Isica's Blog

Week 6 – Facial Animation: Eyes & Expression

In Week 6, the focus moved into facial animation, especially how eyes and subtle facial movements bring a character to life. Key takeaways include:

• Understanding that facial animation must feel organic, with strong attention to curves, flow, and asymmetry rather than stiff or symmetrical shapes.
• Learning that facial features are connected, where each muscle movement creates a chain reaction across the face.
• Paying attention to cheek compression against the lower eyelids, which helps create believable volume and adds realism to expressions.
• Studying eye animation as a key storytelling tool, including blinks, eye darts, and eyebrow movement. Blinks should reflect thoughts or attitude changes, not happen randomly.
• Practicing eye darts to show thinking and attention, ensuring the eyes lock onto targets and move with clear direction and timing.
• Understanding how eyebrows support expression, and how they interact with eyelids and eye direction to enhance emotion.
• Learning that animation follows a sequence of thought → eyes → body, meaning eye movement often leads performance.
• Applying these ideas by connecting multiple facial poses, focusing on which parts move first, which follow, and how timing (slow in/out) affects the transition.

Assessment 1: Facial Pose (Connecting Poses)

Pay attention to the order of movements between the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth. These elements should not change at the same time, but follow a natural sequence. Improve the timing and overlap, allowing different parts of the face to lead and follow, rather than moving simultaneously. Focus on facial curves and flow to avoid stiff or mechanical shapes. Avoid excessive symmetry, as it can make the expression feel rigid and lifeless. Aim for more organic and natural expressions, where each part of the face reacts slightly differently.

Assessment 2 : Assignment: Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Spline+Polish)

Assessment 1: Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Blocking Plus)

Feedback: https://syncsketch.com/sketch/4340DcPDFdzv/

Assessment 2: Facial Pose (Photo Ref)

Feedback: https://syncsketch.com/sketch/8gvnkaMSkZc5/

Maya Workflow & Technical Foundations

In Week 4, the focus shifted to strengthening fundamental Maya workflow skills that support clean and efficient animation production. Key learning points include:

• Learning how to adjust an object’s pivot correctly to ensure accurate rotations, transformations, and interactions.
• Understanding Camera Clip Distance, allowing the camera to display scenes correctly without objects popping in or disappearing.
• Using DAG Only to better manage scene hierarchy and reduce unnecessary clutter in the Outliner.
• Gaining a basic understanding of Color Space, ensuring textures and renders display with correct color and gamma.
• Reviewing parenting and constraints with objects, reinforcing proper methods for attaching, detaching, and managing props safely.
• Recognizing that strong animation relies not only on posing and acting, but also on a clean technical setup and efficient workflow.

Assessment 1: Facial Pose

Feedback: https://syncsketch.com/sketch/8gvnkaMSkZc5/

Key feedback for improving facial poses includes:

• Pay attention to facial curves and flow, avoiding stiff or overly straight shapes to keep the expression organic.
• Consider how the cheeks push into the lower eyelids, especially in stronger expressions, to create a sense of compression and volume.
• Remember that facial muscles are connected, and no part of the face should move in isolation.
• Each movement should create a chain reaction, where surrounding areas (eyes, brows, cheeks, mouth) respond naturally.
• Focus on maintaining organic deformation and volume, rather than simply adjusting individual controls.

Assessment 2: Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Blocking)

Feedback: https://syncsketch.com/sketch/4340DcPDFdzv/

Assessment 3: Stitch’s Tea Party

Story Structure, Acting & Technical Foundations

In Week 3, the focus expanded from basic storytelling into how story structure, acting decisions, and technical setup work together in animation. Key learning points include:

• Understanding story structure at different scales, from beats and shots to scenes, sequences, and full stories.
• Learning multiple narrative frameworks, including Three-Act Structure, Hero’s Journey, Five-Act Structure, Dan Harmon’s Story Circle, and Kishōtenketsu, and recognizing that different structures serve different storytelling goals.
• Realizing that story is driven by change, whether through conflict, consequence, or a shift in perspective.
• Applying story theory to animation through a 12-second acting and body mechanics shot, centered on a clear change of mind.
• Learning to express internal decisions through physical action, weight, timing, and body language, not dialogue or facial performance.
• Emphasizing clarity of intent, ensuring the audience can clearly read both the weight of an object and the exact moment the character’s intention changes.
• Developing technical skills through self-study, including parenting, constraints, locators, and parent switching, to manage object interactions cleanly and safely.
• Understanding that strong acting animation depends on both solid storytelling logic and reliable technical setups, supported by planning such as video reference and previs.

Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Planning)

https://syncsketch.com/sketch/4340DcPDFdzv

Feedback：

• A reason for her to give up resisting the stone is needed, such as her losing strength or a certain expression.
• References need to be taken to make the situation more realistic.

Previs – Hunter To Prey (Final)

In Week 2, the class focused on the fundamentals of storytelling and narrative structure. Key takeaways from this week include:

• Stories are built on cause and effect, not a simple sequence of events.
• A strong narrative connects beats with “therefore” or “but”, rather than “and then.”
• Characters should lead the story, with their desires and flaws driving the plot forward.
• Conflict is essential for drama and storytelling, including both internal and external conflicts.
• The SWBST structure (Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then) was used to clearly define goals, obstacles, and consequences.
• Storytelling is about motivation, choice, and consequence, which forms the foundation for storyboarding and visual storytelling.

Assignment 1 : Story Pitch

Once upon a time, there was a little bird that couldn’t fly. Every day, he practiced hard but still couldn’t fly very high. Until one day, a flood hit and the water level rose rapidly. The little bird gathered its courage again and tried once more. Finally, it managed to fly, soaring towards the sky it had long desired.

Assignment 2: Cinematography Analysis

Assignment 3 : Previs – Hunter to Prey

The gist of the story is that the hunter discovered a wounded monster and pursued it with vigor. He kept chasing it but unknowingly fell into the monster’s trap. In fact, the monster was feigning injury. The so-called prey was actually the real hunter in this entire scheme.

I collaborated with Yu Tang to design this animation. I drew the storyboards, as well as designed and produced shots 4 to 15.

5+5 Emotions

1. Understanding the Story Before Placing the Camera

Before opening Maya, the first task was to understand the storyboard:

• What is this scene about?
• What information does each shot communicate?
• What emotion or idea is the camera supposed to express?

The camera should never be placed randomly.
Every camera decision must serve the story.

2. The Camera as a Character

One of the most important concepts from this class is:

The camera is another character in the scene.

This means:

• The camera has a point of view
• The camera reacts to characters and events
• Camera movement should feel motivated, not decorative

In Maya, this translates into being very intentional with:

• Camera position
• Camera height
• Camera movement timing

3. Translating Storyboard into Camera Language

While recreating the storyboard in Maya, I practiced using fundamental camera language tools:

Shot Size & Framing

• Wide / Establishing shots to define space and contexts
• Close-ups to focus on emotion or important details

Camera Angle

• Eye-level shots for neutrality
• Low-angle shots to show power or dominance
• High-angle shots to show vulnerability or weakness

Focus & Focal Length

• Shallow focus to guide the audience’s attention
• Deep focus to let the audience explore the frame
• Rack focus as a “cut without a cut”

Camera Movement

• Camera movement should always have a narrative reason
• Movement helps connect ideas, reveal information, or shift emotion

4. Adjusting the Storyboard in 3D Space

We were allowed to make small adjustments to the storyboard when necessary.

This taught me an important lesson:

Storyboards represent intention, not technical limitation.

In 3D space:

• Some shots may not read clearly
• Composition may need refinement
• Camera movement may need to be simplified

As long as the original storytelling intent is preserved, adjusting the camera is part of the filmmaking process.

• Think like a cinematographer
• Use camera language to guide the audience
• Support story and emotion through camera decisions

Assignment 1:

My story design is that a melancholic person is drinking to drown their sorrows. The close-up shots are used to emphasize the main character.

Assignment 2:

This is an animation analysis storyboard.