 Welcome back to Akron analysis and tips for animators and today I'm going to cover episode 5 that's the second to last episode of mayor of east town and I'm going to cover things like body language body anticipation outside influence weight assignment and a lot more in a packed Akron analysis and tips for animators. I mean it's fairly packed I'm just like I'm gonna seven seven clips but anyway uh in case you're new to this channel hi my name is JD and I do Akron analysis clips like these I do animation analysis clips I do rib reviews product reviews I do lectures I do feedback a bunch of post this stuff this is the usual pitch at the beginning browse around my channel if you like it subscribe so you don't miss any of my uploads if you don't like it don't subscribe maybe I'll come into that at the end of this clip but that's that short and sweet the pitch let's get to the sequences. Sequence number one is this one in terms of the reaction that he has around here but mainly the one that he gets right there so for context you can see he's establishing he is talking to him and he's going to show him a bunch of stuff why am I showing this because you could concentrate on something like this in your shot we don't know this again it's just an exercise like a lip sync exercise and you can hear the audio from a person that's off screen what I like about that moment there is this because this is the moment where this character is putting down this so he puts this down and he reacts to that and I like this because this opens up the shot a lot of times when students animate they have a character just like here and that's it it's basically the character lives in this frame and it's all very presentational in terms of silhouette whatever you want to do but there's nothing that lives outside so you rarely have something where a character acknowledges that either someone is talking who's taller or a sound or someone does something that catches attention maybe someone is out in the streets and there's an airplane flying by all kind of stuff but the character is aware spidey-sense style of what is going on off screen and I like this I like that it opens up the world and this pretends there is a lip sync quote-unquote but you're not animating this as I've mentioned many times you can just animate the character listening and reacting to this but then I would include something like this just make sure that the character is aware of the surroundings and this could be things that move around sound that happens whatever it is but there is a world outside of this frame and I think it's going to add an extra layer to your shots this one is in terms of a classic weight assignment this is the setup they have to carry this mattress and carry mattresses and they're heavy and it's a pain especially when they fold it has nothing to do with this but if when they fold and it's not a rigid mattress it's such a pain to carry anyway they do all this and they get to this point and this is kind of fun because when you listen to this there's a bunch of audio and it's in a way an extension of the weight assignment so it's cool because you don't see the other character for quite some time so you don't have to animate a second character it's a pain to do so you only have this and it's an interesting shape it's not your classic you know weight lift box thing that bite it but way back in the day it's more interesting in terms of the shape you have a bit or a symmetry it's interesting line of action it gives you this nice shape overall as well it has to go upstairs over an edge here all those extra things to me make it much more interesting in terms of body mechanics and posing on top of that you have a character grunting now there could be something where this character is grunting and shouting of like you know pull pull whatever it is and then your animation will be reacting to this or the opposite where you do a weight assignment and you actually have lip sync on top of that I think these are all extra variations of a somewhat regular assignment which could be really cool on top of that once they are done they put this down and you can see that push at the end so nice little exit there and then this happens so now you have a classic dialogue scene and you can see this he's just exhausted he wipes his mouth maybe some sniffling big exhale and then they start doing whatever they're doing in the scene here without spoiling anything but the cool thing about that is that it's almost like this could be your setup so imagine your shot could be just this you can see it maybe even two character right so you have a push you have a pull two different types of weight which is really cool and you end with this then cut to that and then you can also basically cut to something like this where maybe they're closer if they were too much about the body mechanics because you've stopped the shot already in this shot and now you can do your audio with the overriding thing of exhaustion they just carry this there's a lot of breathing and obviously we have to find audio that's appropriate for that but all the breathing the exhale just the labor speaking part could be again an extra layer to your animation instead of just a character standing and delivering a line without any type of influence the influence in this term and in this case is the exhaustion I think this could be again like a cool two-parter and this could be even for your demo reel I mean this would be a cool opening right off the bat you're showing weight and body mechanics and then straight after that you could go into a more close-upish or mid close-up of lip sync dialogue so bam you cover two things right off the bat at the beginning of your reel this one I wanted to show it just because of the kind of emotional dissipation and it's just kind of this section through there so mare wanted to say something again I wanted to spoil it too much we're getting towards the end of the show here but you said something it didn't it didn't quite work she's exhausted mentally and emotionally exhausted the mom comes in and asks how did it go and then she breaks down it was just it was horrible it's a really tough scene to watch as well and she is old and I brought her up before in in these analysis clips and she wants to get to her daughter and support her but she can't because