Mr. Blake's Art Diary - Part 2

As mentioned, here's part 2. Looking back, it's a bit weird to have so many links of Mr. Blake's site in one post, as if it's a mirror of his site. But that's why I'm linking to his site and not the final destination. Total disclaimer post but I just want to make sure that you guys go visit Mr. Blake's Art Diary, since he did all the research. Since this is part 2 the posts are getting older and older (2006), but that doesn't mean that they are obsolete.

- first up, "Matchbox", a maya tool that mirrors your character's poses. Follow the link for video demos as well.


- want to add some better lighting in AE after the render? Check out "Normality & Reality"

- "Elastik" adds squash and stretch options to your rigs

- "Sketch Pose" - this tool is awesome! I remember hoping that someone would do this (since I'm too retarded to so :) )


- "UI Editor" is a very handy tool for a character GUI


- "My Mental Ray" - all you need to know about mental ray

- this tool is awesome: "Copy Set Driven Keys" - name says it all


- head over to "Adelaide Grey's" production diary for an inside look of this is coming together

- "ezMark" sounds very cool. I can't test it here on this machine, but as long as you can step frame through your scene while using this tool, can only be awesome

If you are an animator and want to draw reference points on your monitor but don't like using markers, then this tool is for you! ezMark is a simple utility that lets you draw directly on your screen - on top of all applications. Some of the ways you can use ezMark are:

* Use the preset circle brush to trace your animation and check your arc
* Draw over your reference animation on screen to study them
* Doodle!

- you can't point enough to Keith Lango's site. Mr. Blake mentions "Breakdowns" but I highly recommend that you check out all his tutorials


- lighting tips

- mental ray tips

- Justin's "tweenMachine"


- great CG shorts, Mr. Blake got direct links to the movies and to the plog


- this was posted before but is another one of those that should get studied over and over. Great
hand poses. Tedious stuff to do but very important, check it out.


- 1994 article on "Animation Tricks":

Hesitation The final step of a proof is a sort of punch line to a scene. To get the viewer involved I don't just move the shapes directly in place; I sometimes make them pause a bit before final positioning to build up anticipation.

As you can see, still valid today.

- "Color Toy" is very cool tool, I also recommend "Color Schemer"


- "TWiki" - great collection of links to maya tutorials

- you might have seen those, but come on, go through them again: "Glen Keane Notes"


- Renderman references and tutorials

- Occlusion lighting tips

- maya dynamics tutorial

- oldie but goldie: "eyes"


- "logitech orbit cam" (funny)

- A classic and still awesome: "Ryan Film's Ryan vs. Dorkman" - official site here


- Google's "Sketchup" tool, free 3D modeling tool

- "Planning Animation" - great notes by Paul Mikulecky

- Want drawing lessons? 34 pages right here

- Itchy Animation's article on "Light Theory", which is coming out as a book soon

- Christopher Evans' huge muscle reference library, as well as many other tutorials and MEL scripts on his site


- great collection of animation tools, software and desktop tools


- awesome character designs by Jeff Merritt


- "MELwin" is a Maya UI creation and script editor

- "floating channelbox" script

- "Doron Meir's Acting and Animation" article (and more)


- Francois' studies of lighting

That's it. Once more you gotta love the web. All this information at your fingertips! A huge thanks goes to Mr. Blake and his blog, make sure you add his site to your bookmarks.

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Acting Reference - The Quiet

Yes, I do rent all kinds of movies. You have to see the good and the bad and in this case, it was pretty bad. What I want to highlight though is the character Michelle, played by Katy Mixon.

Take her acting, place it into an animated movie and she'd be perfect. Since animation is a stylized and exaggerated form of reality, she would fit right in. :)

Just watch and marvel. Although it speaks for Katy Mixon and her ability to make that character really annoying.

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© 2006 Sony Pictures Classics
All Rights Reserved.

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Acting Reference - We Own The Night

I hadn't heard too much about this movie so when I finally saw it I was actually pleasantly surprised. I really liked it. Unfortunately going through reviews afterwards it seems that half of the general audience really liked it and the other half really didn't. Either way, there is a fantastic car chase in it and (to me at least) very good performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg (poor guy is still fighting the Marky Mark stigma). The drug lords, Robert Duvall, even Eva Mendez were good. It was one of those movies where the evolving character arcs sucked you in. The performances were overall great, which gave me a hard time to pick out something isolated that would help you guys in your shots.

