In Class:
This week’s class focused on blocking the acting performance in stepped mode. George emphasized that animation should show how the character feels, not just match the words. Instead of trying to hit every syllable perfectly, we should find the main emotional beats—usually 2 to 4 key expressions—and build the blocking around those.
We also learned about the importance of vowels and phrasing. When we speak, it’s not word-by-word but in natural rhythms with inflections and pauses. George told us to listen carefully to the audio and reflect those ups and downs in the facial expressions and body movement.
Clear staging and silhouette were also stressed. The poses need to be easy to read so the audience understands the emotion and intention in a single frame. Strong, clear poses, readable facial expressions, and a clear line of action are essential.
My Progress:
This week I imported the Gina Linetti audio into Maya and started blocking the lip sync and main poses. I started off with posing the body according to my reference where the character comes towards the camera as she starts speaking. Then after a moving hold in the front, she moves back she the mood of the shot changes.
My camera position was also wrong and different from my reference and George told me to fix that.
I then started to focus on the lips and finding out the main vowels in the dialogue and looked at how the mouth shapes are and started to key them. It gave me a rough idea of the execution of the words and how I can add more shapes in between the vowels to tie the word together.