 Welcome back to the acting analysis and tips for animators and today I'm going to take a look at the TV show The Undoing. I have seven sequences I want to talk about but fairly early on they're going to go into spoiler territories. I'll put in the warning. I'll let you know. But before I do, hi my name is JD and I do stuff like this. I do acting analysis tips. I do animation analysis tips. I do lectures, rig reviews, proc reviews. You know to drill all kinds of things. Feel free to browse around my channel if you like this, subscribe. If you don't, that's also fine. But if you feel like hitting the like button and the subscribe button and that bell, that would be awesome. It helps my channel grow. But that's it. Let's go straight to the sequences because it's awesome. First up, we have this one here. They has been an incident. Again, I'm going to try to keep this as spoiler free as long as possible. And the news is out. Everybody's here waiting. The parents are here with the kids. But what I'm going to show you here is that they're all, you know, they're somewhat concerned or very gossipy. But there's a body language thing I want to show you. As she comes in here, you have this person who's not quite part of the clique of friends and the gossipy circle there. And what I love about this is they say, hi, they have kissy kissy. And she kind of wants to be part of that. She kind of leans in. And you can see this here. Look at that. Look at her sizing her up and goes, oh, hi. Yes. Looking down again. Yeah. Okay, whatever. And then look at that. The turn and it's almost like she's blocking. She must be adjusting her bag or something, but she have that. Well, I don't want you to be part of this. I'm going to step in front of it and keep on talking turning my back towards her. And you can see that her reaction as well. She has a smile. Yes. Oh, okay. And you got that exit here. You can see kind of a little blink there. And then, okay, I guess I'm not welcome here. So why am I showing it is just because again, if you have multiple people, you want to think about, are they together or not? Is there something where you want to show that they're together, they're friends or not? There's a divide that someone's very rude. All those things through body language, imposing, and posture. And the placement of the scene where they are, they're blocking someone will tell us something about their relationship. So think about that as you have multiple people and multiple characters in your scene. The next sequence is fairly long and it's also awesome. And this is just the second clip. And right off the bat, it's going to reveal something. So spoiler warning from now on, it goes into like, okay, well, this is the progression of the character and the series, just a fair warning spoiler. So I'm going to screw up through those sections because it's all about him and his reactions. He is here for the first time. He's kind of spooked. You can see the reactions. He's stopping here. Lots of blinking. It's going to be a lot of looking, staring, blinking, just how he reacts. He walks past the cell here and yelling at him. He's reacting like that. And you can see this continues on. So I'm going to screw up through and that's his appointed lawyer. Just kind of waiting. Also love this video. We see him coming and he kind of hears him coming. He just has that kind of slight look over there, acknowledging and waiting, not really fully turning around and then kind of locking. All right, here you are. But it's all about him. So as you go forward here, you can see how he's not super invested in him. He's going to start taking notes and he just wants to say that he is innocent. So you can see this here as he starts looking. He's got all the scrimmy mouth shapes and all the ticks that he has. It starts out small, but he starts to explain, okay, right. So what are you going to do here is not talk to anybody. You can see that. All right, well, I don't want to hear anything about what I'm supposed to do in here. I want to get out of jail here and you can see that's that reaction. You can see all the fidgety things. And again, throughout this whole sequence, just look at the progression and the changes that this character is going through. You can see this. He's annoyed. There's all the swallowing, closing of eyes. Don't forget your characters can close their eyes. It's not that often done in animation when I see my student shots. But again, it continues on and explains to him and he spoiler. He doesn't like him at all. So as he goes, all right, well, this is what you got to do. And you can see this here again. He just, he's just impatient. All right, well, I want to tell you this and what can we do? Can you get me out of here? And he explains, well, again, I'm going to spoke too much, but he talks about the bail and what I can do in terms of your innocence. Then you can see he leans in pointing here. All those little things you can see a slight blinks and all that, all of that. And he's completely calm here just watching him and he's not super agitated, but still it's like, all right, come on, do something from here. And he tells him here, all right, well, maybe this, maybe that, but you can see he's fairly relaxed in all of this. And then he will start seeing the switch. So now he goes, all right, well, let's just, you know, let's go through one by one. And he dismisses him in a way while about looking down and focusing back on the list. And you can see this here, how he is annoyed. He leans forward. He's got the crossing of fingers and not right. He gets into this and doesn't quite finish this because back into that, he's got a swallow and it's kind of noisy. All right, well, I got to answer this question. All right, right. And I love this here. This is actually in the sound when he asks him, what about the house? Do you own it with your wife? He says, yeah, I want it with my wife. And I love this reaction and the sound that he makes. Yeah, that's not going to help. And then he