The different performance

The work: Mime Animation

I clip the performance of Mime before i do the Mime animation. Because the time of animation should limited in 30 seconds. Besides, make sure the audience could understand what going on in scene. I divided  into three steps.

Step1: A man is walking dog in the park with good mood. He love his dog so much. The dog was a naughty dog, he always pull master go anywhere. The dog stopped and have a rest after walking tired. Then the man squatted and caressing the dog's body.

Step2: The dog was guided by a man to go to the direction of the right hand side. But the dog motionless no matter the man how to pulling leash. 

Step3: Suddenly，the dog start to move, running in the opposite direction. The man grabbed the leash to stop dog run. After a tough pull, the man was pulled outside of the shots by dog.

The blocking of Mime animation

This is the blocking of Mime animation. In the process of production, I use a moving box instead dog in the scene. It's easy to do animation and be a reference. There can be more convenient and intuitive. Through the blocking, I need to improve in some places.







Need improve:
1. This man walking too stiff and too mechanical.
2. The man need more reflection when dog pulling leash.
3. Some actions should be more exaggerated.

The breakdown of Mime animation
This is the breakdown of Mime animation. I was change a lot of details after tutorial. The walking looks nature and adds more reflections between man and dog; however, i changed some normal poses be more exaggerated. For example, the man pulled leash very hard in the ending of animation. Although the breakdown looks better than last time, but also need change a lot be better.

Need improve:
1. The walking should be more nature and relax, especially the movement of feet and legs.
2. Delay the thinking time before squatting.
3. Keeping the center of gravity when he cornering.  
4. Pay more attention in hands movement, especially fingers.
5. The hand raised too high, should put hands lower to match the dog size.

The final Mime animation
This is the final render animation. I adjusted the lighting and material for this mime animation. I want the movement of the man looks more real with performative. So i made the background be a small theatre. I am try to change some problems from breakdown, and now here presented the final effect. I hope tutor and friends could give me some feedbacks to make this mime be more perfect.

Acting for Mime

Before I start do a Mime animation, I need to practice the real mime to feel the movement of the body language. In the beginning, i need select a topic to prepare mime animation in this exercise; therefore, i am going to practice ‘walking a dog’ mime be the reference before I do the animation. So, I search some mime shows about walking dog from YouTube, and try to learn some professional postures. 

Mime Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N5zNXtTF-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBMXie24m2c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyscLSltE_s

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This is mime practice recording in green screen studio. The animation exercise required limited in 25-30 seconds. So, I tried to control the timing limited in 30 seconds and make sure let audience understand my performance. The character designed a young man whose age about in 25-30. He is a funny guy and humorous. He will walk a dog from the left scene into middle scene. The dog designed a middle size dog with naughty temper. Thus, the story begins and the various possible occurred between man and dog.           

The great performance of Mime

Just link some Mime shows from mime artists.

MIME vs JUNKIE

This Mime show presented a story about two persons. The man interested in rover lady who was a drugster. They are fighting each other though mime language. That's interesting and funny idea to abstract audience.

Ze Parachute

I really love his show. That was so exaggerated performance with facial expression and body language. He played a super singer star who is really amazing.

Balloon mime

This mime artist showed audience a real balloon physics. It's so clear to let audience know the relative between man with balloon. While the balloon was light, or heavy can not move.

Walking a dog

Mimo chistoso

There are two mime shows presented audience the state of waling dog. The dog was imagined by artist. The whole show like a little story. Especially the first show, a lady walking dog in the park with good shot angle.
The second show also perfect and match the good sound from artist. I will do a new practice like walking dog.     

Body language of Mime

Every look and every action is important way to convey the inner thoughts for mime actor when they performed on stage; therefore, the Mime actor should have a great ability to control their body language to make audience know what they thought. The Mime performance and the normal performance (movies or TV) have a lot of differences, Mime often required more precise, because the Mime actor without dialogue in the scene; in addition, exaggerate is the biggest  feature in Mime performance. Performers tend to enlarge body movements and more emotion to convey thoughts.

Combined with facial expressions and body language. 

The facial expressions

The different posture
There are some different postures between mime and normal behavior. There must be more exaggerated in mime performance.

                                   Mime                                                                                Normal

Research: The Art of Mime

What is the Mime?

The word ‘pantomime’ source for the Greek, meaning ‘imitator’.

A mime artist who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer. Miming is to be distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch.

The performance of pantomime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimes, although performances were not necessarily silent. In Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumb shows evolved. In early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deborah solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times—the silent figure in white-face. [1]

The famous silent film artist – Charlie Chaplin 1989-1977

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the silent era. Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry.

Most famous mime artist – Marcel Marceau 1923-2007

Marcel Marceau was a French actor and mime most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown." He referred to mime as the "art of silence," and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. As a youth, he lived in hiding and worked with the French Resistance during most of World War II, giving his first major performance to 3000 troops after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. Following the war, he studied dramatic art and mime in Paris.

The presentation ' The Thinking Character '

The resources of project:

http://www.cgtarian.com/online-courses/advanced-animation-courses/a-thinking-character-animation-course-online.html

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/content/papers/antony2.pdf

http://www.thinkingcharacter.com/p/about.html

https://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/principles/lasseter_s94.htm

http://thinkinganimationbook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/character-performance-workshop.html

It was a 10 minute presentation in Module 3. I got the topic ' The Thinking Character' and need provide a detailed analysis and comparison of one animation and one live action clip. I am ready to analysis two of my favourite films ' The professional ' and ' Wall E ' clips to discuss this topic. As we know, each film has its important roles, for example lead roles and supporting roles. However, each roles have the special character and personality, the successful interpretation of roles is very important for the whole film. So, i want to through analysis the performance of the character to analysis the inner thoughts of the character.

 

The prefessional 

Movie clips

‘The Professional’ is a 1994 English-language French thriller film directed by Luc Besson. The film is talking about revenge and redemption story between a mob hitman and a 12-year-old girl.

Details of the performance

Mathilda: Three times knock the door

 

First knock: grieved，scared

Second knock: Anxiously waiting，crying

Third knock: Fear of being killed，The heart to the verge of collapse.

   

About Leon's inner struggle

First knock :Very stressful, hesitant, wink and shake the body  

After second and third knock: Inner struggle, quick selection, stop Wink, touch the ears

Finally decided to open the door, Vigilant door

Finally, Leon opened the door. A bunch of sun projected onto the girl's face, which means the girl was saved. The girl stopped crying and calm down.

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 The other animation film is WALL-E. 

  

Movie clips

 

As soon as they land, EVE rushes WALL•E back to his truck, where she repairs him and recharges him. WALL•E wakes back up, but his memory is wiped clean and he reverts to his original programming and directive, oblivious to EVE and his collection.

Details of the performance

EVE attempts to help him remember, but when all her efforts fail, she becomes heartbroken and sadly holds his hand like he had wanted and gives him a farewell "kiss".

 

WALL•E recovered memories

 

WALL•E's eyes adjust, and he recognizes EVE, making her overjoyed. The kiss has rebooted his memory. WALL•E is surprised upon waking up to see that they are holding hands.