Chop Chop

Sweet short from Bird Box

Acting Reference #61

Here's a clip from one of my favorite movies The Thin Red Line. His reaction to the letter is very believable and this is great reference for pantomime animation. You could very easily mute the audio and still understand what he is feeling.

11 Second Club Progression

Here's a progression reel for my 11 Second Club entry

Anim: Oka Free Running

Here's an animation I did for work. Took about 6 work days to complete and another 3 or 4 days of planning before I started. I also included a progression reel. Definitely things I could fix, but for the length of the shot and the amount of time I had, I'm happy with the result. Model by John DeRiggi, Rig by Brian Evans, Environment by Kwame Babb & Justin DeVore, Character Concept by Ben Chaney

Acting Reference #60

Here's a scene from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I feel Rooney Mara gave easily the best female performance of last year, so if you haven't seen this check it out & if you have congratulations you get a prize*. I first wanted to talk about the finger point the man does at the beginning of the shot. It has a lot of character and is very interesting. We're often told to avoid "cliche" acting choices (like finger points) but I feel you can still use them them if you push them to become more appealing. The pose of his arm and especially the timing of the move give it a lot of appeal/interest.
I also wanted to mention how you can use body language and posture to let the audience know what a character is feeling. The girl obviously doesn't want to be in this situation and isn't comfortable talking to these people. You understand this because of her body language, her slow pace, lack of eye contact, slouching. Telling this in a subtle way is way more powerful that given her a line of dialogue stating that she doesn't want to be there.
 *no prizes will actually be given