Video reference is fundamental to the planning phase of your animation and good reference is your road map. If your reference is poorly executed then your animation will be as well. It’s really important not to rush into the animation.
Reference provides you with:
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Body mechanics solutions
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Better planning & saves time
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Acting choices
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Appealing shapes
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Assists in the learning process
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Why not use it? Why not use every tool at your disposal
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Observation will create a believable performance
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Good reference is your road map!
1. Reference is your roadmap. If your reference is poorly executed or misses the mark for the performance, then your animation will as well.
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Take the extra time to create good reference.
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Plan by listening to the dialog until you understand the beats and subtext.
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If the scene is body mechanics or pantomime driven, equally write down the emotional process behind each movement and record important beats.
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Make sure your scene is lit well when recording.
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If research involves finding content on youtube instead of trying to commit the action yourself, find many clips to choose from and study.
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Frankenstein the clips that work best from your recording or content found online to create the best select to work from.
2. Have fun researching and explore every possibility for your scene to get to a genuine choice.
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Sincerity comes from exploration.
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Your first ideas will be trite and overused.
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Film a friend and see what they give you that is outside of your baseline in acting.
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Sit with a friend to choose the best clips. Sometimes you look at it too long and need a fresh eye.
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Give any idea at least 15 minutes to breathe. Do not stand in the way of the creative flow while making reference.
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You MUST stop and watch the reference recorded to asses what is working.
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If you keep acting things out without stopping to watch, you will have the same take over and over again.
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EXPLORE the possibilities!
3. Using reference does not mean copying exactly what is there.
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Many times you have to plus the action beyond what is in the reference.
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Do not copy frame by frame.
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Understand the choices made in the reference and apply the same force to your character.
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Too much of you in the scene can be bad. Stay true to your character’s baseline.
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Most likely you will have different proportions than the character. Compensate.
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Overacting = bad
4. Get all of the technical stuff out of the way.
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24 fps on camera, if possible. Phones are usually 30 fps, so convert before using.
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Camera should be secured on a solid tripod.
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Check the angle (similar to the shot), is there enough light? etc.
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Take shades off lamps for better light.
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Shoot a wider angle than the original staging in Maya.
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Shoot a close up too, for facial acting.
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It’s hard to get good acting when you have to stop to fix the lights, tripod, etc.
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Create the stage, props and furniture first.
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Set up camera, no lower than a 50 mm lens for camera if you have control.
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Create marks to look at. Place a teddy bear in front of the actor to look at.
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Costumes, wigs or clothing can help get into character.
5. Shoot A LOT of reference footage!
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Try it where you are only speaking, not the actor.
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Think about the subtext while acting the scene out. Write it down.
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Speak the subtext and not the actual lines of dialog.
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Take your best takes and compile them into one, if you don’t have one solid take.
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Maybe film a friend, who is better and direct them?
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Sometimes I ask friends to do a take or two for me.
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Other people can come up with surprising acting ideas for a shot.
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If it’s not working, maybe it’s not the right clip? Are you forcing it?
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Reference is easy to make! Redo it if it’s not working.
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Watch out for clichés. Do not overact!
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Write down words as you watch that illustrate the emotions, verbs are best.
6. Thumbnail from your final cut of footage to figure out your story poses and work out the important reversals.
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Study timing and adjust if needed. You can even change the timing in the video.
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Timing can always be compressed and elongated to plus the action and heighten entertainment.
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Study weight shifts in the video from hips to shoulders.
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Analyze specific movements of the situation and idiosyncratic actions.
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Simplify the movement if it makes the scene stronger, edit the video clip.
Below is a video explaining an approach to re-timing reference footage presented by Cameron Fielding that might work for you to get the timing you want for the scene. By simply bringing in the footage as an image sequence and animating the frames in the graph editor you can re-time the footage on the fly while animating. You could even figure out the blocking poses and re-time them before ever setting a keyframe on a puppet!
7. How to choose which take from all of that footage?
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Critical eye, ask a friend to watch with you.
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You will know the right take, trust your gut.
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Look for specific actions that do not feel overused.
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Learn your own idiosyncrasies. If you point a lot make sure that is something your character would do, too.
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What is successful and how can you plus it?
Notice how master animators in the old days took reference and used it, but didn’t copy directly. The final drawing/acting is pushed and made better!
I call this one Joaquin walking. How your character walks should inform the audience about who he or she is....various movies to showcase how he walks differently in every one. It's amazing how he crafts his performances all the way down to how the character actually walks. Keep this in mind when animating. Don't just do a vanilla walk, think about how you can push it further. It's a performance, not just a walk.
