This year I was asked to create a 3D character animation, for a university assessment. Even-though I had experimented body mechanics animation in the past, this was the first time to do acting animation.
pic 1 - Happy
To ease us in this task, our lecturer asked for a couple of still poses. This was to get us used to working with a rig and having fun with it, without actually worrying for the animation process. I chose the Neka Rig by Character Rigs, which provided a variety of controllers, complicated enough but not intimidating.
I created two poses, one where the character is happy (pic 1) and one were is thoughtful (pic 2). Both of the poses were based on references that I filmed; Instead of using photos, I filmed myself constantly changing poses and emotions. I felt that this would make the poses look more natural and less perfect than posing for a photo.
pic 2 - Thoughtful
Through a variety of sound clips, I chose one from the "Devil wears Prada", one of my favourite films to date. I have always felt that Emily's character was very different to mine, so trying to act like her could be really fun (It was!). I started filming my references and after a lot of failed acting attempts and embarrassing moments, I had a clip I was happy to animate.
Reference Footage
I studied my reference to my best abilities and created my thumbnails. Then it was finally time to start animating.
Thumbnails
Blocking Pass Playlist
Final Animation Playblast
