Acting for animator is a book that have all the information about acting that we need as an animator to create reliable characters which could be emotionally attached to audience. Hooks talks about the seven essential acting concepts which are the facts about acting and both animating. He kept reminding readers about the different between actors and animators where the focus point on a scene could be very different. For example actors do not focus too much on the movement or the action, they could interact with audience and directly gain feedback from them whereas animators need to focus on how the movement is animated since is could affect the appearance of the character and might lead to a different result. For instance, animating force/ volume and anticipation etc.
There are quite a lot of important information that as an animator should know and which I found it extremely helpful on the thinking process when constructing a scene or the character itself.
The Seven Essential Acting concepts are like the philosophy of acting
1. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions:emotions tends to lead to action.
'For animators, it is useful to draw a distinction between thinking and emotion because emotion is what tends to lead to character action . it is best to start by asking what the character is thinking and what his value system is' (p.2)
The thinking of the character is given by the animators and this is why it is best to give the character a background story before creating it. The thinking of the character should be suitable for his characteristic e.g. a fat person who would be likely to think of food and tend to love sweet and which come to the conclusion that he would be very likely to order desserts in the restaurant. Thinking would not lead to action directly because it is essential for the brain to come up with an result than the body can act after it. Emotion is followed by conclusion since it is part of the conclusion. This is probably why the saying of doing something depends on the mood.
It is vital for a good body language of a character. Before, I was not fully concern about the background story of my character and that is why they are not as convincing as the other characters. A good body language should involve thinking, conclusion and emotion. 'An action without a thought is impossible, and an action without an objective is just a mechanical thing, moving body parts.'(p.5) In fact, a movement without thought would not contribute to the story, for example blinking or walking.
An example would like the song 'What's this?'in the Nightmare before Christmas. Inside the song, Jack arrived at the Christmas village and where the elves are dancing and doing what they do normally. Because it is a song so Jack is not just acting alongside the lyrics but also showing his excitement through the dramatic gesture, looking around to show curiosity. The elves are not acting for Jack since they have no interaction. The song is a scene begin in the middle of the event (which is talked about in the book). Therefore they are doing it for a reason and which is very important to the story that no excessive information is included. The story should be clean and clever.
A practical I can think of would be a test on creating a few characters with background story. Act them out on paper to see what difference are there. Some animation/films studies as well. I think any video would be worth studying because body language is everywhere especially the classic Disney.
There are a few more important concepts like
2.Acting is reacting. Acting is doing
3.Your character needs to have an objective
4.Your character should play an action until something happens to make him play a different action.(both internal and external)
5.All action begins with movement
6.Empathy is the magic key. Audience empathise with emotion
(empathy is as essential to dynamic acting as oxygen to water.)
7.A scene is negotiation; conflict with himself, with other character, or with the situation
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