3 famous characters or people with expressive faces

Discuss 3 famous characters (or people) who have very expressive faces:

Jim carry: He is well known for his humorous and energetic expressions.  He often breaks out into an extreme comical outburst in several of his movies with a lot of expressive facial acting. (again, for comedic effect)

Simon Pegg:  Especially throughout both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, His characters express a wide array of expressions from dead serious, shocked, sad, anger and happiness.

Toby Turner (Tobuscus): A youtube comedian, Toby Turner often uses a variety of expressions naturally with his energetic comedic style.

Single Scene with Great Emotion and Acting

Discuss in detail a single scene (animated) which displays great emotion and acting. What did the creators do to make the scene so powerful, eg Light effects, pauses, camera angles:

The scene in Rango where Rattlesnake Jake first appears and forces Rango to reveal that he’s been lying and leave the town.  The sequences uses a dusk setting in an old western town, with fiery orange skies.

Pauses in the dialogue between Jake’s dialogue add dramatic tension as he is feared by the towns people and no one is willing to stand up to him. (He talks, and it is accepted via facial expressions of fear)  The dramatic interrogation-like situation leaves Rango morally defeated and he is forced to leave the town.

Defining Terms + Movie Scene with good storytelling camera angles

Definitions:

Continuity:  The state of being continuous.

Mise-en-scene:  The arrangement of everything in front of the camera.

Composition:  The arrangement of visual elements.

The into scene of Range where Rango is thrust out of his little lizard tank and intot he mojave desert is a particular scene that comes to mind, But it isn't on youtube so here is another clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI6984KMSPw&hd=1

Getting up-to-date + New assignments (Character concepts + Rough animatic)

Catching up:

Melissa Sharp's Story Idea

Concept:

Doing what has to be done
Doing what’s right even if there is no reward or praise for it

Plot:

Young girl has to fight demon-robots in secrecy to keep everyone else safe

Setup:

Modern-day times, any college campus setting

Deterrents:

-Robot demons destroying stuff keep her from getting average things done like schoolwork, maintaining a relationship, etc.



Sir Villarreal's plot points:

1-King sends his best knights to go slay a dragon that has been attacking the king’s village.

2-Sir Villarreal begs the king to let him help, king says “no”.

3-Sir Villarreal goes to the dragons cave to try and slay the dragon and finds all the dismembered knights.

4-Dragon knocks Sir Villarreal away mockingly because he thinks he is no threat.

5-Sir Villarreal gets a montage of him working on/ building something.

6-The dragon is lured out of his cave by a gigantic puppet of a girl dragon, which he runs up and kisses.
7-The puppets head reveals a cannon inside and Sir Villarreal lights it and blows the dragon’s head off.

8-Sir Villarreal returns to the king triumphant with the dragon’s head on a platter and is promoted for his efforts.

NEW STUFF!


Character Concepts for Sir Villarreal

Color Scheme Ideas

The Rough Animatic

or: http://youtu.be/lwSKxdpC4jY

Jumping the gun... again

I decided to start modeling the head of Sir Villarreal earlier today. Got the base shapes of the face and helmet done.  Hopefully he'll make the cut as the character for my project. (only time will tell.)

Work in progress.

Character sketches and story ideas (Now things get interesting)

Character Sketches:

-Melissa Sharp

-Leonard Calligan

-Sir Villarreal

-Sir Villareal's enemy... The Dragon

Stories:

#1

Character: Leonard Calligan

Concept:
-Impatient gamer determined to fight for the game he wants

Plot:

-Gamer buys a bunch of games

-He accidentally leaves the one he wanted the most in the game store

-Realizes this as the mall starts to close

-He has to fight his way past mall security to get his game back to play it tonight!

