Scene 12

Another scene where I felt facial expressions were especially important. This is the scene where Tizz faces a moment of doubt as she realises the scale of the obstacle she must overcomes in order to achieve her goal. It's here she needs to show her resolve to continue with her plan no matter what, despite the obvious impending danger, and the only way she has to do that is through her face. As usual I started animating the body first, splitting the scene into three sections: the initial jump, the lok back, and the turn to face the pylon again.



It was here I realised that the original three keyframes I had planned from the animatic wouldn't be enough to properly convey her resolve, she needs to look up at the pylon again after staring at the bottle to show the viewers exactly what she's intending to do.



Even after adding in the extra action of looking up at the pylon again at the end, I found that it still wasn't quite enough... The scene lasts too long for her to simply stare statically at the bottle in her hands for several seconds, it looks stiff and unconvincing. So in order to properly show her inner conflict and frustration with the thought of missing her chance to capture lightning, I've added in her raising the bottle to her face slightly with her eyes twitching angrily (inspired by my housemate Lucy!). I also added a little secondary animation to her hands and the bottle, making them shake slightly to show how tightly she's clutching it as though she's mentally telling the lightning there's not way she's letting it escape. While this took a lot of extra time I didn't have to spare, I really feel it was worth it as she looks so much more alive now... It really is like she has a mind and soul of her own (at least to me), and it's a joy to watch her.



Started adding some coat animation, though unfortunately I won't get time to finish it due to spending the extra time on her expressions... but if the two, I feel the expressions where more important in terms of character acting and getting the audience to empathise with her.



Added the lightning into the background so she has a reason for jumping and looking back. The lightning references from my earlier post were a great help here.



Background added.