Narrative: Animation and Editing Tests of the Forest Scene

These are a few scenes I've been working on today (and tonight) and have animated myself. When it came to the editing of the mother running into the forest we did not know where to start from so I took over to do some editing and animation tests. I must say I really had fun doing this and can't wait to do more. This is what I've got so far:

The Mother Panicking when she's surrounded by the unseen monsters and accepts her fate:




The Mother turning her head to a sudden sound she hears in the Woods:




A few camera angles of her running in the forest:

Narrative: The Mother's Expressions (Blendshapes)

 I think I have enough blendshapes here to make the mother look terrified when she loses her child. Now with Dom's proper texturing, we can start animating them. Exciting :)

Narrative: Tracy's Facial Expressions (Blendshapes)

I am amazed by the wonderful world of blendshapes. At last Tracy has facial expressions! They are not perfect but they certainly give this spark of life to her. I did as many blendshapes as are needed for the animation so I thankfully did not have to work on all the phonemes and visemes. Some of them didn't turn out the way I hoped but at least I got the basics down. All that is left now is the Mother's blendshapes and we can finally start animating them. This work is finally  paying off.

Narrative: Mother Progress (Legs, Feet, Spine, Head, Final Grouping and Controls)

It's been a long journey, but she is getting there. I had to go back to the tutorials over and over again and even put new joints in her legs which were not working correctly. There are still a few problems that need to be fixed like the skinning on the legs, the eyes that are not parented to the head properly and her thumbs (which do not work in the connection editor just like Tracy's). But I can say that I can finally move on to her face.

I am going to try and complete her before moving on to Tracy (fingers crossed) >_<

Narrative: Tracy's Rigging Process(Legs, Feet, Spine and Arms)

It's been a while since I updated my work on the Narrative characters as I've been trying to work on the Cartoon Character and then apply what I've learnt from him to them. I must confess, rigging is a lot more quicker and understandable the second time, and it should be even quicker the third time for the Mother. Of course, I've had a few problems on the way which took a while to correct but to be honest, they are inevitable. 

So this is what I've got of Tracy up till now. A few points to ask Alan about:

1) The file is very slow when the geometry is visible, how can I correct this? 

2) Can some skinning be corrected after the rigging is applied?

3) How can I make the eyelashes work on the facial rig (it is a separate geometry from the face)

4) The thumbs make a weird twist when I connect the joints to the rotates in the connection editor.