SharifulIslam - Lier Acting

-http://vimeo.com/26391853
-Shariful Islam
-Lier Acting

review:

Hi Sharif, thanks for the post! Well done for participating in the 11 second club, I think it's a good way to learn as the looming deadline is a great motivator. I like the setup of your shot, it's a nice and clear idea. Here are a few pointers to help you push it further.

-Eyes - I think generally the eye directions are working well (though his eyeline feels wrong from frame 260 if he is meant to be looking at the cop, maybe make him look a bit further screen left), the main problem is that it's hard to read his emotion.

Try and get some asymmetry into the brows, at the moment they are mirror images of each other most of the time. Try and push the shapes into stronger poses. When he says "I've done a lot of lying in my time", we as the audience should be able to see him remembering those lies, and we read that in his eyes and brows. Try raising his screen right brow higher than the left at frame 66, even push the screen left one lower down a bit and see what happens. This should produce a more interesting expression - one that shows his internal thoughts more clearly. You could also rotate his head further screen right at this point.

-This is a great tutorial from Victor Navone on facial takes which will help: http://www.navone.org/HTML/Tutorial_DashTake.htm

-Lip Sync - Make sure you hit the closed mouth shapes. For example the lip sync for "I'm a pretty good liar" doesn't read. If it helps film yourself saying the line and analyse it.

-Gesturing - Be careful with your arm gestures - remember your character doesn't have to wave his hands for every line. Try removing the arms gestures for the "I'm a pretty good liar" line, instead he could maybe just gesture with the fingers of the screen right hand - I think this will make his acting more 'self assured', plus the shot will then have a nice build up to the final explosion. On a related note try not to have both hands/arms gesturing at the same time - this is known as 'twinning', adding some offset in the timing of the arms gestures creates a more visually interesting motion.

-The motion on "...belts" at frame 230 is too fast, add an extra in-between between frames 230 and 231. In the new in-between make his hand favour the pose of 230, so that the head leads and we get some overlap on the hand. Whilst a quick movement like this can be done, some overlap on the head at the end of the move will help to convey more weight, the sudden stop makes the character appear to be very light.

-Reference! If you haven't already, shoot some reference of yourself acting out your shot.

-Anim Dailies