEEBw_xgKcj0V6vqq-s9yUPkiS_gylSuATJw2BFZUycEX40kQdBzPEevj-tbLA5x65mwDSN9P_6_rGpVIbKrU7Jb3/s400/IMG_0164.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-40995923455552051152016-10-22T03:51:00.000-07:002016-10-22T03:57:10.641-07:00MOVING HOUSE - A short documentary film <div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In preparation for starting work at Framestore I moved to London along with some of my University housemates. I thought it'd be a cool moment to capture so I made a little documentary short film about it. Hope you enjoy! It's a bit silly...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/183196776" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="800"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/183196776">MOVING HOUSE 2016 - Short Film</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-8519585233484211252016-10-15T04:26:00.004-07:002016-10-15T05:31:36.014-07:00Christian Bale - Dialogue without Dialogue<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whilst watching The Big Short again the other day I was blown away by how good the acting was. One scene in particular really grabbed my attention and got me thinking about acting without dialogue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's the scene in which Christian Bale's character Dr. Michael Burry is negotiating a deal with Goldman Sachs in order to short the housing market. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Have a watch of the entire scene below:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A really good scene, Bale is super interesting to watch. So there is a point in the scene where the camera rests on Bale as he is waiting for the other two to finish negotiating. He isn't listening, just waiting in my opinion. His acting here is so genius i love it! Watch the clip below again which should play at this particular point (2 minutes in):</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SO GOOD. By acting the way that he does Bale gives the character depth and dimension. In animation we constantly strive for this kind of unique acting instead of the generic cliched stuff. So the question is, <b>what</b> exactly is Bale doing that is so interesting and </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> does he do it?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's allow Bale to explain to explain that himself:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Niiiice. So what he's getting at is even though he doesn't have any dialogue on paper, he has dialogue in his head which informs his acting choices which we see on screen. This whole interview is super interesting and worth a watch. I've pulled out some of the quotes below:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"If you're silent in the scene you have an internal converstation that never stops"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"What i'll do sometimes when beginning a film [is] write dialogue for the silence"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"You can convey almost everything you need to convey without saying anything"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, with what we've just learnt we can look back at the scene from The Big Short with fresh eyes and try to decipher what Bale's inner dialogue might be...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a really simple concept but when done right it really brings the character to life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just briefly Michael Caine also talks about this method for listening in a scene (it applies whether someone is listening or not as in Bale's case) too. Again this whole Workshop is worth a watch too:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, how does all this apply to animation? I think it's especially useful for those quiet scenes where a character may not be doing much . It's tempting to over animate these as a cheap way of trying to keep the audience interested. But by constructing this inner dialogue we have a structure on which to guide the performance. And this in and of itself it makes the character seem much more alive. Which is ultimately what it's all about! Hope this helps :)</span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-1603942173178184112016-10-04T14:35:00.000-07:002016-10-15T04:28:20.500-07:00Final Year Films at Uni of Herts<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Finally getting round to posting my final year Uni films!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hope you enjoy them :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Far Fetched was the film I worked on with Daniel Ridley and James Richardson. We had tons of fun making it and a very hapy with the result. I think there are definitely some changes that we'd all like to make but under the circumstances I think we did okay. Enjoy"</span></div>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/168387016">Far Fetched - Animated Short Film 2016</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bertie the Elephant was the other film I had a part in making. I animated 3 shots in total and learnt a lot in the process. Again there's changes i'd like to make but that's the way of the animator!</span></div>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/168253503">Bertie The Elephant - A short film by Chris Turner and Zak Boxall</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user9107846">zakboxall</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-66576420399044981172016-06-17T15:20:00.002-07:002016-10-15T04:33:47.687-07:00Drawing again!<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Found some time to go back to some life drawing recently (still V. rusty):</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA1_Ml3ttS-n-_uL2GPMh1wXMJRL3bLZ7cC3rCsSvKRpRrsZMcz935BnvMuQ5O74DQ6_pSYgsH7g6YUAl50iMprX90x0F6uAqmL8fNm1VE-SJQnvWg6RkqJcKSnpKAdf4yAsrolhHj7zZ0/s1600/13480304_10157385351925179_1192366955_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA1_Ml3ttS-n-_uL2GPMh1wXMJRL3bLZ7cC3rCsSvKRpRrsZMcz935BnvMuQ5O74DQ6_pSYgsH7g6YUAl50iMprX90x0F6uAqmL8fNm1VE-SJQnvWg6RkqJcKSnpKAdf4yAsrolhHj7zZ0/s640/13480304_10157385351925179_1192366955_n.jpg" width="440" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Check out Glenn Vilppu for some amazing drawing tips from an absolute master. I learnt 3 super valuable tips from his drawing demo which i'll link below. The tips concern hand movements as one tries to define the form and the gesture of the figure (16mins 30secs into the video) which are:</span></div>