continues on. And you can see this, oh, here's the list. That's what I'm focusing on. And look, this is the biggest change here from here. And then later on, he's got all the looks. He tells them, I'm innocent. It's got the swallow. It's got the scanning. It's got the looking. And then bam, do you care? I says, do you actually care? And he's agitated, right? And then as the guy looks up and goes, well, actually, I don't. And that's his quick reaction of, I don't. And then you can see the change here. Just look at that. It's just scanning. There's no blinking. There's nothing else in his body. He realizes, oh, this guy is really not on my side. What a change. It's just, he almost realizes this is going to be really, really difficult. And it's super tiny. You can see this here. Super tiny changes here, but generally, it's just a stare. He realizes this is just not going to go well. And then it's all about him. And you should watch this is great. His deliveries, how he explains that, you know, doctors can be jerks and that's blah, blah, blah. And as he says this here, you can see that slight moment of, wait, what? Did you just say that? And he continues on. And you can start seeing a bit of a change again in this character as he listens, as he tells him all those things that it doesn't like him. And he doesn't get to be a jerk anymore with now he's in jail. And you can see this here. It was, oh, all right. Well, that's what's going on here. And you can see this change in him turns away, shoulders down. And he like, all right, it's almost like case closed. Okay. Well, this is what this is going to be about. And he just stays put. He just stays eyes on me. I think that's what he says here. Eyes back. I mean, it takes him a while to like, all right, let's do this. Fairly annoyed, right? He goes, okay, let's continue with this. And you can see slight little more changes. They get a bit more, the breathing is heavier. It looks away. This is when he tells him, you don't get to be this or that. He starts to get a bit more annoyed here. And he continues to lay out the plan of what is going to be here. And you can see this, I love those little looks. And then that, just the waiting, this relaxation in the face, in the shapes here, he's almost pleased with himself. It's so good. And it tells him, all right, and you can see this here. Well, you know, because you're a doctor, you're arrogant, all that stuff, he just tells him how much he doesn't like him. And you can see the slob bling here. Really, just such a big change from here when he just looks at him, and he's desperate, he's scanning the, come on, come on, you're going to be on my side. Come on. I'm innocent here. And he's all agitated and like, come on, let's do this to, all right, well, that's what's going to be. It's a long sequence, but for you to think about, again, this is tricky. This is really, really long. Not that you can have this on your shoulder and you're real, this is way too long, but think about the progression of a character, right? It's always interesting to go through contrast where a character starts in one spot and then ends in potentially in another. Also, if again, if you have multiple characters, how do they relate? What's the distance? What's the posture? Do they have mirrored posing because they agree with each other? Does someone suddenly turn away or turn their back? Does that change the dynamic? Is someone leaning back, leaning forward? All that stuff. Think about all that when you have two characters, at least in your scene, and how you can show us their relationship and how they relate and how they feel about each other. Back to this character, he's talking to her. There's a discussion of she asks him what he thinks in terms of her husband's innocence. And this is a tiny thing here where he tells him, you know, he has this gift, like he loves this. I love this. I have this gift of reading people. It's really great. And look at this here. I love this moment. So she asked him what do you think about my husband? You think he's innocent? And he has this thing of, all right, blah, blah, blah. And I love this here. As he goes down, he goes, and then he tells him, I think your husband is a jerk, but I don't think he's guilty. But it's that decision making of, yeah, this is what I'm thinking. I'm going to tell her this. No, I don't think he's innocent. It's just, I love that. Almost that he's patient that that thought process, that's an externalized right through there. That's not in the audience, just him going, yeah. And now I'm going to say what I'm going to say. So think about that when you're lip syncing. And if you're watching my clips, you know that I'm repeating this, but it's important that you don't just stick to the lip sync and animate the character and emotes whenever there's audio there. The character is going to think they're going to make choices. They're going to process information, make decisions. It's going to be, you know, an inner monologue as well. It's going to be subtext to all those things like this. Just to me, adds just an extra layer to the performance that's outside of just matching the lip sync. This one is a bit more about body language. I want you to look at her and then kind of him. He doesn't change really. It's mostly that he doesn't really want to talk to her. His hands are always in the pockets, but look at her. And from the very beginning, let's go back. You can see all the movement is she's so eager. She's kind of nervous. There's a lot of fidgeting. She gets up. She wants to get ready there. She takes a step closer to him. She's leaning forward. She just can't wait. She's so eager to talk to him because he has more information about her husband. You can see this. She almost wants to shake hands. She has a little bit of touching here. They know each other. It's not, you know, a person she doesn't know, but it's all out there. Look at him. He just hands in the pocket. It's completely closed off. Doesn't really want to talk. And this