Character Performance

Over the past term I have had to learn to animate a character with dialogue which has been interesting and fun to discover and develop my skill in the subject.

So we started from the basics of character synopsis, learning primary blocking, learning dialogue to creating a jump sequence with dialogue.

The Jump:

I really enjoyed the start of this which was creating the character’s synopsis and showing his personality through 3D poses and 2D drawings. Creating a story in which the jump sequence is set was also enjoyable, deciding on why he was shouting ‘Hey! Wait for me!’

I found the process of the jump sequence difficult in the sense that I couldn't get my head around animating using the primary blocking technique and having to constantly change the graph editor. This caused me a lot of stress and I was close to giving up, so after a week of being stuck in the same position I finally decided to build up my courage to give it another go, however I had to eventually cram it all into the space of a two weeks work which was achievable but challenging.

Improvements I would like to make for future reference is to try and learn to finesse and get my head around the graph editor. I would like to improve my understanding of character movements using the 12 principles of animation to help this.

I would also like to improve overall on my time and management for future animation projects by starting work earlier, setting myself deadlines and simply change my lazy attitude some days getting rid of the ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ mentality.

Pod and Tom:

After a long time of trying to come up with an idea, I finally found a scene which is one my favourites with Johnny Depp from Once Upon a Time in Mexico, that i’d love to recreate. So I watched the scene over and over to extract the 15 seconds I wanted to animate and that would make sense without the before and after and that I would also be able interpret my own story into.

The Pod rig was amazing to find and work with, I really had in mind a fat, creepy monster looking thing to portray the Mexican in this scene and I had luck finding it. As I had said in my blog earlier I immediately thought of the character Dex from Star Wars, a big, bubbly but kind character and so I reversed the personalities also to match the scene of Once Upon a Time in Mexico where the character is suspicious and weird.

The rig had a slight complication of being basic, however, I have always preferred simple character rigs and therefor had fun working with the rig. The dialogue was quite hard so I also found it harder to animate the dialogue and show the words but I managed to work it out with ease and enjoyed doing so.

I also had a slight problem with the texture of the rig showing up shiny and bland in the render, which then I tried to dull down the textures but in doing so it started to make the character look a bit flat, and so I had to make a compromise in between the two creating a mid-point of bright skin and dull texture eventually working out nicely enough in the render.

I had been working with the Tom rig for a while, so it was great to change his personality around to suit the CIA agent, Johnny Depp. Animation his dialogue was great as he has a voice that sounds as if he is gritting his teeth so to exaggerate his voice was fun, and the character in general was suave which was interesting to exaggerate also.

Improvements i’d like to make to for future projects for character animation is what I’ve said before being what I call filler animation, which is animating the other character in the shot while the other is talking, so slight head and shoulder movements to keep the character alive.

Again time management has been a big issue due to my lack of determination and interest in the subject half way through the project, however I turned this around and eventually really enjoyed animating this scene even though I had to cram this in also. So for future projects I wish to be determined from project day one.

Final Animation:

This is the final render to my animated scene of my own interpretation of the opening scene to Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

I am please with the final outcome and I enjoyed animating this in scene in general. I also hope this to be professional enough to place in my portfolio and showreel for when I finish my degree.

Laugh.

The next shot reverses back to Pod grabbing the briefcase, and laughing with slight suspicion.

Couldn't find a briefcase, small enough.

This playblast introduces our CIA agent Tom, bribing Pod for vital intel with 10,000 dollars as asked for.

It was again interesting to animate this character as a different personality where I created a moody personality for him before, now his personality is more deceptive, secretive and wary, I suppose like the character in the scene.

Where’s the money you owe me that’s the reason i’m here?

This is the first part of the animation showing our first character Pod asking for the money for the information he is offering like in the movie.

Animating this character was fun and interesting as I haven’t worked with a fat character before nor have I animated dialogue that much either.

Scene:

I decided the lay the scene out in a dark room with a simple bar and a couple of stools.