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<li style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Draw with the flow</span></li>
<li style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Go over the surface and around the form</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By doing this we get a very deliberate 3 dimensional drawing. Here's the vid which I highly recommend watching the whole thing:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bear in mind there's no rules for life drawing but sometimes tips like these can really help, and of course nothing beats practice! Hope this helps! </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-38232915074610879282016-05-29T14:30:00.002-07:002016-10-15T04:36:51.369-07:00Animating the Pauses - Philip Seymour Hoffman<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was randomly watching some movie scenes on YouTube when I came across this one from Along Came Polly with Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'm a big fan of Seymour Hoffman and love his comedic roles, they're just packed with comedic timing. The thing i noticed about this particular scene however were two instances where he anticipates his dialogue. He gestures within the pause and makes the whole scene funnier and more emotional too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's the first example after he says the line "base jumping":</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The intensity of Hoffman as he tries to force the words "crocodile wrestling" out of his mouth just adds so much believability to his acting performance. His mouth forms random shapes, his shoulders rise up and he shakes his head and hands with exaggeration and anticipation of what he's about to say. It also adds so much depth to the entire scene as the character Sandy Lyle (Hoffman) is pretending to be Ben Stiller's character as a favour. And since Sandy Lyle is not a insurance lawyer he doesn't know what he's talking about so ofcourse he'll pause and try and be overly intense to make up this fact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another more emotional example comes towards the end of the scene:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Right after the guy asks "Are you one of the guys from Crocodile Tears?" Hoffman reacts like he's about to immediately reply but instead he pauses, lets out a sigh and then says "You're goddamn right I am" So much is occurring in that pause!! His entire character development is completed right in those few anticipatory seconds!! (Some background info: Hoffmans' character Sandy Lyle basically is trying so hard to give off the impression he is a serious actor but everyone only recognises hims as the 'Crocodile Tears' guy he played as a kid.) so, in this scene he finally accepts who he is and just owns it instead. Such good acting :) just imagine the scene again but without the pause. It would be 100 times less effective.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Okay...so what??</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, by leaving room for a pause in the dialogue we can animate the thought process of a character! This can add drama, humor, emotional weight and subtlety. All the things that help make it seem like a character is a living, breathing and dimensional entity reacting under it's own accord.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is definitely an area i'm going to explore for my next character animation piece. Hope this blog post makes sense :)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-73400748016568845642016-05-16T02:39:00.001-07:002016-10-15T04:35:25.244-07:00Creature Animation Workflow - Bertie the Elephant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I recently finished animating on the last shot for my friend's final year project <a href="http://www.3dhit.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27986" target="_blank">Bertie the Elephant</a>. Since it was my last shot too I thought i'd put everything i've got into it. It was probably the hardest shot I've ever had to animate so I thought I'd write about the workflow I took to animate it. However i will say that there is no right or wrong way to animate a shot. There are probably better and faster ways to do this as i'm still just sort of figuring out stuff for myself!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For context the elephant has just returned the toy to the girl and is walking away gleefully from the house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After discussing some ideas with the leads of 'Bertie the Elephant' (<a href="http://www.3dhit.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27986" target="_blank">Zak</a> and <a href="http://christurnerphotoblog.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Chris</a>) we settled on the idea that Bertie would cross the road and then look back at the girls house before proceeding to walk towards the camera and out of frame. With this basic idea I began to plan, research and maximise the entertainment value of the shot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Research!