Listening and Reaction shot

I'm working on this listening shot for Victor's class. Trying to focus on the character thinking. THOUGHT before ACTION. I have a little post-it note of that phrase on my computer to remind me to always put that in my work. :)

The shot is the audio of an over-dramatic girl confessing her love for her guy-friend. I am focusing on his reaction and the fact that he is NOT expecting this and NOT interested!

This is my first pass of blocking:

Notes: sR arm/hand pose to be more reflective of his relaxed attitude in the beginning. Also, adjust the eye direction in the beginning to seem a little more distracted by the other people in the coffee shop.

Movie Theater - Continued

I'm moving into polish for this. There's some things that I love about this shot and things that needed to be added like the smush of the face as she sinks into her hand.

 I'm ready to move onto something else. For a slight change of pace, working a bit more on the Jump from Jim's summer class. I only want to work on this for a week or so before moving on to something else. Then maybe a short dialogue.

New Shot... LAYOUT

I had this idea before settling on my "Ferris Bueller" head turn idea. I thought to see if it's something I'd want to do. I love running and use to do track & field in High School so I wanted to do a determined BADASS runner in the starting blocks.

Here's some inspiration images I found for this:

Here is my layout pass to see if it's possible. I'm still not sold on this but maybe I'll work on this another week, see how far I can take it then start something else. Maybe a short 4ish second dialogue or something.... stay tooned!

Fred Expression Test

In Victor's class we were tasked to do an expression test of Fred from Big Hero 6 using the Malcom 2.0 Rig since he looks very similar in design.

It was really challenging trying to match the super appealing drawings. It was a great way to get to know a rig quickly, trying out different controls to get the essence of the drawing. I learned a lot from this and still have notes to address. I'll get to that sometime this week. :)

Movie Theater Continuation.... Entering IP

I forgot to publish the work I did from last week. This shot is beginning to take form. I need to now flesh out the movements, fix spacing issues and track the arcs before I enter polish. I'll probably work a little more on it this week then put it aside to start something new - maybe another short head turn or under 5 second dialogue.

Head Turn

This was a head turn I worked on in Victor's class - I was tasked animate a head turn and go as far as I could within a week. Conveying personality and attitude in under 3 seconds.

Head Turn Test from Diana Martinez on Vimeo.

Something I learned from this shot is how amazing it is to work on short shots. It's so motivating to be able to get to polish so quickly and feel capable of finishing something.

I'm going to try and work on more smaller shots like this. Maybe even another head turn for BFA class since I have the freedom to create my own shots. 

Moving forward, I really want to try and capture "thought before action" and specificity in gestures throughout this next year. 

Movie Theater continued...

This is a deceptive shot for sure. Trying to make the hand/head relationship believable and authentic is confusing along with selling that she's falling asleep. There are a million ways someone could fall asleep with their hand resting on their face - it's a matter of finding the right one for her.

Earlier in the week - I lost my decisiveness when animating which caused me to slightly derail. (the above image is a representation of me this week) While I could add a snore, spit falling out of her mouth - it's not needed and is muddying up my intent and creating more questions than answers.

When this happened to me (yes, I admit - this shot is based from experience) - it was a lot more simple. My eye lids were heavy, REALLY heavy (which I need to sell more) and I didn't go into a full blown sleep, it was more of me catching myself and realizing someone had just walked by.

 Here's the shot as it stands right now:

Today, I'll do a "fuck shit up" pass (as Jim called it) where I'll spend an hour playing with my curves and seeing where I could add more interesting elements. :)