 All right, it's Thursday and that means acting analysis for animators and today I'm gonna look at the first season of Amazon's Jack Ryan Overall a fun show it was very much like homeland and 24 even though I preferred homeland season one But it's kind of different different type of thing. This is a bit more action-y than drama But there's still some good little bits that I want to talk about for animation So let's get straight to the first sequence So the first sequence I want to talk about is as this main character Apart from Jack Ryan gets in there and has a meeting with him and I want to kind of look at the little Cyclances and non-held eye contacts, but also the relationship between the two characters in terms of framing and The other thing because it's right here. He has to put in all his pills I like all the secondary action stuff I'm a big fan of when you have audio and you deliver your audio for your lip sync that You do this when a character does something. It's not just I'm sitting here and I'm delivering the line I'm doing this as I'm preparing for instance to record this and look at the Microphone and maybe the lights and everything and the screen and you can still deliver something as you're preparing for a business Or as you are in the kitchen doing something or in this case He's taking pills and he's getting you know getting his medication in there So he does this and I already love that long stare because he asked him How how was the vacation and this is long silence on the other end and he's already kind of Assessing him and kind of judging him, but I love all this. I love that. There is no there's no blink no nothing He gets that little moment of yeah, uh-huh. Okay, I see how it is He holds the pill there to create a little hell moment and he is kind of squirming not very comfortable Looks every now and then and finally tells him what's going on But what I like about this here is that he is not comfortable and he is very small in frame You can see that he takes up pretty much the left half of the frame and he is small. He's kind of hunched over He's just not that comfortable. It's an interesting framing Framing this has nothing to do with it, but I'm just I'm seeing this here So then he continues with his business, right? And I like that again He holds the pose here and he talks differently in terms of your mouth shapes because he has a pill in his mouth There are different shapes if in the blend shape or whatever parlance You would say you have to activate different shapes because there's something in his mouth So I like that too. I like that your lip sync wouldn't be your standard shapes because there is something in his mouth You can kind of play with this and do something else with it. So this he continues and You can see how the secondary action continues and he really doubles down on that left side here But he has to drink water and I also like this here that he is Technically framed pretty comfortably. Yes, there's something here that kind implies the second character But he has enough room here. It's kind of chit chat to me. It seems like this is all pretty comfortable But he is not and he's framed here very closely There's a lot of room here very uncomfortable framing and he is uncomfortable right now in this moment And if you look at how long he looks and he doesn't look you can see a lot of blinking He does have eye contact here, but then not he just breaks eye contact looks around And here again looming in he's a bit more comfortable It's a bit more comfortably framed here So there's a lot of back and forth between how they're framed and they seem fairly equal here But you see all the hand gestures and it's back to that tilt the hunch over the small framing It's interesting to me how he goes back and forth. It's not a constant in that scene So it can also depends on his state of mind. He has eye contact. He says something is more comfortable He's also more confident in his delivery. So as the context changes as the confidence changes The framing changes every now and then again, I might be reading into this But I like looking at that type of framing and everything But then as he goes back and Kind of starts questioning him about his job and his previous problems, you know, again small framing head tilt Small in frame there and what I like about this is that there's a lot of times when he's supposed to say something He just looks over to the side completely Disengaged and that's I think really cool when you do your two-person dialogue that you don't have constant eye contact And the person could just stop or even say the lines but kind of Send to off to the side and not really look at it But that's a specific attitude to play with that if that's you know, appropriate to your scene So he does this here and you can tell that he has that look he understands. All right Well, let me just continue with this here And he starts talking about the assignment and everything and again a lot of space taken up here Not a very comfortable framing with him. So it's just not in a good space But again, he doesn't care. He still has that that look of yeah, whatever. I'm gonna look at this Every now and then some eye contact. Well, you might say now, but he's not comfortable The way it's framed here not enough room But to me it seems like he just reinforces the conflict between these two There's very very small headroom there and as it cuts again, he's small looks away But then as they continue again small, it's just such an interesting to go back here from here to here It's just not a friendly encounter up to this point and you can play with this You can play with the framing in your scene and the way the camera is staging the The face and just the body play with that try something out to see if you can reinforce a specific mood or emotion And the scene continues again with him and his secondary action and the framing as they're this close And this continues for quite some time as they are slowly revealing the intentions You can see here how now as he said something you can see now like all right Well, I'm gonna say how it is and it's a bit differently framed I guess maybe maybe because he's a bit more open about it, but you can see like hmm All right now I gotta pay attention This is how it is and then he ends the situation because he's kind of more in charge I guess you can you can argue like that Well framing is a bit more comfortable because he's the one calling the shots Maybe at this point you don't need it to be small because they see eye to eye They understand what's going on between each other. So that frame is a bit more comfortable But what I like about this is too is that he realizes all right. Well, this is how it is and look at how long he's already Taking his arm. They're ready to get up and how long he looks and looks but still you got a lot of room in here But that was a pretty long look and of course as people in power want to do they say one more thing He has to call him one more time. Okay, if you do this He tells him and again, it's I guess you might argue confrontation again So it's uncomfortable the framing is like this, but he tells him don't screw up because I went to bat for you and you can see that long stare. Yeah. All right. All right. No blink. No blink. Look at this How long he stares until the turn And then he's left here Maybe he understands a bit of a third smaller frame. I don't know never was reading into things But as a whole you can kind of look at this If as you do your animation one or two characters look at or maybe a second character is off screen You don't have to see the character But look at the staging. Is it comfortable? Is uncomfortable? How small is the character in frame? Will that help with the character being small or big? The next little sequence goes back to what I say way back in the fna about how