continues here where she has more gestures. She has more moves. She leans in. She almost wants to lean in and she wants to see, what is he saying? Scanning all of this and he just stays put in that same pose, closed off. I'm not going to shake hands. Nothing. And again, this goes back into you have multiple characters. How do they relate? Is someone more interested in the other? What does that tell us if this character doesn't change this pose? What is this pose compared to someone like this here, who's just so eager, leaning forward? So just make sure you have something like this because to me, everything is always about contrast. It's just not that interesting unless it's a very important story point that they're the similar, you know, in terms of posture and behavior and all that stuff. But I like seeing the differences in characters, be it two or multiple characters in your scene and how we will then perceive that and how we learn something from those two characters. And again, body language. This is about him now visiting his dad in jail here in prison. So this is all about what I talk about to my students. Is your character in an environment that is familiar or unfamiliar? He's never been here. He's never seen this. So if you look at him, look at that. He looks up. She's done this before. She's more concerned about him. Obviously it's the parent too. And look at that. He just keeps on looking. Looks around there. Looks around here. Again, I mean, it's kind of cold too, but it's almost a kind of protective thing. It's kind of shielded with his jacket. I'm probably reading way too much into this, but you know, like versus people that are potentially a bit more relaxed as they walk. Maybe that's not their first time. But all of this, look at him as he looks around. He's about to get in here, but he's still concerned or curious about what is this place. Same thing as he goes forward. They're passing the guard. You can see this here. Looks around. He knows he's been told where to go, but he looks here. Looks over there. He's not very relaxed here. Looks over here, but you know, he's supposed to sit here, but he still looks everywhere just because this is new. His unfamiliarity is potentially scary. So think about that when you have a character in any type of environment. If you are putting character in a set anywhere, is this character there for the first time? Yes or no, because that is going to change how they move, how they look, how they behave, and all their acting choices. This is a tiny thing is more about composition and placing characters and awareness. He is kind of alone in this. All the kids are having fun, but he's alone and you know, kind of, it's a tough spot to be in when your dad is accused of murder. But he's that, you know, reemphasizing his big vast area closed up in a corner, but also as kids play and get close to him, not on purpose. They kind of play around. You can see he doesn't want to get touched. He just feels alienated. He just doesn't want to be part of all of that. It's a quick thing, but again, something for you to think about as you put your character, not just in an environment because they won't interact, but with people that are around this. How is this character going to relate to them and behave towards them? Are they like here? Is he going to move away or is he going to be more and more? I want to be with you and play with you. Anyway, you want to look at how does this character behave when other people are around? It just tells us again, one more thing about the character. It's an extra layer than just putting a character here and is doing their thing. So if you have, it pops right into the first frame, if you have multiple characters, I would highly recommend to think about, well, how will your main character react and interact with those? And will that tell us something more about the character and add extra layers without just being kind of a generic performance? And this one is me reading into things. I don't know if that was the goal, but the trial has started. They're all there. You can see the reporters. You can see the grandfather of the kid here. They're all starting, they're all getting ready. What I want to look at again, has nothing to do with acting. I just wanted to bring that in was I like this light here. It's almost like the people here, as they're starting the trial, they're crossing that line. They're crossing into a new world. After this, there's no turning back. This is going to be insane as they have to go through all of those revelations about the characters, what's going to happen again, spoiler, kind of non-spoiler, but I kind of like that visual thing. Is this intentional or not? I don't know. So many times I look at things and go, this is really cool. They go, was that the actual intention? A lot of times I'm just reading into things, but I kind of like that visual thing. Anyway, that's also sometimes the fun of watching those things like reading into this and kind of interpreting what they may or may not have wanted to tell us with the visuals. But anyway, speaking of visuals, if you have visual work, this is so ridiculous. If you have animation that you want me to look at and help you with based on stuff like this, if you like this, if you feel like that's interesting and you want me to help you with your shots and make your shots even more awesome, you know the drill. I got workshops, link in the description with the information you can sign up at any time. And speaking of time, this has been a fairly longer clip. So if you're still watching the whole thing, thank you so much. I appreciate the time that you put into watching my clips and that is that. I will say thank you again. Subscribe if you want or not, like if you want or not, but helps my channel grow. I will appreciate it if you do and if you do subscribe, hit that bell box. You don't miss any of my uploads because I do upload a lot and that is that. Thanks for watching and I will see you in my next upload.