People watch movies. Artists also watches, so do animators, too. But it was recent that I recognized that an animator should have totally different eyes when watching movies than the other artists or general people.
Actually I am a heavy watcher whether it's a blockbuster or award-winning movie. When I was in the college, I had been watching thousand Videos burning the midnight oil. The rental shop guy even asked me what are the best recent movies that people will like to make their proper marketing strategy. Until recent, I still watching movie as I have been doing; a story chaser, an eager for the fun point, and being entertained.
There are thousands of different methods when watching movies. If you are a writer, you may focus on the story first. You will look around the whole frame while you are watching that if you are a layout artist. You may focus on the lighting, OST, visual effects, and actors and actresses themselves.
This makes sense that an animator should focus on the acting itself. Yes it's true. But what is the next step you watch some great acting choices in the movie? Maybe you can utilize the acting into your own animation shots. I will also do so, as long as I remember the scene. That's why teachers told us.
But, what if you watch 30 great movies in an year?
Well, I believe I have a pretty good memorize skill, to me, it is really hard to remember all the great moments that I have watched. I can't even remember the movie title I saw 10 years ago. What if you want to find a specific scene that made you inspired before in 'The Hangover', but you cannot remember where the scene was, so you have to watch the entire movie to find out what you are exactly want?
Gee, I don't wanna waste much time. So, I made myself smarter. A Spreadsheet can help me a lot. Especially Google Docs.
What I have been doing so far was categorizing movie clips using Google spreadsheet so that I can sort easily whenever I need. Before doing this, I usually mark the time while watching movies. Then I capture the scene that I marked before using Quicktime Pro (or anything), save the clip to my disc and name it, like 'Lars and the Real Girl Ref - 01'.
And then I categorize the file by gesture type, emotion type, and dialogue type using Google spreadsheet. For example, the file Lars and the Real Girl clip number 4 has a strong character with arm and body gestures which are unique. Also the scene is about arguing and something worried/nervous emotions there.
If I want to reference finger gestures from my files, I can simply sort 'E' column so that I can watch clips which contain finger gestures or I can find another sub category.
I have been making this docs for the last 6 months and I already have 200+ clips which are categorized and ready to be sorted. I usually watch 3~5 movies in a week and get 2~5 reference-able acting clips from each one. Maybe I can get a thousand clips next year. Enough reason for doing this?
Another great thing is, my eyes for acting choice are much sharpened than before. Whenever I watch movies, I try to find as many as good gestures or moments from the scene to apply to my own animation.
Well, this also has cons; I couldn't enjoy enough than when I didn't do this while watching movies. So sometimes I try to become a generic audience just to enjoy the movie itself. But ultimately, this is really helpful to improve my eyes and acting skill stronger and stronger.
Highly recommend this. It doesn't need to be Google Docs. any spreadsheet will be OK and you can make your own category and method. This is just what I am doing and may be improved somehow next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment