Yay Subtlety!!!
If you haven't been able to tell already, I'm a sucker for the subtle stuff. Some people are all about the big movements, the physical stuff, etc..but me...give me a scene of subtlety.
It doesn't even have to be a long shot for me to be happy. If I can convey one emotion in a subtle way people can relate to, I'm one happy camper. I want to explore everything about conveying an entire emotional thought process with only the eyes and slight head shifts.
Like everyone, I'm still learning. There are a lot of times that I study life and see an amazing level of complexity in the movements people make with their head, their blinks, their eyes, their mouth, etc. I notice it a lot more when the person isn't acting for a camera...when they are being "real".
A lot of that complexity doesn't make it into animation. I think a big reason is it's really hard to plan for that stuff, and even if we shoot video reference of ourselves we tend to think about the action we have to do more than just being "in the moment." This creates a simplified more rehearsed look to our acting.
I feel that animation is too perfect. In real life we fumble, we make simple foot adjusts, we miss steps, our eyes double blink at random times, our eyes dart off in random places, our hands will miss their target, things slip from our grip, our head jerks, our brows will twitch, our mouths open and close when we aren't planning on it, etc... I think we can convey the feeling of witnessing a spontaneous action by releasing our hold on perfect movements.
If done correctly, I think these things should add a level of pleasing complexity to the overall feel of the animation. It should help cascade the viewer into a relationship with the character.
5 Comments:
Dang, I was having similar troubles today. It seems like it would be easy to make movement look random and erratic, but it's not just about setting random keys. It's hard because you really have to plan it out, and then make it not look planned out.
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I feel that animation is too perfect. In real life we fumble, we make simple foot adjusts, we miss steps, ... etc.
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My thoughts exactly. Of course we should master the perfection first (... uh.. yeah right, like that's possible), but you always hear: Keep it simple, clean, check arcs. Yes of course that should be well done, but why not put "real life" mistakes in it. Keep it simple with some dirt here and there, right?
... But first I have to master the basics.
Ah yes, the perfect imperfections.
I think the biggest trouble for most beginning animators is to put in those subtleties, but they end up looking like mistakes. I think the biggest reason is that they are not timed right. Mistakes not being "timed right?" Ugh....animation is so hard.
Yeah its funny how ironic it can get, You do all this planning to make it look spontaneous.
One of my struggles is getting back into character if I'm working on a bit over days at a time. It'll start out with a certain feel, and I'll come back to it in a different mood which will in turn change the feel of the animation. Dang!
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