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This is Amy, she got a part-time job as a waitress at a downtown fast food restaurant. She's now waiting for customer to order, but it has been a while, so she raised her eyebrow to hint the customer hurry up.

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Before making the pose, I drew a little sketches of staging first, which can help me to get an overall impression what I want to show in the final picture.

I want to simulate the customer's perspective by camera so that audience can see the waitress's pose and facial expression clearly.

To emphasize that this young lady is a waitress in a restaurant, and she is waiting for order, I put a dining table between her and camera, also add some seasoning bottles and a cup as foreground, which I think can give a hint about the environment and balance the composition.

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I also drew some sketches for poses, which can help me understand how to set each skeleton of the character better. It did help a little, but not so much, I was still confused about things such as how to balance the line of her shoulder and hip and how to make her stand firm with stable centre of gravity.

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So I found a reference pose from [Broken girls] on the Internet, and try to analyse Caroline's pose and simulate her balance, which did make my pose more reasonable.

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The rig I download contains a pen for waitress to write, so in order to let her hold the pen naturally, I also took a picture of my own hand holding a pen as a reference.

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Character Profile

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Character Profile

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For the audio task in week 2, I choose the sound "You didn't have anything useful from  there, don't you"

I asume it happened between two people with hierarchical relationship such as employee and supervisor, or soldier and commander. Acordding to the dialogue, the character didn't achieve the task he/she was commanded to do for bringing back nothing, so I think this character is supposed to be a little bit guilty and ashamed, also hoping to be forgiven for bringing nothing back.

I picked the Tom cat rig, because I think Tom seems to be those kind of character who always mess up. And I this dialogue happened in a daily occasion between Tom and his voice only owner, Tom was required to go outside and ask about something for his owner and apparently he failed it. He brought back nothing, felt guilty and embarrassed but still hoping himself forgiven.

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Staged Sketch

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Staged Sketch

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Considering Tom just came back from doing his duty, I arranged him standing at the door to show that he just came in to report what he did.

At the beginning I drew the composition sketch with camera straight heading to character, but during the animating it can't show how Tom's tail express his feeling, so I gave it a little angle in the final version.

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Refference Vedio

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Refference Vedio

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I took two versions of reference vedio at first. One with the reaction of turning my head slowly to show that I was prentending nothing happened and ignoring the complaining of my commander. Another one is an embarrassed smile after listening to the dialogue, which means I felt guilty and ashamed but still wanted to be forgiven.

With the advise of Penny I chossed the second one, because it showes the changing of the character feeling better and is more connected to the information of dialogue, which helps audience understand better what's going on.

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Feedback and Adjusting

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Week 2_Reaction to the sound_Feedback and Adjusting

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In the Animation I make a shocked reaction when the dialogue came out, however this shocked reaction actually didn't make sense here, because Tom already know that he failed what he was supposed to do. When he waiting at the door for the next coming complaining, he shouldn't feel shocked about what the audio said. So I fixed the facial expression when Tom heared the sound, made him less exaggerated.

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In this week's task I keeped using the rig of the waitress Amy, I arranged her at a break between workshift, reading a novel with a cup of coffee put by her side. However as she was trying to have a sip of the coffee, she found that there is noting left in the cup. So she droped the cup after helding it straight up to pour the rest coffee in inmagination into her mouth.

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I recorded a reference vedio by myself, sitting by the dinning table and drink from a glass jar with my eyes stiking to the book. However at the very begining I acted to much than what I need in the animation, witch is overacting for a reaction to find out there is no coffee left in the cup as Penny's opinion

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So I cut off some overacting poses in my reference vedio, and concluded them into four key poses by drawing them down. I edited my vedio by this simple story board, and shrink it's length to 5 seconds, which makes it more clear and clean to be understood what's happening.

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In this week I made the animation by the workflow we learned about last week, started from key poses to blocking and then breakdown. And I tried to spline it at the final version, although it didn't came out well. The motion seemed like floating in the air, and it was more like a slowmotion rather than the character was doing it slowly.

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With the opinion of my classmate Yunzhao, I realized that it may because of that I set the parent relationship of constraint oppsite. In the original version I set the cup as the father of the wrist controler, so I was keeping adding keys on the cup rather than the hand wrist. But the true causation is the cup was moving because the character was holding it with the hand, so the motion of hand is the motivation of the cup.

Except for that, I think the way I made the character holding the cup also was not so appropriate, so that when she was trying to drink the angle of the wries was very strange.

