Animation Tips & Tricks: Blinks AnimationMentor

作者：翻译：Luonaldo

Animation Tips & Tricks: Blinks AnimationMentor系列动画技巧与窍门之五：眨眼

2007-09-19 00:25

Animation Tips & Tricks: Blinks
   By: Shawn Kelly        05Nov

翻译：Luonaldo
日期；2007/09/18

Hello there!
嗨，各位好。

本月我的新闻角将会涉及一些比之前更有趣的，而且当然也更高级的话题。这回不再就一个话题喋喋不休数月了，而是要每个月讲一个“动画小提示”。希望会很有趣！

My little corner of the newsletter is evolving this month into something that will be more fun, and certainly more advanced than it has been so far. Instead of blathering on endlessly for months on end about a particular topic, we'll hit one "animation tip" per month.Hopefully it'll be fun!

有些提示可能会比较随机提到，有些不会。基本上，你要看赶上我写文章的那天突发奇想要说什么。嘿，听着，如果你不喜欢这样，那就去开一个你自己的新闻快讯，写你自己想写的任何东西！：）

Some of the tips will be kind of random, and some of them won't. Basically, you'll have to put up with whatever I happen to feel like writing about that day... Hey! Listen - if you don't like it, start your own newsletter and write about whatever YOU want to write about! :)

So without further ado, here's my first animation tip!
好，闲话少说，开始我的第一个动画小提示！

Oh, and if you've been reading the newsletters, you should already know that it goes without saying that my *REAL* first animation tip would be "Planning Is Essential!", but since I think I've beaten the "planning" topic deep into the ground already, (and buried it under a giant pile of mud, and then jumped up and down on the mud for good measure) I'll just assume we all already know that one and move on! Okay, sorry - I keep getting distracted... So the first tip?

哦，如果你读过之前的新闻，你应该已经知道，我真正的第一篇动画小提示是“做计划是必需的！”，但是既然我觉得关于“做计划”这个主题我们已经挖掘的够深了，我就假定大家都知道了，那么就继续。OK，对不起 -- 我老跑题。。。那么第一个提示是？

提示1：眨眼有含义！

Tip 1: Blinks Have Meaning!

I feel like writing about blinks today. Why? I just saw a commercial on TV (name of product withheld to protect the innocent) starring a character who had a severe blinking problem.

我觉得今天要写些关于眨眼。为什么？我刚刚在电视上看到一个商业广告（产品名字此处不提及）一个名角色有严重的眨眼问题。

现在，我不是说那个角色眨眼过多。我不是说他眨眼太快。我不是说他眨眼偏移太多，太慢，太少。

Now, I don't mean the character blinked too much. I don't mean he blinked too fast. I don't mean the character's blinks were too far offset, too slow, or too few.

 

不，这个角色正在受疾病折磨，病情随着动画的进行越发严重。（尤其是学生作品，虽然不是Animation Mentor的学生，当然不是。他们做的每个方面都非常完美而奇妙。。。好的，OK，不是真的，但是我在本校中没看到这作为一个问题出现。可能因为我们一直就这个问题喋喋不休吧）。我说到哪了？哦，耶，关于病痛。。。让我们称之为“随机眨眼症”。
No, this character was plagued by a disease that has been running rampant through animation (particularly student work, though not AnimationMentor students, of course. Everything they do is perfect and wonderful in every conceivable way... Well, okay, that's not exactly true, but I haven't actually seen it as a problem in the school. Probably because we harp on stuff like this ad nauseum). Where was I? Oh yeah, the disease... Let's call it "Randomblinkitis."

 

这世界上许多生活在demo里的动画角色都在饱受此病折磨，使他们的眨眼看起来随机而无意义。然而有些角色通过他们的眨眼来传达思维过程和情感，这些可怜的随机眨眼症的患者被迫每天与这存在的残障做斗争，而不能彼此无碍的交流情感和思想。更不用说全球的雇主了。
Many animated characters currently living out their lives on demo reels around the world suffer from this terrible disease, causing their blinks to feel random and meaningless. While some characters use their blinks to convey thought process and emotion, these poor Randomblinkitis victims are forced to slog through their daily existence unable to properly communicate their emotions and thoughts to each other, let alone to recruiters around the globe.