she's not the fastest anymore and I like this hey it's kind of like it's dark so she has to kind of check where am I going and at the same time it's also I want to get to you faster than I can because I want to hug you I want to support you I want to give you that emotional support and you can see that right there and I like that as that moment of it's not just again breaking down in pure animation sense of mechanics of going upstairs that's complicated to animate and these are you know in terms of the character with age so you have the arm out for balance you have the arm out for visibility because it's dark and the emotional thing of I want to get to you as fast as I can I'm really trying because I want to support you and I like that as the dissipation to this and then they reunite and then they hug and it's an emotional scene so to me these are all extra real cool layers and also in terms of a complicated shot again you're going from a flat surface to a change of elevation with stairs and then into that speaking of body language there's this so she does not work for the police anymore spoilers and you can see in the walk it's fairly relaxed he gives her an updated one what's going on and not that she doesn't care but it's like you know she tells him I don't really work for you anymore it's this scene here you can see it's a very you know slow walk is nothing huge going on she looks down fairly relaxed in their side steps and like come on I don't work for you anymore and then he says well I fired the guy or let the guy go that replaced you and now look at her reaction a little movement looks look at that a little things of nodding and I like that as the it's almost like the anticipatory emotional or just the body language before she says thank you look at that exhale of relief and thank you for sticking with me and I like that this is starting through all this section here so for you as a student if you're watching this again your characters need to be aware of their surroundings including how they process information so what this character is telling her she's hearing for the first time even though they might have rehearsed this is you know actors they know their script they still have to act as if it's the first time so her hearing this gets her excited she gets her job back and she wants to finish the job and before she says it the body language is clear as we always say here you can lie through the face but the body is going to tell you the truth so I like that little giddy anticipatory excited before she does this so this is something for you in terms of dissipation could be through the body before the lips and continues and again make sure that when you have two characters or more listening to try that they really do listen that the character here is hearing things for the first time and then reacting appropriately so it doesn't feel rehearsed and you go one two three one two three one two three in terms of the actors waiting for their moment and then delivering the line so in your animation this has to be as truthful as possible going back to the mom because I love her she's such a great actress again this is the difference of age so a lot of times I recommend that the character sits down as a sit down assignment is a good good assignment for body mechanics in general but you can also do a standing up and here you can see the difference when someone is old if you have someone young they might jump up they might just get up there's no balance problem but here she really has to go all the way over for proper balance and now it's difficult she's so hunched over over potentially frail knees that she has to put that hand down for additional support and you can see spreading the fingers you got the the pressure there's lots of little things there's the mechanics but she has to use this to push herself up to get up so even before I get to what I want to talk about which is this section here this is already interesting to see in terms of how does an older person stand up so when you have an exercise in your class which could be a sit down a standing up or whatever it is think in terms of well what rig am I going to use and what are the advantages is it going to be a young person a kid or an older person and so on so moving forward to this here I like this because again a young person might just walk downstairs in a twin's mirrored pose but she is older she needs support so she has to reach over to hold on to this because there's only one they're not two so now this the age and the support and all that forces her from an animation point of view into asymmetry like it's a different pose where she goes this way the legs are somewhat pointed this way now the body has a twist to it so this whole going down with this you can see this all different poses they just forces the character into asymmetry which is great because it's usually a thing that I have to mention to students that once they're done with the first pass to add asymmetry offset and all those things and I think the combination of this set the set design the age and the body support that she needs gives you and forces you into asymmetry which is great that's why I'm such a fan of props and sets this one is in terms of a simple move from an animation point of view she tells the stories very emotional it's very taxing on her and when she's done and it's kind of their collection of memories so once she's done saying all this you can see how she's going to look down and looks to the side from an animation point of view this is extremely simple you just have a rotation down now you have a bit of a rotation here and here of course there's some more complexity in there which I would always recommend so it's not just a one axis move but you have a rotation down and then technically a rotation over and why depending on you know whatever software you use and that is from a technique point of view very simple but from a storytelling or even just kind of an emotional or emotional from a visual storytelling thing so she tells this story at a certain angle and that's the the reality that she's remembering and then she goes down to now something like an in between of this is the sad memory gotta get out of that memory let's get back to the real world it's a simple thing again in terms of mechanics but think about that