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Probably the most important aspect in doing any creature shot, realistic or cartoony, is doing research of the animal that you're animating. I watched plenty of baby elephant videos on youtube so I could simply get a feel for the way the move and interact with the world. I would also try and find footage that matched what I had in mind for my shot, relevant walks and head turns basically. Then by taking the best bits of video reference I went and imported them into maya for a reference guide.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once all the video reference was in I began to animate!! But before leaping straight into all the little details of the shot i wanted to make sure the basic movement, timing and screen position of the elephant was looking good. To do this i simply slid around the global controller of the elephant into the areas i wanted, easy! Once i was reasonably happy I then created a large sphere that moved along with the elephant. I did this so that when I muted the global animation on the rig to start properly animating the sphere would show me where to go! I then took the local body controller of the elephant (which controls the entire body except the feet) and animated the movement of the elephant with that. If it was up to me i would have hid the legs but since i couldn't i keyed them in to follow beneath the elephant. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the end the blocking looked something like this (password: bertie)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/166717133">blocking 002</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It looks rubbish but the basic timing and movement is there as a skeleton to work from.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>ANIMATING WOO</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once all the blocking seemed good i then began to really start animating! I decided to break the shot down into two parts from here; the walk up until he looks back at the house, and then the run towards camera. So, i began by looking at some happy walking reference from earlier and dove straight in. I just focused on trying to get the rough placement and timing of all the feet first, especially since the elephant starts to turn to walk almost sideways. By getting all this information down into maya it gave me a pretty solid base to move around and play with. I didn't detail too much in as i knew my first guess of these placements would be close but not perfect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Getting the feet placements and timings correct was probably the toughest part about the shot. Especially when the animation has to drift away from any video reference that you have. When this happens it's just a case of gritting your teeth and using your animation knowledge and research to make sure the timing and posing still looks good. There wasn't an easy way to do this!!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After a while I had something like this (password: bertie):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166717546" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/166717546">Bertie - Blocking 003</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again it's still rubbish looking at first glance but I'm slowly getting the feet positions into roughly the right places.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also look at how much i'm managing to use from the video reference in this shot and mould it into what i want to use. I have a feeling that the more advanced an animator you become, the less tied you are to the video reference in the way that i was. That being said, by the time i got to the end of the shot i had deviated quite a lot from just animating from one single piece of reference.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once I was fairly happy with the feet positions I went back and did another pass over the whole shot. I put in more detail such as the hip and shoulder rotations and paid more attention into getting the elephant to move smoothly. After this stage I was at a fairly good place body mechanics wise and acting wise. Password: bertie</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166724849" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/166724849">Bertie - Blocking 005</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He's still a bit wibbly wobbly towards the end but I'm now way closer to what i wanted to achieve out of the shot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Throughout the animation I would make tons of notes on ways to improve the shot. Generally i'd playblast to check my progress and then write down all the areas i found wrong with the shot. I'd then go back to maya and address my own notes. This way I never found myself wasting time by noodling with unimportant issues with the animation. Highly recommend doing this!!</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLsu9yqMCDcfvVejDuT0fT_aYMhpUVSsGdhiRWTn5WDuTjv0M5pYkG-O_X9Rsl8572JPy3jW9AzoLnV4gAkXOKAFgwtW4lX1UUaWMgbq4DAuZWNw3XFCuqcBx4mkdZi4aQBP8w8a2puET/s1600/13225029_10157256106420179_272204210_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLsu9yqMCDcfvVejDuT0fT_aYMhpUVSsGdhiRWTn5WDuTjv0M5pYkG-O_X9Rsl8572JPy3jW9AzoLnV4gAkXOKAFgwtW4lX1UUaWMgbq4DAuZWNw3XFCuqcBx4mkdZi4aQBP8w8a2puET/s640/13225029_10157256106420179_272204210_o.