Pantomime Animation Demo Reel

Above is a collection of some of the best pantomime animation shots completed by students at Animation Apprentice.  Pantomime animation is the art of performance without dialogue, in the tradition of the old silent movie stars such as Chaplin or Keaton - or a modern incarnation such as Mr Bean. Good pantomime animation communicates to the audience what the character is thinking and feeling - without dialogue. 

Planning the "Phone Booth Man" Pantomime Shot

 

Animators need to tell a story without words, to create "pantomime" animation. The art of pantomime is that the audience should understand the story being told without words.   In the example above, by Joshua Reynolds, Joshua tackles the "Phone Booth" exercise, in which the animator must tell the story of a phone call silently, just using body language and expressions, communicating to the audience what the character is thinking and feeling. Start by thinking about the story you want to tell. Then, act it out, draw some thumbnail sketches, and pose out the shot. Make sure the character poses tell the story clearly. 

Pantomime Animation with Joshua Reynolds

 

One of the key skills every animator needs to learn is how to tell a story without words, to create "pantomime" animation. The art of pantomime is that, like mime, the audience should understand completely the story being told - without words.   In the example above, by Animation Apprentice student Joshua Reynolds, Joshua tackles the "Phone Booth" exercise, in which the animator must tell the story of a phone call silently, just using body language and expressions, communicating to the audience what the character is thinking and feeling.

Meet Thep - New Free Mummy Maya Rig

Meet Thep!

We're liking this cartoon mummy rig named Thep; he's fun and cartoony and you can get a great performance out of him. You can find him here for free download at the Squiggly Rigs official site.

Thep is the first character made with the Squiggly rig system.  Built to allow plenty of flexibility and exaggeration, Thep comes "equipped with some cool features to allow him to act as cartoony as possible without losing appeal".

Thep is a good choice for students starting on acting and lipsync; he works well with a cartoony voice, such as one from the Sesame Street wav archive.

Consider Thep for acting and pantomime shots, or for short dialogue scenes; he has good facial expressions and a wide variety of mouth shapes.

Weight Lift Animation by Joris Van Laar

Check out this excellent piece of work by Animation Apprentice student Joris Van Laar, who has taken the familiar theme of a character lifting a heavy weight and turned it into an excellent and entertaining piece of character animation. As ever, here at Animation Apprentice we encourage all our students to think of themselves as actors giving a performance. It's not enough to learn the mechanics of animation - we also have to make our work entertaining and fun to watch. Many congratulations to Joris on some excellent pantomime animation.

Morpheus Bros by Lee Caller

Above is some excellent pantomime animation by Animation Apprentice student Lee Caller. You can check out his other videos at website here - almost all of his work has a strong storytelling element as well as great technical qualities - the perfect ingredients for a great animation performance. Lee has been teaching classes at Escape Studios lately, introducing animation students to the art and craft of character animation.

London Mime Festival - 9 January to 4 February

The London Mime Festival is about to launch its 40th anniversary season in our home city.  Artists include acrobat-genius Mathurin Bolze (Cie MPTA), Charleroi Danses’ Kiss & Cry and Mossoux Bonté, German Mask-theatre experts Familie Flöz, and Gandini Juggling with a hugely expanded version of its glorious Pina Bausch tribute, Smashed.

But why watch mime? Because mime is the basis of great animation. If you can tell a story without words or dialogue, then you have the makings of great animation. Our student animators have to master the art of body language and facial expressions long before they learn lipsync and dialogue.

Awesome Animation by Joris Van Laar

We're enjoying this beautiful pantomime animation of a pro wrestler celebrating his victory by Animation Apprentice student Joris Van Laar.  Boris used the Norman rig (a very adaptable and dependable rig) for this shot, and used as his reference and inspiration the superb animation of "Spanish Buzz" by Pixar's Carlos Baena, on Toy Story 3.  Using other animator's work as a reference for your own shot is a great way to learn the art and craft of animation. Study the work of masters, and you can't help but get better yourself.

Why Should Animators Watch Charlie Chaplin movies?

The Little Tramp. Photo: Wikipedia

Why should animators watch Charlie Chaplin films? Nancy Beiman, former supervising animator at Disney Feature Animation and now one of the key professors at Sheridan College in Toronto, thinks she has the answer.

It's because animators are, in the end, pantomime artists, and Chaplin was the greatest pantomimer of them all. At the 2014 SAS (Society of Animation Studies) conference in Toronto, Nancy explained how animation and silent film comedy developed together, inspiring one another to perfect the art of physical comedy.