Ken Fountain “Attitudes and Acting Beats”
Posted on January 13, 2012
Filed Under Acting, Education, Friends | 2 Comments
Ken Fountain just released “Attitudes and Acting Beats”, a new video tutorial at the incredible price of $10.99.
Judging by the official blurb and teaser, that one is probably more about acting and motion analysis so it should appeal to everyone from beginners to professionals.
If you want to become a good animator, do no hesitate to buy that tutorial. At $10.99, don’t come up with silly ideas and tell me you can’t afford it! Ken Fountain worked on many movies at Dreamworks, graduated from Animation Mentor and is a current teacher at Ianimate so you are getting way more than a 90 minutes video.
I haven’t seen the tutorial yet but seeing all the effort he put into the last one, that one is a must buy.
Here are the official blurb and teaser:
The new video is officially released! Whew. My intent was to be able to focus on some of the specific areas of my process that people had asked me to elaborate on, and hopefully introduce some new ideas as well. So, in that light, this 90-minutes of lecture/demo is devoted entirely to the planning, video analysis and blocking processes, and the tools and concepts I use to execute these phases with consistency, clarity, and hopefully emotional appeal.
This video is heavy on analysis. I get very specific regarding the structures I use to breakdown a performance and turn it in to pose-able emotional moments; like text, context and subtext, a structure I use to really understand my character and their circumstance; and the pillars of my workflow – attitudes, beats and textures – to create the right body language and interesting rhythms I need to engage my audience. I also take the opportunity to go deeper in to the concept of character centers and how that can greatly effect you character’s movement as well as the graphic quality of your shot’s staging. And, as usual, you can watch my approach to staging and posing for a specific shot; one that I will carry through to the next two videos.
Thanks again for all of your input. I hope to be able to address it all over this 3-part series. And keep them relatively affordable (only $10.99!).
Buy it on the JRAwebinar website http://jrawebinar.com/index.php/store.html
and follow Ken Fountain Splatfrog studio on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/splatfrog
Italian in 10 minutes, the power of gestures
Posted on December 19, 2011
Filed Under Acting | 2 Comments
According to NLP, 55% of communication is made by gesture and body language. Watch this video and you will be amazed by how easily you understand Italian without any previous knowledge ;-)
Great reference for gestures or give personality to your characters.
Alfredo Cassano posted a nice series of illustrations on his blog. Make sure you see the three of them and maybe buy his book!
Related post:
Desmond Morris “The human animal”
Eye darts – video reference
Posted on November 27, 2011
Filed Under Acting, Animation, Education | Leave a Comment
I was watching a documentary on the Sherman brothers and found that really good eye dart video reference with two actors only few inches away from each others. It is striking how much the actress’s eyes move around when she is looking successively at the left and right eyes then at the mouth. Also pay attention to the timing of the darts, it is between one and two frames and the eye lid seems to be delayed by one frame at time.
Related posts:
Kids take – video reference
Take – video reference
Kids take – video reference
Posted on November 6, 2011
Filed Under Acting, Education | 1 Comment
Browsing Youtube is usually the best way to waste your time and kill your productivity but once in a while some great references emerge.
Check out that collection of Kids reactions when they ear their parents ate all their Halloween candies. It is hilarious and a precious reference to animate similar shots.
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Take – video reference
Take – video reference
Posted on October 4, 2011
Filed Under Acting, Animation, Education | 1 Comment
While doing some research for my Character Design workshop I found that great acting moment in the Hammer’s 1960 adaptation of the 1886 Scottish novel where Dr Jekyll’s doctor friend start realising that the character standing before him is none other than his dear fellow.
Ideally we want to find real life references but those are really difficult to find and we usually don’t have a video camera rolling when we experience those moments so that sequence could be a great one to refer to when animating “takes” or when we try to conveying thought process.
Pay attention to how he relaxes the muscles around the eyes when in shock then contracts them with a subtle shift of the head as if to get closer and focus. Also notice the really interesting things he does with his lips, 10 then 12 seconds into it.
Hit the link for a quicktime version as usual and find the full movie below. It is an interesting take on the original story and it features the great Christoper Lee as the doctor’s wife lover. The featured sequence takes place around 1h26 into the movie.