My goal of posting these acting references is to showcase single acting moments that add texture to a character, a defining gesture or attitude that gets you inspired for your shots. Saying that Marlon Brando is a great actor and telling you guys to watch "On the Waterfront" isn't bad, but will it help you right now with your single shots? I have my doubts (but you should still watch the movie). You don't have the benefit of a full length movie (or multiple movies), in which the audience gets to know your character or where you can surprise an audience with a new role. You're stuck (right now) with single shots or a sequence at most which has to showcase creative and unique acting choices. And one thing to remember is that animation (at least in feature animation) is an exageration of character, a stylized version of reality. An animated feature mimicking real life is boring. Why not shoot it life-action instead? So don't get sucked into live-action movies and trying to emulate scenes that you like or that I recommend. I'm recommending the essence of a particular scene or acting choice.

"We Own the Night" is a tragedy and the overall feel of the movie isn't exactly a cheerful one (not exactly key ingredients of animated movies in the U.S.), but here's a scene that cracked me up because of Joaquin's face and body acting.

Context: Joseph, played by Mark Wahlberg, and Bobby, played by Joaquin Phoenix are having a fight (obviously...) because Joseph just raided his brother's nightclub. One brother is a cop, the other is circulating in more shady territories, so conflict is a given. The scuffle ends with them insulting each other's wife and girlfriend. This is the end of that as they are being separate by Joseph's cop buddies.

What I liked about it was the moment after "Get out of here!", where Joaquin is being pushed away physically and verbally, yet he still defies his brother through that smile and body posture. It's just a "YEAH?! Whatever." attitude, trying to regain the upper hand in a way. I just love the face he makes. If you guys would animate a verbal fight between two characters and end it like that, it would be sooo cool! It's just a great character moment to me and one that works taken out of context. You don't need to have seen the whole movie in order to understand or appreciate that scene.

The next shot is definitely more context heavy. Joaquin and his girlfriend Amada, played by Eva Mendez, are under protective custody. Amada has a hard time with it because as the story unfolds Joaquin, his brother and their dad are forming a tighter and tighter relationship and Amada feels left out. So in this scene Joaquin is getting back to the hotel they are staying at in order to pack his things, but Amada has left already.

You see him being really in love with her at the beginning of the movie, so you would expect him to read the note she left him, but he's gradually accepting the fact that he won't get the support and love from her that he needs. Again, context heavy, but it's interesting to do things that play against people's expectations. So let's say this is your dialogue and you're animating to it, you could exchange the note with flowers and when the cop says " She said to give you this." have your character throw them away or discard them without emotion or something like that. The fact that your character would not care about pretty flowers (or whatever object you'd choose) says something about his emotional attachment to it. To me it's interesting to see acting choices outside the confinements of your audio clip. Not that this one is really limiting you to do something specific. But let's say you animate to an audio clip where someone is on the phone. You don't have to stick to that. You don't have to have your character act out the lines and emotions your hear in the audio clip. What if he/she is pretending? Have the character say/act out the line but during the pauses he/she could address someone who's with him/her and give him/her a look of "I can't believe I'm saying this!" or "Oh my god, he's totally believing what I'm saying!" or "How much longer do I need to be on this damn phone?!" while the audio line delivery is all polite, etc. I hope I make sense. Don't feel trapped by the audio clip, think outside the box and be creative with it.

On a more serious note I like how Joaquin pauses a bit (even freezes a bit) after hearing "...left about an hour ago.". It is a surprise/shock/disapointment to him, but yet he doesn't read the note. And when he's packing his clothes, I like how he's fighting against his emotions. He is disapointed and sad after all and even though no one else is in the room with him (which might force him to keep his composure), he doesn't want to cry and break down. I think it's a more powerful scene when you watch the whole movie, but I still wanted to include it in this clip.