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In the lecture this week we learned abouth the acting methodolegy of Stanford Meisnar and Micheal Chekhov. The theory of them is pretty complex for me to get through, so I read some paper about it to figure out what's the core of them.

I practiced the repeating exercise with Penny on the lecture, but I was still confused about it, we repeated the same dialogou and continued with some observation of each other, which I found weird and kind of useless at first. However, after reading a paper of a professor named Yan He in Shanghai Theatre Academy (it was writen in Chinese so I can read and understand it fluently) , I currently assume that this repeating is actually a practicle method to keep concentrated on the other who is trying to communicate with ourselves. The same dialogue helps to really seeing and listening to the one that actor faced with. Started with a simple observation like "you are wearing black trousers" actors are able to calm down and receive information from each other, with the info they find they can express different and changeful emotions when they are saying the same thing time after time. That means this repeating is not machenically saying the same thing, everytime the actors say it, the words come out from the lips with different feeling.

Also, continuely the observation will deep down to the real linguistic expression of emotion and feeling, which is the second stage we didn't reach on the lecture. Actors will repeat the same simple sentences to describe the emotion they recognized on each other, such as "you are bored" or "you seems like pissed off", and still repeating it. By this time the repeating is actually describing the undercover subtext of the other. And that makes the actors know that they are feeling what the other is feeling now.

The repeating dialogue or in another word the language is kind of a tool here to keep the actors knowing that they are really listening, watching and feeling each other, and truly engaged themselves into this connecting time and then make real, natural and empathic reaction.

It's kind of like digging the other at present as far as you can. And the final aim of this repeating exercise is to get used of reacting, and put oneself into the set circumstance as soon as possible, as deep as possible I guess.

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Here is a clip of my favorite movie [ A sory of Yonosuke ], which occasionally contains a short repeating dialogue that I think is a perfect example for me to understand Meisner's repeating exersize.

In this scene, the main character Shoko broke her leg after the new year eve, but she didn't tell it to her boyfriend Yonosuke because she didn't want him to be worried about her. However, Yonosuke came to the hospital as soon as he heared about Shoko's injury. He was very concerned about her, and blamed her for hiding the accident, in his opinion people who are truly caring each other are supposed to inform each other once they got injured. Shoko was very touched by his confession and decided that Yonosuke was the one deserved her true love at this moment. So to prove that change in her mind, she changed the calling for him from Mr.Yokomiji( his last name) to Yonosuke( his first name ). In the story background Shoko came from a wealthy family with strict manner, she even calls her parents as Mr.Father and Mrs.Mother, so calling someone by his first name is a proof that she treats this guy as the closest person in her life.

This dialogue happened after Shoko made the above decision. All it showed in the screen was just Yonosuke and Shoko repeating each other's name again and again.

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A Story of Yonosuke（clip of repeating dialogue）

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This clip is not boring at all although they were just repeating each other's name, because the emotion of Shoko and Yonosuke was reveled through these simple words. It‘s very easy to tell the differences between every time they call each other by their first name.

On the very first time, it was more like an attampt, Shoko called Yonosuke's name carefully, because this is a huge forward move for her in this relationship. Yonosuke was attampting too, he called her name almost silently, because he was still not sure about whether Shoko would be regret about this decision, or whether it's approprate for him to call her by her name too.

On the next few time, with the definite response from each other, they were both sure that they became the closest people in each other's life at this moment, so they repeated the other's name firmly, loudly and with joyful tone.

Continuely, they repeated the name happily with saitisfication to each other, full of the happiness that knowing the other loves themselves as deeply as they do.

With this simply repeating, the audience can get into the process of their relationship changing. And the reason why it was so touched for audience is the reaction with growing emotion between them. That's what really important in the repeating I think.

Reference material:

Research about the "Repeating Exercis" in Meisnar's acting method, He Yan , 0257 - 943X（2017）05-0070-09

Live a real life in an imaginary circumstance, He Yan, Shanghai Theatre, 2017

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Week 4_Composition Analyse_A Story of Yonosuke

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Week 4_Composition Analyse_A Story of Yonosuke

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Here's also an interesting shooting changing I noticed in this clip.

In this repeating dialouge, the director used positive and negative lens in the very first three callings between characters. With the transfer of the characters' emotion when they were calling each other's name, the camera was gradually closed in time after time.

Started with the first calling, when Shoko and Yonosuke were still not sure whether it is approporate to call and calling each other with doubt carefully, here the director sattled a medium over-shoulder shot for them, which is very normal method in characters' conversation shooting.

