上一篇文章我提到如何在工作時保持品質，「品質」在動畫上主要包括兩件事：好的動作(spacing、timing、弧線、節奏等等)和好的表演，先不論動作的技術層面，延續上一篇的便利貼方類法，我將表演也分出兩塊，角色(character)和目的(intent)。
Character has to do with really understanding who you are animating. It’s all about being clear on their background, their tendency to make certain choices, the most likely responses to any given situation.
角色-你必須徹底瞭解所表演的角色。你要很清楚他們的身份來歷，他們為什麼會做這樣的決定，試著瞭解他們在任何情況底下會有的反應。
Intent has to do with understanding why the shot is in the film in the first place. What purpose does the shot have? How does it move the story along? How does it push or pull the character along their given arc? Every shot is in the movie for a reason, so what is that reason?
目的-你必須理解為何這個shot為何會出現在影片的這個位置上。這個shot的目的是什麼？它對劇情發展有什麼影響？它將如何影響角色的表演？影片中的每個shot都必然有其目的，所以你必須問，目的是什麼？
Usually when you receive a launch of your shots from the director you are able to find out exactly what the point of the shot is. It’s the perfect opportunity to clarify the intent, but quite often we don’t do it enough. Or – more often – we think we have enough information, but as we start working on the shot we find that we’re muddled a bit and that we are kind of swimming around the ideas. Sometimes you don’t notice this until showing the shot for the third time in dailies and you get that great awkward pause..
一般來說，我們在開始一個shot時都可以從導演那得知這個shot的目的為何，其實這是幫我們澄清思緒最好的機會，但我們常常沒有好好把握，或是自以為夠瞭解，可是一旦我們開始工作，我們會發現關於目的的理解其實還是很模糊，想法上更是游移不定，有時候你會徹底忽略這個現象，直到你在每日進度會議上把你的東西秀給大家時，底下是一陣令人發窘的沉默，這時你才會驚覺原來自己錯得離譜。
you know the one I’m talking about.. The shot goes up.. it plays a few times… a few more times… and a few more times.. and the director turns to you and says..
“yeahhhhh.. um.. okay.. … I think what we need to do here is .. uh.. maybe have a bit more .. overlap? in the arms? or maybe you need to turn the head sooner?”
We’ve all been there, and it suuuuuucks!!
你一定知道我在說什麼，就是當你秀出工作成果，把影片放了幾次，又再放了幾次，然後導演轉頭說：「咿…哦…嘿…嗯…ok，我想可以改善的地方是…嗯…可能再多一點重疊動作？在手的部分？或是讓頭轉快一點？」
這種情形我們都遇過，實在糟透了！！
I know I’ve had shots that I re-animated two or three times from scratch after my blocking pass simply because I “just wasn’t getting it”.
I’ve thought about that a lot over the years, and I think I’m finally understanding what “it” is..
“it” is the intent.
我就有好幾次做完blocking之後回過頭再重新來過的經驗，就因為我沒抓到「那個什麼」。關於那個什麼，我思考了很多年，最後我終於搞懂了，所謂的那個什麼指的就是「目的」(intent)。
Here’s the reality of the situation. MOST shots in films are not dealing with more than one or two main “intents”. You may have sub-intents.. but the main idea of the shot usually boils down to one or two key things. That’s it. It’s the sum of all the shots that deliver the complete story. Unless you have one of those crazy long shots that involves a whole bunch of emotional changes and shifts between characters.. you can probably simplify, clarify and be good to go.
實際上，一部影片中的每個shot大多數其實都只有一個目的，也許有一些次要目的，但是主要目的往往只有一到兩個，就是「那個什麼」，就是整個shot唯一要交代的故事重點，除非你的shot很冗長然後又融合了不同角色間的各種複雜情緒變化，不然你一定可以把事情弄清楚、講明白，再進行下一步。
Rex Grignon (one of the other Heads of Character Animation) and I were talking about cameras one day and he said something that really stuck with me. He said “every shot is a close-up”. At first I was a bit confused. You have long shots, medium shots, wide shots, close up, medium close up, extreme close up… what do you mean that every shot is a close-up?