“This is what you need”, planning
Posted on October 2, 2011
Filed Under Acting, Animation, Education | 1 Comment
Here is the follow up to my planning with two animatics and a composited full body video references. This is a quick post as I am pretty tired from a freezing sunday sketchcrawl.
Thumbnails and video references come hand in hand during my planning, I don’t shoot video references without trying out some thumbnails first but I might also go back to my thumbnails after shooting my references.
It is very likely that the acting will call for a specific framing but I also need to think about overall motion/choreography as I want to use the visual space to its full potential but also the set and the props as much as possible to create a specific performance and avoid clichés gesture or twinning. This is what thumbnails allow me to do.
I would actually recommend reading Nick Bruno’s excellent “How I approach my shot” blog post.
http://nickytwoshots.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-i-approach-my-shot.html
A great mistake with that kind of shot would be to have both characters standing up and gesturing for the entire shot as this would have created a really boring performance. I then remembered “Brazil”, a great shot by Jeffrey Engel where the speaker walks past behind the second character and decided to incorporate that. This is something I had seen in Ratatouille a while back and always wanted to use in my work.
I ran out of ideas for the end of the shot then realized that I could just cut to a close up with an over the shoulder shot.
In the video you will also see that I wasn’t too sure what to do with the second guy then decided that he would have his cap on at the beginning of the shot then take it down after Palpatine points at it when saying “hard work” and “disco Santa Claus” as to show that Anaking his ashamed of his situation.
One sequence that might not be clear in the video ref is when Palpatine lifts Anakin and straighten him up on “you need charisma” but the blocking will show that a bit better.
Alright, here are the different elements of my planning, the second animatic was a test to see how the shot would play out with Palpatine being on the other side and ending up leaning on the box. As you can see, I am still pretty unsure about the framing of the first shots, wide shots or medium shots? we will see in blocking.
Related posts:
This is what you need, gathering references
Emotional beats – Star Wars Episode 03
Posted on September 27, 2011
Filed Under Acting, Animation, Education | 2 Comments
When looking for great acting I usually refer to boring and austere black and white or pre-1970s movies but once in a while I am amazed to find great performances in contemporary blockbusters or mainstream shows. The “Lost” TV series being my first source of reference at the moment but more on this later.
I am currently working on a shot involving two characters and a story plot based on Star Wars Episode 03 and while looking at the original movie and a specific scene with the Senator Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker, I was amazed at the performance of Scottish actor/theatre director Ian Mc Diarmid. To be fair, a movie featuring a 60+ years old stage trained shakespearean actor is very likely to present some exceptional acting moments. Everything from his body posture to his face and voice are outstanding. Loot at that subtle hand shake on the wider dramatic shot. Hayden Christensen’s acting seems cartoony and, as my friend Richie would say, almost grotesque in comparison ;-)
Here is the full keyframable quicktime video sequence between the sly Palpatine and candide Anakin followed by a series of screenshots to highlight the key moments of that very impressive performance where he reaches his goal after a series of tactical advances in the manner of a chess player.
Even without the audio you would be able to witness his emotional beats and get a good feel for his manipulative strategies, shifting between parental, authoritarian, cynical and sheepish attitude. What a little snake! ;-)
Notice how much a head rotation, squeezing of the eye lids, contraction of the nasal muscles can affect the expression. It is amazing how much he is able to communicate within the same body posture.
You can also pay attention to the asymmetry of his mouth in 4b and 4c and finish with a good look at that priceless fake smile on 9c that can only be detected by the fact that the eyes muscles don’t get involved in the upward motion.
I would highly suggest you to check out the HD version at the following address:
I think this could be a nice add-on to the Jeff Gabor interview I featured few days ago. If you don’t have outstanding drawing abilities, there is no way you could work out and plan a similar animated scene in sketches and thumbnails. Using edited video references seems like the best option for subtle acting shots.
Jamaal Bradley acting shot walk-through
Posted on June 3, 2011
Filed Under Acting, Animation | 7 Comments
[update with the trailer video]
ohhhhhhh. It just came out!
