Acting for Animators

Preface

Introduction

Let's Start with Definitions

Definition: Acting is behaving believably in pretend circumstances for a theatrical purpose.

For a theatrical purpose

Structure

Action ? Conflict/Obstacle ? Objective

We are narrative-seeking, storytelling animals

Action

Objective

Long-term and short-term objectives

Baymax in a shopping cart

Pursuing a negative objective

Acting and the CG Pipeline

Animate the thought (acting is a process of exposing, not of hiding)

Willing suspension of disbelief and the Uncanny Valley

Regarding the animated documentary

Emotion

Empathy

Sympathy

Psychological gesture

Character rhythm

The audience

Who is your intended audience?

The 4th wall

Video reference

Storyboards vs. complete screenplays

Comedy vs. drama (intro)

Gags lack structure

Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy

Showreels

Character development

Heroes and villains

Video games

Empathy vs. agency in games

Cutscenes (animatics)

Humor

Non-player characters (NPC's)

Character design and narrative

A few more thoughts about blinking in games

Classroom notes

Scenes begin in the middle

Acting is doing; Acting is also reacting

Blinking

Eyebrows

Animating dialogue

Status transactions

Power centers

The adrenaline moment

"Ma"

Regarding those talking dogs in Pixar's movie UP

Experimental animation

Laban movement analysis

What does listening look like?

Pantomime

Anger and yelling

Punctuation in scripts

Crying

Drunk

My acting gift to you is a surprise

A scene is a negotiation

Relationships are the way that characters feel about one another

Mirrors

A brief history of acting training (for actors)

Mocap

Animating aliens, robots and other non-humans

Film Analysis

Flee

Grave of the fireflies

Soul

Porco Rosso

Analysis

The Triplets of Belleville

Introduction

Madame Souza

Training for the Tour de France

The Tour de France

The kidnapping

French wine center/the sinister crime

We meet the Triplets of Belleville

The rescue

Finale

Postscript

"PSSSST . . . a few words, please, with animation teachers and mentors . . ."

Classroom exercises

Tightrope Exercise

Create a character profile

Open script exercise

The transformation game

Addendum

Walt Disney's 1935 memo to Don Graham regarding how to train animators

Ed Hooks annotates an animation master into "actor-ese" ...

Ed Hooks annotates a section from the book The Illusion of Life

Conclusion

Becoming an artist

The future of animated storytelling

Acknowledgements

References

Index