[John_Kundert-Gibbs,Kristin_Kundert-Gibbs]Action! Acting Lessons for CG Animators(pdf){Zzzzz}

In order to bring a character to life, it is beneficial for animators to have a solid understanding of acting principles, and this book examines the important skills behind the artistry of creating animated characters. With a particular emphasis on a character’s motions and movement, this unique resource covers the basic elements of acting for CG animation and then progresses to more advanced topics such as internal intent and motivation.

Publisher: Sybex; 1 edition (March 30, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470227435
ISBN-13: 978-0470227435

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create More Powerful, Compelling CG Characters Using Advanced Acting Techniques

If you want to breathe new life into your CG characters, you need to understand the actor's perspective. Within these pages, you'll discover how to apply expert acting techniques directly to your animation. From utilizing Commedia lazzi, to breathing in patterns that create emotion, to analyzing energy sources and blocks within the body, you'll dramatically increase your CG animator toolbox for developing a character. You'll then learn how to apply these acting secrets so your character really connects with the audience for a memorable performance.

Complement your technical knowledge with new insights into acting

Explore the foundations of animation

Understand the process of creating a living, breathing character on the screen

Apply the Stanislavski system of acting to your characters

Transfer or use one or more advanced acting techniques in a given animation

Use proven techniques to develop emotion, intent, and a through-line for your characters

Create lip sync and facial performance for voiced characters

Implement advanced acting techniques selected specifically for CG characters

About the Author

John Kundert-Gibbs is an associate professor of Animation in the Theatre and Film Studies Department at the University of Georgia. He is the author of numerous books on Maya and 3D animation.

Kristin Kundert-Gibbs is assistant professor of Acting and Voice in the Theatre and Film Studies Department at the University of Georgia and has worked as an actress, producer, director, and vocal coach.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Very Helpful
By Grant Beaudette VINE VOICE on May 19, 2010
I've never been totally sold on the whole idea that an animator is just an actor. While they can be similar, an animator's challenges in creating performance are different from a stage or film actor. Getting an emotional performance from within yourself expressing it with your physical body takes different tasks than expressing it outside yourself on paper, or even worse, through a complex computer interface onto a 3D model.

Action! Acting Lessons for the Animator is basically a survey of various acting techniques and doesn't have any serious animation training.

The actual "animation exercises" is this book are actually rather worthless. They simply involve importing a still or video clip of the acting students and copying their poses with the 3D model; basically just Rotoscoping. There's more to being an animator than just doing what a stage actor does and simply copying it into an animated character.

The first few chapters are basic history and explanation of method acting. It's mostly just traditional theatre warm up, stretching and acting exercises that might not appeal to an animator.

One of the most intriguing ideas in Ed Hooks'Acting for Animators, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation is that of power centers and how it affects movement. It's not mentioned much in this book and the video examples were shot with the camera turned sideways so the actors walk from the top of the screen to the bottom, making them totally worthless.

Chapter 4 covers Comedia del'Arte with its cast of stock characters who each have a set list of expressions, poses and gestures

Good information,
By Geraldo Santana Magalhães on November 13, 2010
I completely agree with Grant Beaudette, he did a wonderful review, everything I thought to write here he already did it. The book talk a lot about acting history,about acting exercises, a whole chapter, which I wonder why this is necessary for anyone trying to anymate in 2D or 3D need to (maybe to strech out from the chair, after spend some time doing their job). The thing is I've already covered and I can say I could not extract anything really useful to improve my animation (3D). The book talks a lot about characters of Copmmedia, instead of drawing some useful figure to explain the position, etcc.. they describe the position, which is very difficult to imagine. My advice is do not spend your money, look for something more useful, I am really upset about spending all that money on this book, but unfortunately by the time I bought it, there was no review, so I felt obligated to leave mine here to alert others.