Setup:

-Setting of a mall, particularly in its video game store
-Mall is closing

Deterrents:

-Mall security turrets

-Hidden floor mines

-The mall cop


#2

Character: Sir Villarreal

Concept:

-Following your dreams

-Proving yourself

-Brains over brawn

Plot:

-A knight want’s to prove himself to his king, but he’s small and weak

-All the big knights slain by dragon that’s stronger than them

-Knight finds the dragon, which mocks the little knight because of his size

-Builds cut-out of girl dragon
-Dragon falls for the cut-out and rushes up and kisses the fake girl dragon
-Knight had cannon behind fake dragon and blows off real dragon’s head

-Returns to king victorious

Setup:

-Medieval England

-Castle

-Country side

Deterrents:
-Dragon’s size and strength
-Knight’s own weak little body

Aside from all this I created a makeshift storyboard template for whatever aspect ratio is used by HD720.  I'm guessing storyboarding will be in the near future so I'll be somewhat ready. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to all this!

Mood Board Assignment

1st attempt at a mood board.

These were more things I like. I couldn't really come up with "mood" related images. :\

What does someone else's character want assignment

Character: Joe

Thought up by: Kris Ashburn

What he wants: Joe would probably want helmet covered in camera lenses that converted the combined images from all of the cameras onto a screen in the helmet that lets him see in a 360 view around his head.

What’s stopping him: his own limited understanding of technology and his clumsy and very shaky hands would prevent him from successfully assembling anything correctly.

How he would try to get it: Comb the internet for do-it-yourself plans to build an all seeing camera lens helmet and get distracted by photo shopped people with eyes in the back of their head.

Character Profiles Assignment

Character 01

Name: Edgar Staten

Physicality:   not fit but not fat. Average male height, not tall but not short.

Style of Dress:   casual modern-day attire, t-shirt, jeans.  Beanie or Russian style hat, sometimes a light winter coat.

Background: Average family, mom, dad.

Basic facts- sex, age ethnicity, religion etc:    Male, 22, white

Family: Mom, dad.

Childhood: grew up in suburbs

Friends: gamer types,

Romantic Partners:  none yet.

Locations lived in:  United States

Occupation:  Student, studies metal working.

Personality:  laid back, kind of lazy, but will go out of his way for someone he likes.

Worst faults:  Often doesn’t finish things he starts

Habits:  Un-announcing what he’s about to do.

Favorites- food, sports, books, movies, TV shows, vacation spots, etc:   Sweet and sour chicken w/ rice.  He enjoys fights with nerf weapons and videogames. He also wants to make old fashioned swords in his metals class.

What does the Character love? :  His crush,  Emily Grant

What does your character keep in the refrigerator? The medicine cabinet? :  Fridge- Sprite, leftover taco bell.

What’s your character’s idea of a perfect day off?  Chilling with his crush and playing video games.

Character 02

Name: Leonard Calligan

Physicality: Skinny

Looks: short hair

Style of Dress: casual

Gestures: uses hands to demonstrate his ideas

Basic facts- sex, age ethnicity, religion etc: Male, 19, White

Childhood: spent gaming

Friends: all gamers

Occupation: student

Personality: random, energetic, quotes video games alot

Best Qualities: means well

Worst faults: a little clumsy

What does the Character love? Videogames

What does the Character hate? Homework

What does your character keep in the refrigerator? The medicine cabinet? Mountain dew and pizza

What’s your character’s idea of a perfect day off? Chilling with friends playing online videogame multiplayer

Extra: He often loses touch with reality, daydreaming he is a character in a video game, and in conversation will compare real life things with parts of video games.

Character 03

Name: Melissa Sharp

Physicality: fit

Looks: bad-ass

Style of Dress: Casual/ robot claw-gloves and boots

Gestures: slashing things into small bits

Other physical distinctions: she has claw-gloves and boots

Background: normal

Basic facts- sex, age ethnicity, religion etc: Female, 22, white

Family: normal

Childhood: normal

Friends: not many

Occupation: robot-demon slayer

Personality: serious, to the point, get things done fast and efficient

Best Qualities: looks out for others before herself

Worst faults: looks out for others too much

Biggest Fear: not being able to stop robot-demons

Habits: attacking things that take her by suprise

What does the Character love? Making things right and keeping humanity safe

What does the Character hate? Robot-demons

What does your character keep in the refrigerator? The medicine cabinet? Medicine cabinet: first aid supplies, stitches and other things to treat robot-demon endused wounds.

