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The script called for Toad to listen to approaching cars or to snif wine, being the epicure he
was, but without ears or a nose as such we had to i nd dif erent body language to express this,
and inevitably the eyes helped. He could 'listen' with his eyes and his eyes could show whether
the wine was good or not. It is often interesting to i nd a less literal way of expressing things.
I much enjoyed the l icker of focus from one eye to the other between the characters in The
Corpse Bride . With most puppets just having a tiny pinprick of colour, the eyes could have
been dead (even for a dead character this is not helpful), but this l ickering helped to suggest
something going on in the characters' heads, with real connection and responses going on
between the characters. It extended the range of emotions possible: it was clear when a
character was agitated or was threatening or challenging. With any clever trick like this, you
also make a comment when the characters do not do it. This was a lovely detail and one that
would have been impossible for characters with non-moving eyes.
I i nd it hard working with characters that only have a black dot as an eye. It limits the
expression, and forces you into a simpler acting style. Toad was capable of looking at
something while his head was pretending not to, literally out of the corner of his eye. To get the
characters with painted eyes to look somewhere, you have to turn the whole head. You cannot
do anything subtle or with subtext. It is hard for a character to avert his gaze in embarrassment,
for example. To do this you would have to turn the whole head, and that reads as a totally
dif erent gesture. Invariably, this painted dot is black, which is probably the most unnatural
colour to paint an eye, but somehow how its very graphic nature, like a dot in a pen drawing,
works. I tried once to give these black shapes a tiny white highlight, but rather than bring
the eyes to life, it had the ef ect of making the eyes look i xed in a particular direction. The
white unmoving dot clashed with the natural moving highlights caused by the studio lights.
When lighting a puppet, especially in telling close-up, it is always worth trying to get a natural
highlight in the eyes from the lights. As portrait painters know, the smallest of highlights makes
the dif erence between a painting being dead and being alive.
Blinking
Blinking is another huge means of expression. Outside the biological need, blinking is a great
form of punctuation. You can use blinking as a comma, to pass through linked thoughts and
ideas, or use it in a more pronounced way as a full stop, to suggest the end of a gesture or idea.
An emphasised blink is a great way of letting the other character know that you have i nished,
and that it is their turn to respond. The passive partner of a conversation can respond with
casual and regular blinks, showing that they are still paying attention. It is important to focus
the shot so that the viewer knows exactly who is important and who is listening, for schedules
may prevent detailed animation of secondary characters. This can sometimes leave the
listening characters a little static, wary of causing any distractions. I would never leave a puppet
frozen for too long without blinking them, just to indicate that they are still paying attention.
Many languages have a vocal equivalent. The Japanese have a very strong 'hi'
that accompanies the other speaker at regular intervals. The British nod a lot and
say 'yes. I would suggest with animation that we can do this more ef ectively
with blinking. Sadly, I have seen instances where the animator has focused all his
attention on the main puppet, and just had the others in a strong pose listening.
Forgetting the others, the animator suddenly remembered to move them, by
overcompensating and blinking all at the same time. Not a good idea.
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