Week 4: Evaluating Reference

 For this week's portion of Senior Portfolio, I decided to take a step back before proceeding with the animation for 'Dipper'. I wanted to gather some more reference to really deliver the feel of a stressed and worn-out individual through body language before diving into facial animations. To get the best read of these emotions, I went to YouTube to get some references in short clips for this part.

In the first clip below, I selected this for the sharp and pointed movements at the screen. I want to emulate that type of jarred and pointed movement for Dipper when he's responding to Bill at the start of the clip.

Similarly, I chose this second clip for the hand and shoulder movements that I want to reference for this medium shot camera position. This clip in particular, I found to be very helpful as I'm able to have a clear visual on the hand positioning and expression that I'll be animating in the future for Dipper.

There's still a bit more specific reference I am to get, so I'll continue gathering and recording some for the upper body animation on Dipper. As for the animation for 'Bill', I'm satisfied for now how he's moving towards the camera, but I still needed reference for the walk and body language after. In this scene, Bill needs to come off as condescending, arrogant, and cunning. Like the villain he is.

Facial-wise, Bill won't change much from a smug expression except for the few extremes he'll have later on. I figured that gathering more reference for his walk would be a focus for now as he'll be doing a lot of that in this scene in particular. So as I researched some potential sources, I found this great clip of a 'Villain' runway walk that will provide just what I need for Bill.

Additionally, I was able to gather the props I needed for the scene that had relatively similar aesthetics to set up. The key props I found were the table, laptop (which will be animated), and the room interior. All models were found from CGI trader and will be credited on the final render post of this animation.