 Animation reference. Let's talk about the amount of energy that you should put in when you act out your shop and film yourself. So today's FNA is a quick tip. Now, why am I suddenly talking about reference? So the weird thing happened where I have classes at the Academy of Arts at animation mentor at my workshops. And for some reason, they all kind of had the same assignments, it was kind of an overlap over lip sync animation. And for those kind of assignments, students usually film themselves. And when it's a lip sync, they have the lip sync looping in the background, it plays over and over. And you can see the student or whoever is doing the animation acting things out. But the thing that I noticed is that most of the times you can hear the sound, but the animator is not really matching the intensity of the shot. And the thing is, when you do shoot reference, it's there for reference. So you can study the mechanics to look at it, some of the details and we some I darts, but also if you shoot reference, if there's audio, you want to use that energy of the sound clip. So you can tell when someone has a lot of energy there or is whispering or whatever the audio demands of the shot acting wise, of course, you can just do whatever you want. And you can always look kind of reference and interpret that. And if you can animate and embellish on that reference, good for you. But a lot of times what I see is that you have a sound and the sound is someone yelling. So I'm going to yell. So I'm going to do the clip with and without yelling. So let's say the audio is I am yelling, but I'm doing like this kind of whispering. And a lot of times the students don't even say out the words out loud. They kind of mouthing the audio or somewhat whispering. So right, something like that. But if I actually yell, I am yelling, it would be something like this. I am yelling that can hurt. So there's a difference there in terms of potentially how intense the face is as you go, yeah, or maybe the energy in the chest or how your body again, it might tense up and go yelling or yelling. It just completely difference if you actually use the energy of the clip. If you do yell versus just mouthing the audio or just kind of whispering the sound. And the problem with that is that when you do then actually block out the animation, you have a character that kind of moves around and does whatever bottom mechanics there is. And then towards the end, you add the lip sync and it just has a character going, you know, something a bit soft. And then even the audio where just kind of blah, blah, blah, something. But even then you don't have the the extreme of the john, the energy of the yell and the jaw coming down and pulling the head with it. So all that is kind of lost. And if you're already shooting reference, you might as well really get into it. So you can look at what you did or whoever you actor is in the reference, if you are directing the reference. So this FNA is basically a reminder to really act out your shot. If you do pantomime and you lift something heavy, you want to lift something heavy, you don't want to just pretend. Again, if you can take the pretend clip and really just take certain moments and make the animation work regardless, good for you. Then I'm not sure why you wouldn't need reference, but maybe it's just little things that you want to pay attention to. But generally if you shoot reference, it's there to study. Again, you don't want to copy it unless that's what the style demands. But if you shoot reference, you want to really get into it in terms of the weight. If you talk to someone tall, you put tape on the wall and you talk up. So you have that pose. If you have maybe multiple characters, you put multiple pieces of tape on the wall so that your eyes will dart and you will focus somewhere else. Same thing if there's lip sync, you have either headphones on and you play the audio or you play it out loud. But I would really try to say the lines. So if the character's whispering, you whisper. If the character goes up and starts yelling, you're yelling as well. There's also a difference that if you talk and you sit down, the energy of the words as you have to say something while you sit or lift something heavy, giving all those combinations, the whole content of the shot, you should try to emulate. Because again, that will give you so many more clues in terms of the lip sync, the energy, the body mechanics. And the more you pretend, the more you kind of, I can this case, whisper when someone is yelling, kind of the less stuff you get out of the reference. Now in the case of yelling, I still kind of feel it. So when you have something where someone yells, maybe just do one or two takes to really feel that energy and try different things and that's it. And then you can mouth it or whisper because you don't want to destroy your vocal chords or yell all day. I mean, there's always a limit to everything you should be doing. But as a whole, just pay attention to that. If something heavy, pick up something heavy. If you yell, you yell. If there's a set where the character walks and sits down on the chair that pivots like this, then try to find a chair that does that. So you can play around with maybe, you know, some moments where you do this instead of sitting on a chair that can't move at all. So whatever you can do to really emulate the scene that starts even with the camera angle. So everything you can do to really replicate your shot in terms of the set and the energy and the acting, the more information you'll get out of your reference. And speaking of getting out of something, it's a weird segue. If you like this and you want me to help you with your shot, I have workshops. You can sign up at any time. We can work together on your shots. More information, as always, in the description. And for those who watch the whole thing till the very end, of course, thank you so much for your time that you invested in my clips. And that's it from me. I will see you in my next upload.