Takes
Thought Process
This assignment deals primarily with the mechanics of a couple of fast head turns with some overlapping action. We had the head turn in the last assignment, the Wink and Point, going slowly from a 3/4 angle on one side to a 3/4 angle on the opposite side. This action is quite a bit faster and more violent.
Many times, in animation circles, the take is directly associated with many of the cartoons directed by Tex Avery. There was a streak of cartoons where it seems as though Tex was trying to one-up himself each time
Northwest Hounded Police is an amazing example of great character takes. It’s one of those classic, “must-see” cartoons. Here are some samples of the take poses from the cartoon:
There are lots of different types of “takes”. Let’s go through some of them. (These are mostly my own terms.)
The “Up Take”
This take starts with a sharp downward movement of the head followed by an up and backward movement. On the downward action, the head squashes, the eyes squint shut and the shoulders skrunch up, sometimes with the arms straight but usually with the arms bent and the hands up by the chest. On the upward action which is always much bigger, the top of the head should drag, causing a downward tilt to the face. On the extreme up position, the eyes and mouth are usually exaggerated wide open, with the shoulders and arms thrusting straight down. There is usually a slight settle after the extreme. You can also have the character finish with a descending energy bounce. The character will likely scream, “Yaaaaaah!” at the same time.
The “Stagger Up Take”
The general action is the same as the Up Take described above but it has a jerky action on the way up and will make a “Yaa-aa-aa--aah!” scream.
The “Side-to-Side Single Take”
In this take, the character starts by jerking their head away and to the side as opposed to the down action. The eyes still squint shut and the shoulders skrunch up. Then on the take action the character turns hard towards whatever it is that they were suprised by with eyes and mouth wide open. The character then settles back in recovery.
The “Side-to-Side Double Take”
This is the same as the side-to-side described above but the character shakes their head back and forth a few times. Double obviously means twice but it could be three or four depending on how wild you want it to be. This requires a lot more overlapping action in the face.
The “Head Spin Take”
Sort of like the side to side and double take but in this one the character’s head just spins around a few times in the same direction. The spin is usully so fast that the action is just a blur. The other thing that makes this different is that the head starts down first and then moves up on the spinning action. once it reaches it’s high point it pops down hard and the head bounces once into the suprised expression. This is more of a “Huh?” type of exclamation. The hard down action could also be followed by the standard up take expression and a bob to a stop at the end.
The “Full Body Take”
This is where the whole body is engaged in the take action. There is a variation where the head leads back first and the body follows. Usually the arms and legs stick out straight, projecting from the head. Another variation that was made famous by Bob Clampett is the “Erection Take” where the arms pull tight to the side of the body and the legs are together and the body is stiff from the head down to the toes. The body is also usually hovering in mid-air, parallel to the ground and the character might howl, “Arooo!” towards a female character off screen. Bugs Bunny does a milder form of this at the end of “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips”. He stands straight up, howls and stomps his one foot after a female rabbit kisses him.
The “Full Body Spin Take”
This is a combination of the head spin take and the full body take, where the whole body whirls around like a tornado. It starts in the head and works it’s way out to the feet causing the body to flip up into the air above the head.
This is more of a “Woo Hoo!” take.
The “Scream Take”
This is the pure Tex Avery take where the character rears back and becomes grossly distorted beyond the reasonable perameters of their original design. The best is when the characters teeth get huge and separate from each other, the tongue goes jagged and the eyes become large and bugged out with the veins growing towards the pupil. The sound for this one was a horse neighing.
For our assignment we’ll be doing the double take. If you want to try any of the others on your own, feel free and have some fun. I highly recommend you find some cartoons and study them for their timing and extremes. This goes for any other type of action. If you’re really hard core animation student, you’ll be watching cartoons and going through them single frame to study how and why the animator did what they did.
Start with your character in a neutral pose looking at something off screen. If you want to add a bit more expression to it, give the character a slightly incredulous look. Because this is the double take and moves side to side (as though the character was shaking their head “no”), the character will anticipate.away in the opposite direction from where they’re looking.
It’s good to move the head down then back up in an arcing path of action so it doesn’t appear too mechanical. Close the character’s eyes hard on the half inbetween.
The head should then turn back and across in an arc but tilting up slightly, then back again in the opposite direction but tilting up again so each head turn takes the head upward. The final turn back to the front should dip down slightly then move up and stop in a 3/4 front view with the character looking at the same point as they started with.
There should be some overlapping action in the face, try to add some drag as the head comes across and then snap it into the opposing direction on the key with a favor inbetween into the key on each turn.
Pop the eyes and mouth open big and then settle the eyes slightly, but keep them wide open. Have the head settle back and down just slightly. Ease in with about 4 - 5 slow-in inbetweens then animate the hold on the final key position. Hold for two seconds.