The darkness of the room should hopefully set the mood of a dodgy deal going on between the two characters as shown in the movie clip.

Lighting:

I am not very skilled in lighting so I tried to create the lighting to imitate lights hanging from the ceiling quite low down, I tested a couple of renders and I also changed the gamma to 1.8 and it brought out quite I nice image.

Error: 

I decided to name the character Pod and in my head I imagine an ogre looking monster with a bubbly figure and menacing face.

So I search for free character rigs and found this one suited perfectly.

I started to play around with the rig and realised the face was slightly basic but just enough to animated the scene I wanted, allowing me to create a menacing but cowardly character.

Character Synopsis:

Name: Pod

Race: Unknown

Traits:

Grumpy  

Hot Head

Snob  

Boastful  

Competitive  

Jealous

Mean

Rude

Easily Scared

Greedy

Pod is a greedy merchant always looking for ways to have a one up over people for money and valuables.

He is a ogre looking monster that owns a small, run down bar in the middle of no where in Mexico.

In this story he has found a way to persuade a CIA agent to bribe him for information he has on another agent (Imitating the opening scene to Once Upon a Time in Mexico).

Once Upon a Time in Mexico:

Main Jump Sequence with Dialogue:

This is the main playblast of the jump sequence with the lip sync and finessed poses. I also created a camera to try and help make the story however, I found this a little difficult and was a bit fast.

This went well in the end however, there are some key elements that need finessing and I know I need to work on the spacing of my keyframes. I have also decided that I want to add another pose at the end to show that he has realised people are watching before he snaps into his usual snobbish pose.

Jump Poses:

Lip Syncing:

This is my first go at lip syncing my Tom character with the ‘Hey, wait for me!’ dialogue. I started with the jaw up and down movement first to understand the movement before the lips move, I then worked on the lips to create the main different consonants which are H,W,T,F and M. 

For the next part to my animation is to learn how to lip sync a 3D character, so in order to help me I looked up the basics and easy tips to learn how to achieve this.

This video below shows the principles of creating dialogue including movement’s to go with it.

This image below shows how to exaggerate the mouth, lips and face for different consonants and also the vowels in between these.

Key Poses:

These are the main key poses for my jump sequence with dialogue starting with Tom with his head held high, stubborn, and not willing to make the jump across this ‘river.’

Character Rigging: Leg

This lesson we started to create a rig for a character’s leg with a very simply structure of two cylinders for the calf and thigh and square blocks for the heel, ball and toes.

We start in the side view by creating a joint from the top, to the knee joint to the ankle joint to the ball of the foot and then to the toes. It’s good to label these joints and the IK handles later on correctly in order to organise your outliner and understand what is what.

We then create an IK handle from the top of the thigh to the heel so we can get that knee bend. Then an IK handle from the ankle to the ball of the foot to get that heel raise and then another IK handle from the ball of the foot to the toes to get that toe raise. These IK handles need to be set to Rotate-Plane Solver in order to rotate the x,y and z rather than just move in one direction.

After this, we then need to add circles controls that will move this joints and IK handles easier. You place a circle around the entire foot and move the centre pivot point to the heel so we get a good heel bend. Then another circle around the ball of the foot and toes and also change the centre pivot point to the ball of the foot. Circles are also added above the toes and the ball of the heel to control the raise toe and heel, they then need their centre pivots changed to where you wish these circles to control.

All of these circles and IK handles then need to be parented correctly together such as the heel IK handle to the heel raise circle control, or the ball foot IK handle to the toe IK handle and so on.

After these are correctly parented the circles created should be able to control the rig as well as the IK handles.

We then add another circle and parent and constrain it to the knee joint in to move the knee properly when the leg moves.

Thumbnails: Jump Sequence

These are a few thumbnail sketches of a jump sequence showing the key poses.

I also started to thumbnail the reaction of the character before he initiates the jump showing him reluctant to make the jump, being confused, scared and shouting ‘Hey, wait for me!.’ (The crossed out thumbnail was supposed to be him peering over the edge scared).

Character Poses: