Comments on: A Gesture Here, A Gesture There…

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:06:58 +0000

I greatly appreciate your blog. I am a student working towards Technical Directing and I greatly appreciate people who are working in media who share their knowledge with students.

I was amused to see that you animated Mike. If you are interested in it, I hand knit a stuffed Mike Wazowski. If you would like to see photos, my mommy posted them on her knitting blog here: http://passingdowncrazy.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/distractions-2/. He was just a fun project that I made free form without a pattern. He is most definitely my most unusual knitting object and he is by far the most fun.

By: Dr. Gordon

Dr. Gordon — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:42:08 +0000

Aaron,

You make a good point about voice actors. Sometime thsi is true that the performance drive the animation. Its not always possible to have a character doing business but I think its a good thing to think about because it give you more options. Great comment!

By: Olivier L.

Olivier L. — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:30:26 +0000

a character holding his/her upper arm and with his head down to express sadness is also one of my pet peeve gesture.

I am glad you are mentioning Uta Hagen, I went through her DVD and books few years back and found them really useful for character animation.

By: aaron

aaron — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:54:18 +0000

Hey Andrew,

A comment and a question. I think a good director will give the character some”business” in a scene to give the characters something to do so they don’t end up flailing the arms about. I remember Milt Kahl talking about the use of props and how they can help support a scene. It also gives you more of a chance for subtext if there’s something going on to work against the dialogue.

My question is do you ever feel like voice actors are directed to amp their performance up too much and then you’re sort of stuck accenting/ gesturing all over the and place over animating your scene? Do you ever wish the dialogue was more natural and less of an “animation performance”? Just wondering.

By: BJ Crawford

BJ Crawford — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:10:28 +0000

This is a great post. When you are talking about gestures and choices in acting, I’m reminded of Ned Beatty’s speech in Network. All those hand gestures where so animated and fit perfectly within the context of the scene.

Thanks for the thoughts,
BJ

By: David Beer

David Beer — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:28:58 +0000

Hi Andrew! i hope you are well, dude!
I see alot of cool gestures and micro-expressions in films, but I tend to forget them over time. do you, or anyone else, actually take the time to write it down during or after a film or tv programme? Or am i just extraordinarily forgetful?
i always see things that leave an impression with me, but not often a ‘lasting’ impression. It goes in one eye and out the other, doh!

By: Josh Bowman

Josh Bowman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:16:44 +0000

Wicked Uta Hagen links Andrew, I just watched all 10 parts, there full of gold! I’m sinking a second shaft into the Marlon Brando doco I found on Youtube to mine some more gold.

By: Daniel Huertas

Daniel Huertas — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:16:20 +0000

Hi Andrew, great to see you are posting more often!

what you are saying is true when you block out a pose or the whole acting pattern…..you get to polish and find other great poses in the way, driven by the motion, also you could change the initial poses previously blocked out, depending what leads to what…..and personally I LOVE that, it’s like letting the motion be driven by the animation itself, and of course, you have to know your shot at 100%

Video reference to help you find interesting gestures is awesome!. I finally got rid of the ‘i am cheating’ idea about using it… I find right now it doesn’t just help me on the animation… it inspires me to really push the animation to the next level.. and if i am lucky probably find those ‘not seen’ gestures yet in animation…:P

thanks again for the post Andrew.. they are always inspiring and helpful!

By: jim

jim — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:23:53 +0000

To provide a mild counterpoint to alonso’s comment, I’ve actually seen a number of people do the neck rub in real life… but as far as animation goes I completely agree. It’s pretty worn out as a “catch-all” gesture…

By: alonso

alonso — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:54:48 +0000

The neck rub especially bugs me because I don’t think I’ve ever seen any one in real life do it. I think it comes from Baloo in Jungle Book (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXpIkXKILpU @ 6:20) but Baloo’s character was always scratching and rubbing, so it fit his character. Now it’s put on everyone, self referential animator’s looking at previous animated films instead of going back to the well of real human observation.

Thanks for the post, gonna go watch that human animal doc now!