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Polish</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The final stage is the polish stage. It's where you begin to tidy up all the little details in the mechanics, smooth out any graph editor curves and in general just get the shot ready for handin. The trickiest part of the polish stage is getting rid of any knee pops and weird leg movement overall. But really, the hard part is over and with a few extra days needling out any weighting issues i got this (passowrd: bertie):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166725125" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/166725125">Bertie - FINAL</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wahoo! A finished elephant shot :) :) All in all this shot took about 8 solid days work. Hopefully with more practice i can increase my speed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, hopefully that helps illuminate my creature workflow for this type of shot. I think workflow varies widely from shot to shot depending on the movement of the character but through experience it should be easier to spot the correct direction to take! That's all for now, will post up the finished film soon in all it's rendered glory! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">James</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-55230301003555050852016-05-04T03:10:00.004-07:002016-10-15T05:32:46.445-07:00Thumbnails, Exploration and Planning!<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For one of the shots I animated during Far-Fetched I made the classic mistake of not properly planning the performance i wanted. Even at the time I felt pretty comfortable with the action i wanted to animate but after i diving into maya it soon became obvious I was out of my depth. Inevitably as i wrestled more and more with the keys the shot started to look really bad. Ultimately I decided to restart the whole shot from the start and do some PLANNING!!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We all know how easy it is to skip over the planning stage of a shot, it's so tempting to think that you can save time this way but inevitably it will nearly always come round to cause problems down the line. The aim of this post is not just to talk about planning however but to talk about how the combination of video reference and thumbnails in the planning stage contributes to the quality of a shot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In case anyone is wondering it might be helpful to explain what thumbnails are. Essentially thumbnails are very quick, rough sketches that help the animator figure out key poses in a shot. They allow the animator to explore as many posing possibilities as quickly as possible as well as figuring out any staging and acting issues.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_g2LMZy2omXGqB20fbz73gzaopk70Bq0RoJOBPBCin-dwuAqNS9u2Ul0rYLr8SnT2Nr1tkr7AbeA6iKDwLd4XZC1UdXs8vKyNa7x5P8M6xfV0G02uTgtVcd46qZVbT_Nvg0eZLwSt6VwH/s1600/tumblr_mo7og0c4df1rwvtlro1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_g2LMZy2omXGqB20fbz73gzaopk70Bq0RoJOBPBCin-dwuAqNS9u2Ul0rYLr8SnT2Nr1tkr7AbeA6iKDwLd4XZC1UdXs8vKyNa7x5P8M6xfV0G02uTgtVcd46qZVbT_Nvg0eZLwSt6VwH/s400/tumblr_mo7og0c4df1rwvtlro1_500.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Example of thumbnails by legendary animator Glen Keane</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is becoming more and more useful to me is the feedback loop between thumbnailing and video reference. Throughout Far-Fetched I would rough out my poses on paper and then try and feel out those poses in my video reference. I'd then look back at my video reference which would then spark more ideas which i would thumbnail again. It allows me to really explore and then refine the acting for the actual animation stage.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once I got into Maya i would refer back to both the video reference and thumbnails again. In many cases the camera angle in my video reference would not quite match the angle in the film, when this happened i would refer back to my thumbnails for a posing and staging guide. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some examples from Far-Fetched:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROZIfPhAHlJkddA7yZF9RsgB5dtM223-CRL9NDz1GN4X1M2oyeGIho6IBPNxA5jyF447hL54pgk3FFdC76mmXGgpZvGuiCXaXacBu4ATBsIYqQVI1UgeZOW4KccGSn13G2qWBngrLLuj0/s1600/thumbnail01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROZIfPhAHlJkddA7yZF9RsgB5dtM223-CRL9NDz1GN4X1M2oyeGIho6IBPNxA5jyF447hL54pgk3FFdC76mmXGgpZvGuiCXaXacBu4ATBsIYqQVI1UgeZOW4KccGSn13G2qWBngrLLuj0/s400/thumbnail01.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGEOPfx3bL67QkcOnH7CuvmQSPA5j7FiYTu3BFq0hntpui8ejJQGkB598CzbyZ9Fd6O_Cy8k7BAhC92yglycEbLhikLOhsyW6J3oBtMNKfIC3G3EBbNf01Sx5jWxT7GLDw_c7oQI0NHIL/s1600/thumbnails_06.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGEOPfx3bL67QkcOnH7CuvmQSPA5j7FiYTu3BFq0hntpui8ejJQGkB598CzbyZ9Fd6O_Cy8k7BAhC92yglycEbLhikLOhsyW6J3oBtMNKfIC3G3EBbNf01Sx5jWxT7GLDw_c7oQI0NHIL/s320/thumbnails_06.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjswiZ4kCoF8byu-daKyw1-AwNk6W_M1d-dXchCnWjRVdtTqkaRd0z03r4zB-wn2nq0cJX4VRMKi5vNXZtkPsf_SaiY5isQsbivKlfOl7I8YSH1jNwzgaUiA1RTgvOUbawH4aFnEjrwzoyV/s1600/thumbnail02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjswiZ4kCoF8byu-daKyw1-AwNk6W_M1d-dXchCnWjRVdtTqkaRd0z03r4zB-wn2nq0cJX4VRMKi5vNXZtkPsf_SaiY5isQsbivKlfOl7I8YSH1jNwzgaUiA1RTgvOUbawH4aFnEjrwzoyV/s320/thumbnail02.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg63SyuvX023fC1a759xL7Rbl4KustWQZ16gLUx6knJdNm46O4NfCJtTErWagim92URkh13qk6kaiuGlErWOQepmn4uy1FS-k_Q8bXUYI6JwVpmM9tUbqpERZziPLR5FhzhGG-MZCX5FCcb/s1600/thumbnails_05.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg63SyuvX023fC1a759xL7Rbl4KustWQZ16gLUx6knJdNm46O4NfCJtTErWagim92URkh13qk6kaiuGlErWOQepmn4uy1FS-k_Q8bXUYI6JwVpmM9tUbqpERZziPLR5FhzhGG-MZCX5FCcb/s320/thumbnails_05.