Research from 'Acting for Animators' by Ed Hooks Pt 1

Basic Details:
Hooks, E 2011, Acting for Animators, Routledge, London.

Extracted from Pg 6-7 of  "Stage actor versus animator - vive la difference!"

6.

Walt Disney borrowed storytelling and editing techniques from live-action filmmaking and produced the first animated feature film, Snow White, Instead of real flesh-and-blood actors giving the performances, animated characters would do it. The magic was in the way the Disney animators made the characters so lifelike. The Nine Old Men, the original Disney Studio animators, literally invented "the illusion of life", and their influences remains powerful even though most animated films are now created with computers.

An animator is an actor with a pencil. Starting back in Walt Disney's era, new animators have been encouraged to "take an acting class" to learn first-hand how acting works. That is excellent advice except that animators create animated characters in a very different way than actors create characters on stage. An animator that enrols in a traditional acting class will be expected to get up and act alongside stage actors.

6-7.

Animators do not need to participate in traditional acting classes in order to understand acting theory. In fact, a regular acting class would be counterproductive for some animators. Animators do not need the kinds of relaxation and concentration exercises that typically are included with actor training, nor do they need voice and diction coaching. The bottom line is that stage actors act in the present and fleeting moment, and animators create an illusion of a present moment. Same principles, very different application.

Extracted from Pg 8 of  "The illusion of Life verses "moving illustrations""

Moving illustrations generally follows the same format as comic books, and does not qualify as acting. Moving illustrations will never achieve the illusion of life. The focus in this book is on the creation of animated character that think and have emotions and play theatrical actions.

Extracted from Pg 9-27 of  "Seven essential acting principles"

9.

Disney-style realism is harder to accomplish than more restrictive, stylised cartoons. To adhere to realism is to abide by the laws of physics, weight and volume. That's why, even if you do not aspire to realistic animation, it still is smart of you to learn what it's all about- and that is why, even though animation takes many different forms, I am mainly concerned with realism in this book. For Picasso, without first having mastered the basics. His Blue Period, Rose Period and Cubist work would have been impossible without a firm foundation in realism.

There is a lot of blending and cross-referencing in acting theory.

CONFLICT means something different in terms of acting theory than it does in everyday use. In real life, we think of conflict as a bad thing that needs to be alleviated if we are to have a peaceful and happy lifestyle. For theatrical purposes, however, you must expand the meaning to include positive conflict. To the stage actor, "conflict" is really an "obstacle", something to be overcome. You can be in "conflict" about whether to eat the cherry pie or the chocolate ice cream, or whether to vacation in Paris or Rome.

10-11.

OBJECTIVE, to an actor, is more concrete than it often appears to be in real life. A theatrical objective must be provable, something you can pursue. You have to know whether you achieve the objective or not. You will never know whether you have reached a state of happiness that cannot be improved. Happiness is a shifting target that a stage actor might refer to as a "goal" or "super-objective".

ANTICIPATION means something altogether different for a stage actor than it does for an animator. For the stage actor, it is an acting error to anticipate, to react to something before it actually happens, to answer the phone before it rings. For an animator, anticipation is what a baseball pitcher does when he winds up to throw a fast ball. This is an important distinction because, if you want to create the illusion of life, your character will have to learn not to anticipate- in the stage actor sense.

DOING, for a stage actor, implies the pursuits of a provable objective. It is more active in that sense than, say, brushing your hair or taking a shower. Those are activities that you "do", but they lack theatrical structure. If you freeze-frame you character and ask him what he is doing, his answer should be stated in theatrical terms.

11-12.

Seven Essential Acting Principles:

1. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions, and emotion tends to lead to action.
2. We humans empathise only with emotion. Your job as a character animator is to create in the audience a a sense of empathy with your character.
3. Theatrical reality is not the same thing as regular reality.
4. Acting is doing; acting is also reacting.
5. Your character should play an action until something happens to make him play a different action.
6. Scenes begin in the middle, not at the beginning.
7. A scene is a negotiation.

