Acting for Animators Starts 18 February 2019

Sarah Perry of Shapes in Motion returns to Escape Studios to teach an 8 week evening class "Acting for Animators", starting on Monday 18th February 2019

Sarah is the "go-to" person to teach acting skills to animators, and we're delighted to be able to host her class at Escape Studios.

What's this course all about?
Acting skills, for animators.  The course runs from 7-10pm once a week on a monday night, and is designed to fit around jobs and families, running for 8 weeks until Monday 18th November.  The class is a practical, physical workshop in acting skills, aimed specifically at helping animators to  create more believable, authentic acting choices in their work.

Sarah Perry

What is Shapes in Motion?
Shapes In Motion is an acting school run by classically-trained actor Sarah Perry, offering acting and movement classes specially tailored for animators.

Why should animators learn acting?
Because animators are storytellers. We act with a pencil or a mouse - not with our bodies - but what we do is still acting, and it needs to be done well. Bad acting looks just as bad in animation as it does in a live action performance.

Video reference
Many animators shoot video of themselves acting out a line of dialogue, or a bit of pantomime acting, as reference for our animation. If our acting isn't up to scratch, then the animation performance is unlikely to be any better.

Sarah Perry (bottom right) with students at Escape Studios

What do the classes involve?
Students get introduced to the fundamentals of Laban Movement Analysis, which is to say "the analysis of character in terms of body, effort, space and shape" which can be used for both human and creature animation.

Animators learn to observe and analyse a range of physical qualities, so as to develop character, and understand character "from the outside in".

Sarah helps animators to look at character types, but also to understand subtle gesture performance choices too. The class is a combination of theory, practice, games/exercises, play and group work.

Official site
Visit the Shapes in Motion website at http://www.shapesinmotion.com/ to see more about their work and what they do. To sign up for the course, follow this link.

Start Date: 18 February 2019
Course Duration/Format: 8 weeks, 1 evening per week (Mondays)

Price (inc VAT): £495

Content

• Introduction to Stanislavski and "The Method"; what drives the action, subtext, script analysis, character development...
• Introduction to Laban; Kinesphere, movement analysis - what are we actually observing when someone walks, sits, etc
• Use of Efforts in gestures/movements - exploring physically the various efforts of; space, weight and time
• Facial expressions & mouth movements
• Expression of emotions
• The relationship between voice and movement
• Lots of acting games/exercises to aid storytelling
• Creating a believable/truthful character performance
• Observation exercises.
• Creature/Animal movement analysis/characterisation

Student feedback
Sarah gets great reviews from our animation students, for most of whom their only criticism is "give us more". This evening class is a chance for animators to dig deeper into the acting skillset and find ways for animators to become better actors - and therefore better animators.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our new BA/MArt starting in September 2019, follow this link.