Week 13 The Checklist

Activity: Dailies in the Final Review Room

Watch Richard Williams DVD, Accents and settling.

the DVD has examples of 4, 5 and 6 frames accents for arms, and head.

Demo: Tony showed a before and after comparison, adding movement to the root node of the character to give a sense of weight, and adding life to places where the characters are standing still.

Notes: In the first part of the semester, we explored the broad strokes of blocking, posing and timing of a scene with two characters. Be Simple, Be Clear, and Put everything where you can see it. In the second half of the semester we have been adding in the details of lip sync and facial animation, while polishing off the rough edges in the construction that got us this far. We have been fortunate enough to have watched several of the Richard Williams DVDs on Dialogue and Accents as well as James Baxter on Dialogue, and Michael Caine on Acting. We have learned that using reference, whether it be from a good actor, or acting out the scene yourself is invaluable in studying and understanding movement. To quote Michael Caine: If you see something from a good actor, steal it. Chances are they stole it from someone else. Study your reference until you know it inside out. Don't wing it!!!! Don't be afraid to load your reference into the image plane and track some of the movements, or step frame through your reference movie files. By running dailies we have also learned to keep the door open to contributions from everyone on the 'team'. Animation is a team sport. Be open to input and be flexible enough to make changes. If you get a good idea late in the process, don't be afraid to try it out, especially if it helps the overall storytelling and performance. Stand back and see how the whole thing is working, then jump back into the details, back and forth. Don't hesitate to try these relatively big experiments at this late stage. If in doubt, create two versions for comparison, resorting to what is almost blocking for the new ideas.

ASSIGNMENT : Work on Scene adding final details.

Here is a checklist to get a production level quality of polish.

• Good Keys for clarity. Strong poses that read well in silhouette.
• Anticipation Action Reaction. To quote Chaplin 'Show the audience what you are going to do, do it, then show them you've done it.
  
• Overlapping Action. People 'unfold'. Lead the action with the head or the hips. Pupils lead the head turns. Add a breakdown drawing if offsetting it in the graph editor doesn't give you the desired effect.
• Shoulders Remember the rib cage compresses and expands. Moving the shoulders as part of the performance can help create this effect. Shoulders are also useful to create a sense of breathing. Use shoulders when raising an arm. Lift the elbow, then wrist, then the shoulder.
  
• Arcs All the joints move based on rotations, which should naturally give you arcs in the movement - check them from your final camera, by tracing them using a 2D drawing tool. IK joints are quick to pose, but you need to do a lot of arc work that you get automatically with FK.
• Accents - Head Body Hands Hit the accents 3-4 frames early.
  
• Hand poses, overlapping the fingers from each other, then overlapping each finger joint. Try to avoid a feeling of underwater swaying with the overlapping of the fingers, a little overlap can go a long way. Bend the wrist as part of the hand pose.
  
• Vibrations and Settling
• Head Accents to make the characters look like they are talking. Nods and shakes.
  
• For Dialogue we are progressing it somewhere
• Movement in the hips (root node), to give the character a sense of weight
• Eye Direction Use the lid rotate controls to change the shape of the eyes, based on eye direction. Eyes are incredibly flexible in how they change shape as you look around. Be aware of this, and push it to give the eyes an organic feel. Be aware of how the shape can change from one eye to the other. Try to get some rhythm into it that is reflected in the brows, cheeks and mouth. If all the parts of the face are not tied together it can look like a mess.
  
• Brows
  
• Eye Scans
• Eye Blinks Make sure the eyes close completely on the blinks. You may have to dial out other eye shapes during the blink. Use half blinks as well as full blinks, like a flutter. Good for eye flick direction changes, to have something in there. Think about using the lower lids (wink) as well as the upper lids. It's a decision based on how the character is emoting, what kind of a blink you're after. Consider using the brows subtlety during an eye blink, to tie all the parts of the face together. The rate and rhythm of eye blinks are part of the personality of the character.
  

• Breathing
• Facial expressions Change expression before or after a big move to make the character look like they are thinking.Choose a time when the character is fairly still to make the expresssion change. Use Asymmetry and tie all the parts of the face together. Use the jaw and brows to get a sense of squash and stretch .Don't have everything in the face change at the same time, or it will look mechanical. Play with breakdowns, mouth first, then eyes. Eyes first, then mouth. These things overlap and are offset. Timing of these transitions is important. Add dirt in the curve for long transitions, like a slow eye brow raise. This is in the final polishing of the scene.
  
• Lip sync Be careful not to over articulate. Remember a lot of syllables are just transitions between the big ones, and can be dialed down or taken out. The key is finding the correct jaw rhythm and that will give the snappiness to the dialogue. Use interesting mouth shapes that reflect the personality of your voice. Hold the consonants for 2-3 frames. , open the jaw quickly for the vowels to get some snappiness to the animation. A lot of mouth shapes are preparing themselves half way through the previous syllable, like a pucker. Analyze what your mouth is actually doing when you speak. Fine tune and double check your lip sync animation using the face cam, or you might get some bad surprises on the big screen!