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Copyright © 2007 by 2929 Productions, LLC.
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Acting Reference: Die Hard

One of the really hard things to pull off is to inject personality into your cg characters. You're so occupied by making the motions believable and getting rid of pops and tweaking arcs, and on top of that you have to make the character unique and entertaining? Definitely not easy. Even animated features don't always pull it off.
But when it works, it's really a blast. Edna Mode from "The Incredibles" comes to mind. Such a fun character.

It's really difficult for animators who work on a single shot for their demo reel. A movie (or short to some extend) gives a character the possibility to grow and change. You have about 90 mins to get to know the characters, so sometimes after 80mins of a character being insane, one single shot of stillness could be hilarious. But if you take that shot out of context, it could fall flat. How can you show a substantial character arc within a 5 second shot? How can you make your character NOT look like your typical Norman/Hogan/Generi/etc. guy doing an animation exercise? I wish I could give you a MEL script that answers that question (although that would take the fun and challenge away...).

All I can say is study real life, study actors, study all types of reference. Think about the situation the character's in, think about a backstory, anything that gives the character personality. Make the character a unique living individual. To me that's what I'm missing when I check out student work. When you look at all the demo reels out there (by students), it's safe to say that the majority shows a 20 to 25 year old, well built white male, doing some goofy stuff, or lifting boxes, or walking in place going nowhere. :)

I'm exaggerating but I think you get my point. Of course it's really easy to write this and tell you guys to animate an Oscar worthy performance that lasts only a few seconds. It's very easy, but it's incredibly hard to do. Everybody is struggling with it, not just students.
With the flexibility that the Norman rig offers, we're starting to see different characters, young, old, male, female, etc. That's good stuff, keep it going, keep them coming!

Now what does this have to do with Die Hard? Well, it brings me to a handful of sequences that Hart Bochner is in. He plays Harry Ellis. The ultimate douche bag. The moment you see him in the movie you know he's an ass. An arrogant fool. But I love it. I picked out this sequence because you could take single shots out of this and his character would still be clear. The moment he walks in, every gesture, every posture just screams "I AM A DOUCHE BAG." :)

Watch for yourself:

I can take a few frames out of all that, but it's his movement, his timing that sells the attitude.

Now, within this over the top performance there are two little moments that I love. One, watch the face of Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman, around the 55 sec mark after he leans forward. Before he talks, there's a little moment where his face shows almost disgust. Might just be me but that moment still cracks me up. Internally he must be ready to barf after Ellis' speech. I also love it because don't think about the audio clip in your shot as the main selling point. Sometimes it's the little things during the pauses that make the shot stand out.

The other one is the framing of Ellis and the evil blond henchman. All you can see is the top part of the head, mainly his eyes. But they tell you a lot!

So again, look at how he walks in, how he leans back, how he uses his hands, his face, how he sits down and delivers that grin, etc. What a douche bag, love it!

Another section in Die Hard I wanted to point out is not acting related, but more about a film making rule and how subtle yet successfully it is being implemented in this sequence.
It was either the commentary or a making-of that made me aware of it and I've been paying attention to that ever since. It's not huge, people might not even care or won't have to care about in their one character shot, but as always, I love to nerd out on things and wanted to share it with you guys.

Every rule is there to be broken of course, but usually filmmakers stick to it. In this case it's about in which direction the actors are looking when they are talking to each other. Well, usually we are look at each other, right? But in a movie, you have to make sure that when character A is looking screen right, while talking to Character B, that Character B is looking screen left, otherwise it can get a bit confusing (are they talking to Character C?).

What I like about this sequence is how multiple characters are introduced and how Bruce Willis moves around in order to stick to that above mentioned rule. Let's take a look:

The shot starts with John McLane (Bruce Willis) talking to Sgt. Al Powell (Reginal VelJohnson). McLane looks screen right, followed by Powell looking screen left, establishing (if it wasn't already obvious from an audio point of view) that they are talking to each other. Then you hear Gruber joining them off screen.

Since a new person is being introduced, it would be confusing to have McLane look screen right, so he turns around and as Gruber's introduction comes to an end, McLane ends up looking screen left.

So now we have them looking at each other, perfect. The way McLane turns is subtle and doesn't draw attention to itself, but it's needed in order to not brake the rule. After a while another character joins the threesome, this time it's Ellis, our favorite douche bag.