However, on the second time when they firmly called each other, the camera was changed into a close-up shot, the distance that the audience could feel between them was closer too, even though the pyhsical distance was still the same.

On the third time, the lens is even pulled closer, with 3/4 screen taken by the head of them. It makes audience feel like they are talking face to face.

This focusing is actually a hint for audience that the psychological distance between the characters was closer. By calling each other's name time after time, their reaction showed that they were accepting each other step by step. The first common over-shoulder shot illustrated that they are trying to close each other in a normal social distance, but in the next few times, with the disappearing of the shoulder, it means the barrier as regular people's social boundary between them was gone. The closer the camera moved, the closer their hearts were.

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In this week I keep using the rig of the waitress. She is young and attractive, still at the age need to be fully made up to go for work. Every morning she put her lipstick on carefully and paints her mouth perfactly without a single blank.

And this occasion happened on an ordinary morning before she goes for work, she was sitting behind the table putting on her lipstic, with a mirrow on the other hand, very cautiously, slowly moving the lipstick on her lips back and forth until she thought they were perfectly and nicely covered by red color. After so, she pursed her lips with satisfication.

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I shot this reference vedio by myself this time. I used a lip balm and a E-dictionary to represant the lipstick and mirrow.

The movement I acted was fine, but the lip balm really caused a few trouble for me when I made the animation. The top surface of the lips balm I used in reference is flat, but the one of the lipstick model I made in maya has a certain leaning angle. It makes the movement of the hand a little bit different, and this little angle on lipstick would enlarg the motion of the wrist and albow too. So there would be a few adjustment to do in the process of animation.

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Considering of the angle on the lipstick, I made the wrist as IK to let the lipstick attached to the lips, and I added a parent constrain relationship between the lipstick and the wrist, with the hand being parent and lipstick as son.

I added key poses when the lipstick moved to the middle poiont and the corner of the lip. And to fix the problem caused by the angled surface, and to make sure that lipstick's top surface touch the lip perfectly in every frame, I added more keys on the wrist when I was doing the blocking, averagely one key per five frames.

Also I added movement to almost every controlers of her upper body to meke the motion more realistic, but not as much as the wrist has.

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Week 4_Absorbing doing_Feedback and Adjustment

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Week 4_Absorbing doing_Feedback and Adjustment

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I export two version of this clip, blocking and spline. In order to keep the lipstick attached to the lips, I remain all the key frame I did in the blocking and splined it into a twisting curve, but those controlers besides the wrist didn't have so much key frames as wrist. So it truns out pretty weird in the spilne version, the hand of the character seems like shaking all along, while her whole upper body seems like floating.

With penny's feedback I decided to leave this clip stepped, but to fix the problem, I also added more keys in the other controlers, keeped them as frequently as the wrist, polished my blocking to make it better.

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Character Profile

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Character Profile

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In this week we are going to make a clip of a character moving or dancing lightly to the music rythem, I choose the rig of a grown up male character and here's his character profile.

Raymond is an piano private tutor, he teaches the piano course indicidually to each student. He is also a very kind, skilled pianist and music lover himself, so everytime he listens to nice piano play he can't help but move his body. One day he was asked to give some feedback at the individual class to his student before the student's solo concert. His student is going to play June: Barcarolle from Seasons composed by Tchaikovsky, the student played very well, Raymond enjoyed and appreciated it so much, moved his hands and body uncontrollably to the beautiful notes.

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Reference Vedio

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Reference Vedio

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I choosed the version that Valentina played, which is more clear to listen.

I acted the reference vedio by myself, moved my body like I was listening to my student exercising in front of me, moving my hand to give some hint and feedback about the direction of the notes and the flow of the melody.

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Valentina Lisitsa QOR Records Official channel

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Tchaikovsky "June" Barcarolle Чайковский Июнь Баркарола Lisitsa

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Reference Vedio

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Reference Vedio

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This is the final version of the reference vedio I recorded by myself, I played the vedio Valentina on the computer and recorded by my cellphone. The whole vedio lasts to 14 seconds, and I picked a short clip from it as my final reference.

Because the record vedio already included the sound of the music, so I exported another wav music of this clip to put into Maya, which can perfectly matched the reference by beats.

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Animation and feedback

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Week 5_Moving to the Music_Animation and feedback

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I made the character's hands as IK because he need to waving his hand in the air to follow the beat of music.

In this task I tried to spline the animation after blocking, it went much well than last week, but still looked like floating in the air.

