A New Project

Disclosure Face

As I begin to delve in farther into the world of animation, I have decided I want to explore 3D facial rigging and animation. For this project I came up with the idea of animating a simple walk cycle, and at the end having the character speak something. It isn't much of a story, but I really want to sharpen my skills in this area. I am not much of a modeler either, and I don't like it, but by modeling a human I can learn a thing or two about it.

         

Nathan Drake from Uncharted

     The inspiration from the facial rigging really came from two sources. Video games, and a EDM group called Disclosure. I really like rigging in general and I am really interested in learning the process of facial rigging. I want to make my animations speak. Disclosure has this face set up on the projector behind them lip syncing the words to the songs. I saw a video of a live concert and that also inspired me to start exploring this area of animation.

                                                                   

Basic walk cycle

I am also really wanting to learn how to animate a basic walk cycle. This is something I've never done before, and I feel like it is an essential skill to have as an animator.

Mudbox

    I also want to learn how to texture in Mudbox. Mudbox is used to make super precise textures. I am not much of an artist, but I really want to learn how to give life and colour to models.


   The idea/story for this project will be simple. I'll have a person walk over and pick up an object(maybe a ball or a stick). Then, he will look to the camera and say something. I just want to practice my rigging and my texturing skills. Since this is my first try at making a walk cycle I'm sure I'll encounter problems, but I will try my absolute best.

One Man Band

The animated short film, One Man Band,  created by Pixar tells the story of two musicians trying to win over the donation of a small child. The story was really well told. The plausible impossible played a huge role in this film, and it was fun to see how it all played out. There was no dialogue. The story was told in the entirely of music, actions, and facial expressions.

Examples of the plausible impossible in this film were the musicians, equipped with their arsenal of instruments, and the young child, with musical skills of Mozart. Toward the end of the film the child loses his gold coin that he/she was going to donate, takes a violin, and wins a bag FULL of gold coins. Realistically, that won't happen right away, but it was very funny to see it happen immediately because it led to lively expressions of jealousy from the musicians and it really moved the story forward. The sudden change in expression in all of the characters, especially in the child, were key in telling the story. The expressions allowed me as a view to really understand what the characters were feeling. I really like how Pixar exaggerated character elements and situations in this film. It gave the film a sense of humor and life. One element in the story that I want to apply in my future works was the use of facial expression. I love the way they were used and I really want to become a master in the area of facial rigging. One element in this project that I have already learned how to do is texturing and rigging the body as a whole. I enjoy doing both of these. Despite no dialogue, the creator told the story well using facial expressions. While 3 characters was enough to tell the story, I would've liked to see some bystanders in the story. I am curious to see how pixar would change the story then. Overall, I really enjoyed this Pixar short and it will be considered one of my favorites. I still remember watching this short after 10 years and I still really enjoy it. If you haven't already, give it a watch.
https://vimeo.com/15914491