This week I animated the face from the reference, using the head model I made last week and trying to recreate the mouth shape of a person speaking to the reference frame by frame.
We also animated a continuous movement. I chose a reference that I liked, drew the keyframes in 2D, understood the dynamic structure of each frame, and then animated it in 3D.
First, I found a video, rendered it as a jpg sequence in AE, imported it into Maya, and used the image sequence while importing the audio file into Maya.
Next, an animation of the blend shape is created frame by frame with the mouth shape.
Firstly, the timing of the opening and closing of the mouth is good, as most of the movement of the jaw is when a person speaks.
The next step is to make the mouth shape according to the reference.
This person does not blink, but when a person speaks, not only the mouth move but also the muscles of the face and the eyebrows, so the eyes, nose, cheekbones, cheeks, and eyebrows are animated separately.
eyes
nose
eyebrows
cheek
Final result
Motion animation
There isn’t a lot of skill in motion animation.
I import the reference into Maya, create the motion frame by frame, and adjust the curves.
This is the reference
And this is the 2D sketch.
And this is the final result.