 All right, it is Friday and that means FNA Friday and today is part six of how to take your animation to the next level. All right, so someone who signed up for my workshop set me work and I emailed back and gave me feedback, but it was not something that I was going to record for the workshop critiques that I upload. It was just something quick via email, but I thought it was a good example that I could use for an FNA and it's mainly about a shot that started with a character on an empty background in an empty scene, delivering a line that I would say fairly specific, but there's something about the line and the combination of the rig and the costume and just the lack of a set that I mean, it kind of worked, but I think you can go beyond and this is what this FNA is about. How could you take an animation and take it to the next level? But I think by adding those things I'm going to mention subjectively, I think you can add more interest to the shot and potentially more opportunities for better acting choices or something a bit more interesting to work with as an animator. So first let's play the clip so you know the rig, you know, the environment, the line, the audio and all that good stuff so that it gives you a bit more context and understanding of what I'm going to talk about. All right, so my first comment was that given the audio and the accent and just what he was saying, I wasn't sure that this rig and with the character in a superhero outfit would work. He sounds more like a hillbilly and I would just kind of dress him in that type of fashion where it's not very sophisticated and definitely not a superhero. Now, you might argue this might be a great contrast of that, what he's saying and how he's saying it with someone in a superhero costume. I understand that that's potentially interesting contrast, but this is not what I was suggesting here. So let me just give you the bullet points and you can always let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree. So my thought was that let's put him into a kind of a hillbilly, that type of costume and then put him in a restaurant. Since he's talking about food that he wanted and that he didn't get. So my contrast was going to be he's in a very fancy restaurant. And the reason why I want him to dress kind of down and sloppy is that you have that contrast. So he is someone that visually doesn't quite fit when you look at that fancy restaurant background and the environment that he's in. And because he doesn't quite fit, it can make it awkward. But in this case, and especially with the tone of voice and what he's saying, that to me is the conflict is that he's in a place that he's not quite comfortable in and there's a bit of aggression there. And he's just not behaving in a way that is suitable for that type of environment. Now, visually, this is what I had in mind. So let's switch over to just a blank screen. So usually a bit of a cliche thing with lip sync is that if that's your frame, you probably have a character standing or sitting, gesturing while with arms, and that's it. There's just an empty background and it's usually waist up, which doesn't give us any sense of any weight shifts or weight or how the character can move and portray your weight and just more interesting body mechanics. Now, this is not obviously the final idea in framing, especially with my crappy drawings, but the thought that I had was let's pretend that it could be on a table and the character is sitting. So however you're sitting poses and the waiter is not as tall, you know, has whatever, no power, whatever it is. But that's kind of the setup that the character that's complaining is sitting. So that's the person here in the waiter is standing next to it. So as the shop progresses and the character gets more and more upset, he would end up standing and then, you know, whatever pose you have looking down onto the waiter. So now you have a progression from someone that's small to someone that's tall and in terms of mechanics, it's interesting because you do have a character that sits in whatever pose and he can get up with maybe putting arms on the table and then slowly pushing themselves up or kind of leaning over, taking one leg out potentially for a big inpatient and then snapping over, being really mad and looking down on the character. And the reason why I thought the waiter could be not as tall is that now you have a power status. So if the character, maybe he's kind of sloppy and hunched over elbows on the, you know, on the on the table, whatever it is. But technically, you have the waiter looking down. I mean, maybe the waiter is just a bit taller, but there's a certain power status, this tall and this small. And now the waiter is kind of looking down on him. So in a snobby way, looking at him, well, you don't really belong. But then there's the power status change, where the one that doesn't quite fit in the restaurant, who's not that tall, now suddenly towers over the waiter and now there's a change in power. There's a shift in the power dynamics. So for me, that has interest on multiple levels. A, visually, there is someone that's small and then someone that's tall in terms of the silhouette, the line of action, just more interesting contrast wise, where the character has somewhere to go just visually. But then also status wise and power wise, the character has somewhere to go where they're looking, they're being looked