Tutoring w/ Stephen Gregory week 7

I felt a little apprehensive picking such a low key audio clip. But Stephen liked that it was such a subtle shot, with a lot of great opportunities for acting. And save for a some continuity and staging tweaks, he liked where the acting was for this one was going so far. Which was big for me and really instilled me with the confidence I needed, because I wasn't so sure if this was any good.

Here Stephen is illustrating the concept of keeping the focal character's expressions open to the other character. Emphasizing a triangle composition to each shot.

-Acting: Ideas & Choices - Somewheres along the line we were talking about acting choices based on the character & story vs. choices made for movement sake. And he told me about an instance last year where a student reel they got for the summer internship , had a character do a little acting bit idly playing with a bottle cap or something, and it just felt right and completely natural. And even though the rest of the reel didnt have the most "polished" animation in it. They were sold on strength of the ideas and choices for that one clip, and that person was picked up for the summer internship. And that alot of times people get hired into the studio on the strength of one shot, one moment from their reel. He mentioned again that someone can come in, sit down with the animators, and be taught how to polish and finish a shot well. But the acting instincts and choices an animator makes is hard to teach. So work to be extremely selective about those acting choices! Clarify if its ambiguous, and remember to simplfy! Make acting choices and not movement choices!

I know I know, easier said than done, what do I know I'm just the messenger!

So since next monday is Christmas Eve, and the monday after that is New Years Eve, we wont have our next session until Jan 7. So that gives me alot of time to work on this one! I can still send him work-in-progresses if I need to, which is great. I'll be posting progress on this shot here. Until then, Happy Holidays!

Tutoring w/ Stephen Gregory week 6.5

I was out of town last Monday so we had to postpone our week 6 session until this coming Monday. Here's where I'm going for my dialogue exercise. I wouldnt even call it rough blocking really. Its more layout/blocking, just enough information the idea across. It makes me chuckle, but maybe only because I can relate to it. Haha, I think I've been in this guy's situation about 3 times in my life. Maybe not the exact circumstances, but I definitely know what he's feeling. Method acting I guess!

Tutoring w/ Stephen Gregory week 5

Quick recap of the week 5 session w/ Stephen. We're going to call this one done for now and move on to another assignment. But before we do that Stephen had some notes on this piece. The pose the boy student gets into from about frames 140-155ish wasnt reading clearly. And the expression could be presented clearer if it wasnt in profile but more turned towards camera.
The perpetrator pose in question. Stephen's suggestion for a clearer read. His draw-overs on the frames. My fixes according to his critiques.Here are the results with Stephens feedback implemented.

Hm. I'll have to step away from this one & not look at it for a while before I could go in and polish again. So hopefully the mistakes and such will be more apparent. This was supposed to be a simpler, more physical, 200 frame-ish assignment, but somehow it grew into this beast! Its insane how much time I end up spending in the polish phase. I feel like my workflow could be improved in that area. And also acting. And moving holds. Mechanics. and everything else....

So heres to the next assignment! A dialogue shot! Only a few more weeks left of the tutorship!