 

他们过着艰苦的生活，伙计们，所以让我们做点什么吧！

It's a tough life for them, folks, so let's do something about it!

 

看，治疗这让人心碎的疾病的良方就是观察。做起来很容易，而且对于你的动画角色而言也意义重大（还有被迫试着和你的角色交流的雇主！）如果你能稍微花一点时间去观察你的朋友，家人，同事，你最喜欢的明星，还有你自己，然后你再开始在你的表演场景中耕作。

See, the medicine for this heartbreaking disease is Observation. It's easy to do, and it'll mean so much to your animated characters (and to the recruiters forced to have to try to communicate with your characters!) if you can just take a little time to observe the blinks of your friends, your family, your co-workers, your favorite movie star, and yourself before you start plowing ahead into acting scenes.

 

听好，我知道有的人想，“一个月前我刚刚接触动画，现在必须马上要做一个表演的场景！”我知道你们都想做表演的场景，我知道你们都觉得那最有趣。我知道你们认为那是你们进入Pixar的门票。而且我也知道，对你们一些人而言，这世上所有的“老老实实的，花六个月时间进行基本的人体力学和力量感的练习会让你的表演大大强于跳过这些基础直接做表演”这样的建议并不能阻止你们玩一些表演的镜头。。。

所以，如果你坚决要做一些表演的镜头的话，（或者，更好的可能，你已经学到足够高端可以正确的去做表演镜头了），那么请你，给你的角色的眼睛多一些关注。我们总听人们说“90%的表演在于眼睛”或者意思差不多的话。嗐，我们自己有些人也说过。而且实际上我认为那是正确的，并且是一个很好的建议（除非你不把身体一起算进来参与表演，那所有的面部表演就不会发挥它的作用），但是当你听到“90%的表演在于眼睛”那句话的时候，我知道大多数人会立刻跳到“眼睛的快速一瞥”和“视线引导”等等，完全跳过你所拥有的最重要的表演工具之一 ——   眨眼。

Listen, I know about the whole "I just discovered animation a month ago and must do an acting scene IMMEDIATELY!" thing. I know you all want to do acting scenes. I know you think they're the most fun. I know you think they're your ticket into Pixar. And I also know that for some of you, all the "honestly, spending 6 months practicing basic body mechanics and force will give you far stronger acting scenes than you'll ever be able to do without that foundation" advice in the world isn't going to keep you away from playing with some acting shots... So, if you absolutely must do some acting shots (or, better yet, are advanced enough to do acting shots properly), then please, give some attention to the eyes of your character. We've probably all heard people say "90% of acting is in the eyes" or something to that effect. Shoot, some of us have said that ourselves. And I actually think that's true, and is great advice (aside from the fact that if you don't sell the acting with the body first, all the facial stuff in the world isn't going to save your scene), but when you hear that "90% of the acting is in the eyes," I know most people immediately jump to "eye darts" and "eye direction," etc., completely skipping over one of the most essential acting tools you have - the blink.

 

当我求学时，别人告诉我说“动画角色应该总是每两秒眨眼一次”。

嗯，这是我听过的最糟糕的建议之一。除了当我最近去新加坡旅行时，人们告诉我说“大鱼的眼球很好吃，”那些建议，但是就动画方面来说，我觉得“每两秒眨一次眼”可能是最糟糕的了。事实上，这两条建议都一样是真的（或者要么，同样完全彻底是假的！）
When I was in school, I was told that "animated characters should always blink every two seconds."

