Video on acting out Severus Snape saying, "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?", to Harry Potter (camera).
There are some errors that I have to admit that I've committed. My lip sync wasn't really in sync together with the given sound file and my last action was a bit to exaggerated. Still, the overall idea was there and the poses were detailed enough for me to use them as a video reference for my blocking exercise. The sentence that was heard in the audio file was by the famous Severus Snape talking to Harry Potter, saying," You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?" With that, I tried many different ways to show the emotions and weights in this sentence, also according to the real acting seen in Harry Potter the movie.
Similar to the previous exercise, I've taken screen shots of the entire video, blocking my actions that can be used in animation. This is the starting position.
My arms started to move as I turned, as if looking at Harry Potter saying, "You ...". Body is slightly slanted as well as the script went on.
As my body continued to turn, my arms raised higher, directing at the camera as if Harry Potter was standing there. At this point, the audio file reached, "You dare ... ".
Secondary actions could be seen here as my legs moved together with my body as I turned face to face with the camera. The audio file had reached, "You dare use ...".
Using my arms to help in the acting of the audio file, I was having the mindset of Severus Snape's slow and evil talking style, with his movements always swaying, and fast at times when he's agitated. My leg lifts off the ground as I started walking towards the camera. Body leaning towards the stationary foot. Audio file: "You dare use my ...".
At this point, my entire body is facing straight up with the camera, as my hand continued to move but slowly moving downwards, together with my leg stepping forward towards the camera. Audio File, "You dare use my own ...".
In this block, my head is facing up in the air, but my eyes still locked at the camera, giving some anticipation in the sentence/words that are going to be said after. Audio File: "You dare use my own spells ..."
In this image, my face slants sideways while talking to show a questioning tone as the Snape asks the question. My leg came to a complete stop, having my body still moving forward towards the camera. My other feet is preparing to leave the ground as well. Audio File: "You dare use my own spells against ...".
Over in this scene, my hands are placed on my chest, indicating and stressing on the word "me" as the audio file continues to play on. Audio File: "You dare use my own spells against me ...".
Audio File: "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?"
This is the very last scene of the entire audio file. Hands are opened wide, anticipating an answer from Harry Potter, and head tilted sideways as I asked the question, providing the mood to be there. My face is kept serious to show the coldness in the voice of Severus Snape. Body leaning to one side as Secondary Action is seen. I found out another mistake that I actually made in this blocking exercise. My right arm didn't really move much throughout the entire acting, except this last scene. It would better blocking if more body movements were made when videoing this, but I kept having the mindset of the movie itself, that Severus Snape isn't someone that moves much and talks with swaying body postures in a very weird and slow way.
After completing this exercise, I was assigned to continue on with Exercise 2. Exercise 2 is like a continuation of the blocking exercise in 1B. Given with all the blocking images of the audio file, "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?", I was tasked to block in all the key poses in Maya using a full body rig. Recommended by my friends, I decided to use the Norman Rig that could be obtained from this website: "http://www.11secondclub.com/resources". Norman Rig is a remarkable piece of model that has many controls, to the point that I had to search online and ask help on controlling the different parts of him. The guide to Norman Rig could be seen on this site: "https://sites.google.com/site/normanrig/". Really appreciate the creators of Norman Rig to actually provide a full detailed information about the rig so that all the parts of Norman could be utilized effectively for my given assignment. After a few days of working in Maya, I completed the assignment that could be seen below:
Animation for Severus Snape saying,"You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?" to Harry Potter.
Although the task was to just block in the different key poses by using the video reference and image that I've acted in the previous exercise, I decided to take one step further by animating the entire video with the imported audio file.
At first, it was really difficult as Norman Rig is quite a complex one to understand. There are so many controls that I spent quite awhile to understand and learn them. I began by looking at the images of me acting out the audio file, and slowly animating the model, body part by body part. After that, I shifted the poses to different keyframes so that the poses were aligned together with the audio file. Then, I started doing the tedious movement of his lips and jaw, lip syncing together with the audio file. I must admit, Norman Rig has really great controls for his mouth, that really display a good amount of different kinds of effects that I want to have. Then, the eyes and facial expressions were put into consideration, such as frowning faces and surprised moods that the audio file delivered. With the given great controls, I was quite pleased with my final result of my animation. Included tongue movements to match together with the words that ended with a L and eye blinks to make the animation more realistic. Though I must admit that I didn't really do much in the graph editor, just some minor changes here and there, I'll try to edit the animation as soon as time was on my side.
In conclusion for these exercises, I really enjoyed doing something that stacks on to help the other following assignment. It's like taking one step at a time and I'm actually completing something that I'm quite pleased about. Honestly, if it wasn't with the help of the video reference of myself acting, the animation would have been a dull and unsatisfied one. In the website of, "http://www.11secondclub.com/resources", there is a section where by people upload different videos of their animation, using the exact same rig, "Norman Rig". I was inspired by the animations that could be done with the exact same rig that I'm using. The different poses and how they match together with the sound, together with different camera views seen in Maya, their animation was plain awesome. Furthermore, with the knowledge of past exercises, I didn't really have much trouble with the animation except about understanding the controls found on the rig at first. This actually thought me a lesson as well, that I have to really understand my rig before I start animating it. Or else, I'll really miss out some important controls that I can utilize to make my animation into a much better one. Though really satisfied with it, I know there are still tons of room for improvement to go, and I'm willing to try and be better each and every time.
At first, it was really difficult as Norman Rig is quite a complex one to understand. There are so many controls that I spent quite awhile to understand and learn them. I began by looking at the images of me acting out the audio file, and slowly animating the model, body part by body part. After that, I shifted the poses to different keyframes so that the poses were aligned together with the audio file. Then, I started doing the tedious movement of his lips and jaw, lip syncing together with the audio file. I must admit, Norman Rig has really great controls for his mouth, that really display a good amount of different kinds of effects that I want to have. Then, the eyes and facial expressions were put into consideration, such as frowning faces and surprised moods that the audio file delivered. With the given great controls, I was quite pleased with my final result of my animation. Included tongue movements to match together with the words that ended with a L and eye blinks to make the animation more realistic. Though I must admit that I didn't really do much in the graph editor, just some minor changes here and there, I'll try to edit the animation as soon as time was on my side.
In conclusion for these exercises, I really enjoyed doing something that stacks on to help the other following assignment. It's like taking one step at a time and I'm actually completing something that I'm quite pleased about. Honestly, if it wasn't with the help of the video reference of myself acting, the animation would have been a dull and unsatisfied one. In the website of, "http://www.11secondclub.com/resources", there is a section where by people upload different videos of their animation, using the exact same rig, "Norman Rig". I was inspired by the animations that could be done with the exact same rig that I'm using. The different poses and how they match together with the sound, together with different camera views seen in Maya, their animation was plain awesome. Furthermore, with the knowledge of past exercises, I didn't really have much trouble with the animation except about understanding the controls found on the rig at first. This actually thought me a lesson as well, that I have to really understand my rig before I start animating it. Or else, I'll really miss out some important controls that I can utilize to make my animation into a much better one. Though really satisfied with it, I know there are still tons of room for improvement to go, and I'm willing to try and be better each and every time.
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