Dreamworks animator extraordinaire, Ianimate mentor and Pencil Test Depot writer Jamaal Bradley just released an Acting shot walk through now available on the JRA webinar store. For those who don’t know, Jamaal previously worked at Sony then on Disney’s Tangled where he did some of the most impressive shots.
The video is only $29.99, I just bought it myself and can’t wait to receive the download link!
Related posts:
Pencil test depot
Mike Walling ….. avec une moustache
Mike Walling walkthrough
AAU graduate showreel
Posted on May 22, 2010
Filed Under Acting, Animation | 1 Comment
I just found that great showreel from Stefan Schumacher, a Swiss AAU graduate
Really, really nice stuff. What really stands out is the guy’s use of secondary action. Those character don’t only deliver their lines, they belong to a story, they are alive.
I would also recommend you to check out all the links from his links page.
http://schumacherstefan.com/?page_id=28
It’s amazing how different Norman can look in those reels…
Related post:
What is AAU?
Uta Hagen acting class and DVD
Overdoing it
Posted on February 3, 2010
Filed Under Acting, Animation, Education | 2 Comments
Avatar’s producer Jon Landau made a very interesting comments some time ago and a lot of people failed to understand what he was talking about.
Here is an extract from the article published in the Australian http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/titanic-director-james-cameron-grabs-films-holy-grail-in-new-film-avatar/story-e6frg8pf-1225766563195
To me, it’s the exact opposite,” Landau says. “Our goal on this movie was not to replace the actor, it was to replace the animator. If you think about it, what a great actor does and what a great animator does are antithetical to one another.
“A great actor withholds information. Dustin Hoffman in All the President’s Men can sit there and do nothing. No animator would ever allow that, they would put in a twitch. So our objective was to preserve Sam Worthington’s performance and have that be what you see in those characters.”
As animator we find it difficult to keep our characters completly still. Because we get paid to animate and because we love to see animated things we feel compelled to add twich, eye darts, shoulder raise. Top Disney animator Mark Hen made a similar comment in one of the Animation Mentor lectures and more recently the good people from the “Speaking of animation”.
The reason I am bringing this topic today is because I found a very cool clip that will illustrate something very similar.
The modelling industry has very specialised professionals called “Body parts models”. Don’t believe me? Hit the link (http://www.bodypartsmodels.com/home.html). Those people get hired for photo-shoots mainly when nice looking hands, arms, shoulders, bums …. are required. They are obviously cheaper than full body models but do the trick for close ups. Now the problem is that very often those “body part models”, similarly to animators, just… just overdo it! Instead of “straight acting” their part, and just display what they are supposed to display, they feel compelled to “hit the pose” and come up with the most over-the-top gesture or poses that will justify their pay check.
Now I have a very cool clip where you can see one of those models illustrating this perfectly. Pay attention, well, how could you not pay attention to the silly hand gestures of the woman holding the Emmy award on the right hand side. It is so over the top that Ellen DeGeneres can’t help mimicking her towards the end of the clip.
“Churro?” “I am good!”
Posted on September 6, 2008
Filed Under Acting, Animation | Leave a Comment
No matter what you think about PC/Macs, I have to share the new Microsoft ad with you. I can’t help smiling while watching it. There is so much emotion coming out of this ad that I can’t help loving those 2 characters.
Shoe Circus from Windows Videos on Vimeo.
If we study this ad on an animation point of view we can see so many great touches. It is obviously a bit wacky with Seinfield explaining that he has a shower with his shoes on to save time or when he asks if Microsoft will every gonna come up with something that will make our computers moist and chewie like a cake but there are some more interesting elements.
Secondary action:
1. Seinfield and the churro. He holds it, bite it, offers it to Gates. At the end they both walk out, each holding their churros.
2. Gates and Seinfield softening the sole. Seinfield has a very accurate gesture while Gates can only ackwardly mimic him.
Both action happen while they are talking about something else and are still not distracting but help them to look more alive. They are real characters in a real store, not two actors delivering lines.
