In-depth Analysis

In this post, I will discuss and analyse my animation that I have completed for the CCA module. I fear the general consensus of my animated piece is being overlooked for being overly subtle and/or simplistic.

The intended style of this piece is to be SIMPLE, CONCISE and EFFECTIVE to the needs of the story and situation. I strongly believe that an animation only needs to be pushed in certain ways if it helps to get the point across. Anything else is completely irrelevant and unnecessary. You wouldn't put an ice cream truck in the background of a set just because you spent hours modelling one if it does not fit in the scene you're animating. Similarly, you wouldn't animate a character dancing and/or walking around doing inappropriate large gestures when the voice clip does not call for it.

In this voice clip of A few good men, I have analysed and decided that the character is making a statement. Delivering a lecture, if you will. He is confident, cocky and knows what he is talking about. He is not deliberating, hesitating or giving any signs of doubt, thus the intensity I am portraying on his part as a character. A confident character generally does not fumble around, maintains direct eye contact and hardly ever blinks (depending on how intense). It is as such that I must emphasise my artistic decision to deliver a performance that is incredibly subtle and underplayed to add to the intensity of the character.

It can be overlooked to the point that I have been lazy in the animation and not animated enough gestures and/or big movements. This is hardly the case, and as I've explained above, unless the scene calls for it - will I feel it is necessary to do as such. I will not sacrifice good character performance to demonstrate a wider range of animation skills. After all, story is king and empathy is key. If we sacrifice that to demonstrate animation technicality and principles, no one other than animators would care and/or even notice.

It is also important to note that I did not rush this piece. Ample time was given to properly polish this piece and although it may not be immediately noticeable, I assure you the details are all in there if you look close enough.

Analysing Voice Clip

Below is the sound clip in written form:

I eat breakfast three hundred yards from four thousand Cubans who were trained to kill me so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash your badge... and make me nervous.

After listening to the audio clip numerous times, I have broken it down into identifiable accents. The underlined text above shows where I believe the accents are located - this is simply a change in the tone and way of speaking that will often benefit from body animation changes.

I actually quite like that the character has no large accents in the first few seconds of his speech because it gives good contrast to when the accents come in a bit later. To be fair, most of these accents are very subtle anyway so this will be quite a challenge to get right.