 Welcome back to an act analysis and tips for animators. And today I'm going to take a look at the movie Emma and it's going to cover a bunch of stuff. There are a lot of clips, of course, talking about props. As always, like them going to be out character awareness of their surroundings, acknowledging all the characters and dissipation, just there's so much to cover. It's going to be awesome. So let's go. I got 12 clips here and they're going to be shorter clips, nothing really long, but I think really applicable to animation. You can take the idea and build on that idea and do it for your own shots. It's going to be really cool. But before we go into this, hi, my name is JD and I do acting analysis clips like these. I do animation analysis clips. I do animation lectures, animation news. I do reviews, product reviews. I do a bunch of stuff and it's my pitch at the beginning. This is the channel, browse around if you like it, subscribe to be awesome. And if not, maybe at the end of this clip, you will. Who knows? But that is the pitch. Let's get to the sequences and let's start with props right away. And what is it? She is in here checking things out. And you got this guy who has to handle the lights so she can see things. And it's this moment here. Yeah, it's this conflict thing. So that's it's not just about a prop and a prop here that creates something interesting for this character to react to. One of the things that I mentioned to my students is that if you have a character doing anything, this could be a pantomime, this could be lip sync, this could be anything, a weight assignment, this could be kind of a lightweight assignment, whatever. You add a conflict. So this could be maybe this gets really hot, hot to hold how he's going to deal with this while trying to perform his job. This is in his way. It's going to bother him. So any type of conflict like this, anything that is a problem for the character is interesting for the audience to see because we want to see what the character is going to do to fix that problem. I think it's going to add an extra layer to your animation instead of just doing a weight assignment. That's your prop and that's it. Anything where we get to see a bit more to the reactions and how the character is going to get out of that problem is at least to me very interesting to watch. This one is a classic and I mentioned that in previous TV shows and movies. It's always interesting, but it's to me when a character is in front of a door, this could be a curtain, this could be anything. A character has to go through something to another side with either an audience and other character, a job interview, whatever you want to do. And it's for you as an anime really interesting because you can do your pantomime in there. They're in a certain state of mind. They're going to prepare that might be already gear change. Then they're getting ready and then they get to the door. So that's already so much you can do with a shot in terms of pantomime. You can even have a bit of lipstick in there if you want to. But the thought process and reactions on the face would be great. This continues, though, where she is knocking. She is trying to hear something and then he continues with her. It is also a cool set up where they are both listening, right? You got the mirroring of this and this, then as they start talking, it's kind of interesting set up where in a way now you can build in some potential subtext with the lip sync would say something, but she actually feels completely differently and she can just like her because the door is hiding them. And then as you go forward, you have that reveal and that again could be something of maybe she did not expect whatever that person, that person holding something that could be some interesting reaction. And then you can even have a proper reveal. And that's going to be some form of anticipation of I hope she likes it. Then you have anticipation and a reaction to that here. So there's a lot in here going from I'm getting ready. I'm summoning the other person. What is going to happen between that into play here and then the opening and the reveal and there's so much you can do on their faces. And again, you can keep it like this, right? You don't have to do the full body. This is cool to see some full body animation as well, but you can keep it like that. So that whole setup, that whole thing with two characters, a door knocking the talking. There's so much you can do as an animator in terms of performance. It's just a really cool setup that I would highly recommend that you steal and of course change, but use it as your own. This clip is about surroundings and how people are aware. This I love this in the movie when she kind of she whispers it such a cute way. And no one hears it and she says it a lot louder right there. And you can see how if you watch the whole crowd here, huh? Everybody has a reaction. They turn, he turns, and it's just a reminder that if you have a character, say something suddenly really loud, make sure that it does influence the rest. Does it influence people around them? Do they hear it? Maybe, you know, like an older person, maybe doesn't hear it. That could be the contrast of everybody's turning except for her. Could it be something in nature where it startles animals? You mean like anything where someone does a big sudden move, something really loud, a big, I don't know, a weight lift and dropping this. They're not just acting within that vacuum. Anything that they're doing is going to have a reaction to the outside. And I would make sure that people on the outside, characters, anything that's around the character is reacting to her in this case. So that it feels more like this is a world where they all live together. And this continues on where she keeps on talking, keeps on talking until she says something really loud and you can see his reaction. If you watch him, that's something because again, she says something really, really loud. So for you, it doesn't always have to be right there, right? You don't have to as always. You don't have to show the lip sync all the time. You can start and then you can cut to something else. But the lip sync is still there. But now it's about the characters reacting, someone that could be happy or annoyed or pretending, someone still reacting to the loudness of it and so on. To me, this is also a really interesting setup and I highly recommend that you consider that for your shots. This is more on the simpler side, but I love it just because this guy is getting dressed by his servant here. He's getting the jacket on and so on. But what does he do at the very end when he's ready? Right? Everything is