Cgtarian class one assignment: Facial take - Rapunzel inspiration

Today I received my first assignment from Dreamwork's Mike Safianoff. It was delivered via an hour long tutorial, where I was surprised by the quantity and depth of his introduction.
The assignment is to produce a facial take, 2-3 seconds long. I have a few simple ideas: tasting, being stood up, smelling something bad. Each could be broken down, with choices dependent upon who the person is, who are they talking to and what is their relationship.
But, with a week to gather material, I thought it'd be nice to post about some takes I like, both animated and live action. To start with, here's a few from my favorite film :)


This double take by Malcon Pierce, where so much is said without words, reminds me of Glen Keane's Tarzan shot (when he meets Jane). Hope to return to this to break it down further.


This take, the ease in which Mother Goethel slips from one emotion to another, shows the ease in which she wore the mask of a caring parent.



Rapunzel coming to terms with the death of Mother Goethel. Although Rapunzel has found Mother Goethel's true character, the shock shows the attachment she had to the villain. Then the tempo increases as she remembers Flynn.
*To be continued

Run cycle with Jack rig

Walk cycle with Jack

Chilling over the xmas period, I thought I'd play with a walkcycle using Anim Squad's Jack rig.

Wip of reel

With my first taste of animation employment beginning soon, I thought be nice to see how my new reel is coming together. Slowly, but its getting there :)



(Third shot is currently in wip stage)

Anim Squad assignment one: Standing from Seated

I have recently commenced Anim Squad's online education program for body mechanics and pantomime. The first assignment was to make a character stand from a seated position. After proposing a few ideas to Disney's Marlon Nowe, it was selected that attempt the receiving of sad news.

Watching short clips from movies of sad news being received by the telephone (the impossible, source code, requiem of a dream and good will hunting to name a few), I soon realised the challenge I had set myself. The characters were remaining still. Marlon had also suggested I try a medium shot to capture the facial animation.

I knew standing up in 4 seconds is a big movement for the face to travel. If I wanted to make her stand and the emotion to read, a fast beat needed to occur. I decided on shock before letting the emotion read through the eyes. For this shock to occur, she needed to expct the telephone call, so decided it was from a friend. I'm pretty pleased with it so far:


Next assignment will be playing more with a character taking a few steps. Hoping I find a nice idea. We'll see.

library girl

experimenting with a test of a library girl. Mouth and hands hardly touched, while also in need of general tidying up and focusing the movement.

Jump wip

Wip of jump assignment set by a friend. I was advised to animate a normal jump, striped of ''character''. Yes, it would be nice to do something full of personality, but instead focused on simplicity which places further attention on getting things correct. Used the good trusty Norman rig with some FK arms. Needs a polish, but I'm happy with its direction.

Workflow:
 - Calculate timing of root using ball.
- Shot some reference (yes, for some reason I shot this second. It helped to direct the posing)
- Blocked in the body with contracts and direction changes
- Started splining