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dqfqxfMpnIXBrYRR2L2Ekz7suT4su65HUH7qFzJiL-8DqtIdqD9pEMalHOdLnytm8wzmaMr8h3yGfaHV9mabs7dbKsrHOt_lAxmFJk3VY4ETqBj9xRP1yBMftD9lFLCxi2P0qP-T4aTd/s1600/thumbnails_04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dqfqxfMpnIXBrYRR2L2Ekz7suT4su65HUH7qFzJiL-8DqtIdqD9pEMalHOdLnytm8wzmaMr8h3yGfaHV9mabs7dbKsrHOt_lAxmFJk3VY4ETqBj9xRP1yBMftD9lFLCxi2P0qP-T4aTd/s320/thumbnails_04.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6uQ5BUqAKtWxYyTBxw31I6rbTErBnxdBDN1dGl5-3aKHkiDcuV3sbfGOa-r1KBwZ93WRvr4TwnRIxyxxCfRblgdFwqsYXu8e89ef3Q-0iMRUhy3bGIb79RlS3YKJmPrwXYPxIFam-d2jo/s1600/thumbnail03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6uQ5BUqAKtWxYyTBxw31I6rbTErBnxdBDN1dGl5-3aKHkiDcuV3sbfGOa-r1KBwZ93WRvr4TwnRIxyxxCfRblgdFwqsYXu8e89ef3Q-0iMRUhy3bGIb79RlS3YKJmPrwXYPxIFam-d2jo/s400/thumbnail03.jpg" width="306" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe you'll be able to spot which shots these came from in the final film!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All this planning process sounds like it takes a long time (which is why it's so tempting to skip it!) but by going through this process the animation becomes so much more considered and the quality sky-rockets. And really this whole process can only take a couple of hours when it's all added up. I can't recommend it enough even for the most basic shots.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here are some great PDF links too on thumbnailing and a fantastic one on Glen Keane's animation process. Definitely worth a read.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.animationmeat.com/pdf/nineoldmen/rescuers_thumbs.pdf"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.animationmeat.com/pdf/nineoldmen/rescuers_thumbs.pdf</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.animationmeat.com/pdf/featureanimation/Glen_Keane_Animation.pdf">http://www.animationmeat.com/pdf/featureanimation/Glen_Keane_Animation.pdf</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-74189201664568555932016-04-09T13:09:00.000-07:002016-04-09T13:09:06.049-07:00A Quick Post on Failure - (An old post I wrote but never published)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last week all the animation students at University had to hand in their latest showreels for a pre-christmas assesment. We then gathered as a year and watched them on the big screen for everyone to watch...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll admit, when I watched my showreel I felt like it wasn't up to the standard I usually aim towards. The title cards were outdated, the pacing was bad, none of the shots were rendered, none of the shots were finished to a stage I was happy with and it was generally boring to watch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That being said, I feel like it's okay to have a major kick in the teeth like this one. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As 'artists' we're constantly asking ourselves to create. Create drawings, sculpts, matte paintings, animation, whatever it is, our job is to create. And in order to create great work, we must fail, and fail often. By failing fast and often we are constantly faced with opportunities to assess the quality of our work and then ask ourselves and others how to improve.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Failure teaches the shape of our intuition. After you keep making a mistake/failing, you'll begin to see it coming from farther away than before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All in all there is therefore no straightforward path, so keep failing and fail often.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4WwROTfTXadvrFkmSTMRxD1H-lsR1Hh3FoiITovlqIlNSC0gi5lkSyIPbMdGfmKdCFt69PNV8wizcUTOxjGvkj2Y7ZZ_gf5VAWJGry7vbZzLPC0KW4wcjd2Dpf5aj5TEIdiDObWPQb38/s1600/success-sketch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4WwROTfTXadvrFkmSTMRxD1H-lsR1Hh3FoiITovlqIlNSC0gi5lkSyIPbMdGfmKdCFt69PNV8wizcUTOxjGvkj2Y7ZZ_gf5VAWJGry7vbZzLPC0KW4wcjd2Dpf5aj5TEIdiDObWPQb38/s400/success-sketch.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-15954192795423917632016-04-09T13:03:00.002-07:002016-04-09T13:03:54.190-07:00Work Dump 2016<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Been ages since I last posted on here. Testament to how busy things have been and how rubbish i am at keeping a diary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thought i'd dump a whole bunch of separate animations i've been working on for my final year films: <a href="http://robotanddog.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Far-Fetched</a> (apologies for the lack of blog updates on here too...) and <a href="http://www.bertietheelephant.com/" target="_blank">Bertie the Elephant</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of these are still in the WIP stage:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/161815938" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/161815938">Bertie the Elephant - Shot_009 WIP</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="282" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/161899100" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/161899100">Bertie Shot_013 - Sad Walk</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Far-Fetched</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/159044410">Shot_123_FarFetched</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/159045257" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/159045257">Shot_017</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/159045098" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/159045098">Shot_033</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More updates to come....i promise :)</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-44835655447409741842015-12-21T15:17:00.001-08:002015-12-21T15:17:16.639-08:00Kayla - Home From School (cont.)