I only partly get what you are saying but I would love to grasp it all. Are you basically saying that when a character changes emotion their eyes move, dart or blink or am I missing something else?
+no hassle Hey! Sorry for the delayed reply. That is sort of what I'm suggesting. More specifically, I am suggesting that eye movement is a "symptom" of an internal thought change, which almost always predicts an emotional change. And the size of that eye movement is usually a indicator of the "size" of the emotional change. Small searching eye movement are how we communicate that we are searching our memory or imagination for the answer to something - and each thing we "see" in our minds eye we have a new small emotional response to. Large eye direction changes are usually a response to an external event - something we see or hear - and each new external stimulus usually provokes a new emotional response. Using these large or small cues to determine large or small emotional changes is a great way, I think, to help me decide what my acting beats are in a scene, thus creating a reason for a new large or small pose change. Thoughts cue emotions, which in turn cue actions, in most cases. So a characters eye movement (or yours in your video reference) is a great cue to show when a characters thought or focus changes, then you can show an emotional change to go with it. I keep this technique in my tool bag especially for more close up shots where the facial performance does a lot of the work, but it works in full body pantomime as well if the graphic quality of the eyes are easily readable. Does that make sense?
These animtips are fantastic, thanks so much - more people need to see these!
Thanks for the good word, Omid! Glad you like them :)
the "cat's me-wow" joke...I enjoyed that.
Thanks JP!
Great podcast!
I only partly get what you are saying but I would love to grasp it all. Are you basically saying that when a character changes emotion their eyes move, dart or blink or am I missing something else?
+no hassle Hey! Sorry for the delayed reply. That is sort of what I'm suggesting. More specifically, I am suggesting that eye movement is a "symptom" of an internal thought change, which almost always predicts an emotional change. And the size of that eye movement is usually a indicator of the "size" of the emotional change.
Small searching eye movement are how we communicate that we are searching our memory or imagination for the answer to something - and each thing we "see" in our minds eye we have a new small emotional response to.
Large eye direction changes are usually a response to an external event - something we see or hear - and each new external stimulus usually provokes a new emotional response.
Using these large or small cues to determine large or small emotional changes is a great way, I think, to help me decide what my acting beats are in a scene, thus creating a reason for a new large or small pose change.
Thoughts cue emotions, which in turn cue actions, in most cases. So a characters eye movement (or yours in your video reference) is a great cue to show when a characters thought or focus changes, then you can show an emotional change to go with it.
I keep this technique in my tool bag especially for more close up shots where the facial performance does a lot of the work, but it works in full body pantomime as well if the graphic quality of the eyes are easily readable.
Does that make sense?
SplatFrog.com Yes it does make sense now. Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. :) This will help myself and others a whole lot.