Think Like a Pianist
Not like a Harpsichord
We animators have a pernicious tendency to think like Harpsichordists. The harpsichord is a stringed instrument that plucks the strings. Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.—all the same monotonous tone. There’s a reason there are no radio stations or albums (might be a scant few) dedicated to the harpsichord.
That doesn’t mean the harpsichord is a bad instrument. There are times when the harpsichord is right for the job, but that job will be occasional and very infrequent.
Why? Because it has one inflection, and only one. It’s expression is limited.
When the piano was invented it took the music world by storm. It’s expressiveness and beauty was unparalleled. It’s original name was a “harpsichord with soft and loud,” shortened to “pianoforte”— or a soft-loud.
Young pianists often play the piano like a harpsichord. They fail to use the expressiveness of its range between soft and loud.
This was spelled out clearly in a documentary about a pianist named Seymour Hoffman called Seymour: An Introduction. In the film, Seymour teaches advanced students how to play the piano. He doesn’t teach the what of playing the notes, but the how of playing those notes with emotion, sensitivity, and control.
In one of the most memorable scenes, Seymour is in a room filled with expensive pianos. He sits down at one and plays a part of a symphony, and abruptly stops before he gets anywhere and says, “No, this one is no good.” He goes to the next one, and the same. No good. Then the third and he says, “Ah, now this one is beautiful.” He was listening for how soft certain notes could be played. Not all pianos are made the same. He wanted the widest range of soft and loud.
This is a great analogy for animation. Animation is a piano that can be played like a harpsichord or like a piano. It can be played with a monotone voice or it can be played with a very expressive voice that has a great range. It can go very ,very soft or very, very loud.
Young animators animate with great insensitivity. They make things move in monotony. Even experienced animators can animate with insensitivity. They focus on pose to pose to pose, all at the same rhythm, creating a dull middle-tone. The animation has degrees of soft and loud, but very reserved.
I see this most clearly in dialog scenes. The actor’s lines will have a dramatic sine wave of fluctuation, but the animation created for it dials it down, like a compressor or limiter. It’s almost always better for the animation to exaggerate, or caricature, the dramatic energy fluctuations in the line. But it rarely happens.
Soft and loud in animation drifts toward a middle tone the way a distant landscape fades to a cool, middle grey. Our piano work grows closer to harpsichord.
Push your work. Where it’s loud, go louder. Where it’s soft, go softer. Where it’s slow, slower and fast, faster. When it goes to 10, push it to 11, says Nigel Smalls.
Push the contrast. Where it’s compressed (squashed) go uncompressed (stretched). Where it’s curved, go straight. Where it moves in one direction, then move it in the opposite direction (anticipation). When it’s piano, then go forte.
Contrast. Feeling. Emotion. Range. Dynamism. Pianoforte.
Yes! Go for it.
Middle tone. Middle grey. Compression. Monotony. Harpsichord.
No! Run away.