Artefact 01

http://youtu.be/Iz63qLwfrwU

Please watch the following video on the link above. Because I've used a sound clip which from Liar Liar and it only has a third party content licence i cannot embed it.

The purpose of the first artefact was to show a baseline animated performance through the context of lying, in this case, attempting to lie. The process of this was working through layer between the key poses. I started with the lip syncing, through the following layers:

1) Open/Close path.
2) Wide/Narrow Path.
3) Key Shapes Path.

Then i moved onto the Motion cycles. Initially i worked Pose to Pose shaping the key poses according to the key frame. This was worked over 2 or 3 times. Before finally running an expression path which went through 2/3 passes. Finally another few passes went ironing out any glitches or unsuitable motions.

The feedback was generally positive, which is pleasing personally as my second year animation was poor. Within the context of the research their were still aspects which could be improved, to create a better piece for a baseline performance. I feel it is important to mention at this point that the scene, (from the film Liar Liar) was not copied exactly. The sound was directly from their and the piece at the end where Jim Carey holds the pen up in the air was kept. I never intended to create an exaggerated performance, however, due to the intensity of the dialog it was inevitable that the piece would lead that way. This was an aspect, in hindsight, that i should of seen. However, the general consensus was that the trunk (hip/waist area) was too static, and the change of weight between motion was not sufficient. When the poses met their key points the body was too static, there was no follow-through between the weight which meant it lost its fluency.

It is clear that the trunk needs some work. It was also mentioned that the piece was too long, so the next piece will be a segment of the first and improved on, to create a better baseline performance, which will hopefully give me a platform to progress with the research.