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Monday 30 December 2013

Pre-Production: Phil.. I mean Bernard Expression Sheets

Hello Everyone,

I have a chain of posts backing up I am just trying to get everything ready in the right order here. I have one model totally made and completely UV Mapped I just have to find the right moment to post it up. The posts that will follow will be more epic but I have to get the skeleton turnarounds posted and the final turnarounds I used. Of course there have been a couple of delays here and there but I am aiming to have all of this final 2D stuff out of the way so I can fill this blog with 3D bliss. Sammy and Chrissie have been patient but if everything goes to plan we should be okay by next week!

For those of you that do not know next week is the deadline for our minor project which is when I am aiming to have 4 complete character models ready for rigging and eventually production. Obviously I have a couple of questions for Alan when we return before going into Rigging mode but I'm hoping any issues will be minor. I thought I would conclude the expression sheet array with the last of our 4 characters "Bernard" which is Barnabas's dad. I have been told to prioritise his miserable side due to our narrative but I couldn't resist doing a couple that shows he isn't always a grumpy gus!

So lets get down to my final array of expression sheets... you know him as "Phil"... whoops I mean "Bernard".


I kept most of Bernard's expressions to the darker tones but I did break free from it which gave me time to explore some of his other facial activities. "Annoyed" and "Angry" were directly what Chrissie and Sammy saw so I indulged my "Thinking" expression. I actually think this one goes across all of the characters. After you do the basic emotions its hard to knock down more, I wanted to fulfil the 12 expression quota. Of course Alan and many like you will probably call me crazy and this is unnecessary but I liked to do it... If anything it made the others more explorative.



These 3 are my favourite mainly because it really does show a contrast of the facial muscles. Each face is worlds apart different and of course I got my emo eyes with the "Slight grin" expression. I know he isn't meant to be grinning he's meant to be nasty but even villains have moments of happiness (when they dominate the world and beat the hero maybe?). The "Furious Yell" expression is directly inspired from Sammy's animatic. The "Shocked" expression shows me a more dishevelled Bernard which is probably why I like it... its "The Angry Pooh Bear" of these expressions.


The "Blowing" expression actually made me laugh when I first roughed it out but I ended up keeping it mainly because I liked what I made his face do with it. Another expression which isn't supposed to work with Bernard is the "Empathetic". Again ladies I did this just to explore the expressions the face could do. I know we are portraying Bernard as the bad guy of our short but I wanted to see what I could make his face do. Also can we really say that Bernard and his Son never have any moments of connection? I don't know again this was my chance to explore the character a little more...


For the final 3 expressions I found myself going back to the roots of our discussions when we first started talking about Bernard. I remember a pipe was originally introduced and while we never see it, we did kind of intend for him to have a Sherlock Holmes pipe hence the "Sucking Pipe" expression. The "Look up" expression I attributed to him looking at Barnabas's art again a speculative expression. The most tenable is probably the "Passive Aggressive" expression it conveys annoyance and a slight villain attitude... It was a simple tip of the mouth adjustment... which also makes him look a little snobby... a good find to end on!

Now I feel as though I have suitably explored all of the characters and while this post was a little while coming I wanted to approach these before committing to the models. I wanted to get a bit more of a feel for the characters. I had fun playing with faces (first time in a long time). I am actually quite happy that I got to explore all of this and still have a little time. Christmas has been short for me but the last few years it hasn't been very memorable anyway... I took a couple of days to do some gaming but I haven't gone a day without doing something work wise... Hoping my creative partners have had a lovely Christmas though...

Anyway I think that concludes this post, keep your eyes peeled!

take it easy!!!
xXStItChXx

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