Shielding

In my last article I wrote about a very specific reaction that occurs when a person is surprised or afraid. In this article I will give general knowledge about some other common physical reactions to fear aside from jumping or running away that is.

So to start with we will look at how children react when afraid, because a lot of body language we pose today, we learned and had used when we were kids. A lot of children’s reactions to fear break down into a simple general gesture known as shielding.

It is called shielding quite simply because a person will use their hands or arms to block access to some part of the body. Children tend to do this quite often, whether it is shielding their eyes to avoid seeing something particularly scary or disgusting, shielding their ears in an attempt to avoid hearing things that they find unpleasant or just shield themselves entirely with a blanket because they are afraid of thunder, shielding comes from the subconscious need for protection from something.

Adults tend to shield themselves as well, but their general shielding reaction may be less obvious than it was during their childhood. Adults when in fear will most likely attempt to protect vital spots of their bodies. These vital spots often include the throat, the inner thigh, the groin and the chest just to name a few. They do that, as said before, using their arms. After all if you had the choice between losing an arm or losing your head, I believe most would tend to lean towards the loss of an arm.

Usually a reaction tends to either join the shielding reaction or follow up afterwards. A person may shield and run away or they could shield then punch the threat in the face. As with most anything in body language, it is based off of context.

I hope you enjoyed the article and I also hope you return to view more. Have a great day and goodbye.  

Freeze!

I have recently been inspired by a fellow classmates game idea for creating a survival horror video game. After hearing the details of the game, memories of reading about the body language of fear came back to me.

So because of that inspiration this particular article will be about fear. That being the case I will attempt to cover things that may be unknown to some or at least one in particular that may have gone unnoticed.

Many people know two options when reacting to fear; these reactions tend to be known as the “flight or fight” reaction. While these reactions do in fact exist, a very important reaction is left out of this equation; the freeze reaction. The freeze function is very common and almost always comes before the flight or fight reactions.

This is part of the survival reaction our mind and body naturally goes through to understand what is threatening us as well as what the best reaction to this possible danger is. The freeze is a very brief pause when something jumps out unexpectedly within sight or even just a noise that alarms us. The freeze reaction can be very brief, but even so I am sure that some of you have seen the reaction or even experienced it before. In case you can’t remember, I will attempt to give an example.

Imagine if you will that you are walking down a dark alley at midnight for some reason or another. Halfway down this alley you begin to hear loud footsteps bounding behind you. You may think at this time, “Perhaps they are just going the same way as I am.”

The sound of the footsteps begins to sound more rapid, as if the person is beginning to sprint towards you. Feeling fear the body would first respond by halting most of the body’s motion, in an attempt to recognize what or who is making that sound, if it is in fact a threat and what the appropriate reaction is to handle that threat.

Now, just for giggles, the next time you just happen to startle someone, try to notice how they react. Specifically that instant they become afraid. More often than not they will stutter very briefly and then react.

I hope you enjoyed this article and please have a great day. Goodbye.

Intellectual Property Talk

I just recently listened to a few podcasts about intellectual property, or IP for short. There were a few intriguing lessons I pulled away from these podcasts and I would like to share them with all of you. All of the podcasts I listened to were found on itunes and at the bottom of this post I will provide the name of the podcasts themselves so that you may listen to them yourself if you so desire.

The way I will be doing this post, is I will be quoting what the person said on the podcast and then giving my opinion and interpretation of what they were saying. So without further ado, on I go.

The first quote is from Catherine Douglas who is talking about trademarks on the internet. She is quoted saying,“The power of the web has only magnified the age old IP threats. The same threats are there, there’s still infringement, there’s still copyright issues there’s still all these others, but it’s made it fast and it’s made it worldwide.”

 I believe that we have all seen this in one way or another. If you post something on a social website or even just a blog or business website; it can easily be copy and pasted from those sites and used for someone else's enjoyment or benefit. Even if you copyright the material, people will still try to take it for themselves and claim it under fair use or parody rights. The thing that truly makes dealing with this difficult is the speed at which they do it. Within an hour hundreds if not thousands or millions could have taken and altered the material for themselves. What I get from this is simply that you need to be decisive and very protective about what you post online. Especially pictures and videos. 

