3D Character Animation

3D Character animation

Session 1 Acting for Animators

This master class is given by Ed Hooks, an American actor and respected teacher. His master class 'Acting For Animators' is specially designed for animators. A series of books have already been released and his master class has been praised all over the world. Well-known studios such as Blue Sky, Walt Disney Animation and Framestore have already welcomed him. The goal is to get the animator to perform as credibly as possible an acting performance with the characters. In this lesson the animator learns to understand what is going on in the head of a character and how this is expressed in physical actions.

The class is top-loaded, with the most difficult acting concepts being introduced early in the day, when minds are probably going to be freshest. As the class progresses, we expand the topics to include: comedy vs. drama, heroes and villains, character eye-contact, blinking, the nature of conflict-obstacle, the psychological gesture etc. Throughout the day, the class structure is lecture- discussion combined with analysis and deconstruction of clips from animated and live-action films and, occasionally, video games. The objective is to help the students learn how to quickly detect and troubleshoot theatrical validity in sequences. Animators are generally – and properly - trained to see physical movement. Acting for Animators helps them understand what is underneath physical movement. 

Lecturer: Ed Hooks

Session 2 Body Language

85 percent of all communication is body language. In this session we learn how to express an emotion or idea without using words. We study posing, gestures and timing. We analyze pantomime. We analyze a number of live action and animation sequences in which much is said, but no words are used. The workflow in an animation exercise will be explained in the afternoon. 

Lecturer : Dirk Henrotay

Session 3 Facial Acting

Facial animation has a special function. It reveals what’s being processed in the mind of your character. We learn how to make the audience believe that our character is thinking and reacting in a spontaneous manner. We analyze principles such as expression, emotion, eye direction and action lines. The workflow in an animation exercise will be explained in the afternoon. 

Lecturer: Dirk Henrotay

Session 4 - 5 Workflow of an acting Sequence 

The animators learn to animate the mental and physical progression of a character in a short acting sequence with multiple shots. The focus is on to remain credibility of the performance of the character throughout the sequence. The assignment is larger and is spread over 2 lessons. After the briefing in the morning, the students work on the assignment. At the beginning of lesson 5 we discuss our work and continue working. There is no deadline for this exercise. The students can choose their own timespan. It's all about quality and credibility :) 

Lecturer: Dirk Henrotay

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