For the fifth artefact i wanted to take everything i had learned in the previous artefacts regarding performance, animation and staging, and write my own piece and produce this without the influence of sound/dialog as a starting point. Using the Chaplin/Wisdom silent comedy as influence, my intention was to create a piece that would communicated a convincing performance - and in response to my research question, a convincing lie.
The focus group response was positive. The important reaction that i was looking for was the laughter during the gags. For me, this is evidence that the piece was being engaged with, meaning that the performance and believability was successful. For this piece i was concentrating on timing and spacing, particularly between pose to pose - with clarity in the story telling poses, and focusing on weighting and curves of the motion. I also animated both characters solidly all the way through, total frames of 2850. However there was feedback on some elements which will need more development.
Firstly, there was some overaction - sometimes the rig was being stretched too much. There was too short of a gap between action and reaction so more spacing is needed. Then through the course of the piece there was a changing in pace that was sometimes too quick, and some softening is needed. At the end there needs to be a change in the pose - his back needs to either be further down or further back. Also more clarity of the senario - a half eaten sandwich or some other sort of visual clue - perhaps a flask. With regard to the sound, the repetition in the 'shock' moments shows how they relate to the sound source. It was felt the character could have had the hand over the mouth - with the piece being silent, there is a relationship issue between gesture and sound, and gesture and energy. It would therefore appear that having one less sensory from the audiences perspective strengthens the importance of the relationship between them and the performance of the character - through the articulation and accuracy of gesture. This may seem like pretty obvious stuff - the character's performance should always be at its best - but in exploring the processes for understanding the relationship between the animator and his role in the interpretation of reality into performance (in this case performing lies), has produced results that not only identify the issues that arise in this centrally, but also how they work and affect the wider areas such as sound, cinematography and the audience. Understanding all of these areas has enriched my own skill as an animator and how i will negotiate any future relationships with directors and production managers as a result; this through understanding the issues associated between them. The very process in which i cultivate animation has been fundamentally changed. The evidence of this can be seen through the improvement of my animation, staging and performance through the course of the artefacts.
Here is my submission for this years Young Creative Network. All the design, modeling, animating was my own. The sound effects were sourced from various free sites. The music was taken from www.danosongs.com and the voice over was courteous of the wonderful Sophie Merriman.
For the submission for university i think i will be brushing up some elements of the animation further. The arc of the wrists and the action of the hands and fingers can be improved on the second yawn. In some instances the pose to pose stands out a little too much, meaning the animation becomes too 'beat' obvious and loses fluidity. This may be down to the timing between each thought being fairly close in the frame consumption. The positioning at the end for the hands could also be improved as they appear to look like stumps.
Had i had more time (and bigger budgets for render farms and texture artists) i would have had the character transported to a tropical island as opposed to the impressional one i have created on the same set.
