This post is taken from a new lecture looking at the structure of a scene and how the composition and performance tell the story.
The example is Walt Disney Pictures 'Big Hero 6'; directed by Don Hall & Chris Williams.
This scene is a cliche negotiation scene where a child tries to convince an adult authority figure of some threat and fails miserably, only to flee at the threat of 'Hang on while I call your parents'!
Invaders from Mars 1953
To make this scene more interesting and unique the actual negotiation is Hiro trying not to be distracted by Baymax's antics leaking air and repairing himself with sticky tape. In a way Baymax is the child, bored by the conversation and just trying to amuse itself.
This gives the scene far more visual and comedic interest.
Wide Establishing shot
Slow track in , some traffic goes by. The building is very traditional and old.
Wide Interior Establishing
Slow track in. Baymax is very passive.
Cut on head move of police man to...
Medium Shot
Turns head to establish eye-line for dialogue.
The tape dispenser is in shot, priming the audience for the gag.
Medium Shot
Plenty of space around Hiro, head framed by lighter doors behind.
180 rule established with the cop.
Hiro's actions progress towards the lens, making him keen and eager to tell all.
Medium Shot
The cop has very limited movement and facial expression. Great finger anticipation during speech. He has seen everything and is not going to be moved.
Medium Shots
In contrast Hiro gives a very broad, energetic and highly charged performance.
Medium Shot
In this shot the cop is very still, hands not moving, not drawing the audiences eye!. This leaves the frame ready for Baymax's hand to come in and take a piece of sticky tape.
Detail of medium shot
The action of Baymax's hand coming in to take some tape is simple but still managers to display a charming use of curves in the movement. As hand moves out cut-on-move to...
Cut-away Medium Shot
All Baymax's moves are robotic and limited; no shoulder movement. This makes the situation funnier and more surreal.
Medium Shot
It is interesting to note comedy always works better if the subject is either front on or at 90 degrees to the camera.
Cutting away to Baymax allowed the camera to cross the 180 line between the two humans.
Medium Long shot
Detail of medium long shot
Veeeeery slow blink.
Medium c/u shot
Repetition of the same gag reinforces it.
Medium shot
Cut back to the cop who pushes the dispenser closer to Baymax.
Because we have cut back this way we have crossed back over the 180 line ready for dialogue to continue.
Medium shots
Hiro is still highly energised and his end pose directs the audiences attention back to Baymax.
Long shot
Reverse angle; 180 rule observed. Baymax has half of the screen to perform in. He is clear of props and visual distractions to his performance.
Long shot
All keys have strong silhouettes with great use of negative space.
Close-up shot
Long shot
Low battery symbol visually reinforces what Baymax is saying.
Medium shot
Less is more! The 'seen everything' cop does not even blink at this.
Close-up
New angle on Baymax. Eyes blinking out-of-sync.
Cuts on blink to Baymax own view...
Medium Close-up shot
Pull focus with hand held feel to shot.
Two shot
Over the shoulder two-shot. The image of Baymax deflating is reinforced by his eye squashing shut when his head is on Hiro's head.
Medium shot
Cop moves on chair to back table. The chair does NOT move in a straight line, but has a graceful curving track.
This is the moment that the cop says he is going to ring Hiro's parents. Time to go!
Medium Two shot
Medium shot
Cop turns back, stopping half way to look at clip board and to give time for the duo to leave the room...
Medium shot
Pull out to show tape dispenser, it even moves to screen right slightly...cop looks at it briefly...cut-on-move...
Wide Reverse shot
This wide reverse angle shows reveals the now empty reception area as the tape dispenser jumps off of the table and flies to the closed door.
The narrative continues outside for a couple of shots.
cut to exterior...
The whole scene is an excellent example of good planning, composition and manipulation of the audiences attention. The acting is strong and the use of strong key frames is great.
[Been meaning to do this post for a while, as an add-on to my performance animation lectures; so here goes...]
Many things make a great pose for a character. Very often the animator will look at it and think 'How the heck did I get his pose looking that good!' without really knowing why (or maybe that was just me).
This is an excellent strong pose from Disney's Pinocchio (1940), director of animation Art Babbitt, with many animators including Preston Blair
Let break it down to see what makes it so good.
Very often a good key pose is the combination of a number of things;
Good, readable Silhouette
Balanced Negative Space on either side of the character
Lines of energy shaping the pose and giving it a direction of force
Contrast of detail in the silhouette on one side but not the other.
The Pinocchio shot is great because it utilises lots of these to good effect.
Negative Space above...
...balanced by Negative Space below.
Line of energy travelling through the character, giving it direction...
While the character itself allows gravity to push the it down into the pose / chair.
Detailed silhouette on one side of the character contrasting with...
a simplified profile on the other side.
Combines to make a dynamite pose
It's interesting to look for these strong poses in different animations. Not every key frame can be this strong and well defined, but a good animator will have plenty of examples throughout their work.
A great arched pose from Tangled.
Curving energy, Pos & Neg space, silhouette.
Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood has some amazing animation and poses that have never been matched. This one is full of strong design and balance.
Add caption
Curving energy from the Wolf to Red, with a direct line created by bridging eye-contact. Strong silhouettes framed by interesting negative space.
Stringing a set of great key frames together will obviously make for great animation. Look below at how much room the framing has given Woody to move around in. He can hit lots of strong keys, manipulating the negative space by throwing himself into bold shapes.
In contrast Buzz is totally immobile and side on. It is interesting to note that often comedy is much more effective played either side or front on; but that will be something for another blog post, one day soon (almost definitely).
In future, if you are a budding animator, take a good look at you favourite animation and consider the poses...
Mery is a collaboration project designed to give animators a really good quality free rig to experiment with. I think the design is a cross between characters from Disney's Frozen and Monsters vs Aliens.
A great rig, this is very flexible but capable of great subtly and emotion as well as comedy and drama (check out the demo reels on the site and on Vimeo)! The facial controls are detailed without being overwhelming.
Do check it out, it's the most enjoyable rig I have by far right now.
The Mery team are:
Modeling, Look Development, Dynamic hair, Lighting & Compositing : Jose Manuel García
Character Design : Alejandro Delgado Rubianes
Character Setup & Tools Development : Antonio Méndez Lora
Thanks to: Ignacio de la Cruz, Alejandro Delgado Rubianes and Jose Luis Silva
[If you do have a go and find yourself wondering where the facial controls are, that have their own camera listed in the Orthographic panel views list.]
The creators even have a better version of Mery with dynamic hair and improved textures. If you create animation that they think is really good they will render it for you using the polished rig!! How cool is that?
