Introduction
This week, I defined what type of rig I wanted to use for my animation and I also started shooting some reference videos to help me pose out my character.
Customizing my Character Rig
Original Rig (Animation Mentor)
I downloaded the Steward Rig from Animation Mentor, as I was looking for a friendly and cartoony character.
The rig I chose has limited facial expressions, since I wanted my animated artefact to specifically focus on how the body can communicate an idea and feeling.
Customized Rig (Mime)
I edited the textures and colors to convey the idea that the character is a mime as they are known to use their body to express an idea.
To do so, I had to unlock the geometry layer and select the faces individually to change the colors.
Shooting Reference Videos
In order to start blocking my animation, I created some reference videos based on my animatic. In the following recordings I only focused on the movements of the main character.
Part 1
A creature appears out from a bucket and gets the attention of the character. However, when they inspect the bucket it is empty.
Meanwhile, a creature appears from the back and when the character sees it, they start running into the next room.
Part 2
The character enters into the room next door, and when they think they are safe, they realize there are more creatures observing them.
Part 3
The character crawls back into the main room and looks around to see if the first creature is gone.
After inspecting the room, they feel relieved as they think it is empty.
Finally, the character leaves the scene, failing to notice that a creature is attached to their back.
Further Thoughts
In the following weeks, I will import these reference videos into my Maya file and retime the clips I recorded. I will also create a previs animation to integrate the creatures into my scene.