This week we were working on the facial acting exercise as part of the end of term submissions. Compared to last weeks body acting exercise this is entirely focused on the facial expressions and how the movement matches those. I think it is sure to be a difficult challenge but one that will make us better animators.
Below are the initial sketches I made in my sketchbook regarding the main poses that this character would be going through for this exercise. As you can see they are very rough and hold a lot of movement. This movement as something I tried to hold onto throughout the process of animating this exercise. As I think I struggle with having flat and lifeless drawings in my animation. Something I need to work on for sure!
Next we captured our own reference footage to work out how we would act and to sketch out the key frame thumbnails. Below are my attempts at reference footage. I still haven’t quite mastered the art of acting and am quite uncomfortable in front of the camera but I guess that will come with time.
Thumbnails!
After this, I was able to create some mock ups of the thumbnails I would use for the key frames. I usually do this in my sketchbook or on my iPad in Procreate as I prefer the brushes in there to other programs.
Once I had added the breakdowns and worked on the timing, I had my first pass of animation. I got this reviewed and critiqued by my tutors and was able to refine the animation and timing even further. I learnt a lot during this time as my eye for timing still needs a lot of work but has definitely improved!
Below is the final animation for this exercise, I think it still needs some work and could be further refined but at this moment in time I am not sure I am at the level where I truly understand the corrections needed. I think if I revisit this exercise next year or even next term I might be closer to that point. but until that point I think it serves a purpose.