Animated Performance - Acting for Animators

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Acting for Animators

Acting for Animators

Click on the links in the text below to view the examples discussed:

Animated Performance’s exercises help animators develop their powers of observation and imagination. Animation is not about ‘what is’ but ‘what could be’. It is not necessary to imitate live action when it is so easy to surpass it.

Sheridan College’s ‘Acting for Animators’ spring workshop began in 2011. Most of the student enrolees have just finished their first year in the BA animation program. Three exercises from Animated Performance are completed during the course of the 7-week long workshop.

We start with Exercise 11, acting with a prop and then proceed to Exercise 12, ‘Exercises with Attitude’. A simple character must interact with a ball. All action tells a story, and one never ‘just does’ something. The character must express a particular emotion while interacting with the ball. The proportions of character and ball may be modified by the student but may not be redesigned. The figure (and the ball!) may act like a human, an animal, or a combination of the two. Timing is one half of any performance, animated or live. The assignment is five seconds long, allowing the student to complete it in a short period of time, and reducing the possibility of going off on a tangent. One idea is expressed clearly.

The first example, by Alex Henderson, shows a touching example of love, almost as if the little figure was picking up a baby rather than a simple object. He has kept the character entirely ‘human’.

A different approach is taken by Erika Matsuyama, whose character combines ‘human’ characteristics with those of a ‘police dog’ to create an amusing, stoical figure who reacts very slightly to a dropped ball. Examples of Erika’s thumbnails for Exercises 11 and 12 can be found in CHAPTERS TWO & FOUR.

Other students have performed this character as a yappy little dog; a ‘horse-dog-human’ combination, a frog, a spider, and a chicken— suggesting the creatures entirely by movement and not by design.

We are thinking very like the silent comedians Charlie Chaplin (who performed as a chicken, a dog, and a mechanical man) and Buster Keaton (who performed as an ape and a snake and once used a cow for a leading lady). The main difference is that our animated creations are not restricted by the limitations of the human body or of physics. They need not even be alive.

Our second project is Exercise 31 from CHAPTER 6 that brings two ‘inanimate’ characters to life while not losing the original characteristics of the object. For example, weight can be suggested through squash and stretch but if your characters are an iPod and a cassette tape, which are both made of hard plastic, the deformation must reflect this. Here is how Alex Henderson handled the assignment:

Alex’s characters have faces and limbs that work out of the design. Each assignment is handled uniquely. In this recent clip by Sarah Kieley, “Old Pop Can’s” pop eyes and open mouth are actually part of the soda can; “Bendy Straw” suggests a woman’s movements without any feminine features, arms or legs!

Sarah’s thumbnails and exploration of the character’s movement are shown in CHAPTER 6.

On a similar theme, Victoria Neal had a toothpaste tube and a toothbrush perform a romantic tango:

Erika Matsuyama had a ‘mama’ purse rock a ‘baby’ powder compact to sleep, then put it to bed. The purse flap suggests a mouth and the strap becomes ‘arms’ and ‘hands’.

Eustace Ng has a curious hammer attempt to open a safe. The personalities of the two characters are shown through the movement even when there are no arms, legs or faces.

This is the literal definition of ‘animation’ – bringing the inanimate to life. Animated Performance will help you ‘think your way through’ performances that are impossible to perform in reality, and have fun while doing it.