when you do have let's say a monologue or even if it's a dialogue and the character is talking to someone off screen or someone who's on screen and it's it's a memory so think about how your character will position the head the head tilt where they're looking what the eyes are doing and once that character is done talking about the memory and they go back into the quote unquote real world what is that change going to be visually is that something that you can visualize even if it's something very subtle or with two moves or whatever you have but the headspace of the character is going to be different they're going to be in two different mental head spaces when they remember something if it's painful or happy memory and then going back to talking to an actual person in real life so always think about that even if it's something small even something like this can still have an impact or at least a visual clue when you animate something so we understand something more about the character this one is kind of a twist on what's in the box basically what's in the box is that and I did that as a student you know 20 years ago where this was a box and a character looks into the box we as an audience don't know what's in it but the challenge is to then animate the reaction of the character so it's kind of like also a gear change in a way right they're in a certain emotional space and they see something and then they're in a different emotional space a classic thing would be a kid it's Christmas opens up the box it's a gift and it goes from curious to happy right whatever you want to do now this is just a variation where someone is looking at a photograph and we don't know what it is but we read into the face going oh this must be really important it's a change of posture right you can see you got the lean forward and in the lean back and then talking to someone off screen which I love because again it opens up the world to this something else besides the character in this frame and then it continues on where he does like a little extra thing of looking at the character going come on let's do this and that's this character the extra part that I like about this is that they are informing the police that well she has a photo that's really important and this is what I like it's that reaction of this must be really important this could be a really a big change in the case and they both have a different reaction and I like that as a a part and then this is the b part because this will be your classic assignment you see something you react and this is cool because a you can add more characters there's more pantomiming and acting and you can do and it's kind of the anticipation before the actual reveal so they say something it's the setup hey we have a new photo and then you can do again you're acting this could be verbal nonverbal and I like his his this thing here of come on come on like he really wants to know so you got the lean forward the gesture with the hand I think this is an extra cool thing and it doesn't have to be as long as this whole sequence is right again this could just be a quick moment of maybe even a quick off-screen or just a hand with the photo and you hear hey I have something new and then it's that just a quick look of this and then you can cut straight to something like this where the hand comes into frame gives him the photo he picks it up and looks at it so you can kind of compress the shots you don't have to animate 20 seconds of a shot but I like that as a a part right this is your a part and this is your your b part right there actually this is in the shot here this is exactly what I just said hands it in does this and in that reaction to be the main assignment in a way and this is why I love analyzing tv shows and movies because you can look at this and even though it's complex and it's difficult acting and it might be difficult for students and for myself to get into that type of quality of acting you can still break it down to specific moments where you go oh this is the assignment that I practiced like the setting down standing up the gear change and now you have that foundation as an exercise and then you have to think in terms of well how can I make this better and more complex and more interesting and more layered and just character driven then you watch this and you go oh this is the exercise but now with that extra level and this is just why I love doing this it's like when you do the bouncing ball you look at very complex mechanics you can always kind of take well I'm gonna look at just the the roots or maybe just the torso or the head or all three and realize there is actually a bouncing ball in all of this so all of those beginning exercises the principles and you might get tired of them as a student trust me they're there for a reason you gotta master them you gotta really get into the integrity of perfecting body mechanics and all those main assignments and then based on that then you can build on top of that and make your shots more complex however you want to do because a lot of times students kind of rush through those acting assignments they kind of like that's when the bouncing ball whatever pendulum and whatever walk cycle which is really hard and whatever I want to get to those these type of framed acting pieces that's fine and dandy but you can't skip the basic exercises because you see that all those basic exercises are visible within the more complex work and speaking of complex work if you have work that's maybe too complex right now and you need help from me to help you with your awesome shots to make the even more awesome you know the pitch I have workshops we can work together I can help you as much as as you want me now much as I can help you you can sign up at any time link in the description with all the information you know the drill and if you're still watching and you haven't subscribed yet and you like it maybe you can subscribe make the bell buttons you don't miss any of my uploads that's the pitch at the end and if you don't subscribe that's fine maybe I'll see you next week maybe I don't know hope you come back and that is that if you're still watching the whole thing as always thank you for your time I appreciate your patience that you watch to the very end and that's it from me and I will see you in my next upload