Saix images from the animation

These are some images from the animation.

This is in the beginning of the animation. I placed the light "oblique to the surface" in order to show the "texture" better (Hedgecoe J. 1977, p.182), which I believe the illumination and the camera placement is very effective.

This is the first image shown to the character. I created it using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. The illumination is not very efficient because it is a little bit weak.

This is the second image shown to the character. I created it using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. I believe that the illumination is weak, as it is the same as in the above image.

This is the character who shows no reaction to these images. In my opinion, the illumination is successful on the character because it is not very strong or weak. However, the wall part behind him is very shady, which makes it not effective enough.

The character goes closer because of the box image, which I created using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. The animation of the hair is very efficient, because they are moving correctly, following the movement of the character.

The image of the empty, open box, which I created using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, goes ontop of the others and the character goes back a little bit. Additionally, the intense, first sound of the quote matches with the movement of the last image, which makes it successfull. The lighting is very effective, but the corner is very weakly illuminated.

This is the character talking. The animation of the face is very sucessful, as the correct muscles are moving each time.

This is the character who continues to talk. In my opinion, the less effective part of the mouth movement is when the character says the letter "o" or making the sound of "ooh", similar with this picture.

I believe that this shot is not very effective, because I rendered a small amount of images, making its duration short to read comfortably.

This is the character in the end of the animation. I believe that the expression is very effective because it manages to portray him sad.

This project was my first time making a character talk. I have learned that the keyframe of the character starting saying the letter or sound, should be one or two frames before the actor begin saying the respective letter or sound. Additionally, I realised that I have to make the mouth starting to be in its natural position while the next sound or letter is beginning to form.
I believe that the animation of the face is very sucessful, as the letters and sounds are synchronized with the quote. Additionally, the muscles of the face are moved correctly with the mouth and the eyebrows moving.
The style of the lighting on the character and its sold colours, reminded me the style of the series Paw Patrol.

Source: https://img.clipartfest.com/7fd6fd015b3b11dd7195b79781f82efa_chase-paw-patrol-clipart-paw-patrol-clipart-chase_3600-3600.jpeg



Reference

Hedgecoe J. (1977) The photographer's handbook. Dorling Kindersley, limited. London

Two Saix Renders

This is the render from the front camera.

In my opinion, the lighting for this image is very efficient. The "key light" (Derakhshani D. 2011, p.459) shows the face clearly. The "fill light" (Derakhshani D. 2011, p.460) is a little bit weak, that is why I believe that it is not very sucessful. The "back light" (Derakshani D. 2011, p.461) is not very apparent, but the overall illumination is effective.

This is the render from a 3/4 view.

I believe that this view is more sucessful that the previous one, because the shady part of the face is not very visible.

For the illumination I used the concept of "three-point lighting" (Derakshani D. 2011, p.459) and the "Figure 10.4" as a reference (Derakshani D. 2011, Figure 10.4, p. 460). Additionally, I put the lights "oblique to the surface" in order to show the "texture" better (Hedgecoe J. 1977, p.182). Also, I changed the radius of the main light because "smoother textures can be emphasized by harsh lighting" (Hedgecoe J. 1977, p.182), making it similar with the one designed next to the fifth picture of the page 85 and also based on that picture (Hedgecoe J. 1977, p.85). For all of the lights I used "quadratic" "decay" which "is the same as real-world lighting" (Maestri G. 2005, p.77). Moreover, I used the "Exponent" "2.0" "simulating reality" (Maestri G. 2005, p.95). I used Adobe Photoshop to make the images brighter and also lowered the contrast. The illumination and the solid colours of the character reminded me of the series Paw Patrol.

Source: https://img.clipartfest.com/89a008c3e0704215480df9bf1e0b0cc6_clipart-info-paw-patrol-rubble-clipart_288-340.png


References

Derakshani D. (2011) Introducing Autodesk Maya 2012. Wiley Publishing Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana.

Hedgecoe J. (1977) The photographer's handbook. Dorling Kindersley, limited. London

Maestri G. (2005) Maya at a glance. SYBEX. USA.

Saix blend shapes

These are the blend shapes I created for Saix.

This is the blend shape for the mouth correction. Due to the topology of the model, the mouth shape was very odd when it was opening. I pulled the vertices of the left and right edges of the mouth near the center. In that way, the mouth shape was better. I believe that this part is very effective, because the shape of the mouth was improved.

This is the blend shape for the letter "a". I pulled down the lower lip, so this shape in combination with the lowering of the jaw is not exaggerated, which makes it very efficient in my opinion.

This is the blend shape for the letter "e". This shape is very successful because the muscles of the face are also moved as the character says that letter. I realized that by using a mirror and saying the letter. I created the muscle movement by moving the vertices of the face.

This is the blend shape for the letter "i". This is similar with the letter "e", as this shape is very effective because the muscles of the face are also moved. I realized that by using a mirror and saying that letter.

This is the blend shape for the sound of "ooh". In my opinion, the shape is not sucessful enough, because due to the topology, it is not formed very effectively, as it creates a rough shape around the mouth.

 This is the blend shape for the blinking. Because of the shape of the eyes, the faces of the eyelids needed to be moved down a lot. I believe that this shape is not very efficient, however, the animation of the eyes closing and opening will be very fast, so the viewer will not notice it very well.

This is the blend shape for the sad mouth. In my opinion, this is very well-structured, becaue the correct vertices were moved to create the shape and make it seem like the muscles of the mouth are moving.