The next quote I am going to analyze is that of Mr. Craig Cardon who talks about user generated content and copyright laws. Here is his quote about user generated content,“There is a big difference between creating your own content and posting it, and not taking somebody else’s content and posting it and calling it user generated content. User generated content now no longer means user created, it simply means user posted content.”

What I gather from Mr. Cardon's words is that most people on viral video websites these days rarely create their own content. The few that do, and do it well, are almost immediately copied and posted by other users. Sometimes these users even claim the creation of the content. If you were to look up a popular viral video there is a very good chance that there will be multiple copies of the same video and only one of those is most likely the original. Craig is also talking about how formal media can also be taken and put up on internet sites without a companies consent. Include the idea that Catherine stated above and there is quite a lot of work on your hands if you think you are going to stifle infringement of your work or media on the internet.

Our last quite is from Mr. Marty Schwimmer. In this quote he is talking about the infringement possibilities of virtual gaming, namely that of Second Life. As a side note Second Life is a sort of virtual community where you can build almost anything you want, as well as buy from and sell this created material to other users. Marty is quoted saying, “Lets assume I create an infringing Nike t-shirt to someone. Have I sold something that is related to what Nike sells or have I sold a picture or a decoration? Is it an Andy Warhol Campbell’s soup can, which is an artistic representation of a good, and I don’t need the authorization of the trademark owner or copyright owner? Or is it like a die cast model of a car, where through the expectations of the audience; expectations of the owner; if you saw a Ferrari licensed car, you assume Ferrari has licensed that?”

Mr. Schwimmer asks a very interesting question. What is considered going over the line when it comes to infringement in a virtual world. Personally I am in agreement with the very last statement. If I were to see the Nike symbol on some virtual character's clothing, I would almost instantly recognize it as the Nike symbol. He poses a good question indeed. 


What do you think? Would you find this to be infringement of a copyright or trademark? Or do you believe that it is fair to use?


That concludes this session of blogging. I hope that all who read this blog can find something useful from this post, from entrepreneurs to animators. Just below are the names of the podcasts. I warn you though, in my opinion they can be a bit dry at some points. Also each is a little over 30 minutes.

All podcasts are by and found under - Trademark & Copyright Law Forum
The specific names of the podcasts mentioned and quoted from today.
Catherine's podcast - Corporate Trademark in a Web 2.0 World
Craig's podcast - User Generated Content and Copyright Law
Marty's podcast - Trademarks on the Internet - a survey of legal online branding issues

Animation and Legal Issues

In this article we will be examining a few past legal problems that had popped up for two of the biggest animation studios in the United States today, Pixar and Dreamworks. Below I have provided links to articles involving legal issues that these two companies ran into over the past few years. So without further ado, our first article.

Lighting firm Luxo sues over sale of Luxo Jr. lamp with 'Up" Blu-ray disc

Now as a 3D animator I know all to well how important it is to reference animation and cg models from real life. The problem is that most items not created by imagination, such as a car or a computer or say a lamp are patented and copyrighted. Pixar's mascot Luxo Jr. was modeled after Norwegian company Luxo's real life lamp. Until Pixar attempted to sell their mascot, Luxo Jr., along with their latest movie 'Up', seemingly everything was alright between the lamp company Luxo and Pixar. It is unclear if Pixar had settled with Luxo or not, but the moral of this story is clear. Make sure that if you are attempting to sell something that you referenced from another real life object or person, that they are copyright free or that you have written permissions.

Next article.

Man who says dreamworks stole 'Kung Fu Panda' wins round in court

In this report we see a current legal problem that Dreamworks is having. A Mr. Terence Dunn claims that he had pitched the idea to Dreamworks and that they turned him down. A few months later, they announce 'Kung Fu Panda', what he says was his pitch months earlier. Now, thanks to Judge O'Donnell's ruling they are currently looking into whether it can be proven that Dreamworks was able to access Terence's work before 'Kung Fu Panda' was created. Since there has been no ruling or evidence yet, it is pretty much impossible for us to know if Dunn's claim is true. An interesting story; one that I think teaches us to not only be careful of who we pitch our ideas to, but also how we pitch them.

Last article.

Court rejects publicity rights claim over Pixar's lead car in Cars

As our last article will show, people may try to sue you over the smallest detail. In this story we see an apparently "famous" race car driver claiming that the design of the main character in Pixar's movie 'Cars', was based on a car that he owns. The court even went on record saying, "a fictional, talking, driver-less red race car with the number 95 on it cannot be construed as a likeness of a driver of a similarly colored/numbered race car."

That is the end of todays article and I hope that you had gotten something out of these lessons.

Reference: 

Verrier, R. 2009. Lighting firm Luxo sues over sale of Luxo Jr. lamp with 'Up' Blu-ray disc. Retrieved February 28th, 2011 from: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/07/business/fi-pixar7

Belloni, M. 2010. Man Who Says DreamWorks Stole 'Kung Fu Panda' Wins Round in Court. Retrieved February 28th, 2011 from: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/man-dreamworks-stole-kung-fu-56811

Masnick, M. 2010. Court Rejects Publicity Rights Claim Over Pixar's Lead Car In Cars. Retrieved February 28th, 2011 from: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101217/04203712317/court-rejects-publicity-rights-claim-over-pixars-lead-car-cars.shtml

Getting Comfortable

Comfort is something that a lot of people seek. They wish to enjoy comfort at home, most likely wish they had some level of it at work and it can be seen as many other things in non-verbal communication.

So today we will attempt to understand what a person might look like when they are comfortable around other people. In business this can be very useful because if someone is not comfortable around you then it is likely they won’t trust you. Watching comfort and discomfort between two individuals can be a very interesting yet subtle show. So to help you understand this show I will now give example of what people may look like when they are comfortable around each other.

The single thing that I find most interesting when it comes to the topic of comfort between two individuals is mirroring. You may have seen this and had not recognized what it meant at the time. As the picture below shows there are two people sitting opposite from each other. You will notice that the way that they are sitting almost directly mirrors the other persons “pose”. What this tells us is that they could be very comfortable around each other. Mirroring happens in facial emotions as well. If one person smiles the other person may smile. If one person is crying, the other may begin to start tearing up.

Another way of telling a person’s comfort level with another is by how close they are to that person. Lets look again at the photo above. Look at how close these two individuals are sitting to each other; they are almost touching each other legs. People who are uncomfortable with the other person would most likely have their legs almost pressed against the legs of the chair, trying to keep as much distance from the other person as possible.

There are a few subtle signs that you should also attempt to notice such as when a person moves an object out of their way to get a better view of the other person. Another would be just how openly they are showing their torso and inner arms. This shows signs of openness as well as comfort because people are a lot less likely to show their vital spots to those they find discomforting.

Notice these signs and you may be able to connect with others more easily when first meeting them.

For the Animators: Animators can use this information in many different ways. Depending on if two characters are supposed to be comfortable with each other you may have them close or farther apart. You may also have them mirror each other; however if you do this, it is best to make it as subtle and almost unnoticeable as possible or something may seem “off” to the audience.

References: Picture -http://www.learnbodylanguage.org/male_flirting_3.html

Interview with Travis Blaise

Recently I had the chance to interview a man by the name of Travis Blaise. In addition to having an awesome last name he also has awesome work experiences. So to begin the interview I started with the standard question. Could you tell us about some of your prior work experiences?


Little did I know what was to come. Travis told me that one of the first movies he had worked on was Beauty and the Beast, then moving on to Aladdin, Lion King and Pocahontas. In between which he worked on a Roger Rabbit cartoon as well as the Aladdin and Lion King video games for the Sega Genesis console. After that he moved on to animate Frollo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, villains in Mulan, Kerchek and others in Tarzan, characters in Lilo and Stitch, Koda from Brother Bear and Goofy in a cartoon.

After the Disney animation studio had closed down Travis went on to animate George in the movie Curious George as well as nearly 24 music videos for the cartoon series Class of 3000. These days Travis is a free lancer doing commercials, pilots for some television shows and working with friends he had made in the industry.

I went on to ask him if he ever considered body language when drawing and animating. Travis said, "I think body language is extremely important, especially in animation. It's the art of story telling without saying a word. In a lot of my practice over the years I have been observing. I have a gift to see things, see it in my head and then put it down on paper. To me it comes down to observing life. In traditional animation and 3D animation it's about the posing."

Interested in his thoughts about networking I continued the interview by asking for his thoughts on the importance of making contacts and networking. To this he responded, "I think it's vital, in any industry you're in. Really trying to meet people on a friend level. Most of the people in my network are friends. It's like friends first, then let's see what we can do later."

As usual I decided to finish off the interview with a question that I like to ask because I find that it informs us of things that we would normally have to learn by experience. I asked Travis if there was one thing that you would tell an aspiring animator, what would it be? He replied, "Just enjoy your life. Really just observe and try to have fun with what you're doing. Even if I don't have any money, I don't care because I love what I do. Find your passion and keep it."

After the interview was over I thanked Travis repeatedly and then bid him to have a good day. I hope you enjoyed this article and have gotten something from it. So, in the words of Mr. Blaise, "Find your passion and keep it."

References:
Koda: http://www.animatedheroes.com/koda.html
Kerchak: http://wdfanimation2.tripod.com/kerchak.html
Frollo: http://www.movievillains.com/archives/2004/06/judge_claude_fr.html
Goofy: http://disneyexclusiveonline.com/content/Mickey_-_Friends.htm

Interview with an Animator

Alright, so on this post body language is going to take a brief back seat to the business and animation side of this blog. The reason for this is because I have had the chance to interview a friend and industry professional for this blogs newest post. So without further ado, here is my interview with David Pumpa.

(1) - Alright so first off, to give our audience a bit of info about you, could you tell us a little bit about your professional background? Like Past work experience, schooling, etc...

My Name is David Pumpa, I am a Character Animator.  I graduated from Full Sail University where I studied Computer Animation which was a Bachelors of Science.  After school I did a short 3 month internship with two of my teachers at Full Sail to expand upon my knowledge ofmotion capture and animation.  After about two months of job searching I was picked up by a small company called Pendulum located in San Diego, California.  There I worked on video game cinematics primarily cleaning up and arranging MoCap and animation in story sequences.  After my contract there I spent another month looking for a job and wound up at Sony Computer Entertainment America in San Diego, where I am currently working on game cinematics.

(2) - If you can tell us, what are you currently working on now?

The title we're working on now is called Infamous 2.  SCEA San Diego only works on cinematics for games so it should be a pretty quick turn around.

(3) - Have you ever had or wanted to negotiate with a reference actor or a "higher up" about changing the scene because you felt it would make the scene look better?

Of course, I've debated with Lead Animators and CG directors about camera shots, MoCap direction, animation performance, and the like.  Of course the thing you have to remember is they are your boss, and they have more experience with this than you.  That doesn't mean they won't listen to you, though.  I've gotten entire shots redone because I didn't think the MoCap actor did it right. 

(4) - Have you ever just stared at people around your workplace for reference?

Hahaha, I have actually.  A lot of times just to pick up "idle animation."  More than likely I'll just stop someone who is passing me to stand in place for a bit, or make a fist because it is hard to look at myself standing at my desk. 

(5) - Did they notice you staring at them?

 

They have, and they have the same reaction every time,

"Wha-"

"Reference."

"Oh, ok."  And they turn back around.
 

(6) - How much of animation would you say is about the animated characters negotiations? (i.e. decisions) Like which secret door to open on a game show or whether he wanted to ride a donkey or a horse.

Not much actually.  Game cinematics are different from feature films because they are mostly action based.  Even decisions and emotional turmoil have to be settled very quickly because someone is shooting at you, or just around the corner, or looming over you with 20 giant serrated claws.  I remember I only had to do one negotiation scene the entire time I worked at Pendulum.  It was fun, but lasted only about 3 seconds and was primarily MoCap.  It was a pretty unique situation too, I wish I could say more about it.

(7) - What is one thing that you believe aspiring animators should know these days?

Well there's a lot of thing I could tell you, so it's hard to pick one.  But for an animator who is just getting out of school I will say this.  Networking is key.  I know you must have heard that a million times during school but they are absolutely 100% right.  I landed both of my jobs through people I had talked to before, OR through someone else I knew.  Of the 100+ jobs I've applied to, only the ones where I talked to someone at some point showed any fruit.  Cold applying will get you no where.  Now, I'm not saying don't do it.  If you can't find a recruiter or a lead or someone who can pass off your resume you should still apply.  The majority of my applications were cold applications simply because there was no easy way to get a contact. 

I would like this opportunity to tell Mr. Pumpa thank you, for doing this interview with me.