Comparing Acting and Performance

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.




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.

So many great acting notes to take away from that clip.



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:



James Earl Jones Performs Shakespeare at the White House Poetry Jam: 3 of 8 from The White House on Vimeo.


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!

Summer 2015 Showreel - James Saunders

An update to my showreel for the summer:

Summer 2015 Animation Showreel - James Saunders from James Saunders on Vimeo.

Walk To A Stop - Animation Exercise

More animation exercises woo!

Used some reference to help me do a fairly detailed walk to a stop. Was a really fun little exercise to do:

Walk To A Stop - Animation Exercise from James Saunders on Vimeo.

Dog Animation WIP

Been working on this dog animation the past 3 days. Really fancied doing some creature animation with a bit more personality than a vanilla walk cycle.

Dog Getting Up WIP from James Saunders on Vimeo.



I worked off a couple videos as a reference guide:




I began by working in all the major keyframes from the reference. I would then try to keyframe the entire dog on these major keyframes. For the most part this worked and helped me keep my time slider clutter free at this first stage of animation. For the more complicated movement as the dog gets up I did have the break away from this a little bit.

I then checked out how the animation was looking out (not great) and then went back in and started the tailor the animation slightly to how the rig was constructed as well as exaggerating some motion following the animation principles such as overlap and removing twinning.

From here I had an okay base to start working over some more, fixing some feet issues and general mechanics. (I've found the more I paid attention to the mechanics at the beginnning the smoother the animation went). Always checking the graph editor for funny shaped curves.

A quick final go over to smooth some more stuff out and that's just about where i'm at now. 

Check out 3dhit.co.uk for some critique and more personal work

Panther Walk Cycle

I've been working on this panther walk cycle on and off the past couple weeks along with a few other exercises. Been trying to improve my realistic animation as it's an area in which i'm lacking at the moment.

Using plenty of reference as help I think some progress is being made.



Panther Walk WIP from James Saunders on Vimeo.



There are tonnes of little nuances to a cat walk which I had never really noticed before studying the reference.

Going to try and improve this some more next week!

Acting Essentials

Watched this great video by AnimSchool on acting tips to keep in mind whilst planning out and animating a shot.

Main Points

• Acting is reacting. Acting is doing - have an achievable goal

Thinking tends to lead to conlcusion. Emotion tends to lead to action.

• The character needs an objective. Who are they and what do they want?

• A character will play an action until an obstruction makes them play differently

• Scene is a negotiation/conflict. A character pursuing a goal but on object is in the way. e.g. - Person vs Person

      Person vs Situation/environment

      Person vs Self

• Acting is real life heightened - the character feels more than you do

• Scene starts in the middle. Adrenaline moment (a moment in the character's life they'll remember)

• Power centre (the focus of the body e.g. high, low, nose, hips)

• Comedy - extremes

e.g.  An unusual person in a normal situation

        A normal person in  an unusual situation

        Drama is normal. Comedy in drama heightened

• Simplicity

       Illustrate the idea clearly

       Make it obvious to the audience

Make sure to have a look at Ed Hooks advice on acting for animators too. Incredibly insightful information. 

Boy Racer - The Finished (almost) Film

The final-ish version of our 2nd year student film: Boy Racer

BOYRACER from Daniel Ridley on Vimeo.

We had a tonne of fun making this film over the course of the past few months. It's amazing how much we have learnt and also how much more we have left to learn!!

We're currently making some edit changes as well as tightening up some lighting, rendering and comping.

Thanks to:

 Dan Ridley

James Richardson

also:

Toby Winter-Perreau (Sculpting)

Philip Aldous (Composer)