Well, that's just about the worst advice I ever got, other than some advice I recently was given during a trip to Singapore, which was "giant fish eyeballs taste really GREAT," but animation-wise, I think the "blink every two seconds" is probably the worst. Actually, both of those pieces of advice are equally true (or rather, equally completely-and-utterly-untrue!).

 

环视四周，你看见谁是每两秒眨眼一次的？（如果你发现了，请报告给你们政府，因为他们极有可能是从火星等地潜入的间谍。）人们可不是按照既定的时间表眨眼的，就像巨大的鱼眼肯定不好吃一样（如果听众的你也许认为鱼眼确实好吃，可能因为你具有某些我在那家餐馆遇到的新加坡人具有的那种钢筋铁骨般的超级味觉，——实在是令我羡慕不已，甚至超嫉妒的，但是话说回来，尽管可以喜欢你的鱼眼大餐，关于眨眼请尽管相信我，OK？）
Look around. Do you see anyone who is blinking every 2 seconds?! (If you do, please report them to your government, because chances are they are some kind of android spy from Mars or something.) People don't blink on any kind of set time schedule anymore than giant fish eyeballs taste "great" (and for all of you out there who maybe think fish eyeballs DO taste great, probably because you have some kind of steel-reinforced taste buds like the Singaporeans I was with at that restaurant -- which I do admire and am completely jealous of, by the way-- then that's fine to like your giant eyeballs, but just trust me on the blink thing anyway, okay?)

 

人们眨眼是有原因的。

眨眼可远不止是对任何类型的物理干眼症状的反应那么简单。
眨眼是营造许多情感表达的关键。重温那些你最喜欢的电影，研习优秀演员 眼睛。
他们何时眨眼？
为何眨？
这眨眼看起来好像怎样？
给你什么样的感觉？

眨眼的次数能以极富戏剧性的方式影响到情感。快速的眨眼能让一个角色感觉害羞，紧张，不舒服，或他们马上就要哭出来。根

本不眨眼则感觉气愤，震惊，死的，或者超级激动。

People blink for a reason.

Blinks are so much more than any kind of physical dry-eye response.
Blinks are the key to selling many emotions. Fire up some of your favorite films and study the eyes of good

actors.
When do they blink?
Why?
What does it feel like?
How does it make you feel?

Right off the bat, the number of blinks can affect emotion in dramatic ways. Rapid blinks can make a character

feel shy, nervous, uncomfortable, relieved, or like they are about to cry. Not blinking at all can feel angry,

stoned, dead, or super intense.

 

看看Tom Hanks在阿甘正传里的表演，当他第一次遇见自己的儿子时。他一意识到那是他的儿子，眨眼就完全停止了。

Tom Hanks憋着不眨眼来传递信息，他的角色是如此的激动于他所意识到的事情。然后一个眨眼，并且嘣 ——他到了他的下一个情感，内疚。他感觉愧疚。他不应该一直在那里抚养大他的儿子吗？他做了什么错事？现在眨眼开始变得快速和狂乱了，表现出他内心的不适，他的焦虑。然后一个念头闪入他的脑海：“他是否驽钝，像我一样？”他没有马上就说出来，但是你可以在那个时刻感觉的到他情感的交错，因为突然间他的眨眼又停止了，他又回到先前的强烈，而且最终他鼓足勇气去问詹妮他的大问题：“他聪明吗？还是。。。？”瞪大的眼睛，锁定，几乎不敢听到答案。“他是班上最聪明的。”然后眨眼又回来了，表现出他的解脱。

Check out Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump when he's meeting his son for the first time. As soon as he realizes it's his son, he stops blinking completely. He's transfixed. Tom Hanks holds back his blinks to communicate the idea that his character is THAT intense about what he's realizing. Then a blink, and boom - he's on to his next emotion, which is guilt. He feels guilty. Shouldn't he have been there to raise his son? Did he do something wrong? The blinks are coming fast and furious now, to indicate his discomfort, his worry. Then a thought occurs

to him: "is he slow, like me?" He doesn't say it right away, but you can feel the exact moment that crosses his mind, because suddenly his blinks stop again, and he's back to that intensity, and finally he works up the courage to ask Jenny his big question: "is he smart, or is he...?" Huge eyes, locked on, almost afraid to hear the answer. "He's the smartest in his class." And the blinks are fired back up again, which communicates his relief.

