After listening to the podcast (see Previous post), I decided to take some notes:
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There is a difference between funny and silly. Silly is when someone is trying to be funny (like a kid). Funny on the other hand is real, unexpected, personal, intimate, revealing etc.
Sometimes silly can be funny. Those actions don’t necessarily have to make sense. (Usually, that kind of comedy is used to strike a cord)
When animating comedy it is really important to stay in-character. Even when they are doing something silly, it has to be something that specific character would do. That also applies to all physical humor such as falls. You have to believe that it actually happened. Comedy does not work when faked. Even when the character is doing something silly, it has to be 100% that character trying to be funny. If the character is not 100% there, it can ruin the joke or suck all the comedy in it.
When it comes to animating something that was already funny in the boards, it is a great idea to pay attention to the timing of the board. (That is when a change of pose happens). Most of time, when a board is funny, it has to be with the timing of it.
It is also important to analyze the action and try to understand where the meat of the joke is. In other words, what makes it funny in order to be able to make sure that the comedy is still there once animated. That understanding is also useful when it comes to push the joke even more.
A lot of the times, comedy is based on contrast or encounter of ideas. When your brain tries to put those ideas together it provokes a laugh.
A lot of the comedy is based on hold on a pose/idea for some time before moving on to something else. Stand up comedians tend to do that a lot. That time is given so the audience have time to absorb the comedy. The more movement that you have in the animation around that point in time, the more that is sucks the comedy out of it. Having comedy and a lot of movement is really challenging.
Sometimes comedy is all about breaking the timing so it’s different from what the audience would expect. When done in the right moment, it can be really funny. Again, it is important to stay in-character or the joke will fall flat.
It is important to remember that collaboration can always plus a scene. When dealing with comedy, same thing applies so stay open to what other people have to say about your shots.
You should be able to relate to the character that you are animating at all times. That also applies to comedy shots.
When blocking out your shot, you can get it working with just a few poses (doing something similar to the boards). At that stage, you could already get a laugh. It is a great idea, though, to add some more information before showing it in dailies so your idea is clear and the director and fellow animators know what it is exactly that you want to do.
When dealing with a non-dialogue shot, it can be useful to stand up and act the shot out a few times trying to get it right. Also, it can be useful to write an inner dialogue about what the character is thinking and make sure that the animation reflects that.
In case that you get to see the footage from the voice actors, you can use it to study eye darts as well as mouth shapes but it is really important to remember who that character is when it comes to animate the character. The same thing applies when using your own video reference.
Remember that when actors are delivering a line for an animated feature, they are not doing the same performance that they would do when acting out the shot. They are focused on delivering that line.
Inspiration comes from anywhere (TV, stand up comedians, etc). It is a great idea to keep the volume really low and see how things work visually. A lot of the comedy will come across just visually so it is important to understand why something works or it does not work.
When animating a shot, it is always better to go too far than not far enough. You can always pull back thing if they are too big.