What kind of footwear does your character prefer? Robot claw boots

What’s your character’s idea of a perfect day off? Not having to deal with robot-demons and enjoy a day at the beach.

Character 04

Name: Captain Wright

Physicality: fit, tall

Style of Dress: combat armor

Background: military

Basic facts- sex, age ethnicity, religion etc: Male, white, 37

Childhood: Military training

Friends: fellow soldiers

Romantic Partners

Occupation: soldier

Personality: serious

Best Qualities: won’t back down, even when faced with impossible odds.

What does the Character love? Ensuring peace.

What does the Character hate? People who threaten peace.

What’s your character’s idea of a perfect day off? The day after a mjor victory that benefits hundreds of thousands of people.

Character 05

Name: Sir Villarreal

Physicality: Fit, tall

Style of Dress: medieval armor

Gestures: swinging a mace around

Background: noble family

Basic facts- sex, age ethnicity, religion etc: Male, 27, white

Locations lived in: the castle

Occupation: knight

Personality generous but fierce

Best Qualities: chivalrous

Worst faults: perhaps too loyal

Biggest Fear: dragons

What does the Character love? Being the good guy.

What does the Character hate? Not completing what he says he will.

What kind of footwear does your character prefer? Iron boots

What’s your character’s idea of a perfect day off? Surrounded by and getting to know the townspeople he fights for.

What’s your character’s favorite celebrity? King Arthur.

Character 06

Name: Gilroy Pibbles

Physicality: short, average weight

Style of Dress: business casual

Background: regular

Basic facts- sex, age ethnicity, religion etc Male, white, 30

Family: regular

Childhood: regular

Friends: regular

Occupation: accountant

Personality: very imaginative and immitative

Worst faults: daydreams too often

Biggest Fear: never becoming an actor

What does the Character love? Acting

What does the Character hate? Accounting

What’s your character’s idea of a perfect day off? Attending a premiere of a movie he acts in. (daydream)

Characters: Old & New

So yeah, I've been at this whole "3D" thing for two years now. So far I've enjoyed it and I can't wait to learn more. But up to this point all of my characters have been robots... why? Because I'm still pretty inexperienced with skinning, more specifically, painting skin weights.

But don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the characters I’ve created thus far. In fact I think its time for a family reunion.



Beep Bop Boop!

 




On another note, I’ve started brainstorming ideas for a protagonist character for my character animation class.

A SWAT officer... with a mace?!

That’s all for now. :P

Assignment 02

Rango from Rango – I like Rango as a character because he is trying to find where he fits in an unfamiliar place.  He largely discovers who he is but this is based on his good nature to begin with.  Eventually, he becomes the hero and does what is right after he misleads people into thinking he is someone he wasn’t, but eventually becoming genuine.

When I first saw the character, he was quirky and unsure of himself.  I like characters who are forced to become someone of importance or who need to step up and do what’s right, even if they aren’t defined or are bad to begin with.

Wikus Van De Merwe from District 9 – Wikus is another character who eventually becomes someone who steps up to do the right thing.  He starts off abiding by corporate rules and procedure which he has always known to be good.  After he starts to turn into one of the aliens he policed and evicted, he begins to learn of their struggle under the big, power hungry corporations.  Although most of his journey is for his own benefit, he ultimately does what is right over his own needs to become normal again.

At first I thought of him as a typical corporate worker. Just in it for him, possibly money, but with a hint of good, to help him and his wife.  But he also shows a kind of disregard for the alien’s lives. By the end of District 9 I was ok with him, rooting for him and then hoping his action will one day pay off so he can return to normalcy.

