Acting for Animators

<p>Ed Hooks' essential acting guidebook for animators has been fully revised and updated in this fifth edition, capturing some of the vast changes that have affected the animation industry in recent years. Written specifically for animation professionals instead of stage and movie actors, this book provides an essential primer for creating empathetic and dynamic character performance and, in the process, shows how the strongest storytelling structure works.</p><p>Hooks applies classical acting theory – from Aristotle to Stanislavsky and beyond – to animation, as well as explaining scene structure, character development and the connections between thinking, emotion and physical action. Theory presented here applies to any and all character animation regardless of style or animation technique. Whether your project is stop-motion, 2D, 3D or a blend of techniques, audiences are audiences are audiences, and they have shown up at the theater or cinema so they can experience and enjoy your story.</p><p>New to this fifth edition:</p><ul> <li>Four new scene-by-scene acting analyses of animated feature films: <i>Flee, Soul, Porco Rosso </i>and <i>The Triplets of Belleville</i> </li> <li>A comprehensive and updated section titled "Classroom Notes" which includes a segment on experimental animation, a brief history of acting training for actors and guidance on Motion and Performance Capture technology</li> <li>Updated online database of Hooks' previous film analyses, all in one place</li> </ul><p><i>Acting for Animators</i> is essential reading for all students and teachers of animation courses.</p> <p>Preface</p><p>Introduction</p><p>Let’s Start with Definitions</p><p><em>Definition: Acting </em>is <em>behaving believably </em>in <em>pretend circumstances </em>for a <em>theatrical purpose.</em></p><p>For a theatrical purpose</p><p>Structure</p><p>Action → Conflict/Obstacle → Objective </p><p>We are narrative-seeking, storytelling animals</p><p>Action</p><p>Objective</p><p>Long-term and short-term objectives</p><p>Baymax in a shopping cart</p><p>Pursuing a negative objective</p><p>Acting and the CG Pipeline</p><p>Animate the thought (acting is a process of exposing, not of hiding)</p><p>Willing suspension of disbelief and the Uncanny Valley</p><p>Regarding the animated documentary</p><p>Emotion</p><p>Empathy</p><p>Sympathy</p><p>Psychological gesture</p><p>Character rhythm</p><p>The audience</p><p>Who is your intended audience?</p><p>The 4th wall</p><p>Video reference</p><p>Storyboards vs. complete screenplays</p><p>Comedy vs. drama (intro)</p><p>Gags lack structure</p><p>Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy</p><p>Showreels</p><p>Character development</p><p>Heroes and villains</p><p>Video games</p><p>Empathy vs. agency in games</p><p>Cutscenes (animatics)</p><p>Humor</p><p>Non-player characters (NPC's)</p><p>Character design and narrative</p><p>A few more thoughts about blinking in games</p><p>Classroom notes</p><p>Scenes begin in the middle</p><p>Acting is doing; Acting is also reacting</p><p>Blinking</p><p>Eyebrows</p><p>Animating dialogue</p><p>Status transactions</p><p>Power centers</p><p>The adrenaline moment</p><p>"Ma"</p><p>Regarding those talking dogs in Pixar’s movie <i>UP</i></p><p>Experimental animation</p><p>Laban movement analysis</p><p>What does listening look like?</p><p>Pantomime</p><p>Anger and yelling</p><p>Punctuation in scripts</p><p>Crying</p><p>Drunk</p><p>My acting gift to you is a surprise</p><p>A scene is a negotiation</p><p>Relationships are the way that characters feel about one another</p><p>Mirrors</p><p>A brief history of acting training (for actors) </p><p>Mocap</p><p>Animating aliens, robots and other non-humans </p><p>Film Analysis</p><p><em>Flee</em> </p><p><em>Grave of the fireflies</em></p><p><em>Soul</em> </p><p><em>Porco Rosso</em> </p><p>Analysis</p><p><em>The Triplets of Belleville</em></p><p>Introduction </p><p>Madame Souza </p><p>Training for the Tour de France </p><p>The Tour de France </p><p>The kidnapping </p><p>French wine center/the sinister crime </p><p>We meet the Triplets of Belleville </p><p>The rescue </p><p>Finale </p><p>Postscript </p><p>"PSSSST . . . a few words, please, with animation teachers and mentors . . ."</p><p>Classroom exercises </p><p>Tightrope Exercise </p><p>Create a character profile </p><p>Open script exercise </p><p>The transformation game </p><p>Addendum</p><p>Walt Disney’s 1935 memo to Don Graham regarding how to train animators</p><p>Ed Hooks annotates an animation master into "actor-ese" ...</p><p>Ed Hooks annotates a section from the book <i>The Illusion of Life</i></p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Becoming an artist</p><p>The future of animated storytelling</p><p>Acknowledgements</p><p>References</p><p>Index</p>