 

那整个场景都有很有趣的眼睛表演。他甚至问“我能过去看看他吗？”仅仅通过眼神来表达！是的，他的头也动了，但是90%是在眼睛，你完全知道他要说什么。他传递一条信息线，甚至没有张嘴。而且看起来非常真实。对我来说，那是出色的一场戏，而且是我们都应该汲取灵感为自己所用的东西。

所以你的关于眨眼的第一组问题应该是：“当前我的角色的情绪状态是怎样的？他们在对什么做出反应？那让他们感觉怎样？”

然后你的第二组大问题，也同样重要（如果不是更重要的话），应该是：“好的，当我感觉那样的时候，我该怎样眨眼呢？当我的朋友们身处那样境地时他们会怎样眨眼呢？那天我看到的我最喜欢的演员在那场有趣的戏中是怎样眨眼的呢？”

That whole scene is amazing for eye stuff. He even asks "can I go see him?" using only his eyes! Sure, his head moves barely as well, but it's 90% just his eyes, and you totally know exactly what he's saying. He delivers a line without ever opening his mouth. And it feels so real. To me, that's a great scene, and something we should all aspire to in our work.

So your first set of big blink questions is this: "what's my character's emotional state right now? What are they reacting to? How is that making them feel?" And your second set of questions, just as important (if not more so) is this: "well, how do I blink when I feel that way? How do my friends blink when they're in that situation? How did my favorite actor blink in that amazing scene I saw the other day?"

 

弄清除你的角色的情绪状态，以你能办到的尽可能接近真实的形式去观察那种情绪状态，然后研究明白那些眼皮的运动。最好，一遍遍的表演出来那场景，知道你完全不再去想真实的对话是怎样的了。这时候你的心中所想，就是你自己最真实的感受，以及

潜台词。然后拍摄下来，进行研究！
Figure out the emotional state of your character, go observe that emotional state in as true a form as you possible can, and then study the heck out of those eyelids. Better yet, act the scene out over and over and over until you aren't thinking at all about what the actual dialogue lines are anymore, and all you're thinking about is the emotion you are truly making yourself feel, and the context/subtext of the scene, and videotape it, and study it!

 

OK，所以说眨眼频率（次数的多少）本身有着诸多意义，但是这些眨眼发生的间隔将是怎样的呢？那也许是有些随机的吧，是不？

Okay, so blink frequency (how many) have piles of meaning all on their own, but what about the spacing of when those blinks happen? That's probably kind of random, right?

 

No way!

绝对不是！

一个通用规律的第一条就是：绝对不要没有原因的移动任何东西。绝对不要动角色的任何东西，除非你准确的知道为什么你要移动它。所以如果有人曾经告诉你去随机的动画什么东西的话，除非那是最细小轻微的“添加一点点‘脏’到这个运动里使其看起来不那么顺滑”类型的运动，否则你也许应该说，“没门儿！”除非他是你的动画导演。那样的话你可能不应该说，“没门儿。”那也许真的是个坏主意。反之你倒是应该说“马上就好，没问题！”而当时你可能默念着，“天啊，我希望我的动画导演去参加一些AnimationMentor的课程。。。”

A good general rule of thumb is to never animate anything without a reason. Never move ANYTHING on a character unless you know exactly why you're moving it. So if anyone ever tells you to animate something randomly, unless it's the tiniest subtle "add a little 'dirt' to this movement so it feels a little less smooth" type of thing, then you should probably say, "No way!" Unless he's your animation director. Then you probably shouldn't say,

"No way." That might be a really bad idea. You should instead say "Right away, no problem!" while you silently think "man, I wish my animation director would take some AnimationMentor classes..." Where was I? Oh yeah - nothing is random. Well, neither are blinks.

