Acting in animation (with dialogue)

Here's another animation test I did as a student at Animation Mentor:

Uncle Lorne Final
Uploaded by rafianimates

(click the video to watch a larger version on dailymotion)

This was my first test with two characters. Up until this point I had only attempted monologue-esque acting - i.e. single-shot tests with one character speaking (you can view these here and here).

A short multi-character dialogue test like this got me thinking about editing, the importance of maintaining eye line and screen space as well as exploring contrast between the characters. It was hard to keep track of everything alongside building a convincing performance with subtext, but ultimately a really fun and worthwhile experience throughout. It got me really interested in the storyboard and shot-design side of animation - more on that in a later post!

About the audio track I used - I found it at the end of a version of "Red Telephone" by Love, and haven't been able to find out which movie they sampled it from. If anyone recognises it, please let me know in the comments.