This project was a study in the effects of sad facial expressions in an animated 3D character, and was created in connection with my 5th semester project together with 4 other students.

The effects was studied by creating a short animated movie featuring a single character, and to examine how different degrees of increasingly sadder facial expressions would affect a target audience, three different versions was created with varying sadness as the only variable.

The project also served as a exploration in 3D modelling, rigging, and animation, and even though the end result was nowhere near movie production quality, it was a very rewarding experience.

Process

Personally I was responsible for the character, including texturing, rigging and skinning. I used a nude base character and added details to it in Mudbox. I added texture, rigged and skinned it in Maya, which also was used to animate and render the three movies.

Close-ups of the head rigging

 

Finally some screenshots from the final render

Others who were involved in this project:

Sabah Afzal
Vibeke Langaas
Mikkel Rasch Nielsen
Christian Grotum Due Østerbue