Let’s examine how an animator might break down the Filbee scene for animation. To start with, the actors will have laid the ground- work for the basic timing, so you will have a template of when the lines need to be said. In particular, Filbee will take about four “beats” to get to the last line. A “beat” in animation as in music is an indica- tion of rhythm in a scene. You can determine the tempo of a scene by working with 1 beat representing a second. If I were performing Filbee, I would probably give about 4 seconds before I said the last line. This timing is based on the experi- ence I’ve had with audience reac- tion. The director may have a different interpretation. Usually most good directors will let the actors do the first interpretation and then modify the performance and timing from there.
The way you build upon a dialogue soundtrack is to pick out key words and have that prompt key poses to hit in the animation. If we break down the first line, we see that the boss yells out Filbee’s name in no uncertain terms. As an animator, I want to make a broad entrance and decide that the boss should raise his arms in a fury and shake his hands to Figure 8.2 Do a real-time freewheeling performance with your hand while counting
out seconds and determining how many frames it will take to make the movement. After this plot, you can confidently animate the figure because you have broken down and planned the motion.
Figure 8.3 Performing the action ahead of time with your hands or body helps to lock the timing in your head and make animation easier.
emphasize the “eeee” sound in Filbee’s name. In this case, the “Fil” sound takes about 3 frames on the soundtrack and the “bee” sound lasts about 16 frames (at a 12-fps rate). So the animator might perform this action live just before the animating to solidify the movement in his or her head and then, starting with the first frame of the start of the word, would begin to animate the arms thrusting upward from the character’s sides.
We break up the movement of the arms raising into four positions and skew the positions to be smaller at the start to create ease in of the movement. Because the end of the word is loud and angry, we decide not to ease out but just abruptly stop when the arms are stretched and have the hands quickly jump between two positions until the end of the word, just as if his hands were ringing bells to amplify the boss’s anger. As a secondary movement, you can disturb Filbee’s hair as it reacts to the screaming fit.
The next line is a bit calmer and once again a bit of a descending wave. Because Filbee is still the focus of attention, I decide to ease in a downward movement of both arms having the left arm move down to the side and form a fist while the other points a wagging finger at Filbee on the word “this.” Once again, it is useful to act out the action ahead of time so you can deconstruct the actions in slow motion and hit the marks as you animate. There is a pause of 12 frames before the word “this” so you know you have to fill this time with movement and break down the positions of the arm to fit. Throughout this time, of course, you will be animating the mouth and face to coincide with the dialogue track as we did in Chapter 4.
For the line “is an untenable situation” I decide to use the principle of “stillness” in acting by moving nothing but the pointing finger and the mouth. This not only saves animation time but also emphasizes the fact that Filbee is the point of attention. For the finger movement, I decide to not do the violent two-positions animation that I did with the hands but to do subtler random positions of the finger in small increments so it is more of a slow wandering type of movement that shows, through movement, the “slow burn” of the boss.
The next line, “I want you to turn in your keys, set fire to the building, and JUMP OUT THE WINDOW!” has three high point words: “keys,” “building,” and “WINDOW.” Once again we have a bit of a wave here, and the line ends with WINDOW set all in caps, indicating an ease in that is verified by the sound track. At his point I find the frames that these key words fall into and decide to have the boss slam his fist on his hand for the first two key words and then point to the window by the last word. After Filbee responds, the boss’s arms can
has been partially vented. Filbee, of course, is also acting in the scene during the boss’s tirade. As an ani- mator I could choose to give him very small erratic repositions to make him “shake” in terror, or I could opt to have him remain still while I concentrate on the boss. In good acting and animation, the other performer is usually doing something besides waiting for his or her line. In between lines, a good actor will choose to either listen to the other actor and react, be dis- tracted and ignore the actor but be focused on something else, or both. In this case, I decide to make it simple and just have Filbee calmly listen to the boss in rapt attention until he turns to go. For Filbee’s line “Yes, sir,” I keep the body still until after the line is uttered and then I do freeform animation of him turning to go and stop just before the punch line. During this animation, I continue with the boss by slowly noodling him about and have him unclench his fist. After Filbee asks about the keys, I can then use the wave idea and have the boss start to explode and grossly exaggerate his form for comic effect. This is an example of how I as an animator break down a scene to exploit the best parts of the performance. The actor’s voice per- formance gives clues as to what type of movements would be best to convey the drama. With the Roto- scope tool you have even more of a template to use to capture the live-action performance and then reproduce, embellish, and exaggerate the scene.
Figure 8.5 For the fall of the dialogue said in a menacing tone, “this is an unten- able position,” the figure is primarily still while only the pointing finger wanders about as Filbee’s eyes follow.
Figure 8.6 The fist hitting the hand drives home the key words “keys” and “building.”