Class 5 Week 5: Layout Pass and Video Ref

Fun but busy week.  Had to come up with character outfits and props, have the set in place, get a first pass on layout of cameras and char placement...and act both parts of my scene out with myself!

Class 5 Week 4: Final Shot Options

So, we had to find some new dialoug for our next (and last) big scene here at AM.  I had a lot of fun listening to movies and ended up with about 15 clips to choose from.  We had to keep it between 12-15 seconds and have 2 characters speaking.  The first and second clips ended up being my favorite ones so far.  We'll take a few days away from it and see which one to start animating for next week!

And, of course, another expression assignment.

Class 5 Week 3: Final LipSync Pass

Some final polishing touches on this shot.  At this point its getting into the little details and having hands/fingers settling into place, punching the shoulders up a bit more (a common note I hear at work), some adjustments to the mouth shapes.  One suggestion from the mentor that really helped was to take out/down the eyedarts in the first bit of the shot - leaving his focus steady on the other person.  Only when he realizes it's getting awkward does the eye start to nervously dart around.

And more expression one-offs as well.

Class 5 Week 2: Refining LipSync

The second pass at the lipsync shot.  Changed some of the mouth movements that were a bit "swimmy" and finally got the tongue animation in there - which made all the difference hitting the second half of the the "murder" shapes.  A few other little changes here and there, and added a new frown close to the end.   From feedback I also have the character looking offscreen the whole time (rather than practically right at camera), so now it feels like he's talking to someone else rather than talking to us.

Our other assignment was to find some photos of expressions and then recreate those poses with our character.  Had a lot of fun with these!

Class 5 Week 1: I'm Back Baby!

Yup, I'm back!  After a nice 3 month "sabbatical" (ie: broke my ankle) - I'm back at Animation Mentor.  Jumping right into lip-sync animation the first week.  We're taking our previous assignment as a starting point.  Lots of fun and lots to learn.  Below you'll find my video reference of myself (with a cameo in the background of my dear pet Roxie) and my planning thumbnails thinking about the mouth shapes.