Animation Workshop: Expressions

For the next stage of the brief I needed to create 4 expressions, using the expressions that I sketched quickly in my sketchbook, I edited the designs on photoshop using the pen tool.  I found that the sketches needed more exaggeration with the squash and stretch of the face as well as the shape of the eyes and mouth. An example of this can be seen in the second design on the sketchbook page, top left. I felt that the expression needed narrower eyes and the mouth didn't work with the eyes through how short and low down the mouth was. I redrew the design in Photoshop, using this sketch as a reference whilst I used the pen tool to create the rest of the head apart from the facial features. When adding the facial features I angled the eyebrows more into the eye and curved the bottom lid of the eye inwards to portray more narrow eyes compared to the previous. This was successful through the addition of extra lines on the bridge of the nose and underneath the eyes which show the audience that he is angry. I then edited the mouth by making it longer and adding a bigger crease line to work with the squashed cheek. This enhanced the angry fed up look that I wanted the character to express to the viewer through the use of the crease lines that work with the narrowness of the eyes. I continued this process with the other three expressions, using the sketch as reference and changing parts of the face by either squashing or stretching the face to exaggerate the emotion portrayed.

Sketch

Ink and reference sketch

The final expressions worked well with the character as each head could easily be related to the previous stance poses that I had created for the character. This can be seen through the use of the hair, face shape and the eyes. I found that the most enjoyable expression was the bottom left design however I did struggle with creating this expression through the use of the mouth and the eyes. I wanted the expression to be scared, confused and slightly disgusted at whatever the character had seen, I felt that not only this would be a challenge but fun to be able to create. I found using a mirror helped me with the shape of the mouth apart from stylising the mouth to suit the character however I wasn't too sure on the straightness of the top lip, so I decided to curve the top lip to see if this would solve my problem with the mouth. In my opinion this helped the expression well and worked with the type of emotion that I wanted the character to portray. I found the eyes were more difficult than the mouth through the size of the iris and how narrow or wide the eyes needed to be, I solved this problem by showing the confusion aspect of the expression through the eyes. I was able to depict this by making one eye wide and the other slightly narrow, making both of the iris's small to work with the scared part of the expression.

The other two expressions were easier than the bottom left, I wanted the sad expression to have a stretched face with squinted eyes to be related to the emotion, and the other being a happy and day dreaming expression. I felt that these designed worked successfully with my peers when asking for feedback as they were able to tell what each expression was. The only criticism that I obtained was the bottom left design with the position of the ear, it was too in line with the jaw. To solve this I moved the ear using the marquee tool to move the selection slightly higher, rejoining lines using the brush tool.

Final Expressions Lineart