Artefact 1

To create this initial artefact a sound clip was used in order to aid the creation of a short character animation; the clip was taken from a famous film called ‘Manhattan’ starring Woody Allen. The purpose of this artefact was to demonstrate what could be achieved using a sound clip for reference whilst animating, combined with previous experience and knowledge of animation. The ‘Max rig’ was used to animate the character performing with the sound clip, which was very easy to work with.

The animation intended to represent a similar tone to that of the sound clip, which consisted of a man (Allen) arguing with another character in the scene. It is clear from the sound clip that he is distressed and upset with what he has recently learnt and is expressing his feelings to the other character in the scene. The facial animation was synched with the audio initially, focusing primarily on the mouth movements to begin with and continuing with the rest of the key facial features including the eyes, eyebrows and head movements.

After the face was correctly synched with the audio clip it was time to focus on the character’s body. It is important to note that throughout the animation process the ‘Straight Ahead Action’ methodology was followed in order to animate the rig, among other principles of animation. Particular attention was given to the arms and hands in order to create a more dramatic performance that would complement the tone of Allen’s voice in the sound clip; thus creating a more convincing character portrayal. Effort was made to animate the hands to gesture at appropriate times, flowing congruently with the pugnacious tone and rhythm of Allen’s words.

Artefact 1 has shown that a fairly convincing performance can be created using a small piece of reference material and an understanding of Disney’s principles of animation. Clearly there is much room for improvement and Artefact 2 will endeavour to help make improvement possible through the examination of the original video footage from the film Manhattan.