12-13.

What is the definition of an emotion? Do you figure that there is a connection between thinking and emotion? Is there, on the one hand, your thinking, calculating brain and, on the other, emotion that floats around and lands on you from time to time? Let's say we are starting a new dictionary. Emotion (noun) is... what? A feeling certainly, but that is a synonym, not a definition. An impulse? Close, but no cigar. The impulse is going to come after the emotion. Emotion has something to do with how much a person cares about a subject, right? Now we are getting close. The best definition of emotion that I have heard, and the one I use in his book, is:

Emotion (noun): An automatic value response.

14.

You feel emotion, and you do something about it. Emotion tends to lead to action. Acting is doing.

These mental processes seem to happen instantaneously. Unless you stop to focus on it, emotion is going to feel like it exists independently of thought. What I am doing here is encouraging you to slow it all down so you can look at it frame by frame. We humans have brains that are faster and more complicated than any computer ever will be. We are generally unaware of our own thought process unless we make a conceptual effort to examine it.

"the mind is the pilot" -- Walt Disney

Everything, including emotion, begins and ends with the thinking brain.

'We humans empathise only with emotion'

The audience needs to identify with your character's feelings. The was this works is that they see what your character is doing, and then they tune into the emotion that led to that particular action. What is more, empathy happens instantly.

15.

There is a significant difference between empathy and sympathy. "Empathy" literally means "feeling into"; "sympathy" literally means "feeling for". The word "empathy" came from German aesthetics in the 1920s and many people are still getting used to using it.

The illusion of life rests on empathy. You want your audience to identify with- empathise with- your characters, not to pity, or sympathise, with them.

17.

Empathy is an essential attribute for humans because we are by nature social creatures. We have to get along with one another, and empathy is key. One of the hallmarks of a sociopath is that he does not empathise. His ability to empathise is broken; it doesn't work.

19.

There are only three possibly kinds of obstacles of conflict; there is conflict with yourself, conflict with your situation and conflict with another person. Your character needs to have at least one of those in order to be taking theatrical action. He can have more than one kind of conflict, but he must have at least one. No conflict, no scene.

Many people believe that good acting happens where then character behaves believably. No! Behaving believably may be part of it, but it must be for a theatrical purpose. Acting is behaving believably in pretend circumstances- for a theatrical purpose. Theatrical purposes are not the same as work-a-day purposes in life.

20.

Acting is doing something. It is doing something in pursuit of an objective while overcoming an obstacle.

22.

'Acting is doing; acting is also reacting'

Learn how to allow your character to react. The temptation is to focus all the time on the doing part. For sure, you don't want to ignore that, but allow for reaction, too. Both doing an reacting are part of the illusion of life.

A character's reaction has everything to do with that particular character's values... different people react in different ways. When you are animating, you must know your character so well that his reactions are almost automatic to you.

24.

The situation needs conflict in order to be theatrical.

'Scenes begin in the middle, not at the beginning'

25.

Do not just start animating. Your character will tell you how he is supposed to move when you understand his context. Scenes begin in the middle, not at the beginning. And they do not end at the end. Your guy exits the door on the right, but his scene continues. We just cannot see it from this room.

26.

'A scene is a negotiation'

If you look at a scene and cannot find the negotiation, the scene is in deep trouble. You must rewrite it... this is true for acting as well as writing. A scene that you play- or that your character plays- is a negotiation.

Remember the three kinds of conflict? Conflict with self, with the situation and with another character? Okay, there is the answer to your negotiation problem. In any negotiation, there needs to be a way you can win a way you can lose, yes? Let's say you come to a form in the road far away from civilisation. Which way should you go? You have conflict with your situation and perhaps conflict with yourself. 

27.

Again, conflict with the situation. From your perspective, you win if you get the kiss, and you lose if you do not.

Possible books to look into:

Animation from Script to Screen by Shamus Culhane

The Discourse on Method by Rene Descartes