Project progress: Mouths and Rigs

I like the idea of labeling each progress report on the content rather than just giving it a silly number. It feels a lot more human that way. Anyway I have learned quite a bit this week, does this mean I made tons of progress? Absolutely not. In fact its quite the opposite. This week was weird because in all of my years teaching classes and being a student, I have never been this lazy. I believe it comes with the passing of my Grandmother and how this week was the week of the funeral. Either way let me share what I have achieved.

One thing of note was the rig I was working with, it did not have a phenome macro or vowel controller. So it led me to look at other rigs. The top 3 were my best contenders but I decided to stick with the rig I already have. The first one was great with how customizable it was, however with options comes complications. The second had exactly what I was looking for! A controller for the mouth (as shown in the image) That way I only had to keyframe one or two objects rather than 8, the problem is that the rig is a popular character (Link from the Legend of Zelda) which can kill the immersion of the scene or take away from the performance. Finally the last rig was too muscular, I am going for a father figure that is strong but not comedically strong (such as Jonny Bravo). So in the end I am settling with the rig I started with. It's important to weigh your options.

Next I broke the dialogue into pieces. Each chunk represents a shape change of the mouth, that way I can make the poses in an orderly fashion. I am excited to see this translate into Maya, I have always been curious about working with sound in the software.

Finally I explored an alternate shot. The first composition is fine but I was curious to see if I could do better. I prefer the new angle as it focuses more on the characters (such as the dad taking up more of the screen). While I should probably take more reference videos I am eager to get started on blocking, so hopefully the poses will read well with this alternate angle. If it doesn't I will simply use the first camera.