Most animation notes focus on the mechanical or technical aspect of animation - overlap, line of action, secondary action, etc.  Seldom is acting brought into consideration. But, believe it or not, that’s what we do.  We act.

Last week we watched some clips of good acting, and some very bad acting.  The most informative clip came from an acting class taught by Michael Caine.  Fortunate for you, through the magic of YouTube, I’m able to share this class with you…
As promised, here is the first clip of Michael teaching the fine art of thespianism (links to the other parts can be found on the Youtube page linked):

[youtube]yHfz7_YjRww[/youtube]

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this kind of thing.  For me, and this is just my opinion, but acting, especially in an animator, is not really something you can teach - you either have it or you don’t.  The best part about working with James was that he never really told you how to act, or changed your acting.  He was more concerned with helping you out with any technical problems you might be having.

Acting choices are like opinions, which is to say, they are like…well, you know…everyone has one.

But watching that clip above (and the others around it), you can’t help but feel that twinge of wanting to incorporate a lot of what he says in your own animation.  If I wasn’t so cynical, I might even let myself get excited about it.

But I can’t.

For the most part, no matter what you come up with, no matter how much you follow Mr. Caine’s advice…someone will mess it up.  In the above clip, he has some really interesting things to say about blinks - about how blinking incessantly makes a character seem uncertain.

Well, this is great.  The next scene I do where a character is intently focused on another I’ll make sure to keep his eyes open and unblinking.

Only problem is, I guarantee you that someone will say “throw in a couple eye blinks” or some other random change.  It would be awesome if everyone who has a say on your scene watched these clips.

It would also be great if there weren’t a thousand near-Earth asteroids out there just waiting to become the next extinction event...

That being said, if you’re just starting out, or feel insecure about your own acting choices, these clips might prove helpful.

Which means I’ll be watching them again