This new shot I've been working on (instead of the Borodin shot who got postponed... I'm not sure of the acting on that Borodin shot anymore, it's interesting, but I don't believe in it, in the character first of all, and it's a tough shot...) is taken from Pirates of the Caribbean I, and I've added a little bit of Jason Nevins vs Cypress Hill - Insane in the Brain beat, just to make it more insane, and make Cousteau (Johnny Depp) look like he doesn't care much about the whole situation, he's dancing and explaining things in a cold, lawyer-like manner. You'll see this in his facial animation. No facial yet, this is just a playblast.
The main problem with this shot was in keeping the head level, and the movement as smooth as I could, so that his dancing doesn't make the facial animation impossible to read. It's hard... I had all the arcs really smooth, but that wasn't enough. I realized that it's the 2D shape moving on the screen that has to not have pops, no abrupt moves.... and that's so hard to correct. Articulations are easier to smooth out, but the overall shape, and the main elements, like the head... to flow well from a 2D point of view, on the screen... that's hard. So I'm not sure how smooth I've made it, or how much smoother it should be... or what are the exact parts of a pose that I should keep adjusting to make things flow better... but I'm starting facial animation anyway, and see how well it reads. There is no eye animation yet, so you might find things a bit hard to understand, acting-wise.
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