Character facial references

Now that I'm animating, I turned to some of my favourite films for ideas on facial expressions and acting. These really help get me thinking about how far I can push my characters, as well as how to express certain emotions.

Bir
Dash is a really great character study because he's a manipulative brat and cute at the same time - studying him has helped me loosen up Bir's animation so that he's not so angelic all the time.




Santosh
Looking at Elastigirl/Helen Parr helped me develop the mom into more of a character as well, instead of the stiff person I had in my storyboards. However, I've always found the animation on Elastigirl to be just a little bit awkward, so studying the animation also helped me dial into the elegance that I wanted in my character (of course, whether I'll succeed is another issue altogether).

Opening sequence

Shot notes

1. Shot 5 - Bir plays with Train
1. Pooya: Camera pull out looks weird, cut to scene 6 looks weird because of all grey
2. Sheila: Pause on mom's hand, her head looks mechanical, exaggerate head shaking
3. Christine: Moms hand looks float
4. Me: Redo Bir's flop down
   
2. Shot 6 - Ma, eh gaddi
1. Me: Do I need a wider establishing composition?
3. Shot 10 - Bir runs to train and is scolded
1. Instead of having him look up at the mom, have him continue to have his head down and just raise his eyes to look at her - i.e. more sheepish - or maybe he just leans away from her, a little afraid
   
4. Shot 13 and 15 - Bir peeks out from behind Mom
1. Sheila - Mom looks floaty
2. Me - Bir could dodge a crowd person in either of these scenes
   
5. Shot 92 - Bir takes cap off and looks at it
   
1. Me: Fix the part where he grabs the cap and also have the cap deform
   
2. Sheila: Train could accelerate out of station
6. Shot 94 - Bir turns and goes into compartment
   
1. Christine: Bir is floaty at end - have him pause for 6 frames after he turns

The train

My first pass on the train compartment:





Thoughts: work on matching the compartments to the locomotive, work on the tracks and get rid of the horrible ground texture

Animatic December 5, 2007

This is the animatic that I presented at seminar on Dec 5. I'll post the feedback I've received shortly.

Santosh update

I worked on her face quite a bit to make it less realistic and more like my storyboards.
I'm not sure what to do with her clothes yet...maybe she could have a sweater.

Bir Hair update