Scott Pilgrim from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Scott is semi-good from the get go. A kid struggling to keep a relationship but ends up letting situations get the better of him, by the end of his movie, he steps up and makes amends, and sets everything straight.  His actions weren’t for any greater good or cause bigger than himself, but he just wants to make everything in his own life right again.

When I first saw the character I thought he was kind of a nice guy but mostly in it for himself, kind of full of himself.  But by the end of his adventure, he’s an ok guy that I imagine a lot of people can relate to.

Assignment 01

Here is the first assignment.

Bio:

Miss Katherine Von Fluffyhead was once a part of the horde… of cats! Horded by some little old lady, Katherine now having escaped her prison hordes assortments of plastic toys which she keeps close at all times and fearing for their safety and nutritional well-being. (The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.) She is known to fear aliens and often sit on park benches feeding fake plastic flamingos while wearing a tin foil hat.

An uncomfortable situation:

If Katherine Von Fluffyhead were to accidentally find herself in a toy store she would probably freak out at all the voices she hears of the little toy’s cried for help.  The thought of small children getting to them and teething on their little heads would upset her to the point of tears.

Bio:

This particularly salty pirate sails under a flag of candy wrappers.  She undergoes a strange ritual with her stolen swag of sugary treats by melting down all the chocolate into a beverage which she consumes upon a good day’s plunder at the candy store. (She would tell you she stole the candy from the shop with cutlass held high and her smelting cup ready for its loot. But she actually stole the money from her mom’s purse and just bought it.) Yes this pirate yearns for adventure on the high seas, but she makes due with the highways and candy stores.

An uncomfortable situation:

Somehow mistakenly finding her way into the local health-food grocery store, she goes to the checkout lines to purchase… I mean, plunder the sweets but finds nothing but sugar-free gum.  Embarrassed at this horrific mistake, she hastily exits the store and loses her pirate hat on the way out.

Bio:

By day, he hides beneath a mild mannered beret, but by night he becomes: Ink-face! (I ran out of names…) a beacon of light in the crime-filled world of illegal underground tattoo shops.  Along with his side-kick: Regular Guy, he brings evil tattoo artists who re-use needles without cleansing them, and who sketch the Chinese symbol for bacon into the flesh of teens who don’t realize what it actually means, to justice!

An uncomfortable situation:

Ink-face unexpectedly lured into a tattoo removal shop by his fiendish arch-nemesis.  Ink-face panics and clumsily tries to escape through a window but hits the wall next to it.

Character animation class: At long last!!!

I've been waiting patiently for 3 years for this class, and it’s more beautiful than I ever imagined! Brainstorming for a story begins. (a story that I’ll literally have a minute to tell)

I want to base my story off of the gaming community/culture and videogames as a whole.  I have a vague idea of the base plot and want it to look like something out of a game.  Something along the lines of a hero rising up and fighting the final boss for whatever magical thingy he quests for/wants.

In my imagination (… :D …) I imagine the hero being a stereotyped parody of a ninja/super soldier/Scotsman or lumberjack . (For the sake of aesthetic comedy… it’s also subject to change)  The villain I imagine as some kind of evil, mustache-twirling, caped dude. (The name “Doctor Baron Von Evil-Satan” is stuck in my head thanks to red vs. blue.)

But these are just my base ideas, I’ll have to look into what makes videogames tick as a whole in terms of plot first before anything is solidified. (I’m a gamer, this won’t be hard.)

So, knowing me, I’ll probably jump the gun and start storyboarding my vaguest of ideas into a foundation for the real brainstorming sometime this evening and/or tomorrow.  In the meantime I’ll await my newly ordered textbook (which should help with crafting stories for visual storytelling) to arrive tomorrow and wait for an email I think my character animation instructor told me she would be sending with our first assignment. (Aside from making a blog.)

... :D