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Continued animation sequence from last month with the Kayla rig:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/148617155" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/148617155">Kayla - Home from School</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Going to make a couple of changes to the arc of the jump onto the sofa. Been very tricky trying to work out the change in Centre of gravity as she goes in and out of the front flip. Maybe a nice render will help the animation eventually too!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-8625566141071891372015-11-12T02:34:00.002-08:002015-11-12T02:34:21.911-08:00Anomalisa (2015)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stunning trailer for 2015 film "Anomalisa" A glorious looking stop-motion film by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. Definitely looks like it's pushing the boundaries of what an animated feature can achieve, and i can't wait to see it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DT6QJaS2a-U" width="560"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-77455096888920272202015-11-05T04:50:00.000-08:002015-11-05T04:50:09.178-08:00Kayla - Home from School<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As part of our showreel submissions for this year I decided to do an animation with the Kayla rig as it looked like it'd be a lot of fun to animate with:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_5fZcrXDcImKOYAFtir6wc0VeLVIiKkZCKwordR7ET-5rDzyzHW2M4NPpkf73BHxbqnNUzAQKa6JyTkQMINLwedSmsfXTxDI65G9Q2FTt8H7vnc4qkygx5TNsDrfLjsXaKw1V3QaZf2f/s1600/504714399_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_5fZcrXDcImKOYAFtir6wc0VeLVIiKkZCKwordR7ET-5rDzyzHW2M4NPpkf73BHxbqnNUzAQKa6JyTkQMINLwedSmsfXTxDI65G9Q2FTt8H7vnc4qkygx5TNsDrfLjsXaKw1V3QaZf2f/s640/504714399_640.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted to come up with a mini story for the animation, something that I could try and draw an audience into despite being only 20 seconds long or so. I ended up with the following scenario:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Kayla is returning home from school to find her favourite TV program on"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From here I quickly scribbled out some ideas on paper:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36keBNkHP0LHoMFDMWDBPA6Ys5BDa_2x9mCxoiXP4WBTRT08g-HKEJwZmgVsP2-jpe7AYG2s46z_iaJpqSK0zbX2U5hCQaWZhRwwmGXWDm-akVhhJaMKETK-2BsbgS6kxMIwauzGgA6nr/s1600/12204612_10156522780815179_274183207_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36keBNkHP0LHoMFDMWDBPA6Ys5BDa_2x9mCxoiXP4WBTRT08g-HKEJwZmgVsP2-jpe7AYG2s46z_iaJpqSK0zbX2U5hCQaWZhRwwmGXWDm-akVhhJaMKETK-2BsbgS6kxMIwauzGgA6nr/s400/12204612_10156522780815179_274183207_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzomVw5v21KauARCG_aboJXClU2k5FeSW-DGkgluyd4sTurEIqtDAqZIJ4ZP3JdoZMt4FA3ZEkVgFvDocBlPuirbTZz8a2QZzwgrmYv2sWZ9-pNqdAf3OoKS1wjc2wD7dPRGHeAXQMbs1Y/s1600/12188787_10156522780780179_1068914186_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzomVw5v21KauARCG_aboJXClU2k5FeSW-DGkgluyd4sTurEIqtDAqZIJ4ZP3JdoZMt4FA3ZEkVgFvDocBlPuirbTZz8a2QZzwgrmYv2sWZ9-pNqdAf3OoKS1wjc2wD7dPRGHeAXQMbs1Y/s400/12188787_10156522780780179_1068914186_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's not much but it gave me a base to start on. From here I quickly modelled the scene in Maya so I could explore some more camera options. I do this as i find it a little bit tricky sometimes to explore all the camera options on paper:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif2u5A-u01EzhA-WNXRwbj3MFktKxXkFf6h9HbZEMp5JYSUENPpl_vArTfjpmcHrwfRYAHJLMFCy1Ii0MvsEEk-YVvzDU-TQRHpVWh0nW3GRbmja3te1nSbWenZRmU-MjMvYOllgXFImxY/s1600/Untitled-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif2u5A-u01EzhA-WNXRwbj3MFktKxXkFf6h9HbZEMp5JYSUENPpl_vArTfjpmcHrwfRYAHJLMFCy1Ii0MvsEEk-YVvzDU-TQRHpVWh0nW3GRbmja3te1nSbWenZRmU-MjMvYOllgXFImxY/s640/Untitled-6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once I worked out how the two shots cut together I began work on the first shot as Kayla comes home. I imagined her slightly down, hugging all her books and she walks past the living room where she sees her favourite program is on. As i was shooting the video reference I was getting lots of great feedback from my peers and lecturers as we tried to think of ways of getting as much juice from the shot as possible. For example someone suggested that Kayla does this little dance of excitement before she runs into the living room. I didn't have this in my previous versions but it adds so much character, it's so important to get that fresh opinion on your ideas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A WIP is here on Vimeo for the first shot. I still need to work on a couple things but i'm pretty happy for where i'm currently at. I've been working on the shot mostly in the evenings after uni for a couple weeks:</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/144360971" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/144360971">Home From School - WIP</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More to come!!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-50345093328971428072015-11-02T03:59:00.001-08:002016-10-15T05:36:11.304-07:00Key Poses - A Refresh<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Found this video the other day and it's really made me look more closely at one of the key principles of animation. Key Poses!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The key poses are the building blocks of any good animation. Ideally one can communicate an entire idea through just the key poses, the storytelling poses. For a great key pose there are several factors that are usually kept in mind. These are usually:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clear silhouette, Line of action, appeal, squash and stretch, rhythm, tilt and twist, (and many others i'm sure i'm forgetting) Life drawing really hones the eye in on what makes an interesting pose too!!