Timing and pacing
The beats in the add are dictated by the delivery of the lines. There is a lot of talk but there are also some long moments of silence filled with emotions like the “what is it?” “the leather” sequence. The beats slow down, accelerate, stop and start again. Isn’t that a nice texture?
Now on a marketing point of view I think it is very clever. A lot of people are commenting negatively on it saying that they don’t understand it but the advert is not a soap advert hammering that the microsoft products are better and shinnier, it is much more clever than that. They have already tried the soap marketing campaign and it only partially worked so why not trying something a bit more “wacky”? Don’t forget that it is only the first one of a series of advert so let’s wait and see what else they have in store.
What they are trying to do here is to portray Bill Gates as a really simple guy, someone really down to earth with really simple values in which most people will recognise themselves.
He is a very rich person but still buys his shoes at the discount shop in the shopping mall because that’s the only place he can find the best price for value products. Shoes like computers are a commodity, they shouldn’t become a lifestyle and paying a high price for them is silly.The message is quite clear: he doesn’t like to be ripped off.
There is one little details than hardly anyone will notice and that the ad company probably placed there for a reason. I am not too sure why exactly. Maybe to show that Bill Gates hasn’t always been the straight guy we know but just like everyone made some mistakes in his life? If you don’t know, the picture on the Platinium Shoe card is the one from his arrest in 1977 for a traffic violation.
52 Acting tips by Ed Hooks
Posted on July 26, 2008
Filed Under Acting | Leave a Comment
I was supposed to write some notes regarding the Ed Hooks masterclass but never got around doing it.
In the meantime, here is a great link from you on the Indian website cgtantra.com:
52 Acting tips by Ed Hooks
Method acting
Posted on July 23, 2008
Filed Under Acting | Leave a Comment
Sanford Meisner, Theatre best kept secret
Posted on July 23, 2008
Filed Under Acting | Leave a Comment
Here is a link to a 7 part documentary on Sanford Meisner. Don’t be put off by his voice problem, the teaching is great.
Uta Hagen, acting class
Posted on July 23, 2008
Filed Under Acting | 3 Comments
Last year my ex girlfriend introduced me to the work of Uta Hagen.
I won’t go into much length about who she is tonight and will only recommend the purchase of her DVD “Acting class” and her book “Respect for acting”, both available at Amazon
Watching her videos, the lecture with Doug Sweetland we had at Animation Mentor finally made sense, especially the concept of Endowment.
Here is an extract:
and are some exercises I just found:
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~thea301/Rigdon/Uta_Hagen.htm
Beautiful, look what I found too!
http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2006/05/08/respect_for_act.php
Paul Ekman
Posted on July 23, 2008
Filed Under Acting, Animation | 1 Comment
Ed Hooks and Andrew Gordon kept referring to Paul Ekman and his concept of micro expressions, here are few video as an introduction:
and something a bit more entertaining, “Why we lie”:
“The human animal”
Posted on July 22, 2008
Filed Under Acting, Animation | 2 Comments
Desmond Morris is regularly referred by top character animator for his zoology studies applied to the human: “Manwatching” as he called his 1977 book.
He wrote few book but as a start you could already check his first video from a series of 6 called “the language of the body”. Consider yourself lucky I think they are all available on Google video.
The first one is probably the most interesting as he quickly goes through a classification of gestures.
If you want to know more about the man. Check that fascinating 58 minutes video about his life.
Traditional Captured Performance
Posted on November 21, 2007
Filed Under Acting | Leave a Comment
This week I had the great pleasure to see a wonderful movie which used the traditional Captured Performance technology. You know the one where the picture of actors get printed onto celluloid not the crappy lifeless motion capture stuff.
Olivier Dahan “La Vie en Rose” (2007) is probably the best movie I have seen for a long time. Yes the editing is a bit confusing, yes Dahan omitted to mention the second world war and some important parts in the life of 1950 french singer Edith Piaf, yes it is a bit long, but this dark, emotional tale is such a pleasure to watch and even if you don’t fancy 1950′s song you can only succumb to the stunning interpretation of the first famous french Rockstar by Marion Cotillard.
If just like me you don’t understand why Zemekis wastes his time and my time releasing crappy lifeless movies then “La vie en Rose” is for you!
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