done. He's done with this and he does this and have another clip that does that again later on. But it's a small acknowledgement of thank you and this could be something with a smile or even just lifting the hand and brushing this guy off and get out of here and ready. Whatever you want to do, it doesn't have to be nice. It can also be somewhat mean if it's a villain, but it's again, the acknowledgement of the surroundings. This character does not just live in that vacuum within that scene. This character did something and in this case, that character helped him. So how is he going to react to that? I think little things like that are just going to open up the scene, give some layers to your characters and just expand the shot beyond just the, you know, what is this character doing here? Animating things and body mechanics and that's that. This one is a fun setup in terms of lip sync again. And this can be on screen or off screen. So he comes in here, she is playing the piano and he says, hi, gestures to sit down and as we're about to, he starts talking. And just because it's more polite for him, he gets back up to listen, say, oh, okay. And then he does it again and then they go back up. And I like just that idea as a setup where this could be, you don't have to do this. This could be an audio cue from the outside. So maybe this character is trying to, just one character in the shot, trying to sit down and maybe something happened and he has to get back up. To me, this is fun because it's a, a variation of a sit down where try it once, try the second time, then you actually do it. So there's different contrasting ways of sitting down. First, a good be just, I'm ready to sit down. It's like one could be an annoyed and then the last one could be a finally. And also goes with the contrast of how they sit. If you have multiple characters, but it's like that as a setup that it's kind of a variation of a sit down assignment that could be reacting to audio cues or maybe something else. It doesn't have to be a character or like a human could be something else happening here that prevents this character from sitting down. I was like that as a setup and it's kind of cool. This one is fun too. In terms of contrast, like she is used to sitting like this, holding things like that. That's just the way she does it. She's somewhat new to it. And she can see that she's checking on her to go home. Am I doing this fingers out holding this? Okay, I got to do that. And try, try to drink like this. She's super cute. And that to me is just fun just because they're doing both the same thing, right? Drinking and drinking out of the tea cup. But the way they're doing it is of course different. There's a different contrast depending on for you in general, this could be a status difference, right? This could be they're used to something they're new to something, but it's also fun for contrast. And for you as an animator, you're showing off, I'm doing the same action, but in a different way based on personality and attitude and character. So that thing is a fun setup to have one character look at someone else and they're trying to mimic that person. This is about thought process and eyes. You can see she's listening really gently. There are no blinks. They must see here. No darts. No, she's really focused on him. And he says something that she did not expect. She didn't really like. Now look at what she does there. Once she realizes, wait, that's what he just said. Look at her eyes and darts, darts everywhere. She is processing and processing and it's almost comedic. How long she is processing this. But again, it's for contrast of you have something where a character looks like this compared to like that. So there's focus and attention. No blinks, no darts compared to, wait a minute, looking down, darting, processing. This is just a reminder of be very aware of eye line. Do they blink? Yes or no? Is the blink just a regular blink? Does the blink hold for two, three frames to keep it closed? And then your darts, is it like this? Does she dart back to him to stubble check? I think I really hear this and darts back down here. This is just a reminder of thought process and contrast. This one is the second example of acknowledgement. So they're getting ready to go and she's not exactly the most friendliest to her husband. She gets ready, says goodbye to her dad. A little cute, little kissy, kissy. And then look what she does to her husband. And even just that, I love it. Right, you got the cute little interaction, right? It's not huge. She's not holding and shaking and lifting something. But it's a little character interaction. It's something a bit more familiar. They're clearly the family here. And then you have a turn and you have body mechanics, right? This could be your assignment of holds, turn, walk. And on top of that, you add a little bit of interaction between familiar people. And then you can still add something like this. It's just a great little character moment mixed in with your walk. So that's what I always let my students know. If you're doing something with mechanics, I mean, of course, you've got to have the proper mechanics. I don't want to add all of this here if your mechanics are not there. But once you are a bit more comfortable with doing something like this, why not add something like this? And this could be something totally silly. You could have a stick here with something and then there's a bird or something. And that person walks by and he's not really happy. You know, maybe they're afraid of birds. And as he or she walks by, the bird starts to peck. And then she has to kind of move over and turns around and keeps walking. Yeah, there could be anything that this character is reacting to. But just that to me just adds again, the extra layer on top of just body mechanics. This one is again, something where you hear offscreen stuff. Already makes me laugh. She hears offscreen that someone says hi and it's that really. And then something else happened. That's why she looks like this. They're not somewhat related. But she has that look of, really, I got to deal with this person now. She's very active. I can see the contrast here. You got lots of knocking here. She's very happy, engaged. She can't wait to talk to her and look at how she opens that window. I love that. There's just such a difference between that character coming like, hello, hello, hello, and I talk to you and I'm really okay. What do you want to hear? She's still polite and she has that kind of fake of, oh, yes, of course. But again, think of contrast and just little things. The character says hello and knocks. What's the frequency of that? How fast? How does the face