This blend shape is for the sad eyebrows. I believe that the shape is sucessful because the muscles under the eyebrows, which have a unique shape, are moved. So, during the animation, both the eyebrows and the muscles under are moved, making the movement seem more realistic.

This is the blend shape for the eyebrows moving up. Similar with the sad eyebrows, the muscles under the eyebrows are moving with the eyebrows during the animation, making the movement correct, which makes it very effective.

This is the blend shape for the serious eyebrows. In my opinion, this is very sucessful, because the right muscles are moved under the eyebrows at the same time with them during the animation, making the movement very efficient. Additionally, I created the shape that is being formed above the nose, making the shape more realistic.

This is the blend shape for the letter "o". Similar with the "ooh" blend shape, the mouth is not designed very well, due to its topology. I believe that this shape is not very effective.

This is the blend shape for the letter "v". In my opinion, this shape is very sucessful, because when attached to the main model, the lower lip goes exactly behind the upper teeth.

This is the blend shape for the sound of "sh". I believe that it is not effective enough, because when attached to the main model, the lips go far away from the teeth.

This is the blend shape for the breathing. In my opinion, it is efficient, as the pose is in its extreme, and I used various values of it in order to make the character breathe.

This process was very effective for me. With the use of the mirror, I had the oportunity to see which muscles move in each letter and facial expression. In this way, I believe that the formation of most of the blend shapes was very sucessful. Additionally, I also had two books (Maestri G. 2005, p.123) (Rodriguez D. 2013 p.149) and the tutor's Powerpoint as a reference for the blend shapes which are needed, and their shape as well.

References

Maestri G. (2005) Maya at a Glance. SYBEX Inc. USA

Rodriguez D. (2013) Rigging made easy! David Rodriguez. USA

Fifth Dialogue from Film

This part is from the film "Jesus Christ Superstar" "2000" and the directors are "Gale Edwards" and "Nick Morris" (www.rottentomatoes.com).

The part is in the minutes 4:05-7:01 as the music ends. In this part, Jesus and Judas are arguing about the later who has to take his master to the Romans. The characters seem angry, strong, insisting on their opinions. However, in the end, they become weaker and sadder. I believe that the most interesting part of this dialogue is the intense depiction of the topic of Judas having to "betray" (Jesus Christ Superstar, 2015), with the movements of the characters, the music and the strong vocals of the two singers.

I had the idea to choose this musical from the book "Music Theory for Dummies" (2015) by Pilhofer M., MM, Day H. 3rd Edition. New Jersey, which I have with me.

References

Link for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxd0RBEXGWg&index=16&list=PLcjhIRNyAuvFZe2anv7CIk4PpaloSel7b

Information about the film: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1103587_jesus_christ_superstar

Pilhofer M., MM, Day H. (2015) Music Theory rof Dummies. 3rd Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New Jersey.

Fourth Dialogue from Film

This part is from the film "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" "(2003)" and the director is "Peter Jackson".

The dialogue is from the 3:35-4:52. The main character, Frodo, acts very tired, also his voice sounds broken as the volume of his voice is reduced sometimes. Sam acts is very exhausted but also more sad. His voice is weaker as he cries. The most interesting part is the acting. In clearly shows the hard times these two characters have passed.


Source about the film: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lord_of_the_rings_the_return_of_the_king
Source of video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egd80X6sHCg

Third Dialogue from Film

This is the third dialogue from film.

It is from the Kingdom Hearts game series. This part is from the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5, Kingdom Hearts Recoded.
It begins from the start and ends on the minute 5:41.
Data Sora, the protagonist, is talking with Data-Roxas. The main character seems calm and positive. His voice is more cheerful, especially in the end of the dialogue. The other speaks more seriously and mystic. His voice is more silent and hoarse. Addtionally, the animation is not very expressive, as it is based on the anime style. The most interesting part is the topic, because it is about unfairness and the feel of "pain" (iMackshunGamesHD, 2015) for people you care about.



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqsPMySFG74
Video that made me think of selecting this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYbuzz-pN08

Saix Skinning

After I made the correction to the rigging, I did the skinning again.

This is the rotated waist joint. Even though the vertices above the joints were moved my their respective joints, the deformation was not smooth. In order to achieve better deformation to the body, I used the Smooth mode of the Paint Skinning Weights.

I posted the elbow as my tutor did in his own tutorial. For the sake of better deformation, I used the Smooth mode again and painted near the elbow, making the influence from both shoulder and elbow joints on that part.

The problem with this skinning was the deformation of teh fingers. As the fingers bent, they did not make a curved shape like this, but they were more blocky. For this reason, I used the Smooth mode, making the influence in the parts of the creases from both joints where these parts where close to.

In the skinning before the rigging change, some parts of the fingers turned black during the fist. The Smooth mode I used for the above reason solved that problem.

Thanks to the change I did in the rigging, now the mouth was able to open.

For the hair, I selected the vertices which were ontop of the joints and added them in their respective joints. Additionally, I used the Smooth mode to impove the deformation of the hair.

I believe that the skinning is sucessful, because, as the joints rotate, the deformations are smooth enough. During this process, I learned that the Smooth mode in the Paints Weights Tool should be applied to have better bendings. I also used the book of Rodriguez D. (2013) as a reference for the skinning.

Reference: Rodriguez D. (2013) Animation methods: rigging made easy! David Rodriguez. USA