This week, I continued my weekly ZBrush sculpting practice while also learning about subtext in animation performance during class. Although these activities seemed unrelated at first, I realised that both contributed to a deeper understanding of character animation. The lecture introduced the difference between text and subtext. Text is what a character says, while subtext […]
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WEEK 10
Week 10 marked the final integration phase of this ten-week journey, and my biggest challenge was escaping what my tutors call the ‘bullet-point mindset’. In my early drafts, my paragraphs felt disconnected, reading like a laundry list of what different authors said, rather than a continuous, cohesive argument. To achieve a high-scoring Literature Review, I […]
This week, I decided to focus on sculpting a human skull instead of another character head. After completing my previous head studies, I realised that many of my proportion mistakes came from a limited understanding of the underlying structure of the face. Rather than continuing to adjust surface features, I wanted to better understand the […]
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WEEK 9
During Week 9, I shifted my attention toward the structural and formal mechanics of my Literature Review, specifically focusing on the precision of academic integrity. In British higher education, incorrect referencing can severely damage the credibility of an otherwise excellent paper. Therefore, I dedicated this week to systematically organising my sources using the Harvard Reference […]
Alongside my animation exercises this week, I started a personal challenge of creating one speed sculpted head in ZBrush every week. Initially, I saw this as preparation for my FMP, as my project will involve creating original characters. However, I quickly realised that sculpting could also support my development as an animator. One of the […]
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WEEK 8
Week 8 provided the most exciting theoretical breakthrough of my Literature Review process. While cross-examining my gathered sources within my thematic matrix, I discovered a profound scholarly standoff—a direct contradiction between two major academic camps. On one side, traditional live-action purists like Mascelli (1998) and Katz (2013) strictly demand physical continuity and geographical realism to […]
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WEEK 7
Assignment: Facial Poses Anim_Second Pass Based on the teacher’s feedback, I made several changes to the animation. In the first pose, I added small mouth movement on top of the existing eye movement. This made the expression feel more natural and less stiff. When changing from pose 1 to pose 2, I adjusted the order […]
This week, while improving my facial animation based on tutor feedback, I learned the importance of using offsets in character performance. For example, when a character looks to the back-right side, the eyes, mouth, and head should not move at the same time. I adjusted the animation so the eyes move first, followed by the […]
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WEEK 7
During Week 7, I fell into a dangerous trap: passive reading. I found myself simply summarizing the authors’ words and accepting their theories without question. I quickly recognised that this is a fatal flaw in British postgraduate education, which heavily penalises descriptive writing and demands deep critical reflection. To overcome this, I forced myself to […]
Facial Anim_Eyes Animation In this lesson, I learned that eyes are the most important part of facial animation. The main elements are blink, eye dart and eyebrow movement. The logic is clear: thoughts come first, then eye movement, and finally body reaction. Blink must have a clear motivation instead of happening randomly. It can show […]