And you'll see McLane do the same thing as before, again, not in a flashy way, it's done over time and across cuts, but nevertheless, eventually McLane and Ellis are facing each other.

Subtle, manipulative and audience directing techniques, love it. So many times those tricks are hidden. Just pay attention to colors which convey a certain mood, lighting that makes the main actor stick out just a little bit more than anybody else, etc. etc.

Again, not that you would have to think about all that in a shot with just a single character, but if you happen to have more and there is dialogue with them across different shots, might as well play around with those techniques.

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Copyright © 1998 by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
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Flyboys - plane animation

Wow, that movie sure wasn't my thing. I didn't expect much but the acting (especially by Jean Reno) is sooo bad.

The dogfights on the other hand were pretty cool. Most of the times the physics felt believable and there weren't a lot of scenes where the animation stood out as totally fake. In this clip I liked the maneuver.

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Copyright © 2006 Electric Distribution (Flyboys) Ltd.
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Acting Reference: The Illusionist

This sequence is long, but filled with awesome moments.

Context: Crown Prince Leopold, played by Rufus Sewell, found out that his future wife Sophie, played by Jessica Biel, is cheating on him with the magician Eisenheim. He comes home and confronts her.

First off, I like the rhythm and pacing of it. It isn't just talking, every now and then the tension erupts into action and then gets dialed back.








But it's not a scream fest or a fist fight between the two actors during the active parts, there is a cool back and forth between loud and quiet. Let's look at all the good stuff within this sequence.

First, Sophie is anxiously awaiting Leopold's return, so you're anticipating that once he's arriving, the drama will start. But no. He comes in and sits down. He doesn't really look at her, he doesn't give her the satisfaction of addressing the problem immediately (even though she pretends to not know what he's talking about at first, she suspects he knows). Here's the first awesome character part to me.

Instead of starting the confrontation he sits down and pulls the plate with the glasses and the bottle towards himself. He could have just grabbed a glass and the bottle, but no, that would have left one glass and the option for Sophie to join him. No, he grabs the whole thing, not caring about her at all, shutting her out, keeping the upper hand. Awesome! Love that part.

Leopold then starts the conversation/confrontation. No shouting, just calmly questioning Sophie. And here's another great detail, often unused in animation.

A swallow.

Leopold says "I know you've been with him." and to that Sophie responds with "It's true." BUT. If she would just say it like that, she could come across as cold, as just confirming his "accusation". Instead she swallows before that line, which makes a huge difference. With that swallow you get guilt, nervousness, definitely not indifference.




Breaking up the quiet conversation is a sudden standing up by Leopold, because Sophie is not backing down (she tells him that she doesn't like his tone of voice). Leopold is losing power, so he gets up, but that's it, no screaming, just a little FYI that he's pissed and to keep the tension of the sequence going and to let her know who's the boss. Sophie is dismissive and Leopold condescending.






Sophie stands up, so she's not just physically on the same level as Leopold but also psychologically. It's a nice little power play between the two (reminds me of a classic Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror", but that's for another time...).







This leaves him only one way to exercise power, he screams, finally letting out his anger (awesome line delivery on "... if you've slept with him!!", but that could just be me :) ). Anger is still contained though, no invading of personal space. He's mad, but he's still just standing there.





Sophie had enough and tells him what the deal is. She is not going to marry him. The ultimate defeat to Leopold (he needs that marriage for political reasons), so he resorts to violence. He slaps her. Once reasoning is out, violence comes in, a typical human trait.
She's also provoking that hit, but goes into major spoilers, just watch the whole movie. :)


Nice little detail added in post production. Notice how Sophie's cheek is slowly getting red? That would be easy to do in Maya with textures and definitely an awesome subtle detail.

So after that slap Leopold feels quite confident again. He tells her what she is supposed to do, walking away from her, turning his back on her, being dismissive. So you'd think that Sophie will finally bow down.

But no. And here comes another awesome little body gesture which says it all. Instead of being submissive, Sophie just tilts her head. There's a TINY smile, a little change of expression, but all that just shows that she feels pity for him. He just doesn't get it. And after that head tilt she says good-bye to him. AWESOME!! A little head tilt, that's it. Love it!





