Let’s spend some of our Friday eve doing some action analysis for animation....

The first thing that that caught my eye was the extra head bounce at the end. Most shots would just land on the last “said” but she hits it and gives us one more bounce and dose of attitude AND directs her attention to her target. I’ve never seen that in animation.

On that last head bounce. Her mouth opens for the last “said” on the down. The result is ‘free’ drag: As her head starts up, her mouth is at its most open and closes as the head rises. Then her mouth closes on the next down. That’s squash and stretch built into the action. Clean.

To counter that, at the D of that last “said” she going into that last drop. As it happens her eyes open: Head goes down, eyes open - two actions in opposite directions that work together. Then, her eyes are open & looking on the last settle up for a crystal clear look to finish.

And that look ends up being so strong because of contrast. For the entire time up to that point, her eyelids are low, saving that look for the end, giving it all the power it deserves.

Okay, back to the start... Those hand gestures. They are right on the words “said.” Actually, the first one is spot on, BUT not on the ‘s’ but on the big sound of the ‘a’. When the finger lands the mouth is wide open. That is stretch in the whole image.

That second hand gesture is early, maybe 2-4 frames ahead of the ‘s’ in “said” (I’m just eyeballing this as it plays). That’s okay because she’s in the point pose when the word hits. BTW, the head bounce I started with syncs with this point. On that early point...

A rule to live by with accents and dialog:
On (right on the frame)
Early (2-4 frames for accents)
Never late (unless you want to make someone look dumb or drunk)

And the only way to hit those accents right on, is through anticipation. You have to get the hand up before it can get down. Simple. And these are BIG anticipations. Look how far she moves that hand and how cleanly. Again, contrast...

Those big hand moves are contrasted against the “holds” at the bottom of the points. Her hand almost locks into place on the downs (“said”s). That gives them strength and emphasis. The holds are the contrast to all the movement and arcs.

Also interesting, both points have almost the same amount of time for the anticipation (the rise and fall of the hand) but with completely different arcs. Just an observation. That timing is really just determined by the delivery of the dialog.

That hand pose it basically constant through the whole clip. It just rides on the wrist and arm, which dictate where it goes and how it rotates. Simple.

One last thing. The mouth shapes. There are basically two shapes. The ‘S’ with mouth corners wide and teeth touching. And the open vowel shape. And there’s a little ‘W’ shape in there where the mouth corners move in. Plus the mouth shuts at the very end. Super simple.

I always remember what Richard Williams said (paraphrasing here): if you say the dialog as fast as you can, it forces you to simplify. All the extra mouth shapes fall away. What’s left are the shapes you need.

It’s hard to be this clean and clear. Some people do it naturally, like this woman (Gene Wilder, Jack Lemon too). Other people can learn how to do it (I read that on The Peacemaker, Spielberg told George Clooney if he could stop his head waggle, he could be a star.)

This may all be far more interesting to me than anyone else, but what else is Twitter for? Have a nice Friday!

Remember:
On
Early
Never late