Rex Grignon(我們同樣都是公司的動畫指導)和我某天在討論鏡頭時，他說了一句令我很驚愕的話，他說：
「每個shot都是特寫鏡頭。」
一開始我被弄糊塗了，我知道有長鏡頭、中景鏡頭、廣角鏡頭、特寫鏡頭、半身特寫鏡頭、極特寫鏡頭，怎麼會說每個shot都是特寫鏡頭咧？
He clarified that in good camera-work, every shot is a close up shot of exactly what is needed to tell the story. If you have to tell the story point of a knife being picked up, get a close up of the character’s hand picking up the knife. If you need to tell the story point of two people reaching in for a kiss, get as close as you can to those two people leaning into each other for a kiss. If you need to tell the story of a mouse feeling alone in a great big city, get a wide shot of the mouse in a big city.
他的解釋是，每個鏡頭一定是為了說明什麼才會存在，就像特寫鏡頭的功能一樣。假如你想告訴觀眾一把刀子被撿起來，那最好的方式就是對著撿起刀子的手做特寫；假如你想說兩個人碰面時會接吻，那就讓鏡頭儘可能地接近那個吻；假如你想表達一隻小老鼠在大城市裡非常孤單，那就用廣角鏡頭來傳達那份孤單。
I googled the term and found a book called Directing the Story that discusses this point a bit more.
Close-ups are the only shots that show just what you want to say. They say, “Look at this…. I’m point the camera at this for a reason.” We’re using the speaking metaphor of film to tell the story with pictures, one idea at a time…. we want to show exactly what we want to say in the context of a series of shots.
我Google了「特寫」這個詞，找到了一本書Directing the Story(Google電子書有完整內容，推薦給大家！)，裡面更延伸了這個觀點：「特寫，是唯一一種鏡頭讓你只說你想說的話，書中繼續解釋：特寫鏡頭就好像在告訴觀眾，看這裡！我把鏡頭靠得這麼近一定有什麼理由…我們用影像來傳達充滿隱喻的鏡頭語言，所以一次最好就一個點子…我們必須只展示我們唯一想說的，在一連串具有承先啟後關係的shot之中。」
That’s brilliant! It’s so simple.. and yet so important! Only show what we need to show to tell the story we are trying to tell. Don’t add crap just to add stuff, because it just confuses the audience. This is why the eraser is just as important as the pencil. It matters just as much what you leave out as what you put in.
說得太棒了！既簡單又非常重要，只讓觀眾看到必須要看到的畫面，只讓觀眾知道必須要知道的情節，不要再添枝加葉，因為那樣只會讓觀眾感到困擾，這就是為什麼在畫圖時橡皮擦與鉛筆同等重要，因為你拿掉的東西往往與你添加的東西擁有同樣的影響力。
We can apply the exact same principle when animating our shots. Really clarify that intent. What is this shot about?????
By knowing what the shot is about, clearly and distinctly in your head, you can ask yourself right away “what is the clearest and most direct possible way I can get this point across?” Instead of thinking about the mechanics of what the shot is, you can think at a higher level of what does the shot need. Once you know what the shot needs, then you can layer in all the subtle things that make it unique for the character.
我們可以在做動畫時比照辦理，讓目的更明顯，清楚告訴觀眾這個shot到底在幹麻。
為了讓「目的」清楚而且毫無疑問的出現在我們腦袋中，你可以馬上自問：「什麼是最清晰和最直接可能的傳達方式？我能做到這一點嗎？」而不是去想這個shot我的動作要怎樣炫又怎樣酷，你要思考更高的層次：究竟這個shot "需要"什麼？當你一旦明白這樣的需要時，你就能迅速安排細節讓角色更顯獨特。
It’s the combination of these two things.. clarifying the intent and then making it character specific that gives you the ability to make the shot great.