This next clip prompted me to post those acting reference shots in the first place, not just because it's great reference but also because I love that shot and wanted to share it with you guys. :)



Context: Edward Norton's character Eisenheim is having a private magic session for prince Leopold and his entourage.


So after a first round of tricks Eisenheim asks to see the Prince's sword. You can tell Leopold is annoyed just be the way he stops his walk and that he doesn't acknowledge Eisenheim by immediately turning around. He then walks up to Eisenheim and displays his sword. And here's the part that I LOVE.

Eisenheim asks "May I?", meaning "may I hold it" and watch how Leopold reacts. Again he doesn't look at Eisenheim and there is that giant pause, that reluctance to hand him the sword. Eisenheim is well below Leopold's social standing and the fact that this peasant has the guts to ask permission to actually TOUCH the sword is repulsive to Leopold. He has to lower himself to the standard and level and (to him) intelligence of Eisenheim. And his obvious annoyance of having to do so is beautifully acted by Rufus. He doesn't hand him the sword, there is no extra effort to be forthcoming, all he does is lower himself (visually and symbolically) so that the sword is within Eisenheim's reach. And as he does this he looks at the audience with a look of "Can you believe I have to do this?"

AWESOME!! Again, no giant gestures, nothing dramatic, just a little body movement down which says so much! Less is more. I love it!!



Context: Inspector Uhl, played by Paul Giamatti, wants Eisenheim to confess that all the magic is fake. Eisenheim does so but not in a way Uhl expected.

This one is again another example of a nice subtle move. Eisenheim simply asks if he can go now and Uhl, annoyed, says yes. But watch how he does it. That little smile, the head tilt and the eyebrow flash, saying "Sure, go, but I'm not done with you yet.", nice and subdued.



Watch Uhl's pose in the next shot. Even though he's "defeated", this pose is still elegant, still powerful in a "You can go but only because I let you." way, trying to keep the upper hand.

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Video clip(s) are for educational purposes only
Copyright © 2006 Illusionist Distribution LLC
All Rights Reserved.
Country Of First Publication United States Of America
Illusionist Distribution LLC Is The Author Of This
Motion Picture For Purposes Of The Berne Convention
And All National Laws Giving Effect Thereto

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Cameron Fielding on Flip

This is just too cool, love it! Like I said, check out Jeff's site. Not to double post but with this one I just wanted to make sure you guys are seeing the clip (and make sure to check out his blog "Flip", it's listed on my links list).

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Acting Reference: Disturbia

This sequence has a number of goodies in it. Let's take a look at how Shia gets out of the car. Nice struggle but what I liked is the thing he does with his hand on the ground.

There's shattered glass everywhere so he can't just put his hand flat on the ground otherwise he'd get cut. So watch how his fingers are off the ground and how only the ball of his palm ( can you say that?) is touching the glass.









I know it's a tiny thing, but if you would animate a guy crawling over glass, I'd love to see details like that.












Speaking of hands, watch how he grabs the door after limping around the car. It's not the typical FK to IK snap with a locked off wrist once its holding on to the object. There is a re-adjustment which would add some nice complexity to your animation.








And finally the look of horror as he sees his dead father. No giant screams, no bursting into tears, no flailing arms. Just a look of shock. I'm always for "less is more" when it comes to acting and this moment works pretty well in that regard.

It also reminds me of telling you guys to think about RE-acting. Many people say acting is reacting and I think it's crucial to your performance, especially when you have multiple characters. Pay attention when two people are talking to each other. Are they really listening to each other and reacting to what each person is saying? Or is one actor just waiting for the other actor to finish his line so that he/she can continue?

So how about having your character react to great dialogue instead of being the one who says it, that could be a good challenge.



Simple shot, Shia is asleep and wakes up. It's not your typical yawning or one eye opening before the other, etc. it all feels fairly natural, but what I liked, besides his sleepy expression and way of getting up, is how he slips before he gets up. It's funny, not exaggerated and adds a nice touch.
One classic assignment is having a character getting out of a chair.
That slip would be a great little detail.



Another simple shot but I like how he throws the phone away and how restless he gets. There are obviously a number of ways of throwing something and this one I think is a funny way of doing it.

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Copyright © MMVII DREAMWORKS LLC
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