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The video below highlighted just how important good key poses are in communicating a a story clearly:</span></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/143374390" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/143374390">The Keys: Inside Out</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/kylekenworthy">Kyle Kenworthy</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's made me rethink the way I approach a shot as I have been becoming more reliant on video reference to give me basis of the shot. I think I need to spend more time drawing out the key poses I want as well as figuring out exactly where they lie in the shot too. That way I can be sure I have a really strong base to start animating on from the start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-7962854557947547062015-11-01T13:11:00.001-08:002015-11-01T13:11:08.687-08:00Team Danger Explosion FINAL YEAR FILM<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotJoVFykklWj4OQ4rFHbUoV7rElLN6vpeX3zb7p9YUz4MYzfoYKMR1xtb8RrC1DV87qsSp_Fh6NvwgWOGkk-OyXijHmD5SnIyX3VZRcsV2nazV2dgqYadrLg9HUeU4BPf-prBfFLnfilP/s1600/Team+Danger+Explosion+Mega+Ultra+Mega+Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotJoVFykklWj4OQ4rFHbUoV7rElLN6vpeX3zb7p9YUz4MYzfoYKMR1xtb8RrC1DV87qsSp_Fh6NvwgWOGkk-OyXijHmD5SnIyX3VZRcsV2nazV2dgqYadrLg9HUeU4BPf-prBfFLnfilP/s640/Team+Danger+Explosion+Mega+Ultra+Mega+Logo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My final year at Uni has come around which means it's time to make another short animated film!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Team Danger Explosion is teaming up again (<a href="https://vimeo.com/danriduk" target="_blank">Dan Ridley</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/chichyanimations" target="_blank">James Richardson</a>) and hopefully we're going to make an overall better film than last year, and if we're lucky get into the end of year <a href="http://uhanimation.co.uk/expose/" target="_blank">Animation Expose</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All film updates can be found on the film's blog page here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://robotanddog.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Robot and Dog</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Check it out!!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-61686591550976675762015-09-04T12:23:00.002-07:002015-09-04T12:23:23.294-07:00Framestore Internship London<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had the opportunity to spend 8 weeks at <a href="http://www.framestore.com/" target="_blank">Framestore</a> over the summer to work with the animation team on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_Book:_Origins" target="_blank">Jungle Book</a>. Working as an animator I got to experience what working on a major project is like, as well as having an amazing time :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the evenings I worked on a personal project to really push my character animation skills. I was assigned to a mentor <a href="https://vimeo.com/edwinschaap" target="_blank">Edwin Schaap</a>, an amazing animator, who helped me along the way with notes and feedback as well as getting help from the Jungle Book guys around me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I looked online for a soundclip and began working my way through:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/138091055" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/138091055">Framestore Internship - Personal Project</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/jamessaunders">James Saunders</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall i'm pretty happy with the result. Looking back at it now I reckon i would change the acting at the end to match the angry tone of the dialogue more. It was a huge learning experience doing this and I've learnt a huge amount, can't wait to do the next one! (Huuuge thanks to the animators around me for such great feedback and patience aha)</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-88385755452628776272015-06-29T03:30:00.001-07:002016-10-15T05:41:50.451-07:00Dialogue Piece - Workflow 02 - Acting and Reference<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I decided to pick a sound clip from cancelled BBC sitcom 'Siblings' . It made me laugh and had some cool little qualities to it that I thought would be really fun to animate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Sound Clip:</b> https://www.dropbox.com/s/60bu9rz72lgq38f/shorter_version.wav?dl=0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first thing I like to do is just sit and listen to the audio over and over. I tend to get an image in my head of who the character is and the general situation that he's in. (Refer to the acting essential blog post for more acting notes (<a href="http://jamespwsaunders.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/acting-essentials.html" target="_blank">Acting Essentials</a>) This really helps inform the acting decisions later on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I try to keep in mind several key points: What's the story? What is the scene objective? Overall objective? Obstacles to the objective? