Telling Tales// Strike A Pose! Part2

I must admit I did struggle to remain 'professional' when posing for references earlier today. I really did try and get 'into character' for the positions, but despite my determination to take this seriously it was no match for the giggles and playful insults from my friends. Non the less, I found the photo references that I snapped very useful. I already had a vague understanding of how the human body can move, or how the human body would balance itself; because of my previous experience with life drawing and anatomical drawing.

Before taking the photos that I would later use for referencing, I was suggested by my teacher to watch a few 'Charlie Chaplin' movies to remind myself of how important exaggeration is when portray movement; for example especially in silent movies. Chaplin was an amazing actor when it came to physical comedy, emphasising the most basic physical movement to really bring across the character he was portraying. Remembering all of this, I then began harvesting photos for referencing. I focused on emphasising my positions to attempt to confidently bring across what emotion I was protraying.

Below are the final posed models I produced next to the photo references…

Photo Reference

'Shame'

'Fear'

Photo Reference

'Exhaustion'

Photo Reference

'Shock'

Photo Reference

'Anxiety'

Photo Reference

When modelling the positions above, I also wanted to use the lighting to 'set the scene' for that particular emotion. For instants, with shame I positioned the lighting directly above the model; to imply a more incense focus on the character. I was inspired to position the lighting in this way because personally when I feel ashamed I feel like a very intense judgemental gaze is glaring down at me from above, which I also replicated also when lighting Anxiety. With Fear I positioned the lighting effect in a way that mimicked the head lights of a car, which is something I'd certainly be afraid of.

Participating in this small Maya task has surprisingly helped me familiarise myself further with the software, for example the basic quick keys for moving objects and rotating them have become second nature to me now. Not only within Maya but I've realised how important referencing is when working within the fields of animation. In the future I will defiantly take as many opportunities as I can to record/capture references to later use within my animation studies.