Barbara Geary on Acting for Animation

Posted on: Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
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A graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Barbara has performed, created and directed numerous theatre works and films. Barbara has had a varied performance career, careening through Mud Shows, mask performances, indie films and Shakespeare. Her directing credits include the acclaimed contemporary commedias Love Potion # Mine and 3 Dottories 3. She has extensive experience as a mask maker and visual artist, exhibiting her ceramic sculpture around the country.

In 2000, she developed the graduate course Physical Expression For Animators at the Rochester Institute of Technology and has brought that work to animators around the country.

How did you come up with the concept of acting for animation?

In the spring of 1998 I was asked to devise a course in non-verbal communication designed to broaden the creative vocabulary of Graduate Students in Animation at the Rochester Institute of Technology. At the time, I had decades of experience and training as a physical actor behind me and some experience in working for animators doing registration and film editing so I set about to distill the elements of my training and experience that would be useful for an animator.

Does acting help improve a character animators skills?

A common belief about acting is that it’s simply about becoming someone else and for the most part, that’s what’s apparent to the audience. But that process requires an understanding of the way we inhabit our bodies. Without it, we can’t play with and mold our physicality in a way that translates as a believable transformation into the “other”. And a character without a real physicality is just a talking head.

Any specifics?

Breath, gait, gaze, status. We take these things for granted in ourselves, but if we can isolate their specific qualities, understand and work with them in a variety of combinations, we are building a great foundation on which to create a character that is alive as a real individual for the audience.

- Breath pattern is a great indicator of a personal rhythm and emotional state.

- Gait or how a character walks can express a tremendous amount about a characters’ physical state and what they do as an occupation.

- Gaze brings us into the character’s thought process and inner life.

- Status as it is expressed physically, gives us an almost unconscious understanding of a character’s place in their immediate social circle and in the wider world.

You get into other aspects as well?

Yes. When you begin to mix variations in rhythm, pace, levels, and movement qualities with these basic elements you’ve established, it’s possible to explore and embody a full range of physical possibilities for your character.

Not all of them will be useful in a given project, but your underlying understanding will bring depth to your creation. An understanding of these elements are useful to animators as they develop a character just as they are to the actor creating a character in performance. If you can inhabit the physical aspects of the characters you create, to get inside their skins, it is so much easier to translate that into your animation because you know what it feels like for them to move in this or that way, to twist like that, how their breath changes when they’re scared or embarrassed or in love.

It’s a great way to improve you observation skills

Definitely. You will also find yourself much sharper in your observations of living things. Tapping into your instinctive understanding of what to look for, you’ll find all the inspiration you need for character in the nearest coffee shop or a walk down the street.

Add these skills to your toolbox and you’ll find yourself going back to them again and again.

speaking at motion09
Barbara Geary will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

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author: Elaine Montoya
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