 

我说到哪儿了？哦，对了 —— 没有什么是真正随机的。当然，眨眼也不例外。

眨眼最重要的作用是展示思维过程。我们确实有时只是为了湿润眼球而眨眼，而且我们也在快速的头部转动时眨眼，我们还在大幅度的视线方向变化时眨眼，还有那些其他的“眨眼定律”，但是以我之见，最重要的时候还是当我们思维过程有了一个变化的时候。当我们有了一个主意，或者当我们从一种情绪切换到另一种的时候，再或者我们意识到什么的时候。那些都是眨眼的金矿 —— 可供眨眼的完美位置，这样放置的眨眼会将一个仅仅是“还好”的场景提升到“杰出的”水平。

有一本不错的书叫做《In the Blink of An Eye》，是Walter Murch写的。他是一个有趣的电影剪辑师，书中的一部分说到他的理论，说我们眨眼是为了编辑我们日常生活中的电影。我们整天眨眼就是在切镜头，从一个场景切到下一个再到下一个。而且他在他的电影剪辑中应用他的理论。他寻找主角眨眼的地方，然后经常在那里作为他的切镜头处，认为在那个地方切镜可能是对观众而言感觉最自然的地方了。
The most important use of a blink is to show thought process. We do blink sometimes just to wet our eyes, and we blink on a rapid head turn, we blink on a major change in eye direction, and all those other "blink rules," but in my opinion the most important time is when we have a change in our thought process. When we're having an idea, or when we're switching from one emotion to another, or when we're realizing something. Those are the gold-mines in terms of blinks - that's when a perfectly placed blink will take a scene from being merely "good"

and make it "great."

There's a great book called "In the Blink of An Eye," by Walter Murch, who is an amazing film editor, and a part of that book is about his theory that we blink to edit the film of our lives. We blink throughout the day to cut from one scene to the next to the next to the next. And he uses that theory in his film editing. He looks for when the main character blinks, and often uses that as his cutting point, figuring that it's probably the most natural-feeling place to cut for the audience.

 

作为动画师，我们大可以把他的理论抢过来在我们的工作和表演中采用。我们可以研究他注意到的相同的现象，而且我们也会发现完全相同的结果 —— 当人们的大脑从一件事情切换到另一件事情时人们会眨眼，不管是因为情感还是思维。

As animators, we can hijack his theory and apply it to our own work and our acting. We can study the same phenomenon that he noticed, and we will all find the same exact result - people blink when their brain shifts from one thing to another, whether it's an emotion or a thought.

 

哇呜，文章最终大概写了我预想的5倍长。
对不起，讲到这个话题我太激动，可以永远讲下去！在将来我会试着短一些。。。（我好像一直都是这么说的，是吗？）
Wow. That ended up about 5 times longer than I thought it would.
Sorry, I get all excited about this stuff and can talk about it forever! I'll try to be shorter in the future...
(I keep saying that, don't I?)

 

让我们看看，总结一下：

眨眼有含义！
跳过扎实的基本功的训练去投入表演，相当于更快的朝脚上开枪。
绝不要没有原因的移动任何物体。
不要对你的动画总监说“不行！”。
我们通过眨眼来剪辑“生活中的电影”。

那是最重要的5条提示。我最好言简意赅要不这将会变成一个生活小专栏了。

希望你找到对自己有用的东西，我们下次再见！

Let's see, to recap:
Blinks Have Meaning!
Skipping a strong foundation in the basics in order to get to acting scenes quicker shoots yourself in the foot.
Never animate anything without a reason.
Don't say "No way!" to an Animation Director.
We blink to cut the "film of our life."
That's 5 tips for the price of one. I better start being stingier or this'll be a short-lived column!

Hope you found it helpful. See you next time!

 

文章出处的网址。http://hi.baidu.com/victoranimator/blog