Acting for Animators Lecture Notes
I've seen Ed Hooks talk about "Acting for Animators" twice, once at GDC in 2004 and once at Siggraph in 2005. These are the notes I took at GDC. Ed didn't provide these, but they're as complete a record of what he said as I could enter. They are skewed towards adding emotion to games, but there is tons of stuff for character animators not involved in games as well. You'll find all this and much more in his book of the same title "Acting for Animators.
I must admit, there're bits of this I haven't internalized yet. "Thinking leads to conclusions; emotions leads to actions." Don't conclusions lead to actions as well? If I think about the check I just wrote and realize it will overdraw my account, won't that thought lead to action?
I've come to accept that it's not the conclusion, but the associated emotion that causes the action. Fear of being overdrawn, or having your phone shutoff is what drives the action, not the conclusion itself. Don't most all conclusions have some emotional association? So, doesn't thinking lead to conclusions, which cause emotions, which lead to actions? Doesn't this mean that thinking leads to actions? I guess I haven't quite divined why the subtlety is useful.
One bit I really like is the analogy of character analysis to icebergs. I think this ties back to the "Audition" post I did earlier. That 85% contains the moment before and all the characters history. It's those things that define who he is today and shapes his actions.
I hope you enjoy the notes; I typed like a fiend to get them entered into the computer. Ed is quite the character; very funny in person and well worth seeing if you get the chance. See him at GDC or Siggraph or whereever if you can, or if you're control your companies training budget, bring him out for a day or two. I have no association with Ed other than as someone who thinks he's got come interesing things to say. I you attend one of his sessions, be on-time and plan to stay for the entire session. Trust me on this.