Acting Principles
Acting Principles
To ensure i produce a high quality animation i will need an effective reference. To aid me with a creation of an reference i can use i will be researching acting principles that will help me act to create a reference that i can use to produce my animations. To achieve this i will look at source such as 11 second club, andy circuses performances (gollum) and videos from in industry animators to help me.
By the end of this section of research i aim to be fully prepared to produce my own reference for my animations i can use to get the accurate lip and body motion that will help me to create higher quality animations
Fundamentals when acting for animation
Important tips to effectively act
Before I even start to film my reference video it is important I set up a camera that matches the perspective I plan to use for my animations . Filming form the same perspective will inform me on what the audience will be able to see throughout my animation. Furthermore, it will tell me what each movement and facial perspective should look like from my the audiences perspective.
Before starting the animation I also need to make sure I have a good understanding of the dialogue. To achieve this I can break down the transcript of the audio and add internal thoughts and subtext. this will allow me to develop a deeper and more meaningful understanding of what's being said in my chosen audio. These aspects make sure the characters actions and movements align with emotions that are portrayed in my chosen audio.
What to avoid when acting
Over gesturing. Can lead to a reference video looking unnatural, it is vital that my gestures complement and add to the dialogue rather than detracting from it. It's Crucial that I understand the characters emotions in the audio to achieve this effectively.
(11 second club, 2025)
(Sir Wade Neistadt, 2018)
Important tips to effectively act from a DreamWorks animator
He discusses how Subtext is vital to animation as it helps show a deeper meaning to the what characters saying and doing during the animation. It helps to give to the animator and the audiences insight on into the further meaning and emotions to what is being said in your animation. Making sure I have a deep understanding of the emotions in the audio will help me effectively bring the characters in my animations to life. Furthermore, the importance of subtext is reinforced as a lot of human communication is communicated through body language and not words. Ensuring I implement this will help enhance my animation making it of higher quality
He mentions Character development as another crucial aspect for making a high quality animation. giving my character a unique personality and characteristics will impact their movements and expression, this helps to breathe life into your character and improve your animation. Making sure I have a understanding of who the character is and their background is crucial for making my animations feel real. Additionally this will help make my characteristics and personality choices more believable if I have a deep understanding of the character.
He also mentions the importance of planning a reference video before I record it. He mentions how I should understand the scene before I record it so I can include all of the effective subtext that is needed to make an animation successful. Additionally he comments on how in the beginning I should focus on the main gestures first rather than getting confused and overwhelmed about the lip sync and facial expressions for my animations.
He also recognizes the importance of continuous feedback when acting for an animation. By gaining the opinions of others it can help to highlight areas of my reference video I need to improve, which will have the secondary impact of making my overall animation superior.
(Video, 2013) (Yashar Sherzad, 2013)
Above is a video showcasing Andy Serkis's performance as Gollum. This was one of the first CGI characters in move history. Furthermore, Gollum was completely animated with no motion capture used. This is a great example of a high quality and effective reference video as an animator solely relied on Andy Serkis's performance yo bring Gollum to life. Reinforcing how effective this reference video was the animation of Gollum has won awards in past due to it being so high quality.
There is some aspects of how Andy Serkis performs that I can implement into my own reference. Such as, making sure to get a range of angles of my performance as this will give different perspectives. This will tell me what my animation will look like from different angles. In addition to this, another aspect I can implement is make sure I wear plain semi- tight clothing. This will be effective as it will allow me to solely focus on the facial expressions and possible arm motion in my animation.
Acting principles conclusion
To conclude, The information I have gathered on acting principles will aid me in creating an effective reference video I can use when I produce my animations. To achieve this, before starting filming i have to gain an understanding of who the characters are and there underlying emotions as this will heavily impact the gestures and facial expressions. Furthermore, implementing subtext is vital as it communicates to my audience through body gestures rather than speech. I can achieve this by breaking down the transcript of the audio and planning what gestures and emotions i want to showcase. This will help improve the quality of my animation by enhancing the realism of it. Finally, when i start to film the video reference it is important i do multiple takes while wearing plain clothing, to ensure i capture every emotion, gesture and angle that will help me produce an effective animation.