In simpler models, I would key everything together at the same frame so I would not be confused when I tried to move things around. Now I'm working with a character with a mouth, eyes, and full facial rig. Do I key the face controls along with the rest of the body, or do you re-block them on their own pass? What is a normal workflow?
Working with a new character is always intimidating (but exciting, as well, as you get to explore how that new character works, puzzle out new solutions for movement, etc.!), and jumping into your first "fully rigged" character is even scarier than normal.
I work just like the above -- I block in the scene in a "pose-to-pose" way, using my reference and planning as a guide, and saving keys on every body controller as I go. HOWEVER, your question raises a great point that I don't think I've mentioned in the past, and that is the fact that I do NOT save any keys on the face at all during this first pass at blocking. I just ignore the face completely, and in my mind, I imagine what the face will eventually look like.
Even with eye darts or blinks -- all that stuff I save for a completely separate pass. I don't know if that's the "normal workflow" or not, as everyone works in whatever way works best for them, but in my experience, doing any facial work in the first pass of blocking has a decent chance of being a waste of time. The body performance/timing might not be really locked down yet, and the facial emotions and thought-process needs to be very integrated with the acting choices, gestures, and body mechanics. You might as well wait until the body is really nailed down and 90% finished before jumping into any facial stuff, because if you end up having to change the overall body stuff, the facial stuff might all have to be scrapped completely as well. It'll save you a lot of headache in the long run, in my opinion, to hold off on the facial stuff.
Remember, the facial animation is the "icing on the cake," and if the emotions, actions, and ideas aren't communicating through the body language and physical performance, that should be a huge red flag for you that the scene is in trouble. The greatest facial animation in the world is not going to save your scene from poor body mechanics or bad body language...
So yes, in answer to your question, I save the face for last, and by the time I'm keying the facial work, expressions, jaw, and lip-sync - at that point, I'm no longer at all concerned with what frames my initial body-blocking poses and breakdowns were on. This is completely separate, and while it's very important to make sure the face is very related to what's going on in the body, it's very normal for the facial keys to be on completely different frames than the body keys.
Shawn :)
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9 comments:
This is such a great topic and really helpful.
I would to know a little bit more about having different layers with different timing.
One quick question!
Does this workflow could be applied to the wings of character? Different layer or maybe work on them at the end?
Thanks Shawn for another great topic!
-javier loredo
Hey Shawn, awesome topic! I was just struggling with that this moment.
Just a quick question.
Did you mean the lip sync is the icing on the cake, or the whole facial expressions?
I ask because sometimes it feels to me the facial expressions are as important as the body on acting shots. But I've heard the lip sync is usually the icing on the cake.
Cool!
Thanks
I've found that if I block out the main emotional face poses I want to hit at certain points it help me to create better body performance.
Shawn, If you don't block in any of the face until after you've blocked in the body have you found that you have to go back and change poses because the face isn't reading the way you'd like it? Or are you able to just know from experience how the face will work once the body has been blocked?
Thanks
i feel josh has an interesting question -
"
Shawn, If you don't block in any of the face until after you've blocked in the body have you found that you have to go back and change poses because the face isn't reading the way you'd like it? Or are you able to just know from experience how the face will work once the body has been blocked?
"
it seems like a possibility that when doing the facial, we need to tweak some poses so that when integrated with the facials, they convey the desired body language we had in mind...OR
if the planning is solid, while posing itself we will have an idea what facial we have in mind and while keying in the main key golden poses we would keep that facial in mind and do the posing accordingly..
shawn would love 2 hear you take on this ?
thnx! cheers!
francisco: The application of this workflow to the wings of your character depends on how important the wings are to the action that is unfolding. For instance, if your character is flying through the air and quickly changing directions, then it is likely that the wings are making that action possible and therefore should be a high priority for you to animate. On the other hand if that character is simply hovering in a shot where his body language and gestures are more important, then maybe it is better off leaving the wings for later. For each shot just ask yourself, "What are the most important things I need to animate in order to get my story across?" and you'll find prioritizing your animation will come a lot easier.
fernando, josh, @b: I think the workflow Shawn originally posted works well because of its efficiency. It's a layered approach that starts with broad brushstrokes (the body language) and works down to the nitty-gritty (lip sync). I made a mistake once in an earlier project of running through the entire lip sync of my character first to "get it out of the way." What I found was I spent an enormous amount of time trying to get it right before moving on. Imagine staring at a rig for hours where the only thing being animated is the mouth. There was nothing else to catch my eye as a viewer, so I was driving myself nuts trying to perfect the face when the physical performance was the real focus of the shot.
So yes, I agree there are certain times, such as in extreme closeups, when the facial animation may be the most crucial element of your shot, and maybe then it helps to block out the face first. But in general, a high quality animation stripped entirely of its facial animation should still do a pretty good job of getting its story across. On the other hand, if you were to watch that same animation and take away the physical performance, leaving only lip sync and facial expressions, you'd be left with a pretty lifeless animation.
Ultimately different shots will require different approaches, so it's important to be able to adjust your workflow accordingly. While pose-to-pose might work best for picking up a box, straight-forward might be better for a character wildly throwing a tantrum. I'm just a student myself, but I hope some of my experience helps you guys out.
Kevin thanks so much for taking the time to help me with the question.
I'll definitely be using this worklow when I get to the facial part.
Keep up the great topics Shawn!
-javi
Thanks for your input Kevin, unfortunately though my question is still unanswered.
I was asking about doing all the body blocking and then going to the face only to find that the poses no longer works because you can't read the facial expression in that pose.
Lipsync is the last thing I concentrate on because it all depends on how the mouth looks relative to the camera.
In the end though the way Shawn works is just one approach of many and since there are a lot of really good animators out there with different ways of tackling a shot it's worth trying them all to see which works best for me.
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