Acting tool 3) Gestures - McKimson examples

http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/McKimson/UpstandingSitter/McKimsonChickenGestures.mov
That last post I did on acting

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/12/acting-head-motion-to-punctuate.html

got me to thinking about acting through gestures, which is something many animators do. McKimson was really into gesture acting (as opposed to acting through facial expressions)

This chicken scene is funny acting. The actual gestures themselves are pure McKimson and there isn't a lot of variety to the held poses. What makes it more interesting is the variety of ways the animator comes up with to anticipate each of the held arm poses.
This looks like McKimson animated it himself, but Greg Duffel told me that the scenes that look the most like McKimson's own work were actually animated by his brother Charles McKimson - who would take Bob's layout poses and translate them exactly in great family loyalty.
The McKimson dynasty were chicken masters.








Here's a famous McKimson Daffy Duck scene that really defines his style. I think Mark Kausler told me this was animated by Manny Gould.
http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/McKimson/UpstandingSitter/DaffyHipHopClip.mov

This is similar to and different than the chicken scene at the same time.
Here, Daffy uses broad arm gestures, but there aren't many holds. You don't see the final poses, because the arms keep swinging.
Bill Melendez told me that he and Rod Scribner used to make fun of McKimson's acting style and then he acted it out for me, swinging his arms and pointing in the air and at me and shoving me around his office.
He said all of McKimson's gestures were literal. If someone said "you" in a sentence, the character would point to the you he was talking to.



Here's a funny "scoop" gesture that you see in a lot of McKimson scenes. Maybe it's a Manny Gould trademark?
Daffy is amazingly ugly in McKimson's cartoons. I wonder what his theory was behind that?

SCOOOOP!

I find this acting style totally hilarious because it's so ignorant. It's such a man's way to view the world. Pushy and shovey. It's like Daffy is manhandling the air to get his points across. I know real people like this.
It's the opposite of today's full animation style which is completely gay. That's ignorant in a wrong way.

Here Daffy says "slapping my head", so in McKimson's world of course the gesture has to be literally slapping.




If you say "rattle my brains" you better show it.This is man animation at its most blatant.

Acting tool 2) - Head Motion To Punctuate Dialogue

Here's some fun animation from Chuck Jones' "You Were Never Duckier" 1948, Chuck's funniest year.


There are accents in speech that you can hear. People (and ducks) punctuate those verbal accents with visual cues. That's what actors try to mimic.


TOOL 2) USING THE HEAD MOTION AS VISUAL PUNCTUATION

THE GENERAL IDEA:

pose

HEAD ANTICS SLIGHTLY

INTO NEXT POSE

ANOTHER ANTIC

KEY

http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/Jones/47Duckier/DaffyHeadacting.mov

VARY THE STRENGTH OF YOUR ACCENTS:
GET A BIGGER ACCENT BY USING A STRONGER ANTIC

KEY

HEAD MOVING SLIGHTLY ROUND KEY

BIGGER ANTIC CREATES STRONGER ACCENT

TALK BY MOVING HEAD SLIGHTLY AROUND KEY

SPINNING ANTIC FOR BIG ACCENT

ANTIC AWAY AND ROTATE INTO NEXT KEY

You can also use gestures to help punctuate the dialogue. This bit has much stronger emphasis in dialogue, so uses more visual accents and signals and with great variety. It doesn't seem typical of Jones, because it's very exaggerated. It looks a lot like some animation in his hilarious "Pest In The House" which appears very influenced by Clampett. Jones' cartoons calmed down quickly after these cartoons.



http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/Jones/47Duckier/DaffyGestureActingsmall.mov




Basic tools of visual acting:

1) Expressions
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/03/specific-acting-in-looney-tunes-duck.html
2) Head Motions (this post)
3) Arm and hand gestures
http://mayersononanimation.blogspot.com/2007/06/six-authors-in-search-of-character-part_13.html
4) Body poses
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/04/foghorn-leghorn-mckimson-henerys-dad.html

Most animators shy away from strong expressions and instead rely on the other 3 tools. You can use any and all of them in different proportions to create variety and emphasis.

A good voice track should inspire the animator to use which visual accompaniments most fit the track. The best animators customize their acting to fit the track. Most use formula.