look? How is the body, the body leaning towards the window? They're really eager. And then if a character wants to open a window, are they opening it like this or just maybe with the elbow? Are they not looking at her and just opening the window and then looking at her? There's so many ways you can do in a way, a simple mechanics of opening a window in order to talk. But all of those moments to me are always the opportunities to show attitude and character, right? Even if someone hears this and goes, oh man, just that could be a fun pan to mine. And all of this setup to me is really interesting because you have waist up, not too much to animate. It's just this part, but you get to know this character and this character's relationship and how they feel towards each other. I think that's a really cool setup for Shaw. This is proper reaction. It's a simple thing, but I love it. You can see that everybody's using this and you can see his reaction to all the winds, ready? Oh, oh. But again, to me, it's just, it's another example of this is not happening in a vacuum, whatever they're doing, they could be smoking and the smoke is going into his face and he goes, oh, I don't like that smoke in my eyes, right? This could be something where the character brings up a sandwich or maybe reheated some tuna, which stings. And maybe that smell goes, oh, what's that smell now? So there's so many things that you can do, but to me, just again, it opens up the world and everybody that is surrounding maybe your main character, that's the main character, is still aware of their actions. This could be through this. This could be something really loud and he makes that face. So I will just make sure that if you have multiple characters in your scene, make sure that they are listening, reacting and aware of each other and what's going on in terms of their surroundings. This is super simple, but I just love the way he eats. I don't like, this is so cartoony. Yeah, but this would work in an animated movie or a TV show. It's just great. That face, I just wanted to bring that in. It's also just that setup, the costumes. There's some really fun production design in this movie too. And then as it continues, I'm gonna move forward. There's something where if you have a setup where someone is eating, this was my thought when I was watching this. What if this character has lip sync and that's your main character, the main shot? And then you add another character. I know this adds more work, but hear me out. So during all of this, maybe that lip sync is really boring. And this is just there for, again, cues and timing or whatever. And the contrast and the fun comes from that person doing some weird stuff while this character is doing something not interesting. But if it's not interesting, you're gonna look at him. You don't wanna make this really interesting because then you're fighting for attention. So imagine boring dialogue, then you have all of this. And then later on, he realizes not too good either. Again, she says something, but I'm more interested in what he is doing. And he has that quick look. I mean, it's not that quick. But you're like, oh, can I take this out? And so on. I think that's a really fun setup. And there's actually something else in this sequence. And it's this one where this is born like a status thing of no, no, no, don't go for seconds. No, no, no. And I love his reaction. Even just that to me is interesting where you could do something where she is actually not even looking. The whole dialogue is presented like this. She is talking, always looking this way. And she does this blindly because she knows, she's just so familiar with his body, his size and what he wants to do. And to me, again, this is just a nice added layer to even if this dialogue is interesting or not, it's just, it's an added thing that is fun where, again, we get to see their relationship. How do they interact and what's going on? If you look at this shot, yeah, it's kind of long, man, she continues. Yeah, it's quite long. But imagine it's just this, this length, okay? Talks, does this, yeah, maybe give us a bit more time. I would maybe wait a second. She talks and then he gets his arm up so that this move of that arm brings the eyes audience down to here. We see this, his reaction and cuts. Like that would be a good shot length and it's just a really fun reaction. So as always to me, these are all examples that even though I say steal, like don't steal. But to me, as always, that is an interesting setup where I am now interested in those characters. As you can say, my assignment is to learn about props and constraints. So I'm gonna have this guy with the tea cup, hold this, like go constraint-wise, go grab cupcake and then want to eat, right? That is, is that English, want to eat? That is your assignment. So learn about props and constraints and stuff like that. But once you have that kind of order and you're somewhat familiar enough to go a bit beyond, then why not add another character? Now it turns into a character piece with totally different characters, different attitude, this contrast or something funny. So you can always take something in terms of mechanics and build on top of that. So it's not just mechanics, but it's a bit more character-based, attitude-based and just more acting. I mean, if your goal, of course, is a performance in animation, but given that this is acting for animators, I'm assuming that's what you're looking for. Now speaking of looking for, if this is something you're looking for in terms of, oh, that's cool, I wanna do that in my shots and you want me to help you with your awesome shots to make the even more awesome, you know what that is. It's the pitch for my workshops. I do exactly this. I help animators with that type of brainstorming for their shots and you can do that with me. If you want to, check out the description with all the information on workshops, you can sign up at any time. You can start whenever you want. It's very flexible. It's all tailored towards you and your time. I did that on purpose. So I can say time, segue. If you're still watching, as always, thank you for watching. I appreciate the time that you put into watching my clips at the very end. And if not, well, if you're not, then you would be watching this, then you wouldn't be hearing this. But anyway, thanks for watching. And if you liked this, maybe now you wanna subscribe and maybe hit that like button so it helps the algorithm to spread the word about my channel and my shots and my videos. I mean, I was in shot mode and animation mode. But anyway, that is it for all the pitches and my end ramble. And that's it. So I'll see you in the next clip.