down upon. And then that character stands and there's a reversal. And now they're the one that's threatening and speaking of threat with the voice, because that character gets more and more agitated. It's also, at least to me, fitting that the character would evolve to that agitated state where it starts small and at the end powers in a more posturing, threatening stance and pose. And animation wise, it's also, I think, to me, more interesting to animate because instead of someone that just kind of wastes up, which is your standard, maybe standard, but kind of a cliche acting framing where you just do mostly things in arms and maybe with the head, it's more interesting to animate a sit up to how is the character standing up? And that could be very slow, always fixated on the head, which would threat or could be like, yeah, I'm getting up. And it's that while preposterous, I'm angry. I'm going to lash out at you, which is also a certain attitude. But again, it seems more fun to animate. And if the character gets up in such a fashion, like in a big way, big flailing arms, how dare you? I want my food that way and blah, blah, blah. You would have the contrast of movement of the character getting up with big moves and the waiter standing still and just watching. So they could have, I don't know, I mean, I think to hold here, but it's pretend, you know, they're holding a pen here. Here, I'm taking my notes here. How about this in my phone? So I'm taking the order and I, hmm, how's that look of me? I don't belong here. And then as the character stands, you could keep it where. I still don't care. This is visually like you just still to belong here or the waiter will go, hmm, hmm. Hmm. I just have that change of a slight going down, being a bit more afraid. And that would be that minimal change in posture, but still communicate something. But it would be the contrasting animation between one character moving a lot and getting bigger and one character getting smaller and also not moving that much. So it's that contrast in how much movement there is. You could accentuate this potentially with a camera move. So maybe that camera just frames them like this because they're low. And as the character stands up, you have the camera tilt that frames up and maybe because of that angle change, the characters is seen from below. The camera is lower than actually the head of the the threatening character. And that camera angle change again, adds more power to the character that is threatening. If you are too far out and it's just a wider shot where this character just stands, it's potentially more interesting animation wise, because you can see the whole thing unfold. But then maybe storytelling wise and framing wise, maybe not as powerful. So maybe that's something else that you could explore. Is it just a locked camera that stays put? Or is the camera tilting up and falling the character in order to add the emphasis of threats and, you know, however far you want to go with that threatening stance and demeanor and so on. And maybe you want to go even further. So maybe you want to take it even to another level. So how about this? So what if this is the end? You got the person that's sitting and then standing and there's that power shift. But what if afterwards you got imagine that's the body and those are really, really long legs. Imagine the head would be technically a bit higher. Maybe you just have, you know, hands down, maybe with a fist with a, you know, a pen or the same kind of thing that this waiter has. So you understand this is another waiter, but that waiter stepped in to defend the smaller waiter. And now this character that was looking down is now leaning back and looking up and then realizing, hmm, there's someone else that's now much taller than me. OK, the power has shifted again. Maybe I should sit back down. Maybe that makes a shot too long. Maybe it's just kind of an interesting look. Oh, maybe I should be quiet. That could be something with this character. Maybe just gesturing out and then this character just kind of nods. I mean, I'm adding a lot more. It's probably too much. It's going to make the shot much longer. But I just want to illustrate the point that there's the main idea that you have, which is potentially a good idea. But what could you do to go further? And I'm not saying it's so that you can make your shot just more complicated with no reason. I mean, that's also kind of boring to watch, which there's just the chair. There's just too much going on. But maybe those additional layers will add that certain something to the shot to make it more interesting. So it's a progression of situations that escalate for humor. Or like I said, sitting to standing is a bit more interesting animation wise, and you can show off more skills in that shot and potentially convince people to hire you and or whatever your goal is. This is a quick example. I got more, but I just wanted to post this one before I continue with the last chapter of the blocking series. And yeah, that's it. As always, if you watched this whole thing till the very end, you know, I really appreciate it. I appreciate all the comments that people leave. And if you have other ideas with this or complaints or disagreements and that's about it. So, you know, the drill, like and subscribe and hitting that bell button. It's the usual YouTube spiel and that is it from me. And I will see you in my next clip.