Thoughts or emotions. Part 2

My repsonce to ED

I think what has distracted me, is that I believed that inner monologue is the same as thinking, and that's something we display on screen, usually with emotions expressed in the character, or a conflict, that our audience can empathize with. So I hope I get it now, and I think I do. Empathy is the key, like you say in your class.

"Your note about "inner monologue" is interesting, Brendan, and I'm glad you mentioned it. I don't think I have ever addressed the inner monologue specifically, and I probably should. Bay Raitt recently told me that when he was working on Gollum's facial animation, the animators divided the page of the script into two halves. On the right hand side was the dialogue spoken by Gollum. And on the left side was Gollum's thoughts. As I recall, he said they tried to animate those thoughts. Many times I have heard good animators say that they "animate the thought".

It seems to me that animating the thought is a good idea, just as long as you keep in mind the formula "action pursuing objective while overcoming obstacle". Indeed -- as was the case with Gollum -- what the character is saying does not make clear what his true objective might be. People -- including animated ones -- tell lies. Or half-truths. A man meets a woman and compliments her on her dress when his true objective is to get that dress off of her. If you were looking for objective in the line: "That is a very pretty dress", you would not get necessarily close to the truth. The guy might be a dress designer by trade. Or he might be gay. The possibilities are limitless. The key is to know your character intimately enough so that you, the animator, know his true objectives -- even if nobody else does." Ed Hooks

Ed's repsonce was just brillent.

Note for today.

just don't say something with your pose choices. SAY IT!