Final Face Morphers

With further tweaking and careful adjustments, I have been able to create my three main face expressions using the 'morpher' modifier..

This allows me to simulate different facial poses throughout my animation, as part of my design, this will have a major impact on the effectiveness of the way my character portrays his emotions.

The screenshot shows each 'clone' of the original head (far right) with an additional pose, which can be mixed to create several other expressions.

Character Face Experiment 2

After reviewing the result of the first attempt to animate the face, I went back to the drawing board and thought carefully how else I could approach this...

Previously I used the 'FFD' modifier to simulate eye expressions and movement and decided to try this method out for the facial expressions..



As useful as this tool can be, for the purpose of its task here the vertices were being overstretched and is not the effect I wish to display when animating my character. So unfortunately, the FFD tool is not suitable!

My next idea would be to try using the 'Morpher' tool. This is a simple animating tool which allows different vertice position to be copied by a 'parent' object from it's 'child' clones. In other words.. each clone of the original object will be a different shape and the original object can 'transform' itself to appear the same as a selected clone.



I began by experimenting with simple 2d images using planes and editable polygons to represent different facial expressions. The object on the far left is the base (with no modifier applied) and the object directly next to this on the right is the base object with the 'Morpher' modifer applied. Currently, this object has a mixture of expressions applied to it and can be altered using a percentage setting to define how much of each expression is applied via the morpher.

Character Face Experiment

So now i've done some research into how i want my character to communicate his facial expressions, I need to experiement with different methods of achieveing this pretty early in the development stage to discover what works best..

To start, I created a simple sphere and used the scale tool to modify its appearance to make it slightly taller..



I then created a copy of this shape, slightly larger than the first to act as the exterior of the face, using the 'see-through' setting under the object properties to see what im doing..



Next, I created a simple cylinder and positioned it across the front of the face. This will be used alongside the 'boolean' modifier tool to cut this shape out from the exterior sphere - effectively created an eye slot.



The result came out rather messy and some tidying of the vertices needed to be done before a usable shape was made.. Applying a turbosmooth to both spheres made the model start to look how I want the face to be shown on my character.



Then I wanted to see how the eyes could be incorporated into this design using materials..



As the image shows, this looks very messy and not the look I want to achieve.. I may need to consider using another method of creating the face or eyes to resolve this.

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To Summarise:

Pros:

• head and face can individually rotate

Cons:

• Eyes too rectangular
  

Magic tricks & Props

Initial ideas for the content of my animation include the use of hats (to pull items out of), which is a common magic trick. Other tricks may include levitating objects, making items disappear, causing objects to unexpectedly explode etc.

One of the main props I would like to use in my animation is a signature magician's item.. a wand, to which there are countless designs on the web to choose from..

Character Concept designs

Sketches of the character I will be creating can be seen on the 'Sketches' page. The drawings highlight different poses and expressions which will be developed during its creation.

Character Idea Research

I have thought about designing a 'Wizard' character for my animation and remember watching various programs as a child that I can relate to in terms of a cartoony effect...

Character's Face



The 'newspaper ninjas' from dexter's lab have a unique facial expression design where the top of the eye slots of their balaclavas act as eye brows and have a significant effect on their facial expressions..

Another form of this design can be seen in the game.. Mega Bomberman..



Appearance & Clothing



In terms of appearance and clothing - one of my favourite video games features a character called 'Veigar' who is in fact a sorceror, just lacking on the height front! I thought this would also be a good addition to my character's design, making him shorter gives the illusion that he is 'less talented' than say a magician who is tall.

For clothing, Wizards usually wear the traditional robe and hat. The game 'Magicka' has a unique character design wear clothing makes up most of the character model (faces are hidden beneath a hood)



In relation to clothing and animation, there is an animated character called 'Magical trevor' where his hands are hidden under his sleeves and only ever appear when he lifts his hands up sometimes.. as the middle screenshot shows.



The design is very simple, yet effective in showing the character's personality in an entertaining fashion.