 Yep, it's Friday and that means FNA Friday as always and today we're gonna talk about how an environment can make your animation better To lofty statement better. Well, let me explain. This is going to be a multi-part series kind of like how to take your animation to the next level It's almost the same like an unofficial part 6 But I think an environment is something that people don't really pay attention to enough and I understand like in class You want to give your students just enough so they can learn something new and you push them without getting overwhelmed So you don't have moving cameras. You don't have too many crazy props and also not Complicated backgrounds and things you have to interact with I understand it can be too much It can be overwhelming totally get it now. This is for you who is at a stage where you want that you want more Again, you want to push yourself and kind of see what could I do with a character and why add an environment? So the multiple things I want to talk about one is how the environment is going to affect the character in terms of this could be Weather it's a lot of things about the weather. This is going to be for next week or in two weeks But today I'm going to talk about how your acting choices are going to change depending on the environment meaning and it's a very specific example I'm going to use continuum here and man on the ledge to kind of illustrate that point But the example that I was making class is let's pretend you come home And you're tired and you stick your clothes off when I go to bed and there's a very clear difference And I'll take that same idea you're tired You just want to go to bed, but you're in a hotel and you've never been in that hotel So when I'm home, I just I know where my plugs are I can just kind of come in and then turn on the light like this and then do this like that It's kind of like Robocop when he does the whole maybe even in shoots like this Isn't have to look because it's all targeted and programmed kind of same thing I come home and I know where things are I can just throw my stuff I don't really throw my stuff over there But you mean like you know you're very used to and you kind of have a blind understanding where things are now Take that same idea and you're in a hotel You're the first time in that hotel. I walk in. I don't even know where the light switch is I have to look around and go. Oh, it's over there. Click. Well, where do I put my clothes? Where is that the closet? Oh, that's the closet if your character Let's pretend your assignment is your character is tired comes home home Wherever that is and puts the keys on the table and sits down. How about that just something simple Well, if I come home, I can just throw my keys somewhere throw my shoe somewhere over the couch or somewhere Something funny and then plop down and this could be I mean could be long or fast But there's a specific way of how I'm going to move how long I'm gonna look at something or not look at something Versus a hotel where even though I'm tired I still have to kind of come in but I'm gonna fumble and I might fall over something or trip over something To just to find the light switch and go, okay. Well, where is this? Well, I know this closet is too far away and take my jacket off just throw it over there Because I'm too tired to get there and then maybe at this couch in here I'm gonna sit down. It's the same action. It's the same objective that your character has I need to sit down because I'm tired But the way you go about it is gonna be different if you are an environment that you're familiar with where you've been and done things Hundred times thousands of times verses and environments that it is brand new you were there for the first time so that whatever you look at You have to find it you have to understand what it is and where it is So when you look at the show continuum where the character is in a hotel for the first time She's from the future as a cop was thrown back into the past. So whatever she does there. It's kind of for the first time She's not really aware of how things work So looking at that she walks towards the bathroom when I'm being very picky because She looks over here now. This is the first time. She's there. She doesn't know that the plug is here But she acts like she's done this maybe a couple times So this could be like the fifth take or something acting wise So she knows what it is maybe the first time she's done it differently or she didn't really quite think through or some something's not important I mean, I'm being super picky here But if your character is somewhere and they don't know where things are so for the first time like in this bathroom I would not do something like this where the character knows exactly where that is But the thing is when she continues, she's in there looks around she's not sure Hmm. Okay, this is how things are in this time period. What is this looks like? So maybe that smells good. So throughout the rest of the episode. She has a lot of things where they're consistent She's never done this before and then in this case, it felt a bit weird where it's a very casually I know where this plug is and speaking of hotel the other example is gonna be from man on a ledge Where we are actually in a hotel. So let's take a look at this character comes in here And he has to look where that plug is and then gives him this and so on and so on It's a longer sequence But I'm gonna spoil this because when I was first watching this and it's kind of specifically after talking to students about this Why would he do this if you are working in a hotel and you walk into those rooms? I don't know how many times you know where that plug is or the switch You would just open and switch on the light like this. You wouldn't really look but you're so uses kind of a routine So I was watching this going It's kind of weird. That's not what I would have done But the spoiler is that he is his dad the kind of pretending and that's just a costume He is actually in here for the first time. So you could argue. Maybe this makes more sense I don't know again. I'm being picky But I wanted to pick out those two examples because that's what I was bringing up in class You're either this pretend you're at home or you're at a hotel one is for the first time one You're very familiar with so when you do have your character and this could be character walks into a kitchen Maybe it's a person that goes to a friend's house or apartment or whatever where one character is very familiar with everything And the other character isn't this could be an interesting contrast of how one character sits down move things picks up things Without looking behind their back, whatever it is while the other person is more careful Maybe more nervous. So this could be an interesting character trait and contrast between two characters and again But what the character knows or doesn't know about the environment is going to change your acting choices So next time you have a character in the room or whatever it is or outside Think about when they grab something my grab this remote for my fan because it's really warm You might hear it is but the way I picked this up and I know where I have to point This is going to be totally different than you know, for instance the the lens cap For this is I'm not if I'm not familiar with the camera or the lens am I going like oh, how them I want to scratch the lens. It's not be totally different. So whatever prop you use Whatever thing you have to turn on or turn off. It's going to be different and think about the timing How is the character picking up the remote? Is it a casual thing or is it kind of for the first time picking like this? So whatever you have the timing the movement the pose It's going to tell the audience if that character is familiar with it It wants to be careful with it or or be more casual Every single frame counts to tell the audience how a character feels how they're aware of the environment or not aware and so on and so On and I think that's a really cool thing to do when you do have your animation And you do want to choose a set was again in some exercises You don't want to set you just want to keep it simple no camera movement just a curtain empty scene I totally understand well Let's say in your class where we are you have the freedom to actually use a set then I would think about that Well, what kind of set is it is the person if for the first time or not again as the classic thing What happened before what's going to happen after maybe this set is familiar But then the character finds something in that environment. That's brand new. I haven't seen this before and again That will change your character choices. You're acting choices and so on and so on and to me that makes the character choices More interesting and again It kind of puts the character in the environment where they're more aware of things and you can play off of the Environment if that kind of makes sense So it doesn't just feel like well Here's my character animation with the character doing whatever to camera and it's kind of like a photoshop background of the set So if you do have a set use it use it to your advantage use it to make more interesting choices for your character and then Influence the character and their acting choices and there's a lot more you can do again with the set in terms of How even it is and just the way the set is built But that's a future FNA and next week I'm going to talk about different aspects of how character can be influenced in terms of Stuff that happens around them the weather the heat all kinds of things So there's a lot more to talk about but I want to talk about this in this first one because it is a big thing Your character whatever choice you have you have to think about why why is this character making this choice? And it's this choice because of some emotional state or is this because of some environment? Imagine a classic horror movie where someone turns on the light and the light doesn't work for the basement And then they have to kind of walk down because they're scared again Totally different if the light is on or not so context and environment really matters So that's it as always if you wash your whole thing till the very end I say the same thing but still it's very valuable minutes and Dozens of minutes of your time in your day So thank you for watching if you like this gift is a like and if you want to get all the notifications as always Subscribe hit the bell button for all the goodies and uploads and notifications and all those things that I say at the end Because I don't want you to miss anything that I upload So thanks for watching and I will see you either next week or whenever you decide to watch one of my clips. Thank you