It’s like … going on a road-trip.
所以現在我們已經融合了兩個要件：清楚你的「目的」，然後讓「角色」顯得獨特，這個過程可以讓你的shot變得很棒。
就像是…一場公路旅行(road-trip)。
If you just get in the car and start driving, you may end up where you want to be. Most likely you’ll just end up somewhere you weren’t before. If you get in the car and you say “I want to be in New York City”, you can sit down and think “okay, what’s the quickest way to get there? Plane? Car? Boat? What if I drove along this road? How can I make this road trip the most interesting? What if I want to get to New York City and visit all the theme parks along the way, how will I have to drive in order to get there?” Asking those questions limits your choices and quickly gets you going where you want to go.
假設你現在坐上車開始旅行，你可能會知道終點在哪裡，通常是一個你不曾去過的地方。如果你坐上車時喊著：「我要去紐約！」那接著你會想，「好，那我要如何用最快的方式抵達紐約？飛機？搭車？坐船？還是我就一直沿著這條路開下去？我要如何讓這趟旅行變得非常好玩？那我是不是可以在旅途中遊遍所有主題樂園？我車又要怎麼開才能抵達目的地？這樣不斷地自問自答縮小選擇範圍，讓你快速地抵達你想去的地方。
Even if you don’t know a specific destination, but you know that you want to go somewhere “vibrant, with a lot of noise and some great pizza”.. that will help narrow down your choices and may even take you somewhere more exciting than your original destination.
The map metaphor is perfect for dealing with your shot..
即便你根本不知道一個特定目的地，但你總知道大概想去哪吧：「充滿活力，很熱鬧又有美味pizza的地方」。這也能幫助你縮小範圍，甚至可能帶領你到比你本來要去的更好玩的地方。這個找路的例子可以完美的套用在做shot的工作上：
Destination: I want to go to New York = Point of shot: I want to show Jim kissing a girl.
How to get there: I want to visit theme parks along the way = Character: Jim has never even had a date before.
目的地：我想去紐約 = shot的intent：我要讓觀眾知道Jim吻了一個女孩
旅途路線：我想要拜訪每一個路過的主題樂園 = shot的character：Jim的約會經驗是零
Here’s the deal.. if you can solidify these things before you start animating you’ll be able to quickly get rid of any ideas that will lead you down the wrong path. But even if you don’t know the answer before you start, clarifying it will very quickly help you re-direct and get back on track. If you are on a road trip and suddenly you say “oh crap, I’m supposed to be in New York!” you can immediately look at where you are (San Diego?) and determine the quickest way to get back on the right path to reach your destination.
道理如下：假如你在開始做之前先搞清楚並確定這些要素，那麼你很快就能擺脫任何會誤導你的想法，即使你一開始還是不夠瞭解這些要素，但是只要你一瞭解，你就能馬上修正方向回到正軌，就像在公路旅行時你也許突然會說：「糟糕，我現在應該要去紐約才對。」那你一定馬上會先搞清楚自己身在何處(聖地牙哥？)，然後趕忙回到旅程上向目的地重新出發。
The great thing to realize.. is that in most cases the director doesn’t really care how you reach the point of the shot, they will care more that you get the point across. If you don’t know the point you’re trying to make.. how do you make it?
還有一件事你必須深刻地瞭解：多數導演不會管你如何抵達目的，他們只在乎你是否已經跨越它，假如你連目的在哪都不知道，那又如何去到那呢？
In my next post I can talk a little bit more about how some tips and tricks to clarify intent if you guys find it interesting. Reply in the comments and let me know what you think!
我將在下一篇文章繼續深入這個話題，分享一些抓出目的的技巧與訣竅。
原文出處
原文作者：Jason Schleifer
Banner設計：Chris Deli
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