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Play an action until an obstacle makes you play a different one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">From here I'll write down the dialogue and work out the general rhythm and timings of the speech. As well as writing down the acting beats:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJbTbzrtnoIOd6oXwQcSDcZ4IJH_ewhdMc6G3EDmk72kp9-GM0KBqDVxCsZXmW1bgCwrzXi-Er_RdrZl-OrzGQiIil0HC3pP5Z_6Xv5DvfPDMonDsyRtNMOY2-PCiQ3-18Y4xiP3O3zpZ/s1600/SCAN0042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="616" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJbTbzrtnoIOd6oXwQcSDcZ4IJH_ewhdMc6G3EDmk72kp9-GM0KBqDVxCsZXmW1bgCwrzXi-Er_RdrZl-OrzGQiIil0HC3pP5Z_6Xv5DvfPDMonDsyRtNMOY2-PCiQ3-18Y4xiP3O3zpZ/s640/SCAN0042.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPVAS74yuF0PW6vExG97MTS4IbnSQc9FEsaTkVCeiXehJhqXBvMODRdHS1axderE8Tec_wF0LdQfISl-VMhi1Dwm-hI2K5OSNJ4piG0Dn2E3i5-dpq6e4LDO25jivVhE6FzFh9HupWaPMJ/s1600/SCAN0041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPVAS74yuF0PW6vExG97MTS4IbnSQc9FEsaTkVCeiXehJhqXBvMODRdHS1axderE8Tec_wF0LdQfISl-VMhi1Dwm-hI2K5OSNJ4piG0Dn2E3i5-dpq6e4LDO25jivVhE6FzFh9HupWaPMJ/s400/SCAN0041.JPG" width="385" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'll then put the audio on loop and start filming some video reference as i mouth the dialogue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Have a look at this video from AnimSchool where a mentor talks through different ways of approaching video reference:</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gCv2X-DoQ8E" width="560"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-32536524038304783382015-06-26T03:23:00.003-07:002016-10-15T05:39:18.138-07:00Dialogue Piece - Workflow 01<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thought it'd be a good idea to blog my workflow for this dialogue and acting animation exercise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm currently in the blocking phase so i'll be recapping the previous steps. Nearly all of this information is simply me passing on that which has already been worked out by many other more accomplished animators than me. Check out <a href="http://animsquad.com/" target="_blank">AnimSquad</a> for a huge array of knowledge from some of the best people in the industry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>1. Choosing a Sound Clip</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first step in animating a dialogue piece (obviously)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are quite a few things that are important to keep in mind when choosing to animate a dialogue piece. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Firstly it's super important to know what type of animation that you want to animate before looking for sound clips. It could be a humorous, sad, dramatic, feminine, etc. Knowing what you want will make it so much easier when looking for sound.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We must also look for something that is interesting to listen to. For example monologues tend to be very boring. They're tempting to go for but without the context of the film or TV programme it's being taken from it will be very dull. That being said, it's also better to tend to avoid super dramatic scenes as the lack of context makes it hard for the audience too. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Aspects that make a good sound clip:</span></span></div>
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<li style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A fun payoff at the end / interesting twist</span></li>
<li style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having a character audibly thinking (e.g. taking a breath, stumbling over words, human flaws)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A good rhythm to the speech</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The best place to look for dialogue is usually TV shows. Just have fun on YouTube searching for favourite shows and actors. TV is sometimes better than film when looking for dialogue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lastly, play the dialogue to friends and see how they react. Usually a good way to tell whether it's worth pursuing a clip or not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next up, prepping the shot...</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7648469356070569460.post-9639378241334737022015-06-16T04:19:00.002-07:002015-06-16T04:19:56.370-07:00Comparing Acting and Performance<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Found this fantastic clip a while ago and thought i'd share it on here. It's a great example of taking a piece of dialogue and finding two completely different ways of performing it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The acting choices turn the scene into either a dramatic piece or a comedic one. The way the actors choose to pause and run the dialogue is particularly interesting too as well as certain emphasis on words to really hit those emotional beats. Denzel breaks to allow time for the audience to laugh whereas James Earl Jones will break at different times to emphasise the poignancy of the message he is telling his son.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So many great acting notes to take away from that clip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whilst i'm at it I'm a big fan of James Earl Jones and his poetry readings, have a look at this clip below:</span><br />
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/4765496">James Earl Jones Performs Shakespeare at the White House Poetry Jam: 3 of 8</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/whitehousevideos">The White House</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could watch this performance taken from Othello all day. Incredible reading and acting. Even when some of the Shakespearean dialogue becomes a little hard to understand, the emotion of the words is never lost which is all down to the acting. Love this stuff!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791877261775659102noreply@blogger.com0