The feedback said the legs of the character are stiff all the time, which makes the animation unrealistic. So I made a chair for Raymond and added more keys on his legs to make them moving in a very limited range。

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For the final task of this semster, I choose to do a clip of pantomime without dialogue. I reviewed some sitcoms I used to watch to find inspiration, and found a short clip from IT crowd, where Roy was trying to steal the 20 pounds bill he land to Raymond before when Raymond was in coma.

I like the snapping he did when he tried to test whether Raymond is asleep and the reaction he did when he was caught. Also the whole plot of this clip is very dynamic and humorous. So I'm gonna keep the things mentioned above in my own task.

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Main task_Stealing the phone_Character Profile

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Main task_Stealing the phone_Character Profile

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Emily and Raymond are a couple, they moved in together a few months ago. They always watched movie together on the sofa after work on every Friday. However recently Emily found that Raymond was distracted time by time and always focusing on his mobile phone waiting for someone else's message. Emily was very curious about it and eager to have a look of his phone to figure out who he texted to.

Character Profile of Emily

Emily is a young dreaming girl at her 20s, she wants to be an actor someday and struggling around the city for audition. Currently she worked at a restaurant as a waitress to make a living.

Emily is very enthusiastic and outgoing, she's willing to help people around and always bring warmth to the others. However sometimes she might cross the line and seemed like too helpful to make people feel uncomfortable. In the relationship with Raymond she is the active one.

Character Profile of Raymond

Raymond is an private piano tutor, but he's now trying to find a more stable job to support his future plan. Recently he applied for a couple of public high schools to be a musical teacher, while it didn't go well, he is still waiting for the message of offer.

Raymond used to be a respectable and balanced person, with nice skill and strict manner. But sometimes he is too strict to communicate with. Also recently he was annoyed by the fact that he didn't get a single job offer, so he hasn't talk to his girlfriend for a while.

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Main task_Stealing the phone_Plot and Storyboard

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Main task_Stealing the phone_Plot and Storyboard

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This is an ordinary Friday night when Emily and Raymond planned to watch a movie together. However Raymond fell asleep with the phone still held in his hand. Emily didn't notice it until his phone rang suddenly. She has been doubt for a while that Raymond always ignored her and focused on his phone's massage. So she decided to steal his phone to find out the truth.

Emily snapped twice in front of Raymond and he didn't have any reaction for that, so she directly attached her hand to the phone. However, as soon as she touched the phone, Raymond woke up immediately.

Raymond caught Emily peeping in her face, he was annoyed and felt being untrusted. Emily was very embarrassed for being caught.

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Based on the storyboard I made a layout to check the rig and composition. There are five shots in this 10 seconds long clip, which I think changes too frequently. I will simplify the cameras of the last half part of this clip after Raymond was woke up by Emily.

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Main task_Stealing the phone_Reference Vedio

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Main task_Stealing the phone_Reference Vedio

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I record the reference vedio by myself, acted seperatly as each of them and then edit two vedio together.

But I can't act the moment that Emily catch the phone by myself, so I think I still need a more specific reference of a hand catching the phone helding by another hand.

Also I need another referenc vedio of the facial expression changing which is not so clear in the overview reference clip.

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Both of two characters are carrying props in their hands, so I added parent constrain relationships between the props and hands , also I made their wrists as IK to move them more conveniencly.

After the basic blocking, I added a breath cycle on Raymond when he was still asleep, so that it seems less stiff for him in the first half part of the clip.

Also considering about the frequency of the shot changing in the layout, I took penny's advice to keep just ont straight shot from the begining to the end to show the danymic plot changes between the characters.

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The first version of spline didn't seem well. There are some pauses between the movement of Emily, so every time when she stopped she looks like a lifeless puppet but not a real person who stopped moving.

With that problem Penny showed me the lecture about "moving hold", which is a way specifically to solve this problem. Obviously in the gap between two movement, if the character stopped statically, it seems less realistic and very unnatural for audience to believe that the character is a real person. That's why the character need to stop in a moving way. In this way you need to add more keys at the end of a moving part to make the character move a little more towards the final direction of the last movement.

After the adjustment of moving hold, the movement of Emily looks more dynamic than it used to be.

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Besides the moving holds, I added more keys on their facial expressions, and the accessories such as the tie of Emily.

Except for the animation, I sat an area light to imitate the light of the television they were watching, I also added a sound track of tv white noise as background music, and some sound effect of snapping and the rubbing between their clothing and the fabric of sofa.

audio effect sources:

self recorded

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/