I ended up going along, mostly because a family friend was doing one of his mime acts and I still hadn't seen him perform after about 10 years of knowing him. Watching him I was suddenly struck by how similar a mime artists job is to an animators (I guess I had never really thought about it before?) Communication, exaggeration, staging, anticipation, timing - all these things were essential to communicating his visual explanation of the story. No wonder people recommend animators take mime classes...
After that, my parents left me and went to a talk I wasn't really interested in. So with an hour to kill I wandered along to a choir workshop called 'It's Not Enough To Make A Noise'. I have sung in a couple of gospel over the years and I figured this would be a typical 'here's a song, let's learn to sing it together' sort of workshop and would fill my free hour in an enjoyable way.
But what I actually stumbled across was very different. Barry Rose (one of the greatest choir trainers in Britain - I later discovered) was teaching us that you not only have to sing with your voice, but you must sing with your whole body (your nose, mouth, lips, jaw, eyes, face etc.) He demonstrated with an exercise for each to help us understand just how much these parts depend on one other (e.g. trying humming, and then pinch your nose.)
After the lecture, two things he said really struck a chord with me and I wanted to share them:
1. Sing with your eyes.
He took a piece of paper and put it over his face leaving only his eyes visible. He then asked us to decide whether the song he was about to sing was either happy or sad. He then proceeded to give us sad or happy eyes and we correctly identified the mood of the song.
His point? Your audience should know before you even open your mouth, what you are about to sing.
Which made me think about how this relates to animation... Apart from those rare times where we need to break that rule (e.g. sarcasm) our characters really should be communicating what they are about to say through their posture and facial expressions before we even open their mouths to speak. This is why we are taught to animate the body first and make sure it is communicating clearly before we touch the lipsync. The expressions we layer onto the face should also be supporting the mood of the shot. So without even hearing a word, the audience already knows the tone of what will be said.
2. What's your favourite song?
He asked us all if we had a favourite song, and many of us nodded. Then he told us this –‘whenever anyone asks me this question, my answer is always - the one I am singing right now'. Even if you can't stand the song or hymn you are singing, you have to give it your all. Sing it as if it is your favourite song and convince the audience of that.
I know I have been guilty in the past of being on a project that I am less than enamored with and this has probably affected the quality of my animation, or just my day to day cheeriness. Hearing Barry's response really made me think. No matter what you are working on you have to give it your all, as if it really is the best project ever. Any chance to animate, whether the project is fast or cheap or just plain random, is a great opportunity to just animate. There is always something you can practice, learn or experiment with along the way and you never know, you might actually learn to enjoy it?
Apart from filling my hour it turned out to be a very interesting and enjoyable lecture. In fact the whole day turned out to be quite inspirational, and a good opportunity to top up on some vitamin D before returning to my darken room.
I guess my biggest realisation, and the whole point of this post was this:
sometimes it's good to put down your wacom pen and leave the house - you never know where you will find inspiration!
Wow! this was great Jude! Everything here is very true, very true. Thanks for the tips and for sharing your experience :)
Hey Albert! I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for reading and leaving a comment :D
Amazing! just stumbled across your blog through blue-zoo...amazing comments here and i'm going to take these on board! thanks!!
Hi! I am glad you found the post and it was helpful! Are you working at BZ?
Hi Jude,
I got to your blog thorough AM.
I really enjoyed reading your post.
It's really true that inspiration could be everywhere, we shouldn't miss any chance that come towards us.
good tips :)
Wow Jude!!!Your blog is so inspiring ! I really liked this post, I am at class 4 of AM, and I identify so much with it!! :D not daring to leave home till finish, ...and yes life and people are such awesome Mentors!!
BTW congrats on Brave!!! I have enjoyed it so much!!
Thank you for the great comments guys! Good luck with the rest of AM :)