Artefact Three

07:36 Research Module 0 Comments

My third Artefact explored using blinks to convey emotion depending on the emotional state in which the character is feeling. Through further research into the topic, I came across some questions that are useful to ask yourself before delving into blinks knowing nothing about them. A couple of these were what is my character’s emotional state right now? What are they reacting to? How do I blink when I feel that way? Etc. If a character is sad, nervous or shy then he/she/it will blink more and if a character is angry, curious or bored then he/she/it will blink less. I also studied how to key frame a basic blink and an organic blink to see the differences between the two. After this knowledge and questions it was easier to be able observe people to see how their blinking reacted in the certain situations. For this Artefact, I chose a clip from ‘A Disquiet Follows my Soul (2009)’, I felt it had a lot of potential for expressing the character’s eye, as it is quite sad, she’s confused and she’s also talking about death. I felt it’s a clip for a strong subtle facial animation with less body language.

When speaking about more blinks due to sadness and less blinks due to being angry. I believed I would gain a better understanding and response from the audience if I used a more emotional clip, as there are more blinks to be used which enables me to test my timing and spacing when capturing the emotion. It becomes more of a challenge than it would be with animating an angry character with less blinks.

The feedback from the audience was strong in terms of the blinking relating to the characters emotional state. They believed the character and her thought process behind the dialogue and the amount and timing of the blinks worked along with the dialogue. Also, when she looks up, it shows a sign of hope in how she is feeling and then bringing her head back down shows the lack of confidence she has.  In term of animation, they mentioned that her head and shoulders were too stiff and in the beginning of the screen there wasn’t enough movement. Overall they thought the animating and subtleties were good quality and they could see the improvements in my animating skills throughout each Artefact, which was really pleasing.  

I found that there are certain factors with blinking such as when the head turns it can add anticipation. They can also add life to a scene if the character is looking to ‘dead’. But most importantly is the thought process and the change of thought is to why we blink. After my experimenting, research and findings from subtext and blinks, I would like to create my next Artefact using no dialogue, sound or cinematography to capture interior monologue.