your character Is potentially aware of the environment or not aware or comfortable or just in a new environment Or in the familiar environment and in this case it's a small little thing, but I like that detail So as he gets home It's oh lots of cutting because he's all familiar, but you can see how he picks things up He doesn't really have to look but the main thing is this here That little thing with the foot. He's so familiar. He knows how high this is he's done this so many times That's his routine when he gets home as he picks up the things But even this how he puts things down you can see as he grabs the food and scrub for it a little bit here He does his little jeopardy thing, but See how he just throws it down. He doesn't have to look he's been eating this for so long He knows where to put things down And it continues on even with this here. He has a quick little look But I guess because of the bottle, but still it still gives us all an impression of This is my place. I've done this before. I'm very comfortable And I'm very familiar with this fridge and how I can close it with my leg small detail But I like adding that to your character shots Now speaking of character and being familiar and not familiar this next one is about An event happens and the characters are kind of used to that type of action The sound and the danger and the reaction is pretty small and not that would say subtle But they kind of used to it versus jack ryan who's not really familiar with explosions around him freaks right out So let's look at this. So here's the sequence as they're waiting this massive explosion happens People are blown back and look at this. He is not moving whatsoever and he just freaks out And again, this is completely in character because he is not used to this. So he gets up Back eye doesn't and even they they kind of look around. He's a bit more nervous But the people in charge you just kind of look up and then that's it And even he just takes a little step forward, but it's not really freaking out as much As as we go back here look at jack ryan's reaction here and what's going on here So small thing in this case, it's a bigger visual thing But if you have a character like I said before is that character in an environment for the first time? Yes or no, this will determine how the person interacts with objects But if something happens outside of the character an event, how is that character reacting to that could be a sound Could be you know an environmental thing where an avalanche comes down and the guide is so used to You know having people go through mountains and snow that oh, there's an avalanche To take a couple steps back versus all the other people are freaking out And you can have that contrast of the guide being quiet and kind of like yeah, whatever and all the other You know tourists behind him going So use that again to your advantage Who is the character are they there for the first time are they familiar with an event the environment the objects And then without you can build contrast the next little bit is very very subtle So if you're into full on close-up and small little details that this might be for you again It's very very very subtle, but this here where they have a confrontation where he's He as in This character he just you know, he's done this for so long. He doesn't really have any Not that much hope anymore And he is just you know the rookie the hopeful person and he tells him no I don't think so. I don't believe that this is the way we have to go I think we can do this a different way and you can see that little Tiny little knot that little blink and it's a slow blink look at that Just slow enough watches in real time and that'll change in his mouth Yeah, and it's a little knot and you can see how the friendly little look and it's more like a pity It's a pity smile like yeah, yeah, you poor little thing I understand it's because I used to be like that too and he tells him that and you can see that change Look at that little change as he has the little cheeks up here and the lower lids here And he seems it's much more friendlier face and look at that small super subtle change and bam look at that You can see it in his lids. You can see how they're closed here And then he got that little flare here. Look at this Just that change and you can tell him as he says the f4 here and swears Bam look at that and you can see it in his in his folds here. Everything is a bit more relaxed and gets into a serious state here And then it tells him. Yeah, it doesn't always work like that. It's that long stare again without a blink So good super subtle But if your rig has those controls and you enter something that maybe you want to go a bit further and really Push the subtleties But it's hard because it's so subtle that you might miss it and it's a tricky thing to animate But if you're into this and this is a very very cool moment of just a little the shapes here Just a little dial down and that changes the attitude and speaking of attitude This one cracked me up in the scene one of the other characters has such a good reaction So let's take a look at this here. So this is a kind of a non-interview interrogation everything But they have to ask her a couple questions. She is, you know talking about her experience here in terms of biological chemical weapons But the thing is that he and her Are dating but he Did not tell her what he's doing because he's an agent. It's all secret So as she came in she's already pretty surprised to see jack Ryan in there And if you look at this here, she asked him what's going on. I don't understand So he okay, well, I need to talk to her But he can't use her first name because it has to be not so casual So it says dr. Miller and she has that reaction here. I love that reaction It's that, you know open mouth of what's going on again. What really really did you just really say that to me? It's so good. Let's look at that again And it's such a small thing right in terms of animation. Yeah, okay Well, jaw up close the mouth some compressions here. There's a bit of a change Not that much in the eyebrows a little bit eyebrows goes go down But then you can see the head goes back head goes down And then the blink going she's processing processing this and going really So let's watch that again in real time here, right? He says her name Dr. Miller and then really Hmm And then he continues and he talks and blah blah blah So good and from an animation point of view from a technical point of view It's really not much but the added you change and just a reaction of Really you just really say that and of course there's a lot of you know all the episodes before and then the you know The context and the history behind it makes that scene more You know more powerful in terms of the comedy and if you do this for the first time It's a single shot on your reel. It might not read as well But still I think the idea behind it that you don't have to have crazy overacting reactions Sometimes it's just a Just that that in the right moment at the right timing with the right contrast between the characters and the history Could be so good So again one more thing I thought could be really neat and potentially applicable to your shots I might go back there some other good stuff with a french police officer I think she had some really good scenes as well, but I'm gonna stop it right here This is kind of it for me for season one Um watch it if you're inclined if you've seen and you've seen other things that you really liked Let me know in the comments if you like this analysis as always I appreciate a like and if you watch the whole thing till the very end. I appreciate your valuable Minutes watching this Subscribe if you want to get notifications for all my uploads hit that bell button for that And I will see you tomorrow for part two of my q&a answers